A remarkable number of Harvard natives work in Los Angeles in the entertainment industry, and three of them were home for the holidays and available for a chat with the Harvard Press. All said LA could not be more different from their home town, but that they thrive on the adrenaline of the industry and the endless creative possibilities they see there.

Jake Guswa, a graduate of the Groton School who recently wrapped up work on The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, has lived in LA since graduating from Ithaca College in 1997. With a goal of breaking into the film industry, he got his start in television working as a production assistant on a home design show called Interior Motives. He made the crossover to film a year later when he landed a similar position with the film Collateral Damage, eventually working his way up the ladder to management trainee with Warner Brothers. Now Guswa is a physical production administrator, scouting locations and stages for various films all over the world. The physical production department includes all the jobs and all the people that actually bring the film to life, Guswa explained. They do everything from estimating a film’s overall budget to finding the perfect place for a love scene—like those found in P.S. I Love You, another film in Guswa’s string of credits. His Rolodex is always spinning, he said, and he does something different every single day. From finding a sound stage in Vancouver to maintaining a status report on all the films currently on Warner Brothers’ production list, his to-do list is a long one.

Ultimately, Guswa would like to sit in the producer’s chair, and is working toward that goal by acquiring the skills and experience he will need to bring a book or a script from the page to the local multiplex.

“I’d like to bring the vision of the story to the screen,” he said. “Being able to oversee that and have it go from script form to screen, that would be great. And to have a business doing that—that would be wonderful.”

Working in the agent trainee program at the United Talent Agency in Beverly Hills, Jeff Harasimowicz, son of Paul and Ellen Harasimowicz of Ayer Road, does everything from delivering the interoffice mail to bringing gifts and messages to the clients and celebrities the agency serves. The recent Middlebury College grad was bitten by the showbiz bug in high school, he said, when he started making a highly ambitious film about the barbarian invasion of Rome for Mr. Foster’s class. While that project remains unfinished, Harasimowicz hopes to someday invite Foster to a screening of one of his own feature films.

Working for a talent agency is one of the best ways to get a feel for the entertainment business, Harasimowicz said, and offers the most opportunities for entry-level work in the field. While he is still fairly new to the agency side of the business, he has already been exposed to many of the high-profile actors and directors working in Hollywood. The job is great exposure to all the aspects of filmmaking, he noted, and will be a good way to explore what might be his ultimate niche in the world of motion pictures.

As for living in Los Angeles after growing up on the green streets of Harvard, Harasimowicz said he is making the adjustment.

“Everything [in LA] is bigger, faster, more intense, and more stressful,” he said of the differences between small-town New England and one of the biggest cities in the world. “But it’s much more exciting.”

Meeting new people and making connections in the film industry are what Whitney Lauritsen loves about living in California, where the Harvard native went to live after graduating from Emerson College in 2005. While there couldn’t be more contrast between her childhood home on Bolton Road and the Venice Beach apartment she lives in now, she said, she looks forward to building her connections in the film industry and hopes to one day write and direct her own films like her moviemaking idol Woody Allen. “That’s the person I aspire to be,” she said.

To that end Lauritsen spends her days as a personal assistant to the wife of movie director Rob Reiner, who just finished directing the movie Guswa contributed to, The Bucket List. Being so involved in the Reiners’ lives means Lauritsen gets to observe the many details of the life of a filmmaker, as well as meet any number of people involved in his films.

Ideally, Lauritensen said, she would like to write her own scripts and direct her own films, much like she did in a class at Bromfield when she created a film adaptation of a play called Richard Freshman. Starring fellow Bromfield graduates Kyle Henderson and Cameron Smith, the finished film was shown in Cronin Auditorium for the whole town. Lauritesen gives a lot of credit to Bromfield drama teacher Mike McGarty for his support of her interests.

In her quest for experience Lauritsen has held a host of freelance jobs, always hoping to expand her network of industry contacts. While entry-level work in the entertainment business is no way to get rich quick, she said, it is a great way to build a resume. Before working as a personal assistant, Lauritsen held a job as a production assistant, requiring her to be a jack of all trades. It is experience that comes in handy now as she supports the busy lives of Reiner, his wife, and their three children. Day-to-day, that means making travel arrangements and reservations, doing Internet research on plays and restaurants before the Reiners attend or visit, and shopping for just about anything the family might need. Both the job and Los Angeles could not agree with her more, she said, and she is happy making her way on the West Coast.

“It’s where I’ve always wanted to be,” she said. “If you’re focused, you can get anywhere you want to go.”