The inaugural Southern California Business Film Festival takes place this weekend at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. It is presented by USC's Marshall School of Business and USC's School of Cinematic Arts. TheStreet.com TV will show highlights from the winning student films.The following is an interview with festival director Jonathan Willbanks, a USC freshman, studying business and cinematic arts.
TheStreet.com: Who is the festival's target audience?
Willbanks: The competitive student film screening will be open to the entire student body and the public. Attendance is free at all of the events, which allows us to market to a very large audience. USC plays an integral role in the Los Angeles community and we want to open it to anyone who might find entertainment or education by attending.
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As a business-themed film festival, our primary target audience is business and film students. But given the popularity of film -- especially at USC -- we've seen a lot of interest and participation from students of widely disparate fields of study. We have international relations, journalism, communications, and even a neuroscience student competing in the festival.
TheStreet.com: Why is now a good time to start a business film festival?
Willbanks: I think the potential has probably been there for a quite a while. No one's just seized upon it yet. I do think that the potential for success of a business film festival is probably stronger now than it was just two or three years ago. The whole world seems to be embracing business at an increasing and unprecedented rate. I think students are starting to pick up on this and realize how important a firm grasp of business is -- regardless of their future profession.
Business affects every aspect of our lives. I think that as the world has become more globalized, U.S. businesses have had to step up their game to remain competitive in the now global business services market. Students are aware, or at least can sense on some level, this recent shift toward higher performance, knowledge, and educational expectations in the business world, making them far more open to the exploration of business concepts.
It seems that film students want to enhance their understanding of business, while business students want the practical management experience the festival provides, along with the ability to express their business knowledge and skills through an artistic outlet, an opportunity rarely afforded to business students.
TheStreet.com: What was the biggest challenge the students had in making business-themed films?
Willbanks: Before viewing the final submissions, I was worried that students might try to force the business concepts into the films, making the concepts obtrusive and distracting rather than beneficial and educational. Nearly all of the teams avoided this pitfall and managed to work their business content into the films in a natural way.
TheStreet.com: What is your take on the submitted student films?
Willbanks: We received a very diverse range of submissions, ranging from lighthearted comedies to moving melodramas to dark thrillers. Each team learned something different, but it's clear from the films that all of them learned something about business -- often in creative and indirect ways.
For example, one film,
Big Bang, is a comedy about a business student who is given an assignment to create a working business plan. Upon cursory examination, the film simply looks like a modernized short version of
Risky Business. But when you break it down, the students (not to mention the audience), have learned about demographics in market research, the value of niche markets, supply and demand and the high profit potential of a high demand/low supply scenario, and market competition.
TheStreet.com: What is your favorite business film of all time?
Willbanks: Without a doubt,
There Will be Blood. It packs a heavy duty educational wallop, leaving the viewer with a pretty thorough history lesson on the birth of the oil industry in the US.
TheStreet.com: Do you have an investment portfolio? If so, what is your investing strategy?
Willbanks: Since I'm only 19, I'm limited in means and cannot buy in very large
volume, but I think every college student should get some experience managing their own portfolio as early as possible.
Since I'm not a market
analyst, I like to stick with what I know. Technology is my favorite
sector to invest in and my largest holdings are in
Apple (AAPL), which I worked for before coming to USC. With their generous employee stock purchase program, I was able to invest the maximum amount of my paycheck allowable into Apple stock, at a severely reduced price.
I laugh when I see analysts calling Apple's recent stock decline a slip-up on Apple's part or more frequently a sign of impending
recession. Anyone watching the stock closely knew that it was drastically
overvalued. While it was selling for $200, the actual value of the company was only about $130. The price was bound to adjust itself down to a truer value.
Overspeculation was inevitable though. Can you blame people for getting a bit too excited about a company that has launched the iPhone, MacBook Air, OS X Leopard, iPod Classic, iPod Touch, new iPod Nanos capable of video playback, a new lineup of iPod Shuffles, Time Capsule, Apple TV, and new MacBooks that are probably the best value Apple's ever offered on a computer
all within the last 12 months?
The level of innovation coming out of that company is simply astounding, so the
stock price was bound to get a little inflated.
Long-term though, it's a great investment. I think it's clear that Apple is here to stay, and their popularity just continues to grow. As a college student, I see Macs outnumber PCs two-to-one on campus. Just two years ago that would not have been the case. I'm going to keep investing while the price is low and ride it for a while as a long-term investment.
I've also been picking up
Sun Microsystems (JAVA)whenever possible. It's a very inexpensive stock, so it's accessible with a college student's budget. I also think it's a good company with some very innovative products, and that their stock will eventually recover from its current price.
If I had the money and the resources, I'd have been
shortingStarbucks (SBUX) like crazy.
They expanded way too quickly and oversaturated their markets, essentially competing with themselves. Compounding the problem is the fact that we have a panicked public that is convinced we're heading toward, or are already in a recession. People are going to start thinking twice about laying down five bucks for a cup of coffee every morning.
Again, I like to stick with things I know when I invest. Like most Americans, I have limited means and resources, and I want to make sure that I know exactly what I'm putting my money into. Stock tips and talking heads are great, but their information should be used to supplement one's own knowledge and research, not serve as a sole source of investment decisions.
For more information about this weekend's Southern California Business Film Festival at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, click here.
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