Bellevue Degree Helps Produce Hollywood Career
Bellevue Degree Helps Produce Hollywood Career
By Dan Silvia, Communications Manager
With a bachelor’s degree in Business Information Systems you can… become a Hollywood producer.
No, seriously, you can!
Just ask Jason Panick, who earned his degree from Bellevue University in 2002, and is now a Consulting Producer on the Lifetime Reality Series Preacher’s Daughters.
“I'm really focused in the development side of production. My on-screen credit is usually Consulting Producer, which means I play a creative role in the show as part of a larger team,” Panick explained. “Preacher's Daughters is a reality TV show on the Lifetime Channel. I helped creatively get the show off the ground. Though in TV, it's always a team effort and many people are involved in getting a show on air and keeping it there.”
Panick works as an independent contractor for ThinkFactory, a Los Angeles-based full service production company that has created programming in virtually every genre. “They are an amazing company and I'm very grateful to be working for them,” Panick said. “One of their principal owners, Adam Reed, was a friend from high school, and he is really one of the best Executive Producers in Hollywood and a great friend. You need friends in this business because it can be pretty emotionally draining at times.”
A native of Bakersfield, California, Panick currently resides in Aptos, California. He first became aware of Bellevue University through online research. “I was looking for a way to finish my education in a way that fit with my career at the time, which didn't allow me a lot of time to attend a traditional classroom setting,” he said. “Everything about Bellevue seemed to be what I was looking for as far as degree options, price, flexibility and credibility. I decided to take the leap and give it a try and have never regretted it once.
“Bellevue was very ahead of the curve. Now everyone offers online classes, but Bellevue was doing it in a very professional way before most people were. It was actually a lot easier to focus on learning because I could set aside some time and only focus on my online courses when I needed to. I could push myself at my own pace and that really helped me stay on course.”
Following his time at Bellevue, Panick also earned a certificate in project management from Stanford University. “I feel like my Bellevue education prepared me very well,” he said. “I actually felt that the quality of education and access at Bellevue was extremely competitive with Stanford, even though Stanford has a higher profile.”
In addition to Preacher’s Daughters, Panick will have a second show hitting the airwaves in January, Big Giant Swords on the Discovery Channel. A third show is also in the works, but Panick can’t reveal details yet.
Even working in the heart of the entertainment industry, Panick isn’t caught up in the glitz.
“The entertainment industry for me isn't glamorous; it's a lot of hard work. It takes a lot of persistence and teamwork to succeed. That being said, it is very exciting to know that your ideas are part of a TV show,” he said. “My dream project would definitely be something that I helped create landing on one of the major broadcast networks. I'd also love to get into the scripted side of TV. Creating a sitcom would be really fun.”