Daytime Emmy-nominated producer Lauren Chamberlin ’12 didn’t always know she wanted to make a living in television.
As a child growing up in Klein, just north of Houston, she “bounced around from career idea to career idea.”
“I wanted to be an astronaut, an engineer, a lawyer, a psychologist, a mortician ... I wanted to be all of them at once,” she said.
As she started thinking about college and the future, Chamberlin began to look closer at the possibilities a career in television and filmmaking could present, and she began to realize she could experience all those careers from behind a camera or in a studio.
Now living in Reseda, California, Chamberlin is a segment producer for Hallmark Channel’s “Home & Family.” She works in Los Angeles, where the two-hour daily lifestyle show is recorded at the Universal Studios Backlot.
Still basking in the glow of “Home & Family’s” recent Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lifetime Program, she recalls her time at SFA earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in cinematography and how the many long hours and late nights as a filmmaking student helped prepare her for today’s challenges in an industry she loves. She says School of Art faculty members William Arscott and Brad Maule can take some additional credit for that. But it was a “lucky number” that initially drew her to SFA.
“I decided to check out SFA because I had an odd obsession with my lucky number — 212 — and that happened to be the course number for the beginning film class at SFA,” she said. “When I visited the campus, I met Professor Arscott, and he took the time to sit and talk with my parents and me one-on-one. I was absolutely enchanted by his knowledge and stories, and from that moment, I knew I had to be in his class.
“Professors Arscott and Maule had such valuable insight into the industry and of how things work professionally that stepping into a new job just feels like I’m in school all over again,” Chamberlin said.
Recalling the camaraderie she experienced in the filmmaking program at SFA, she said the long hours of directing and producing movies and videos tend to create a family with the people around you.
“That didn’t change as I moved into the industry,” she said.
That’s a lot of what “Home & Family” is about. But before landing her current dream gig in LA three years ago, she dabbled in reality TV in the Dallas area after graduation.
“When I left SFA, I moved to Dallas where I had friends — people I met through SFA — to lean on for work,” she said. “I worked production and coordinating on a lot of reality television: ‘Storage Wars: Texas,’ ‘Redneck Vacation,’ ‘My Addiction,’ ‘Bullionaires,’ ‘Real Housewives of Dallas,’ ‘Demolition Ranch’ and so many more.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the things I worked on didn’t even get to air,” she said. “The best experiences were with passion projects with my friends. We continued to make movies that we believed in, even if they didn’t go anywhere.”
Perseverance and patience, coupled with showing respect to all the industry professionals she met and worked with during the next few years, eventually paid off.
“The only reason I am at ‘Home & Family’ is because of a recommendation from someone three jobs ago,” she said. “It’s been almost three years since I was hired for two days as a production assistant.
“So be respectful to everyone,” she advised. “You never know who is going to have your back some day.”
“Home & Family” is divided into segments between commercial breaks, and each segment producer writes his or her own segments.
“We find interesting stories from celebrities — human interest stories celebrating fascinating people — and we work with very creative do-it-yourselfers and chefs who can build and make the most clever things,” she said.
Each morning, segment producers, the executive producer and department representatives meet to talk about the day.
“We discuss with our director how we have planned for our stories to work, and we work with our prop team members to determine if they need to build or ‘beautify’ something,” she said. “After the meeting, we rehearse almost everything. This gives us a chance to work out any kinks before the show starts.”
Promptly at 1 p.m., taping begins and continues until 3 p.m. The show is recorded live to tape, which means there are no opportunities for “re-dos,” Chamberlin explained.
“As a producer, I make sure my story gets all the support I can give it,” she said. “I ensure the talent knows what they’re going to say, what questions to ask and what answers to expect. I make sure there are photos and videos for the appropriate moments.
“Once the segment starts, I hold and manipulate the questions and cue cards based on how much time we have left,” she said. “Once the show ends at 3 p.m., we start planning for tomorrow’s show.
“All of our segments take weeks of planning to accomplish,” she said, “so in between all the other events, we are pre-interviewing upcoming guests, or working with our chefs, prop team and talent to come up with ideas and figure out everything needed to make them happen.”
When asked to recall her favorite and most challenging memories at SFA, Chamberlin said, “I can think of ‘tough’ ones that I’m sure were the most challenging to me at the time — late nights editing projects only to drop the hard drive and lose everything, movies that seemed good in concept, only for the execution to be subpar. But they were all just stepping stones.”
Upon learning this past spring that “Home & Family” had been nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award, Chamberlin said she felt “absolutely elated!” The 2018 honor went to NBC’s “Naturally, Danny Seo,” but the nomination confirmed to Chamberlin and her colleagues that their daily hard work is not only important, but also award-worthy.
“Every single person and department on our show deserves an award,” she said. “You get tired, the grind is real, and sometimes you forget that people see what you do. It was a reminder that people see our hard work, and they like it.”
Chamberlin and her coworkers spend anywhere from 12 to 15 hours together each day, so they are very much like a family.
“These are the people I still love to spend my time with. I’ve even helped a coworker plan his engagement.”
And each new day brings a new show and a new start.
“We learn from our previous segments, and we keep moving forward,” Chamberlin said. “As chaotic as things can get, they are over when the show ends, and we get to start again the next day.”
An astronaut, an engineer, a lawyer, a psychologist, a mortician … they’re all within reach with every new segment.
“My dream is to continue learning and experiencing everything I can in the world.”