Alumni Feature: Seth Parks (Class of 2015)

Seth Parks graduated magna cum laude from The King’s College in 2015 with a degree in Media, Culture, and the Arts. Originally from Mt. Vernon, Illinois, Seth stayed in New York City after graduation to work in the film industry. We spoke to Seth about his involvement with the new film Sully, starring Tom Hanks, which tells the story of Capt. Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot who successfully landed a plane with 155 passengers in the Hudson River in 2009.

What is your current job, and how did you get to it from King’s?

I am the assistant at Guy Walks Into A Bar Productions, Todd Komarnicki’s (producer of Elf, Sully) production company. During my freshman year, I interned for Guy Walks Into A Bar Productions, and for the following three years, I stayed in touch with them. In September of 2015, they contacted me to see what I was up to post-graduation. I imagined I could get a good recommendation from the company, but quickly realized they were interviewing me for a position! I already had a personal connection to them, so instead of conducting typical interviews, they tested my ability to do the job. They sent me scripts to read and asked me to offer notes. They liked my edits and story ideas and offered me a full-time position.

What does your job entail, and how do you see your work as contributing to the kingdom of God?

As an assistant, my role is part administrative, part research, and part creative. Besides scheduling meetings and running the company’s calendar, I do a large portion of the research for the scripts we work on. The last project Komarnicki wrote was a Bible epic about King David. It was the perfect opportunity to use my King’s education (and even some text books). Creatively, I have a big hand in editing the scripts, making corrections, and suggesting edits to help make the script work better.

I see my company furthering the kingdom of God on both a personal level and a professional level. On a personal level, my boss (Komarnicki) is extremely open about his faith. This has been very inspiring for me. And on a professional level, most of our projects go against the typical dark and hopeless Hollywood fare. Komarnicki tends to choose stories of hope. He wants to write the truth, and it’s my job to help him do that at the highest level.

What project are you currently excited about working on?

I wish I could say what I’m most excited about working on, but I’m actually not allowed to talk about it. There are so many moving parts and negotiations with every project; it’s amazing how tedious it can be. But the project I’m excited about is a great human story with a thrill element. I love the story, and I’ve been very involved with the project from the beginning.

How did King’s prepare you for your current work?

I am always looking for the essence of a story, whether it’s in our projects or in books I am reading to see if we might want to adapt the stories. That is how we make scripts better and how we decide if a story is worth writing. Because of my King’s education—and especially my Media, Culture, and the Arts classes—I am able to pull out the essential elements of a story and articulate them well.

Also, my film classes with Professor Coleman gave me a foundation for how I look at the films we work on. I had very little practical experience with screenplays, so it was the years of studying film that helped me get this job.