AJ Falk is a New York-based screenwriter and director who began the MA Media Producing program in fall 2025. This summer AJ is continuing his development internship with Captivate Entertainment, a premier film and television production company where he is able to apply coursework to practice. Read our in-depth interview with AJ below and get to know more about how his experience started with writing script coverage to now assisting the VP of Development.
Where is the internship? Please share an overview of the company.
I am currently in an extended internship at Captivate Entertainment, a premier film and television production company with a longstanding relationship with Universal Pictures. Captivate is highly regarded for developing massive studio franchises and major commercial features, most notably The Bourne franchise. Having the opportunity to work within the studio ecosystem with Captivate, combined with my previous internship experience in Basil Iwanyk’s office at Thunder Road and The Mark Gordon Company, has been an invaluable masterclass. Being in those environments has given me a comprehensive look into how major commercial projects are packaged, financed, and moved through major studio pipelines.
What is your role/what will you be working on or area you will be supporting
Development internships in the industry are traditionally structured as single-semester roles, so I was excited when the VP of Development invited me to stay on long-term. I am now in my eighth consecutive semester with the Company. Over this extended internship, my responsibilities have evolved from writing script coverage to assisting the VP of Development directly. My daily work focuses heavily on creative research, including compiling and pitching targeted lists of directors, screenwriters, and actors to attach to the active slate, participating in strategic brainstorming sessions for upcoming projects, finding and pitching IP for adaptation, updating the project tracking grid, and sitting in on active development calls where project packages, physical production logistics, and specific character arcs are discussed with talent and actors. Because of my continuity with the office, I am also responsible for onboarding and leading the operational training for the incoming cohort of interns.
How do the courses in the MA Media Producing program align with your internship?
There is a distinct difference between the classroom and the pace, atmosphere, and professional energy of a development and production company, yet they connect in a practical way. My NYU coursework introduces the essential theoretical frameworks of the business that provide a strong foundation for development, and then I get to apply them at Captivate.
For example, David Irving's Producing Essentials class set the bar high for the rest of the Program. His enthusiasm pulled me in immediately, and his energy and depth of knowledge made me want to know everything he does. He has produced as well as directed, bringing a rare combination of creative instinct and definitive business expertise that shows in how he teaches, which made for an amazing start to the Program. Expanding into the legal side, professor Maria Miles brings razor-sharp clarity to Entertainment Law, providing an invaluable map of the foundations of rights acquisition and agreements. Post-Production with Seth Caplan, whose tag-team style combines Jo Henriquez's videos laying down the real-world frameworks, and Seth’s live-class expertise in all things post. Seth’s upbeat, enthusiastic approach creates assignments designed to challenge your creativity as a producer to make the nuanced mechanics of post-production click. Seth's philosophy of starting with the end in mind gives you a sharpened lens that amazingly reshapes how you think about a project. Script Analysis with Professor Sophia Wellington sharpens the ability to apply actionable script notes and makes clear that a good idea doesn't mean it's a good script. And Production Management with Alexis Alexanian untangles complex budget structures and schedules, making it all a logistical puzzle, detailing how to map out a clear path through the complexity and seeming chaos of budgets and schedules. She offers an indispensable roadmap in creative solutions.
When you couple those academic fundamentals of NYU’s MA program with my work at banners like Mark Gordon, Thunder Road, and Captivate, the theory transforms into practice. The classroom explains the mechanics, and the corporate environment is where I have the opportunity to apply the knowledge required to deliver projects under deadlines. Navigating fast-paced entertainment environments requires accountability and decisive communication; learning the essentials in class and then using them to help move real-world projects forward has been a great combination because I learn it, and then put it into practice.
Why are you pursuing the MA Media Producing?
My professional goal has been screenwriting and directing since I first vocalized it at a year and a half old. In fact, the day I told my mom I wanted to be a director, we jumped in a cab straight to NYU, where she pointed right at the Tisch building, and said, ‘This is where you want to be.'
As a writer-director, I appreciate all genres; I watch and enjoy everything, with a reverence for the classics to the storytelling mastery of Zemeckis, Spielberg, and Tarantino, alongside a genuine love for massive superhero blockbusters and the kinetic world of David Leitch and Kelly McCormick.
Because film has been a focus for my entire life, I chose to pursue the MA in Media Producing as a deliberate, strategic step to gain a comprehensive understanding of the financial, structural, and legal landscape of making movies. Producers and studio executives are more receptive to a writer-director who has an understanding and command of budget structures, packaging metrics, and production timelines, so at 22, that's exactly the kind of knowledge and edge I want to have. Acquiring these skills allows me to advocate effectively for my own creative vision, bring sound financing to my partnerships, and show that I understand the financial responsibility of being in the director's chair.
What are you looking forward to with the internship?
I look forward to getting even more involved in the strategic side of development and watching the projects I have helped develop and track over multiple semesters transition from structural refinement into physical production. Beyond my development work at Captivate, I am focused on expanding my independent slate. I currently have two completed feature scripts, conceived as large-scale studio tentpoles, out with producers in active development. I am also directing a feature documentary about a remarkable 104-year-old woman whose life spans a century of history, which has generated early interest from Sundance.
Additionally, I am partnered with a producer on a commercial feature film with a $7 million budget, currently in the final stages of closing financing. This partnership grew out of one of my previous development internships — those environments open doors and present opportunities that reach far beyond the work itself. While everything begins with an exceptional script, so much of this business is building intentional, professional relationships, a practice I have pursued with purpose since childhood, starting with a ten-year independent project interviewing famous, infamous, and interesting people including J.J. Abrams, David Koepp, Mark Gordon, Steve Martin, Toby Emmerich, Howard Rosenman, Josh Safdie, Ray Romano, Mayor David Dinkins, and Alan Dershowitz.
While I was in high school, Mark Gordon brought me on as his Company's first intern, establishing a framework that launched their formal internship program, proof of the value of building intentional, professional relationships, and that when you fully invest in the work and the vision of the people around you, things happen.
In this industry, relationships are everything, and I look forward to continuing to build them with passionate, fiercely committed professionals with whom I share the same goal: to bring resonant, moving, commercially viable stories to the screen. I am motivated to continue bringing a lifelong love and energy for, premier industry training in, a world-class NYU education, and a deep passion for film to the team at Captivate as I help the Company find and refine the next great stories.