The NYU Los Angeles Mentorship Program gives students the opportunity to be paired with a mentor working in their field(s) of interest. The pairs have at least three one-on-one meetings throughout the semester, and all mentors and mentees are invited to a networking event at the end of the year.

Mentorship pair Mattison Lewis, Tisch School of the Arts Class of 2021, and Franny Baldwin, Tisch Class of 1992, instantly clicked. Due to their shared dedication to careers as line producers, their kinship is a wonderful success of the program. Not to mention it led to Mattison landing a job at Netflix working with Franny.

Q: Mattison, do you have any advice for students coming to NYU Los Angeles?

Mattison: I would tell them something that Franny tells me all the time: don’t be so hard on yourself! I can be very hard on myself when I make a mistake, but making mistakes or having multiple interests is natural in any career. My second piece of advice is to give grace to yourself and other people. Every job is an opportunity to learn, grow, and reflect on what went well and what you want to carry to your next job. And my final piece of advice is to not only maximize your time with your mentor but also appreciate all the time and advice they give you.

Q: What do you think made this mentorship so successful?

Mattison: Franny was so generous with her time. I appreciated this so much, since I have a huge desire to be a line producer. In addition to asking her questions about what I was working on, I shared production books and budgets for projects with her. Before I met Franny, I felt like I was flying blind or always divided in my attention and interests in film and television. But she takes to heart everything I say and bring to the table, and I try my best to reciprocate that attention.

Franny: I was very excited that Mattison was actually interested in learning how to line produce. I assumed we would meet every other week and I would teach him different skills and parts of being a line producer. I didn’t anticipate that we would end up spending so much time together just talking and learning about each other’s lives and families and really connecting.

Q: How did this mentorship evolve into a job?

Franny: When Mattison was hired for his first production coordinator job, we texted and spoke frequently while he was on location. I was very impressed with how he was handling the job. Even though I already knew I wanted to work with him, it became clear to me he would be a fabulous asset to any production. 

Then Netflix approached me about their Emerging Talent program. They wanted to hire someone who was already working in production in their chosen field but would benefit from additional opportunities aimed at reaching their next career level and/or building their professional network. Mattison was a perfect fit because our show was scripted and all of his prior experience was in unscripted work. He did a fabulous job on the show. When it was over, we all wondered how we would have done it without him!