Carli Lynch ’20 joins Sony Pictures Imageworks as a production coordinator

Carli Lynch ’20 recently began working as a production coordinator for Sony Pictures Imageworks in Los Angeles. A communications major with a minor in film, she credits the lessons and connections she gained at Salve Regina for enabling her to land her dream job.

As a child, Lynch spent a lot of time in Newport and fell in love with the mansions and ocean. She knew about Salve Regina and kept it in the back of her mind, but decided to take a gap year after high school. Lynch spent the year in Hawaii, participating in the Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms program, in which participants live and volunteer on organic properties.

“You can do it anywhere in the world, but you stay on a farm and do work,” she said. “The work varies based on which farm you are at, but it was a good way to travel and learn about a place through its land.”

After her time in Hawaii, Lynch traveled back to Newport to attend Salve Regina. “I had heard there was a film minor, and then I met people at orientation, and I was like, ‘Okay, I can make this work,'” she said. “There’s a film production club called Salve Studios, so that was a big thing for me, finding those little extracurricular activities that I could really dive into.”

Life on Salve Regina’s campus

Lynch was an active student and took advantage of all the programs that Salve Regina had to offer in relation to her passion for film. She joined Salve Studios and served as president during her sophomore, junior and senior years.

She also met James McGuire, adjunct faculty in the Department of English, Communications and Media, who quickly became her mentor. “He took me under his wing, and I did a lot of filming for Salve’s website videos and other things,” Lynch said. “As I progressed in school each year, I got to do more and more.”

Lynch was able to work closely with Salve Regina’s marketing and communications office to produce and edit video content for admissions, alumni programs and student organizations.

Lynch was president of Salve Studios, the film production club on campus.

Working at Sony Pictures Imageworks

After graduation, Lynch did freelance photography and video editing. She decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue her career and began working at a photography studio. Soon after she arrived, McGuire used his connections to get her resume into Sony Picture Imageworks, and she was hired as a production coordinator.

“Salve directly helped me get this job, and it’s definitely been great,” Lynch said. “Even though I’ve learned a ton of new stuff, a lot still applies from things that I learned while working at Salve.”

Lynch is working on her first animated film: “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” She is in charge of client and producer schedules while also managing the six-person production assistant team. Through her job, Lynch is able to watch the process of developing a film from start to finish. She is usually interacting with directors, producers and supervisors, getting to hear their ideas on how to make the film look its best.

“I get to sit in reviews with the directors and see the actual process of what they’re doing and the feedback they give,” she said.

In the future, Lynch hopes to remain in the film industry and possibly branch out to more niche audiences. “I want to be part of the film industry in any capacity, even if it’s at a smaller scale as I get older,” she said. “I think that would be my goal, just keep creating and feeling like I’m part of a creative process, even if it’s on the production side.”

Article written by student writer Amanda Graves ’23