UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

Let’s Get Real: UCLA Anderson Team Takes Top Honors Pitching AR Solution to Paramount

Left to right: Steven Liu, Naurine Shahzad, Jennifer Buzalewski, Candace Parker, Paul Chang

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By Naurine Shahzad (’19)

The Center for MEMES MBA Media and Entertainment Case Competition with Paramount Pictures, as one of few nationwide case competitions sponsored by an entertainment company, brings a great deal of excitement to any student interested in the business side of the industry. With top schools from all over the country competing, and because of the anticipation and demand at Anderson alone, our team had to prepare resumes and an essay that would qualify us as one of two Anderson teams to present to the Paramount judges.

Lucky Team 13, as we called ourselves, included Class of 2019’s Paul Chang, Jennifer Buzalewski, Candace Parker, double Bruin Steven Liu (B.A. ’13) and me. Our professional backgrounds are diverse, with some of us coming from marketing, finance or consulting, but our passion for entertainment united us. We are all student leaders in the Entertainment Management Association, and we felt prepared to take on this challenge.

Seen and Heard (and Felt) at LeVRage

UCLA Anderson’s Center for Management of Enterprise in Media, Entertainment & Sports (MEMES) recently convened LeVRage, an event exploring the most practical ways to monetize new virtual reality and augmented reality experiences that depart from the strictly visual. A lineup of experts in emerging technology, film, gaming, social innovation, marketing and storytelling shared their predictions for the next big trend in VR and AR. #UCLAleVRage

"Do you want to take flight?"
- @gopositron, location-based, narrative-driven #VR #UCLAleVRage #VirtualReality pic.twitter.com/rIxNETLDeO

— UCLA Anderson (@uclaanderson) October 6, 2017

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• Mariana Acuña, Co-Founder, Opaque Studios
How we consume will change dramatically as every industry is touched by AR and VR. Kids will learn to tell stories differently. If you’re an artist, you’re always going to have to be yearning to get ahead of the curve.

• John Canning, VP of Interactive Experiences, NBCUniversal
Building experiences complete with haptic and olfactory sensations is where investors are active.

• Emily Cooper, 360 Video and VR Producer
Tell stories that are a conduit to quieter voices, the unheard Americans. VR can’t literally transport us but it can extend an olive branch to understanding.

How the Film Industry Reeled in Anderson Alumna Monique Jones

Monique Jones (’93) is vice president of finance and controller for Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, a leading independent finance and production company dedicated to developing high-quality motion pictures and television programming. Jones provides financial analysis and decision-making support to the executive management team. She has also held senior finance positions with Sony Pictures Television International, Icon Entertainment International, Myriad Pictures and PolyGram Filmed Entertainment. She moderated a panel at Anderson's 2016 Pulse Conference in January.Twenty years into her career in the entertainment industry, she looks back at how she aspired professionally.  

Q. You began your entertainment career in Los Angeles in 1996, but you’re originally from Omaha. Did you know growing up in the Midwest that you wanted to land in Hollywood?

When I was growing up in Nebraska, my dream was to move to New York City. I didn’t know what I would do there, I just knew it was the city for me. I made a pit stop in Washington, D.C., to attend college at Georgetown University. Although I majored in finance, it was during my college years that I developed my interest in the entertainment industry. Specifically, I wanted to work in the music industry. But before heading west, I moved to New York after graduating from college and worked as an internal auditor in the financial services industry.

Q. What led you to UCLA for your MBA?

After working in financial services for four years, I knew I would never be passionate about a career in that field. That said, I was not prepared to quit my job and take an entry-level position in the music industry. I decided my best strategy would be to earn my MBA at a school in Los Angeles. This would give me the opportunity to pursue a variety of internships during my two years in a full-time MBA program and determine if a career in entertainment was the right fit for me. If it wasn’t, then I would still have earned my MBA and would be able to pursue other career options.

Women’s Opportunity Lies in the Unscripted Spaces

Left to right: Karla Ballard Williams, Lisa Erspamer, Mali Kinberg, Susanna Fogel

Enjoy photos from the Velocity conference

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By Carolyn Gray Anderson

One of the leitmotifs at last week’s Velocity conference was the obligation women have to help other women — help people in general, as keynote speaker Jane Wurwand pointed out — as far as keeping workplaces diverse. “Pull a woman in behind you when you move up so that there is no void,” she said. Hollywood is notoriously white and male, and the annual Women’s Business Leadership Summit included a special panel for industry veterans to talk about what’s changed for the better since they embarked on their careers and where they feel like they still face roadblocks.

Karla Ballard Williams, founder of YING Bank (whose motto is Currency for Humankind), moderated the panel, which included: Lisa Erspamer, an Emmy-nominated media executive who co-founded Happy Street Entertainment; EVP and head of international at Media Rights Capital Mali Kinberg, whose knowledge of several languages led her, following a Ph.D. in literature, to a career in foreign film sales and distribution; and Susanna Fogel, a comedy writer, producer and director whose first feature, Life Partners, will soon be followed by a second.

Williams is co-chair of the 41st Annual Gracies, an awards show supported by the Alliance for Women in Media, where Williams serves on the board. She was previously SVP of Participant Media’s TAG division, a social-action agency leveraging the power of storytelling to drive impact, and she served as the global account lead for Sony Pictures Entertainment on rebranding and strategy engagements for Latin America. She is an appointee to the United States Federal Communication Committee on Diversity in a Digital Age.

She opened with, “We’re sitting here with women who have killed it in entertainment.” So, why the dearth of women still?

The Future of Television: The Battle for Your Attention Takes Center Stage

View our album of photos from the 2016 Pulse Conference

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By Andy Tillman

UCLA Anderson’s 2016 Pulse Conference, presented by the Center for Management of Enterprise in Media, Entertainment & Sports, featured an in-depth conversation on the future of television. Distinguished Visiting Professor Brian Frons sat down with Jim Lanzone (B.A. ’93), president and CEO of CBS interactive; Tony Goncalves, senior vice president of strategy and business development at AT&T; Eric Johnson (B.A. ’91), executive vice president of global multimedia sales for ESPN; and Chris Moseley, chief marketing officer for game show network, to discuss the current media landscape and their views for the future.

If ever there has been a Wild West in the industry, this transitory time for television is it. As TV goliaths scramble to define themselves online, the cable industry must find ways to hold on to their subscribers, and online content providers must further perfect their evolving business models. “Consumers are consuming more content than ever, the how and where are changing,” said Goncalves. “If the future is going to be defined as content anytime, anywhere, then those who have scale will win.”

While many networks partner with online counterparts, others fear that handing over access to programming steers hard-earned viewers elsewhere.

Psychology of Belief Expert Jennifer Whitson Is Interviewed for New Documentary Film

Assistant Professor of Management and Operations Jennifer Whitson joined the faculty of UCLA Anderson last summer from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. She received her Ph.D. from Northwestern University and her B.A. from UC Irvine. Whitson was recently interviewed for a forthcoming documentary that explores the psychology of belief.

Whitson’s research delves into what persuades people to imagine patterns where there aren’t any, such as stock market predictions. She focuses on illusory and accurate pattern perception as well as how the experience of power changes the way we come to understand the world around us. By demonstrating a link between emotional experiences and the desire for structure, her studies have both psychological and management implications.

Whitson co-athored an article published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology titled “The Emotional Roots of Conspiratorial Perceptions, System Justification, and Belief in the Paranormal.” It reports the results of experiments the authors conducted after predicting that experiencing emotions reflective of uncertainty about the world (e.g., worry, surprise, fear, hope), compared to “certain” emotions like anger, happiness and disgust, would activate the need to imbue the world with order and structure across a wide range of compensatory measures. They found that self-affirmation eliminated the effects of uncertain emotions on compensatory control.

The film being produced by Fama Media Productions asks, why do we believe the things that we do, whether religious leanings or even conspiracy theories? The filmmakers interview leading psychologists and philosophers to investigate why we continue to believe in things even when there is clear evidence that contradicts that belief. “We chose Jennifer Whitson as our last interviewee because of her research into how uncertainty and control or lack thereof can lead us to see patterns where there are none,” said general manager Mesa Fama. “She is an integral part of our film, as what she brings to it really rounds out and ties together everything we’ve explored.”

New Technology Excites Hollywood Executive Peter Guber, Despite Slow Growth of Entertainment Jobs in L.A.

Left to right: Sanjay Sood, Jerry Nickelsburg, Peter Guber, David Shulman, Edward Leamer and William Yu

View more photos from the Forecast event

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By Carolyn Gray Anderson

UCLA Anderson Forecast’s first quarter report included special consideration of the entertainment industry and its relationship to the Los Angeles economy. Forecast economists Edward Leamer, Jerry Nickelsburg, David Shulman (’66) and William Yu presented the report to an audience at Culver City’s Kirk Douglas Theater, sharing the good news that the U.S. economy appears to be strong and stable amid international volatility. Two panels of experts focused on how the California economy is affected by ebbs and flows in the entertainment industry.

Guest Peter Guber, CEO and chairman of Mandalay Entertainment Group, in conversation with UCLA Professor of Marketing Sanjay Sood, provided the energetic high point of the event. Guber, who is a lecturer at UCLA Anderson, has a lot to be excited about: he was chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, chairman and CEO of Polygram Entertainment, co-founder of Casablanca Record & Filmworks and president of Columbia Pictures. He’s a best-selling author and has produced or executive produced major films that garnered five Best Picture Academy Award nominations, including a win for Rain Man.

Anderson Alumna Erika Green Swafford Shines at NAACP Image Awards

Photo: Earl Gibson III/WireImage

UCLA Anderson congratulates alumna Erika Green Swafford (’99) for her win last Friday at the 46th NAACP Image Awards. Swafford, a television writer and producer, won the top award for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series for an episode of ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder. Swafford’s other major credits include The Mentalist on CBS.

The prestigious NAACP Image Awards celebrate the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film and also honors individuals or groups who promote social justice through creative endeavors. The 2014 winners were announced during the two-hour star-studded event, which aired on February 6, 2015.

 

Energetic PULSE Conference at UCLA Anderson

Left to right: Adam Leber, Reign Deer Entertainment; Scott Manson, SB Projects; Betty Tran, Insomniac Events; D.A. Wallach, Spotify; Mike Chua, Live Nation.

Enjoy our PULSE album on Flickr

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By Cheechee Lin and Bijan White

The annual PULSE Conference hosted by UCLA Anderson’s Center for Management of Enterprise in Media, Entertainment, and Sports (MEMES) gathered together leaders in film, sports, music and media industries to discuss adapting strategies to address the challenges in ever-evolving business models.

Mike Hopkins (’01), CEO of Hulu, was the 2015 Game Changer Award recipient. During his opening keynote, Hopkins discussed Hulu’s strategy to grow subscribers and launch buzzworthy originals. Hopkins believes that the strength of Hulu, not to mention its main revenue source, lies in targeted advertising, and that people stick with Hulu because of accessibility and the variety of content available.

Andrew Goodman, AT&T’s VP of digital content, delivered the closing keynote, talking about the AT&T and DirecTV merger that transpired last year. Goodman says that DirecTV has a “clear value placed in sports and a very passionate fan base... You look for specific content to engage a passionate fan base, whether it be sports or other genres.” AT&T is also looking to invest in Mexico, as the Mexican market has favorable regulations and a growing middle class. The potential for cross-border broadband makes Mexico an attractive destination for global expansion. Goodman also believes that short videos distributed through YouTube, Facebook and Vine are becoming increasingly popular and represent a growing business opportunity.

UCLA Law Invites Kamala Harris and UCLA Anderson Alumna Carissa Phelps ('07) to Speak on the Problem of Human Trafficking

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Carissa Phelps will speak at UCLA Law's symposium as well as at the UCLA Anderson Student Association's fireside chat on Thursday, January 29. Photo of Carissa Phelps by Matt Harbicht

On January 29 and 30, the UCLA School of Law presents the Law Review symposium, Examining the Roots of Human Trafficking and Exploitation. Featured speakers include California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Anderson alumna Carissa Phelps (MBA/J.D. ’07), author of Runaway Girl: Escaping Life on the Streets, One Helping Hand at a Time.

Phelps established the organization Runaway Girl in 2012. A California FPC, or for-profit entity with a “special” or social purpose, it creates employment opportunities for former runaways and survivors of human trafficking. The company hires survivors to work as trainers, consultants and advisers with local and community-based organizations that help victims of trafficking. Trainers also work with legal, medical and law enforcement groups to teach them to see the girls and boys they meet not as prostitutes committing a crime, but as victims. “We get them to treat survivors as experts instead of criminals,” Phelps says.

Symposium discussions will span multiple topics, from the historical causes and legal dynamics of exploitation, to the state and federal responses to human trafficking. Concurrent workshops will focus on pressing community needs.

Phelps is the subject of the award-winning documentary Carissa, directed by Anderson classmate David Sauvage (’07). The film will be screened at the symposium on Thursday, January 29, at 12:45 p.m.

RSVP to hear Carissa Phelps in conversation at UCLA Anderson Student Association's fireside chat on Thursday, January 29, at 4:00 p.m.

Read “A Slave No More,” the story about Carissa Phelps published by UCLA Magazine

Examining the Roots of Human Trafficking and Exploitation FULL SCHEDULE