Mentor News
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF NETWORKING IN THE INDUSTRY:
“Networking is more important now than ever, than it’s ever been…The industry is changing so much everyday. It’s like stepping on a floor that has squares on it, and then the squares [are] just kind of collapsing and moving every time you take a step. You have to have people that you can…If your square is moving too far, you can jump on somebody else’s square, hold on for a second then move to the next square. Put two squares together and then three and four and then you have something. That’s what this day and age is all about…I tell my students networking is as important as talent. I don’t want to say it’s more important, because if you don’t have any talent and you got all the networking skills in the world you’re still not going to go anywhere.”
ON WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN STUDENTS TAKE THE INITIATIVE:
Rocky Shores on a shoot for
The Reel Miami Project
“[When] you involve and engage your students in what you’re doing, they will surprise you…I give Rocky Shores as an example. The reason why he became a producer, on this project [
Ayikodans Rise] is because he came out with me to shoot some stuff when we were starting up the second Haiti documentary… He asked me to send him that material, along with the interview and he cut together something that was really awesome. He did it on his own. Because of that, I went and I interviewed the president of the performing arts center, the biggest one in South Florida. They brought this dance company back four times. It helped them to rebuild their dance studio after the earthquake in Haiti. That story itself was so powerful that my team decided to make it a third documentary, a third stand-alone piece. Rocky, what he did was a part of making that decision…It will go on a feature length documentary. Rocky still gets the producer credit because he shot footage, he helped to shape the foundation of that piece.”
AND ANOTHER STUDENT THAT HAS DONE WELL…
“Tommy Kuzmiak—I’ve hired him on a few different things. He was a boxer before he got into the program. He’s developed into a fine professional…He’s writing a really incredible script. And we’ll produce that and move forward. I’ve hired him on numerous things. I may bring him on full-time at some point.”
HIS THOUGHTS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF MENTORING:
“In this mentorship program which is more of a one-on-one type of program, you know you really have the ability to connect with the students and try to figure out what they want to do….Most of my mentors come from other areas…In the film industry, not so much…I took the initiative while I was at film school because I knew what I wanted to do and I had already been in the industry on the other side of the camera…I’m more in support of the mentorship. If someone would have said, ‘Hey Kevin, I’m going to take you and I’m going to turn you into a producer or I’m going to turn you into a director or I’m going to turn you into a cinematographer, I’m going to help you to get to that place’…I would have loved that.”
“I believe highly in apprenticeship & mentorship as I am a result of this teaching environment. I understand a strong theoretical education works for a lot of students, but hands on experience and doing these tasks teaches hands on involvement that is hard to get. It is harder to build these bonds that are taught cooking together. This style builds confidence in the apprentice to achieve the goals to raise them above cook status into Sous Chef over a period of time through hard and smart working techniques that will empower the students to be performers, not guided by someone else’s success, but creating their own.”
— Robert W. Phillips CEC, CCA, CFSP, CC, Director of Culinary & Nutrition, MCH Deanco
