Determined to Succeed
From her first internship to her blossoming career, Dawn Manning has been more than just lucky
Dawn Manning’s first trip to Los Angeles was for an internship at the end of her junior year at Penn State. But one key thing was missing — she didn’t actually have an internship yet.
Manning (’00 Film), a Baltimore native, told her parents she had an internship secured at Miramax during the summer of 1999, knowing it was the only way they’d let her go almost 3,000 miles away from home. So when she stepped off the plane in California, she had only one option: Nail the interview, land the internship.
That’s exactly what she did.
“When I interviewed, [Miramax] was shocked I came all the way out there with nothing,” Manning said. “But I came out there knowing I had to get that internship, there was no question about it — and I got it.”
Manning’s internship opened the doors to her extensive career in film. Twenty years later, she’s made a name for herself as a production manager, line producer, director, dancer and more, working with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood — including Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj and Maroon 5.
Now she’s head of production at Westbrook Inc., an entertainment company launched by Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith. But even in her day-to-day job of calculating budgets, scouting locations and more, she still has a chance to direct — something she fell in love with at Penn State.
“[Directing] was my love at Penn State, so I love when I have a chance to do that,” Manning said. “But that’s what I love about Westbrook, they really hone in on our skills. If you’re good at numbers but you also have a background in directing, they want to hear your feedback. They want you to give them ideas. They encourage.”
A girl with a camera on campus
Manning arrived at the University Park campus, where her friends knew her as “Lucky,” as a theater major after spending two years on the Altoona campus. She only wanted to study theatre, but her parents encouraged her to consider other majors — and she immediately fell in love with film.
“I became that kid on campus with a camera,” Manning said. “I would lug it around, bring it on spring break with me, and I would drop my friends off places and immediately go to the editing lab. I was always doing it without understanding that my hobby was turning into a career.”
Manning produced highlight reels for football games and directed a documentary about the Four Diamonds Fund for THON. To this day, she said, she’s inspired by her Four Diamonds documentary, adding that her family and patient interviews remain “the toughest interviews I’ve ever done.”
Even though she no longer goes by “Lucky” — a nickname she earned in high school that stuck at Penn State — it’s how her professors remember her.
Maura Shea, associate teaching professor and associate head of the Department of Film-Video and Media Studies, remembers Manning as a hardworking person. Shea reconnected with Manning two years ago on campus, learning about her extensive career after she graduated in 2000.
“A student was just asking me about the most successful students I’ve had, and definitely being head of production for Will Smith’s company — that means something,” Shea said. “It’s a great thing to be able to put that out there for incoming students and current students to show them what opportunities are out there. It might take a little while, but you can make it work.”
Sleepless on set
On Dec. 13, 2013, the same day as the release of her fifth album, Beyonce released a music video for her song, “Haunted.” In the video, she’s shown in a tuxedo with a tie, a white fur jacket, and heels designed by Saint Laurent. Throughout the video, she’s walking down the corridor of a mansion, peering into rooms and seeing people wearing masks, dancing, staying in a hospital room. The whole video looks like something out of “American Horror Story.”
That music video has more than 54 million views on YouTube. It’s the first project that introduced Manning to music video production.
“That was my hardest and most favorite video to work on, and probably the one I cried the most on,” said Manning, who was a production manager for the video. “I sat and cried in the corner afterward. It was so overwhelming — we had 300 background extras, all in makeup. Afterwards, I sat like I was defeated. But I finished it, and it turned out great.”
The “Haunted” music video ultimately led Manning to landing production manager positions for music videos like “Good Thing” by Sage the Gemini and Nick Jonas, “Bad Girls” by MKTO, “John Wayne” by Lady Gaga and “The Night is Still Young” by Nicki Minaj. Minaj’s music video alone has more than 163 million views on YouTube.
But the long hours and overnight shoots eventually led her career path away from music video production to documentary filmmaking.
Manning joined VICE in 2015, working as a production manager for “Vice World of Sports” and “Vice Does America.” There, she earned a Producers Guild Award for Best Sports Programming, and eventually worked as a line producer on “Shut Up and Dribble,” a three-part documentary produced by NBA star LeBron James that chronicles the NBA’s influence on sports culture and politics.
Those experiences — working 48 hours straight on music videos that now have hundreds of millions of views, coordinating with Lebron James’ management to help produce an Emmy-nominated documentary — led her to a call that would change her career.
Congratulations, you’re Will Smith’s new live producer.’
Manning sat at a Hibachi table in Benihana for her 40th birthday when the call came. She had already been asked to work for a high-profile celebrity, but up until that point, she didn’t have a clue who it was.
“This happens all the time in production — if it’s someone high profile, they won’t tell you who it is,” Manning said. “In my head, it’s Beyonce — usually if I’m holding, it ends up being Beyonce. But on that call in the middle of Benihana, I was told ‘Congratulations, you’re Will Smith’s new live producer.’”
She had just started working on “Will Smith’s Bucket List,” a six-part reality show that aired on Facebook and featured Smith doing, well, things he had on his bucket list — skydiving in Dubai, swimming with sharks, taking part in a Bollywood movie, and more. That was Manning’s first introduction to Westbrook Inc. Now, she’s the head of physical production.
Westbrook Inc. began as a venture by the Smith family to expand its media content and commerce business. The company houses Overbrook Entertainment, Red Table Talk Enterprises, Westbrook Studios, Westbrook Media (the digital content studio), a social media management and creative brand incubator, and the direct-to-consumer business Good Goods.
As head of physical production, Manning works with a team on budgets, location scouting and logistics (finding people, food, equipment and more) for projects ranging from YouTube video shoots and red carpet events to social media account management for a celebrity’s brand. It’s something she’d never, ever think she’d do.
“When I say I used to be against social media, I mean that saying that I work for a social media company is absolutely crazy,” Manning said. “I was totally against it, and didn’t even think it was going to be a thing. I didn’t want to do any short form video — now I’m an advocate preaching about social media.”
Westbrook’s family environment stands out, too.
“No one treats their employees with a sense of family like they do,” Manning said. “Will and Jada want everyone to be able to have a chance, and they’re big on diversity — this company is the one company where I don’t feel like I’m the only one.”
‘I still do it all by myself’
A fellow producer told Manning she landed the job at Westbrook, in part, because she was attractive — not because of her 20-plus year career.
“He openly said, ‘You’re attractive, you have to be honest, that has a lot to do with it,’” Manning said. “I was shocked he said that — that’s how he felt that I got the job. I will never forget that.”
Manning’s experience is only a small part of what she and other women have dealt with being a minority in the industry. Production is still predominantly male, and even though there’s been progress in hiring more women and people of color, there’s still a lot of work to be done.
“I’ve gotten comments about having a kid and assuming that I can’t do a job because of it. People make decisions for me, like I can’t travel or can’t do this job because I’m a single mom,” she said. “But I’ve done all of this being a single mom. I still do it all by myself.”
Manning uses her own experiences to empower other women to speak up and bring as many other women onto projects as she can. She thinks the industry, in general, has made strides of being more diverse and accepting women. She pointed to Hannah Lux Davis and Ava DuVernay, two prominent female directors who have opened the doors for other female directors and department heads.
Manning says that through her career and the challenges she faces as a black woman, she has one main source of inspiration: Her 10-year-old daughter, Skyla.
“Being a single mom has pushed me even harder because I have someone else to whom I answer, my daughter,” Manning said. “No matter what, I have to provide for my child. But even though I have all of these stigmas on me, I’m still able to do what I do, and I make it work.”