Just before graduating from the Reynolds School in May 2017, Liv Moore crashed her parent’s road-trip vacation to San Diego, seeing it as the only affordable way to get to Los Angeles. Having lined up job interviews in Hollywood, she borrowed her father’s car for the 2.5-hour commute from San Diego into LA traffic every day for a week to meet with potential employers.
One of those interviews resulted in a full-time publicity position at LTLA Communications, an entertainment publicity firm specializing in awards campaigns for the Oscars and Emmys. During the 2017 and 2018 Oscar season, Moore worked on Oscar campaigns for the eventual Best Documentary Feature, Icarus, and the Best Picture-nominated, Lady Bird. Just months later, in August 2018, LTLA Communications was acquired by Netflix. Now, Moore works on the Awards team at Netflix, helping to create and execute Oscar and Emmy campaign strategy for the same films and shows she binge-watches at home.
“In the past year, I attended film festivals around North America with our films, walked our talent down red carpets at premieres and awards shows, secured media placements for our clients and grew my knowledge of the entertainment world.”
For Moore, the most rewarding part of working at Netflix is helping films break through the crowded media landscape and receive their deserved recognition.
“By campaigning for awards, we’re gaining recognition and solidifying the importance of the films, shows and documentaries that mean so much to so many people.”
At Netflix, Moore focuses primarily on documentary award campaigns and attributes her journalism background to her skill level in this field of work.
“I pursued a degree in the journalism school because I am passionate about storytelling,” she said. “I’ve always loved the news, and I’m interested in how we inform people and how we can do it better. When working on documentaries, it is so important to understand what is happening in the world and how that applies to the project.”
Her time at the Reynolds School wasn’t just spent learning the ins and outs of storytelling but also learning how to be a well-rounded media professional.
“The Reynolds School taught me that thinking bigger and further is valued,” she said. “Guidelines are just a guide. Your ideas are valid, and you shouldn’t be nervous to share them.”
For students looking to follow in Moore’s footsteps, she offers some key advice: believe in yourself.
“Believe that you are capable of creating your own future,” she said. “Absolutely no one will believe in you if you don’t believe in yourself. The energy you give is the energy you receive.”According to Moore, having faith in oneself is just the beginning. Once you believe you have the skills required in your field, you need to keep practicing those skills. Even if you don’t believe in those skills, still jump in.
“Stop waiting to feel like you’re ready because you’ll never feel ready,” she said. “If you’re not confident in your writing, take an internship where you’ll focus on writing press releases or pitches. Add a strategic communications writing or news writing class into your schedule. If you don’t write constantly, you will never be a better writer.”
After taking these pieces of advice to heart, Moore suggests being the kind of person that people want to work long hours with. This advice has gotten her far and allowed her to work with people she looks up to.
“I’m fortunate to work with a team of people who challenge me beyond belief every day to do my best work. It’s not very often that you get to work side by side with your role models – I got very lucky in that sense.”
