Culture Week Recap

Welcome back from Spring Break everyone! We wanted to thank everyone who came out to our culture week events the week before spring break, it was a big success.

On Monday, we had two events. First, at lunch, James Rothbart spoke to us about working his way up from the mail room to an assistant for an agent at UTA. He is currently the Director of Business and Legal Affairs at Twentieth Television. He shared some amazing stories with us, many sounded right out of an Entourage script! Mr. Rothbart ultimately told us that working in the entertainment business require a lot of hard work and dedication-- as is clear from his choice to work in the mail room after leaving his job in litigation. His talk was a great start to the week!

Second, on Monday we also had a screening of a documentary from the Freedom Writers Foundation about the true story of their time at Wilson High School in Long Beach. Erin Gruwell came to King Hall to show us a rough cut of the documentary, "Stories from an Undeclared War." Ms. Gruwell and her students wrote a book called "The Freedom Writers Diary" which is a compilation of her students' stories written as journal entries. The book became a bestseller, and inspired the movie starring Hilary Swank, "Freedom Writers." If you haven't read the book or seen the movie, check them out, it is a really inspiring story! The documentary was composed of actual footage of the student in their classroom and writing the journals that eventually became a part of the book. The Foundation is hoping to get the film out to festivals soon, so keep an eye out for the new documentary.

On Wednesday, we had USC law professor Lance Grode talk about how to make yourself a better candidate for a job in entertainment law. Mr. Grode had a lot of valuable advice in how to approach an interview (hint: anticipate questions and know how to differentiate yourself from the other candidates). He made some great points about being informed as to what is going on in the industry you want to be a part of, whether that be film, TV, music, or intellectual property, etc. Since Mr. Grode has significant experience in music law and entertainment in general, he told us we should read the "weeklies"-- even just the headlines-- to become more versed in current developments. These include: The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, The Wrap, and Variety.

Lastly, on Thursday, we had Russell Naymark come to talk about IP issues as they relate to the entertainment industry. Mr. Naymark worked at SAG (Screen Actors Guild) for several years on union issues.  He talked about how new platforms for viewing (such as online content providers like Hulu) affected the way networks looked at their programs. It was a significant issue for actors as well, as to how they would be given residuals.  Mr. Naymark also talked about how copyright infringement and illegal downloading is being combated by the unions.

As you can see, we had an awesome culture week! Thanks again to everyone who came out. We hope to see you on Sunday, April 7th for the Dr. Ives Basketball Tournament.

Sacramento Kings Game

On March 8th, ESLS went to the Sacramento Kings-Phoenix Suns game for a close game between the two western conference teams. In the end, the Kings edged out the Suns for a win of 121-112.

We took over a few rows in our section. Sammy was the lone Suns fan. Joel and DJ were really into the wave. And thanks to Jen, we were able to get a photo on the court at the end of the game!

We wanted to thank everyone who came out for the game! We had so much fun and look forward to going to another game next year (provided the Kings stay in Sacramento).