hockey. "I ended up on a team with some agents and other entertainment
people. I was hating my job and asked if anyone knew anyone in the
music or film business." A teammate gave him the name of Bill Schrank,
vice president of music production at Warner Brothers Studios, and sug-
gested that he write a letter, since Schrank was too busy to talk on the
phone. By this time, Homme was unemployed and beginning to worry
about his lack of prospects. About a week after the letter was sent, he
decided to try to reach Schrank by telephone. "I was walking downstairs
to make the call and the
phone rang, and it was him
on the other end of the line."
Homme was invited to come
by the studio to talk, where
he learned about jobs he
never knew existed, includ-
ing one he thought he would
be perfect for: Schrank's own.
"He said, `Good luck! There
are about seven of these jobs in
the business, one per studio.'"
Over the next eight months,
Homme was only able to get three or four interviews in unrelated fields.
He even offered to work for free, just to gain the experience, but was
turned down for insurance reasons. At the point when things looked des-
perate, he got a message from Schrank that resulted in Homme being
hired as manager of music production at Disney Studios. Unaware of his
status at his new job, Homme recalls, "I was taken to my office by my
assistant (I would have taken the job as my own assistant) and she said,
`You've got a meeting tomorrow morning at eight.' I said, `Will there be
any executives there?' She said, `Duh. You are an executive.' It was really
kind of wacky and unbelievable, because I got the job I dreamt about."
Determined not to lose this opportunity, Homme learned his job
duties while working on the 11 films and sound tracks then in produc-
tion. Over the next four years, he worked on a total of 75 films. A few
months after DreamWorks was formed, he came on board as the equiva-
lent of vice president of film music (there are no titles at DreamWorks),
working on such box office hits as Gladiator, Antz, Almost Famous, and
Academy Award winning films Saving Private Ryan and American Beauty.
Homme still plays on a hockey team, which includes some of the indus-
try's most successful actors, agents, producers, and directors, and
credits it as being the single most important networking tool he has
ever discovered.
"Don't be phony
or overstate what you
can deliver. Don't run
your mouth off about
what you can do. Just
do it; that will be conspicuous enough.
Do your homework and be diligent about
learning."--Todd Homme
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