Day 3 has been undoubtedly the most packed since this trip began. Packed not only with a larger number of industry professionals but also information that I have been seeking for a while but not been able to get answers to. Today’s meetings gave me a very good insight into both business and creative aspects of the industry.
The day began with a panel of Producers, a writer, a Senior VP and a Manager, almost all Syracuse alums working with Sony. This is the first time we had people working in the film industry speak to us and being more interested in the development and business aspect of filmmaking, I gained a lot from this panel.
It was disheartening to hear that there is a 30% decrease in production of films and that a trend of being hired as an executive within a shorter span of time in one’s career is no longer true. But along with the reality check, there was other information that our panelist shared with us that proved to be valuable given my interests. Jason Blumenthal explained how he had to turn entrepreneurial as a producer when the movie industry began its phase of a big slump and his emphasis on the concept of branded entertainment further drove the reality that movies are increasingly integrating strategies that ensure commercial success. The writer on the panel Andrew Mazer, however explained that regardless of what is being made for the big screens -- for those interested in the creative side of filmmaking especially writers and directors – we must stay true to our passion and avoid making things for the “marketplace” because what is relevant today might be passé day after.
The concept of “shrinking windows” was also raised by a panelist and therein, I learnt something new about the technological aspect of films becoming increasingly accessible within the confines of one’s house. A classmate of mine brought up this question and I realized, I need to spend more time reading the trades in the section of technology as well to understand the shift in viewing and marketing trends in the entertainment business. Finally after the panel discussion was over, a personal Q&A with Andrew Grumpert revealed that he knew Ronnie Screwalla, my ex boss from UTV back in India because of a deal that UTV was involved with SONY. Yet another example of how small the world is and how everyone in this profession knows someone invariably! I really wanted to build on this little piece of information and ask Mr Grumpert what kind of companies I should be looking at for an internship if I wanted to learn more about the Indian end of business negotiation with American studios here but we were asked to vacate the room. Going back to Syracuse, that’s the first thing I am doing of course after sending a hand-written “thank you note” to Mr Grumpert.
Talking about thank you notes and the etiquette side of the media industry, I learnt more today about cover letters, resume and networking, all in the span of an hour than I have on any other occasion. And I am going to fast-forward a good seven hours after the panel with Sony ended. Post dinner we had Kimberly Koser (a Syracuse alum again) the Director of Human Resources at Bank of Manhattan educate us about the most crucial aspects of the process of job applications. I finally have a better understanding of how I can organize and structure the next two months into executing a plan for my internship and job applications. To begin with I know now that I need to do a self-assessment of my weaknesses and skills, think of my 20 PAR moments (Problem Action Resolved) from my previous work experience and develop a 90 second pitch of myself. I may be trying to stay focused on getting through this journal entry but even as I do so, I am already on my list of 3! Also, I realized that my sister was absolutely right. Cover letters like Kim mentioned take a long time and the sooner I get started on narrowing down the potential companies/ production houses I would like to work in. The earlier I can start working on the cover letters. So going back to Syracuse, I am getting down to my top 10 places to intern in LA and New York.
Now rewinding back to the block of time I have not accounted for in between the Sony panel and our meeting with Kim. We had met with writers and producers from the TV and film genre and now it was moving onto a wholly different genre: reality TV. Dan Goldberg of Freemantle Media and two other speakers I knew little about until now provided us with an understanding of the business of the reality genre and why it was working for a lot of youngsters who are trying to break into the industry and although I have been allergic to most of reality TV, I have to agree that the advice we got from this panel was arguably what aspiring producer/directors in the class have never been privy to before. The aforementioned two young speakers were Dan and Ben Newmark, young producers/actors/writers who came out to LA to become actors and still intend to but until that happens they have found a way of having their ideas recognized by using the basic resources, network of friends and some great team work. To have two people closest to your age tell you their strategies of writing, forging friendships over the often overused term of ‘networking’ and understand that it was important to keep churning out visual work for people to see was refreshing and comforting. The Newmark brothers had all of us entertained, enlightened and engaged. No doubt they are able to tell the stories they are. I definitely for one, now see the benefits of partnering with a like minded class-mate to develop and pitch ideas and I can only hope (after this encouraging interaction) that we will do this sooner than we thought we would.
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