Founder and President of MPA Publishing, Inc.

SPECIAL ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY PANEL SPEAKS TO FIDM STUDENTS (Part 2 of 3 - Graphics Licensing)

Lights, cameras...advice! For anyone hoping to break into the entertainment industry, good advice from insiders is worth the price of a big-budget movie. FIDM students had the chance to listen to three industry insiders dish out experiences, advice, and encouragement. The panelists represented three aspects of the entertainment world: costumes, sets, and graphics. They agreed on the three most important words of advice for success in the industry: contacts, determination, and more contacts. After the talented guests shared their wisdom, FIDM students had a chance to ask questions and talk to the panelists in person.

MARK POLITI, FOUNDER & PRESIDENT OF MPA PUBLISHING, INC.

Mark is the man behind the poster that launched a thousand teenage Titanic crushes. He published, and licensed the popular Titanic poster with the faces of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett. Mark gives us the merchandise for the movies and TV shows we love. Big entertainment companies like Fox and Paramount license out their promotional merchandise to outside companies for production. Mark's is one of them. He is the founder and president of MPA Publishing, Inc. His three-year-old company has produced licensed products for Titanic, The Simpsons, the four Star Trek TV shows, and the nine Star Trek feature films.

Mark was selling movie posters on the California State University, Northridge campus before he knew his career would involve producing those very posters. He didn't know exactly what he wanted to do when he graduated, only that it would involve the entertainment industry. He tried all the major studios but ended up finding his niche within graphics licensing with the success of Warner Bros. Studio Stores. For six years, Mark was Senior Vice-president of Zanart Entertainment, Inc. where he worked with big clients like Warner Brothers, Walt Disney Co., QVC, Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart, and The Musicland Group. They created licensed products like posters, T-shirts, and hats for X-Files, X-Men, Superman, Batman, Looney Tunes, and Home Alone, just to name a few. At Zanart, he also worked on a line of very cool ChromArt prints from the Star Wars Trilogy movies.

Mark explained how important graphic artists are in the entertainment industry, because they give people a vision of movies and TV shows before they come out. This image comes to represent the feel and look of the movie in people's minds. The public is the ultimate judge of his work, Mark said. The production's success dictates what they do after its release. He explained how before Titanic came out, people predicted it would bomb, especially with all the money that went into it. As everyone knows, the opposite happened and it soared with success, becoming the most profitable movie of all time. Mark's company had to produce merchandise on very short notice to meet the public's demand for anything and everything Titanic. This is often the case, Mark said, because they feed off of the public's reactions. Mark showed off some of his best posters, first a collector's edition Walt Disney poster featuring Mickey Mouse that sold over 50,000 copies. Everyone loved his fun Simpsons poster featuring all 250 characters from the popular TV show. This poster became one of the best-selling graphics on the Internet in 1999, selling over 35,000 posters.

A product development student asked Mark for advice about job leads. His advice: try getting in with smaller companies who develop products as licensees for big entertainment companies, to in turn make connections with those bigger companies. His words to students about finding their dream job: "Don't say no to something because you've never done it. You have to try everything to know if it's right for you. Career tangents will take you on new, unexpected paths and will get you to a happy place." Mark has definitely found his place in the industry!