Professional Profile: Susan Youngman Hoen, Script Supervisor
Undecided about what she wanted to do after high school, Susan
Youngman Hoen enrolled at Questa College, near her home in San Luis
Obisbo, California, to study journalism. She quickly discovered it wasn't for
her, but found that the school's radio and television stations did pique her
interest. Initially working on news programming, conducting interviews,
and producing shows, she came to realize that telling fictional stories was
more appealing. Once she decided that she wanted to work in film or televi-
sion production, she enrolled in the film department at Cal-State Long Beach.
"That was a great experience for me, because that school is hands-on:
you're the director, the sound mixer, the editor, or you write the story.
You do everything." While in school, she landed her first internship
working on American Bandstand. The production taped four shows on
Saturdays. Hoen's assignment was to guard the female dressing rooms
during the taping, to ensure that the dancers didn't sneak back and steal
one another's clothes.
Her next internship was
on the television series Secrets
and Mysteries, assisting the
writing staff with research.
After graduation, she landed
a job in the mail room at Fox
Television, later moving to
20th Century Fox.
With no friends or family in
the film industry, Hoen began
the arduous process of looking
for a production assistant job.
After looking through TV
Guide to discover which shows
were on air, she sent résumés
to the production companies
that produced the shows. She
also searched The Hollywood
Reporter and Variety for films in
production and sent out more
résumés. Eventually, one
landed on the desk of a producer for The Gary Shandling Show on the very
day he fired his receptionist. He called Hoen and offered her the job.
Later, she became a writer's assistant on Night Court. "You sit around a
table with the writers and they pitch jokes and lines and come up with
story ideas. You write down what they say, then you type it up, and put
What do you like
least about your job?
"What I like the least is
that it's a very hard job.
You always have to be
on. Every single take,
you have to be paying
attention to every detail. It's exhausting."
--Susan Youngman Hoen
What do you love most
about your job?
"I like helping everybody on the set. Being
the right-hand man, so to speak, to the direc-
tor. It's a fun position because the director
counts on you in so many ways to not
miss anything. Sometimes they ask your
opinion, so you have some creative input."
--Susan Youngman Hoen
VOICES OF
EXPERIENCE
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