On the third floor of Kerckhoff Hall, a room is open to all who
wish to breathe in its explosion of posters, flyers, boxes,
computers and tickets. It’s the Campus Events office, and
Ryan Seng inhales regularly.
Seng is the director of films at Campus Events, responsible for
booking the $2 movies at Ackerman Union, as well as the sneak
previews, like last night’s screening of “Knockaround
Guys.” According to Seng, earning his $40 per month is hardly
the motivation for carrying on with these duties.
“Basically, it’s volunteer work,” Seng said.
“But the money isn’t important. It’s more the
experience.”
For instance, the experience of calling all the film studios and
developing relationships with them helped Seng, a third-year
undergraduate student, land a dream film studio internship (with
Dreamworks, get it?).
“I’ve gotten internship offers at all these
different studios I’ve worked with,” Seng said.
“You basically pick and decide which one you want to work
with.”
Seng chose the company because of its reputation of having a
smaller, more hands-on approach to interns.
“Dreamworks had me working junkets screenings and working
the premieres,” Seng said. “I’m not just sitting
there shuffling papers. I actually call people and do
stuff.”
Seng worked the junket for “The Tuxedo,” where he
met Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jackie Chan. According to Seng, Hewitt
was a cold diva with a bodyguard while Chan was gracious and truly
loved his fans, doing an impromptu mass handshaking session with
fans at the film’s premiere.
With one foot in the professional world and still another in the
student world, Seng admits to not going to every one of the Campus
Events screenings. It’s not worth his time, and his time, in
spite of his pay, is valuable.
Seng runs his war room with a small team, who calls studios and
promotional companies. While older films are always available for
rent, the real challenge is getting films in limbo between being
first-run at theaters and being released on video and DVD. To
measure his success, one need only see the roster of films he
prepared.
“Minority Report,” Spielberg’s financial and
critical success, was screened last week along with a sneak of
“Red Dragon.” Others include “About a Boy”
(Oct. 10-11), “Signs” (Oct. 24-25) and “Y Tu Mama
Tambien” (Nov. 7-8).
Seng figures out what movies the campus wants with the help of
his staff, which he tries to keep diverse to cover all mainstream
and indie tastes. They then work toward getting the 35 millimeter
prints from the studios directly. Some films, such as “Y Tu
Mama Tambien,” require more tenacity to acquire.
“You’d think that kind of movie would be popular
among college kids, but it’s some other guy sitting at the
corporate offices who just doesn’t understand what the
movie’s demographic is,” Seng said.
After landing the movies, Campus Events, part of Associated
Students UCLA, must pay for the shipping and the rental of the
prints, which gets covered in the $2 ticket charge students must
pay for the shows. This is called the second-run market, the Pic
‘n Save of film exhibition.
While no celebrity appearances have been booked yet, the
tradition of guests has been quite distinguished from Adam Sandler
to Mr. T. In addition, Seng is working on fulfilling his mission of
one sneak film a week. Next week’s is the small film
“Roger Doger,” but he is almost certain next month
he’ll get “8 Mile,” the new Curtis Hanson film
starring Eminem.
Seng, who is studying both economics and French, finds school
somewhat whimsical. After all, if he could choose between soaking
himself in the professional world or sitting in class, it’s
pretty clear he’d prefer the disheveled mess of Campus
Events.
“That’s what breaking into the industry is all
about, (meeting) people,” Seng said. “Nothing at school
really prepares you for anything.”