Blog 11: Lesson 1 Reflection

I just saw "Steve Jobs" and I loved how confident and charismatic Michael Fassbender was,
so I tried to do what he did for my lesson 1.

1. What are you most proud of in your lesson, and why?

People seemed to really like my presentation. I kept them engaged with my humor and amazing fun-loving personality. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a pretty funny guy, so I'd say I'm very proud of my entertaining presentation. I also believe I taught the class a few things while making them laugh a few times, so I'm also proud of that. 

2. What assessment would you give yourself on your lesson? Explain why you earned that grade using evidence from the component contract.

I would give myself a P because I did all the P requirements but I didn't really go above and beyond because I think my hook was a bit weak, and I didn't really have any props other than my Laemmle book. But if you want to give me an AE, I wouldn't complain because I kind of need it...

3. If you could go back, what would you change about your lesson?  How can you use that knowledge to give a better Lesson 2?

I wouldn't change anything, I think my presentation was fine. I would however take the feedback I got and use it to make my 2nd presentation even better. I will try and sound a little more professional and memorize my bullets so I'm not always looking at my paper.

Blog 10: Interview 2 Reflection

Me and mah boy, Gregory Laemmlizzle 

1. Please explain how you are spending your mentorship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else?  Are you shadowing?  Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic?  If so, what?  Are there other people who are experts in the location?  Etc...)

I work at Laemmle Claremont 5. I work mostly in concession and clean theaters. My mentor is the General Manager, Cassie Gratton. But there are also a few other mangers at the theater who I can observe. I don't know their last names but there is Carlos, Izzy, Lexi and Chris.
2.  How did you find your mentor?  How did you convince this person to help you?  

I contacted the owner of Laemmle Theaters, Greg Laemmle, in the summer, by facebook. And he responded. I met with him during the summer and we agreed that my best bet was to mentor with the Manager of my local Laemmle theater. 

3. How would you rate your comfort level with your mentor at this point in your relationship?  How does this relate to the time you've spent so far at mentorship/with this person. 

I'm pretty comfortable with her, I guess. She's very serious, because she needs to be at times. But she's also very cool. She comes over to concession sometimes and talks to me about my project. 

4. What went well in this interview?  Why do you think so?  What do you still need to improve?  How do you know?  How will you go about it?

I think my interview went pretty well. The only thing I had an issue with was understanding him at times. He's obviously far more educated than I am, and he went to Berkeley, which is like nerd central. But other than that, I think it was  pretty good. I had fun.

Blog 9 - Advisory Prep 3

Me at work/mentorship

1. State whether or not you currently have a mentor, and what the status of your interview is with that person (I have completed the interview, I have scheduled the interview, I have not scheduled the interview, etc). 

Yes, I have a mentor. Her name is Cassie Gratton and we've been together for about 2 months.... but she's a bit shy, so she didnt really want to get interviewed again. So, I decided to interview Greg Laemmle, the owner of Laemmle Theaters. Im scheduled to interview him on friday 10/22 at 3pm

2. At this point, your research is probably guiding your studies toward more specific areas within your topic.  Name the area or two you find most promising and explain your reasons.   

"Managing a Movie Theater" is already a pretty specific area of my topic. So I think that's fine.

3. What kinds of sources do you think will help you in the next month to gain more research depth?  Where will you go to get them?

I dont know, I dont really like the article sources because my topic doesn't have a lot of written material to research. I want to find some YouTube interviews with different managers or maybe even an indie movie about managing a theater-type business.

4. Write down a possible EQ.  Please don't worry about wording other than ensuring that it provides the option for multiple correct answers.  At this point, the senior team is most interested in understanding your thought process.

How can a movie theater manager ensure the future success of their theater?

Blog 8: Independent Component 1 Proposal

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

I plan on making a short documentary that shows what goes on in a movie theater on a given day. I haven't talked to my mentor about it yet because I just came up with it but I think it could be cool. It would be in the style of "Troops", the Star Wars fan film from a few years ago. I would just silently follow people around all day and see what they are working on. Or maybe something like the pilot episode of "The Office" where the camera man just follows Michael Scott all day as he interacts with certain people.

Troops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvswNDAAZCU

Michael Scott in The Office Pilot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuZy9d8ob88

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

I will take pictures of my planning and editing. I've never made a documentary but I'm sure a lot of planning goes into it. 

3.  Explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

 I think this would be very educational for my project because I wonder many times what the managers do in the box office.

Blog 7 - Second Interview Reflection

1.  Who is your mentor and where do they work?  If their workplace does not reflect their expertise, what makes them an expert?

I am going to interview the owner of Laemmle Theaters, Greg Laemmle. I know I said that last time but this time I will get the interview. I have much more time to schedule a date. He's an expert for obvious reasons... He's the owner so he basically has to manage all 8 of the theaters. 

2.  What five questions will you ask them about their background?

When did you start working at the theater? and what was different about it then? 

Did you always know that you were going to someday take over the theater? 

Did you friends in High School always ask for free movie tickets? 

Have you always had a love for movies? 

Why do you have a degree in Marine Biology??

Blog 6 - Advisory house prep

1. What has worked well for you concerning senior project this year?  What has made it a positive experience for you?  

I have met some very interesting people, I met the owner of an awesome company,something I never thought I would of done. I have had a lot of fun working at the theater with a bunch of super chill college kids. During down time we just sit around a talk about movies. My boss/mentor Cassie Gratton is delightful, she is very fun to talk to and very interesting. 

2. What are you finding difficult concerning senior project?  How can you adapt to make that portion work better for you?  How might the senior team help?

The only thing i'm having trouble with is figuring out what to do for my independent component. My senior project is sort of straight forward and even my mentor thinks the only thing that is really necessary to be a good manager is to have a lot of customer service experience. Someone told me I could just mentor for more hours, so I might just do that. But if i'm feeling crazy I could make a model of my dream theater that's been in my mind forever, maybe I could make a stop motion movie of how it would run on a day to day basis.

Blog 5: Interview 1 Reflection

Me and my homie Cassie G

The back of Cassie's Business card

Interview Soudcloud

Interview Transcription

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  Is there anything I would do differently for other interviews?

I learned that the Film Exhibition Industry is a very experience centered field. When they are looking for positions to fill, they look for people who have time and experience of their belt. My mentor doesn't even have a college degree, she just worked hard and now she's a general manager.  So it's great that I'm getting some job experience for my mentorship so that in the future I can have people to put on my resume. 

Some things I could of done differently, were some minor things like Introducing Cassie to the people listening before starting the interview and maybe just some more follow up questions that I could of asked.

2. Did I get additional resources and contacts?  What is the most useful?  Why?

Managing for Dummies is now on my amazon wish list and my mentor gave me the name of a person I could interview who works in the head office of Laemmle. His name is Kevin Gallagher. I could also Interview some of the other floor managers at Laemmle Claremont. Either Israel, who is super cool and he's a huge nerd like me. We hit it off immediately. Or I could Interview Lexi, who is super smart and great with customers. It's great seeing her work. 

3. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me? 

What you should be asking is, what makes me worthy you stand on the same ground
as this goddess. Lol, just kidding. Cassie is super awesome, she's been a General manager at Claremont for 8 years and a floor manager for 3 years before that. She knows a lot of the things that a general manager is faced with and I completely trust her because she keeps a tight ship. The Laemmle Claremont is always clean and is filled with wonderful people. Her included. 

Blog 4 - House Advisory Prep

I got a job at Laemmle and here's my uniform

I really love the choice I made for my senior project, it's only been a few weeks but I've already learned so much. And everything I have learned or will have learned by the end of the year can go under two categories.

1.  Something other than common core!!! 

Junior year was probably one of the worst years for me, mentally. I got so bored of math and science that I literally gave up and chose to sit in class and torture myself. Which is why I decided to do my senior project on something I love so I could learn about things that actually interest me.

2. How to separate myself from "the machine"

The Machine: The invisible all-powerful ochestrator that tells young students how to be successful.

All my life I've been told that I have to finish high school with good grades so I can get into a good college so I can get a degree so that I can get a good job that will support me and eventually let me die marginally happy. Well you know what, that's what everyone does and I want to find my own path to success. I want to learn how to make a name for myself, to write myself a success story that will live with my family for generations, that's what Max and Kurt Laemmle did, and if they could do it, so can I.

Blog 3 - First Interview Preparation

Robert Laemmle(left) Gregory Laemmle (right)

1. Who do you plan to Interview? Why?

I plan on interviewing the owner of Laemmle Theaters, Gregory Laemmle. He has given the theater by his Father Bob Laemmle almost 20 years ago and he's been doing a fine job running it ever since. I chose to interview him first because I want to go down the chain of commands of the theater for my interviews. He's the top dog, so I want to interview him first.

2. What Questions would you ask?

Do you enjoy what you do?

Has owning a movie theater made your view of movies more about the money rather than about the art.

Do you have complete control over what happens with you theater? If not, do you wish you did?

Is it hard to compete with big theater chains like AMC or Regal?

Do you ever have any problems with the theaters branches, or are your manager good with keeping everything in order?

Do you ever knowingly show bad movies just to make money?

Do Independent Movie Studios take as big of a chuk from the theater tickets as the bigger movie studios?

Whats your favorite movie?

Blog 2 - Summer Mentorship

Mentorship Hours

1. List the contact name, phone number, and organization of the person with whom you volunteered.

Gregory S. Laemmle 

(310)-478-1042

gregl@laemmle.com 

Laemmle Theaters

Cassie Gratton
(909)-621-5566
claremont@laemmle.com
Laemmle Theaters

2. What qualified this person as an expert in your topic choice?     

Greg Laemmle is the president and owner of Laemmle Theaters. Which means he currently occupies my dream job.

Cassie Gratton is the General Manager of the Laemmle Claremont 5. So since my topic is "Managin a Movie Theater" she is is definitely an expert.

3. List three questions for further exploration now that you've completed your summer hours. 

What kind of College Education would be helpful for owning a theater? 

How can a theater owner make their theaters special? 

How expensive is it to start an operation like this? 

   

4. What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?

The reason I want to open a movie theater is because I love movies and I want to be surrounded by them, but Gregory Laemmle told me that owning a business like this is hard work and sometimes your so caught up that you stop seeing movies as much and you start to focus mainly on building your business rather than just watching a few movies with some loved ones.

5. What is your senior project topic going to be?  How did mentorship help you make your decision?  Please explain.

My senior topic is going to be Owning an Independent Movie Theater. I've know that this is what I wanted to do for a while now, even before I even started thinking about senior year. But I didn't really know what an owners does on a day to day basis so learning about that really solidified my decision. 

Blog 1 – Senior Final Lesson/Interview Reflection

1.  What three lessons were most helpful for you to see, and why?
I was one of the last 20 people to sign up for senior presentations so I didn't really get to chose the ones I would of liked. Comic Books Shop Management would of helped me alot and so would of Imagineering. Of the ones I had Independent Film was the only one that I found useful  because I know that I would like to do my senior presentation on film and Sachin talked about how he got his mentors and the cool experiences he got while on set of some movies. His activity was also very fun and I would like to do something equally as engaging. Some other presentations that werent really helpful but that I liked the activities were Teaching Children Karate, Music Entrepreneurship and Dance  

2. List one thing that you learned about the senior project in interviews that will help you get off to a good start? 

I talked for like 25 minutes to a girl named Isabelle who did her project on Film Editing and she said that the thing that will give you the most fulfilling senior year is getting a mentor as soon as possible. Because its not just about the hours, it's about getting yourself out there and having some experiences that you will remember the rest of your life. 

3. What topic(s) are you considering, and why?

All my life I have loved movies, so I knew that when I grew up I wanted to be as close to them as I could be. I later found out that I do not like making movies, it's hard, its time-consuming and not really all that fun. Acting can be cool sometimes but that field is way too competitive. I'm not a good writer as you could probably already tell so I wouldn't be a good critic. But owning an independent movie theater would be awesome, so thats what I would like to do for my senior project. 

4. What EQ do you think might be interesting to consider in guiding a project like this? (Please don't worry about any sort of formula...we want this question to come from your genuine interest).

What is the best thing about owning an independent movie theater. some answers could be, seeing young people on a date or being able to show unknown indie movies. 

5. What are some ideas you have about finding summer mentorship?

There is this Independent Movie Theater chain called Laemmle Theaters in Southern California. One of their chains is near my house in The Village in Claremont. I go there alot to catch some Indie movies so I could like i'm supporting the arts. The owner of these theaters is named Greg Laemmle and he lives in Los Angeles. So i'll either email him or try and meet up with him during one of this bicycle marathons.