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?