For some people their career path never wanders. For Jodi Wise, Columbia Picture's Eastern Field Representative, her career path has taken her from Revlon's Ruby Red lipstick to the movie industry's biggest blockbuster lizard. Once a temp at Revlon, Wise now enjoys her time as the Eastern Field Representative for Columbia Pictures, overseeing the marketing of movie screenings in Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh. It is Wise's responsibility to coordinate the promotion of a movie screening with the movie theaters and the entertainment media. "It's all about marketing a movie," says Wise. "It's just fun, it's a great industry to work in." Once the movie is completed, she receives a directive from the main office in Los Angeles. It is then up to Wise to make sure that everything surrounding the movie's screenings goes perfectly. Wise says her schedule is cyclic starting over again with the release of each movie. Once she sets the screening date, it is up to Wise to make sure people know about it. To do that she has to stay in close contact with the media, including film critics, and try to secure air-time and column inches to promote the screening. Wise barters for this media coverage by giving the stations and newspapers promotional items to pass out to their customers and a chance to link their name to the screening. In an average month, Wise says, she will be involved with at least three screenings. Wise says this type of schedule helps to keep her interested. "I like to always be busy," Wise says. "There is always something to do." And there is a strategy behind what she does. Radio comes first. "I think the radio reaches the biggest audience," Wise says. Radio is also a much easier format to distribute tickets through. In radio (as well as the other media outlets), Wise has to use demographics to determine what stations she works with. If the movie is geared for high school students, then it is up to Wise to find out which stations in the area are popular among teenagers. When a movie demands a little extra attention, Wise will also try to work out a deal with a business that is in some way related to the movie. For example, if the movie has martial arts in it, than she will try to get a local martial arts school to pass out promotional items in exchange for some publicity at the screening. While Wise is not directly handing money over to the entertainment media, she says, in the movie industry screenings are big business. "It's definitely a really important link to the movie," Wise says. She estimates that $40,000 is the average promotional budget for a screening. The biggest movie Wise ever worked on was this summer's blockbuster Godzilla. There was so much hype surrounding the world's most famous lizard, the premiere was held at Madison Square Garden. As Wise talks about her position at Tri Star, it is clear that she is happy, but her career path hasn't always linked her to the silver screen. "I definitely did not have an easy road to get here," Wise says. After graduating from SUNY Buffalo in 1992 with a degree in Communication, Wise dove right into the job market. The first job she landed was at Blair Television, as a sales assistant booking airtime. Not content with television sales as a profession, she left Blair after a year and went to work at Inde-pendent Television Network as a junior buyer. Here, Jodi got to see the flip side of what she had been doing. However, Wise says buying was even worse than selling, and she remembers the experience fondly as "the job I hated the most." Searching for something to catch her attention, Wise turned to what she describes as one of her true loves- cosmetics. After spending some time temping for Revlon, Wise says unlike their products, "the glamour of cosmetics wore off." While she wasn't too fond of the job, Wise says she was quite excited with the idea of temping. "You get paid and can still pursue other possibilities," says Wise. So that is what she did. Sometimes Wise found herself in a different job each day. During this stage of her career, Wise says she was careful to make contacts and maintain them. Many paid off for her-including the contact she made with some copier repairmen she met while working in a law office. While talking to them, she mentioned her desire to go back into marketing, so shortly after her conversation she received a call from the copier repairmen. They were working on a copier at a marketing firm that needed some help. One of her favorite temp service jobs was at Sak's 5th Avenue in their corporate office. This was a favorable experience for Wise, and the networking she did there helped her to move to her next position in marketing at Escada. Even after all of this jumping around, Wise couldn't find true contentment with her career choice. "I thought I was happy, but I just wasn't-and no one wanted to hear my complaining," Wise says. While they may not have wanted to listen to her, someone obviously had an interest in Wise. After six months at Escada, she was hired to work for her current employer SONY's Columbia Pictures. After all the twists and turns in the road, Wise feels she is now on the right path and hopes to move up the ladder. "I'm learning as I go," says Wise. She says all of her past work experience has helped her prepare for what she is doing. "I did promotions for fragrances," says Wise. "It's (promoting fragrances as opposed to movies) apples and oranges, but it's all still fruit." For right now, the fruit is ripe and Wise says she has no intentions of leaving anytime soon. Wise says Tri Star does a lot of promoting from within. "People don't leave these positions," Wise says. Wise says she enjoys several perks that come with her position. She enjoys the premieres, the movies, being invited to movies put out by other studios and the ability to pass out promotional material. Wise says she enjoys working in a fairly young office that is always busy. "We work very hard, but it's not a conservative, stuffy atmosphere," says Wise. "And," Wise says, "don't just settle for any job. Students should strive for the job they really want. What's the point if you don't like what you are doing?" As a result of her experience, Wise says she is able to deliver a message for high school students hoping to pursue a career in any field. "Don't lose sight of what you want to do, not even if it takes you a while," says Wise. She says it is important for students to do internships while they are still in college and "act like you're excited when you are interning."
