Summer screenings in the city

A year and a half ago I joined the NYCMovieScreenings group on Facebook. I didn’t know much about the company, and my only expectation was that I might get to see a few new releases for free and save $13.00 here and there. In addition to joining the Facebook group, I also signed up for the NYCMovieScreenings.com mailing list to get the most up-to-date information about screenings. I attended a few screenings, but my ability to take advantage of what the company had to offer was hindered by my class schedule and workload. Summer finally rolled around, and I resolved to stay in New York City and take to work on fulfilling my language requirement over the summer, but my days did not seem like they would be filled with much to do besides one class on weekday evenings.

I sent my resume to a few places, none of which ever responded to my inquiry about possible summer employment, so when I checked the NYCMovieScreenings newsletter and read about a call for interns, I jumped at the opportunity to branch out. For all intents and purposes, this would be my first job, and because the job title “intern” was so vague, I began to make my own assumptions about what this job might entail. I was under the impression that I would probably be sitting in front of a desk doing administrative work. This made for an even bigger surprise when I received an e-mail informing me about my first “challenge.”

Before I even knew if I had the job, I was supposed to hand out postcards for a new Jennifer Aniston movie called "Management" to women over 35 and take pictures of them holding the postcards to prove that I had actually handed them out. This was an extremely daunting task, especially since I’m the sort of person who would frequently brush past people soliciting on the street as quickly as I could. But I put on my biggest smile and started passing them out. A few people wouldn’t take the cards, but most people did. When I was able to make eye contact with someone, I would ask as sweetly as I could if I might take their picture to prove I was actually doing my job. This approach usually worked, if only because people pitied me.

I later came to understand that this was NYCMovieScreenings founder Mark Kwan’s way of figuring out who was qualified to work full time. Rather than interviewing prospective interns about their qualifications, Mark preferred a more hands-on approach to learning his interns’ strengths and weaknesses. The hiring process was based almost entirely on one’s ability to communicate well with Mark and to complete the twenty or so challenges which would later become the main focus of one’s job. The challenges ranged from street team promotions, to running advanced screenings, to helping out with parties, to promote upcoming movies at the nightclub Taj II. A month or so after beginning work, I was told that I had great communications and organizational skills and I was asked if I would like to be promoted to be Mark’s assistant. I accepted the offer, and while the position is still unpaid, I get to enjoy many of the perks of working for the company.

Since I began working for NYCMovieScreenings I have attended four red carpet premieres including the premiere of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I have worked at least twenty advanced screenings of movies, and I have given away countless fliers, posters, and stickers to New Yorkers and tourists. While I’ve never been a particularly shy person, I have been given a unique opportunity to develop greater skills when communicating with strangers. Passing out flyers on the streets of New York often results in rejection from strangers who won’t take what I’m giving, but I have learned that rejection is not such a bad thing. It is now very easy to move on to the next step and do my best to make sure the following person does want to take my material. I’m not entirely sure what I intend to do when I graduate, or even what my major is for that matter, but the skills I have learned working at NYCMovieScreenings will be valuable no matter where I go.

The author is a Barnard College sophomore. She is a writer for The Fed. “Summer screenings in the city” is an installment of Summer Dispatches, an opinion feature series that seeks to showcase the diverse summer experiences of members of the Columbia community.