Bill Draper Forum Response - Extra Credit

Today was a special forum with Bill Draper, an executive at Warner Brothers. This was very educational and informative, and made me think very hard about having a future in the entertainment industry.

            Mr. Draper talked about how working in the entertainment industry isn’t an 8-5 job, it’s a lifestyle. He talked about how he had to turn his phone off for the forum, or else it would ring off the hook. He talked about how he can be whisked away across the world at the drop of a hat, and how he won’t be able to see his family for weeks and weeks at a time. He also discussed how his wife and family deals with his long hours, and he even told a story of how his wife and kids went on a cruise to the Mediterranean without him, because he had work obligations. He talked about how it’s a very tough industry to be in, and how you need to work hard, have lots of talent, and to have a thick skin. These things really resonated with me, because I love my family, and I love spending time with my wife, and I want to be around for my kids. It doesn’t sound like Mr. Draper is around much. I wonder if he has missed seeing his kids grow up, and to hit their milestones and to attend their baseball games…?

            Another thing that he talked about was the money. He talked at length about how “it’s all about the money,” or, “it’s all about the bottom line.” He mentioned that it’s called “Show-Biz,” and not “Show-Art.” When he said that, I felt a ripple go through the audience, and I thought that was a very interesting statement, because here at BYU we focus very much on the artistic aspect of the film industry, and not so much on the business side of the film industry, or the production side of things. I feel like that was a stinger for the TMA program, coming straight from the “horse’s mouth,” as it were (a high-level executive with 30+ years of experience). He also talked about how BYU had gotten rid of the BFA program, and how that was, in his opinion, a mistake. He felt that film students weren’t ready for the entertainment-industry world when they graduated, and even called BYU students “sheltered,” which we are, to a degree. 

I very much enjoyed learning from him, but I don’t think that I could live that life myself.