Lights, Camera, Leadership: Connor N.F. Field

The Humans of Mays Business School series highlights excerpts from conversations with exceptional individuals at Mays who make a lasting impact through their leadership, drive, and dedication. Each story brings to life the diverse journeys, challenges, and triumphs that shape the Mays community. By sharing these unique experiences, we aim to inspire personal and professional growth within our halls and share the origin stories of today’s and tomorrow’s business leaders.

Connor N.F. Field is an undergraduate marketing major and filmmaker who is involved as an officer for Aggie Cinema, where he creates feature films. Last year, he and fellow Mays student Pranav Krishnan debuted a feature-length film, Maid to Kill. This past summer, at the end of a study abroad program, he attended the Cannes Film Festival in France with premier access as a filmmaker. Connor is a true embodiment of the Aggie Spirit and the leadership skills we cultivate at Mays.

Leading with Vision

“I’ve been making short film projects with my friends since middle school. I did kind of lose a bit of it in high school, but once I came to Texas A&M, I joined as many orgs as I could. One that I stuck with — Aggie Cinema — was where I found a lot of my current roommates and some of my best friends now, which ended up reigniting that passion for it. I would definitely say I’ve always been interested in doing stuff like that. Being at A&M and having opportunities here have really just extended my passion for it.”

“For two years, I have been an officer for Aggie Cinema. My sophomore year, I was the director of the Classic Subcommittee, where I would put on the classic film screenings that they would have listed for the semester. This year, I am their vice chair, so I’m overseeing a lot of the meaty mess, taking notes, and acting as their treasurer. I’m also the festival director for their Hollywood Film Festival, which is their first film festival they’re doing in like 30 years. I’m in charge of all the logistics and coordinating speaker schedules and opening submission portals and training, and all that.”

“The number one thing I will walk out with is knowing the importance of actionable direction. If I go up to an actor or even a group member in a project and say, ‘This is bad,’ what do I do about it? Giving people something that you can work with or feedback that actually has a value to it — I know how important that is for not only myself as a person and a communicator and leader, but also for the person that I’m giving the advice to.”

“Also important to me is just being able to do the right thing when nobody else is watching. I find a lot of value in that, just being able to self-govern and perform to the best of your ability, regardless of it being consequential or not, is vital for going into the workforce or having that ability to become self-actualized.”

Behind the Scenes

“Usually, whenever I am starting a project, I take any ideas I have and I’ll put them into what is called a ‘film bible.’ I just pour all character ideas, plot points, quotes that I might have, or plot summary titles, all of that. I just put all of that into one document so that it’s much easier to categorize my ideas. From there, I kind of work out the plot of what I want, and it’s kind of just building a story, and then you finally get into the writing portion of it, which arguably is one of the most fun parts. After that, it’s working on actually the production of it. So casting people, getting all the props, locations — a lot just goes into integrating everything into a final product. And then, from filming into editing, I try to always have four phases that I like to do. I always do rough cuts, finalizing the cuts, then color grading, and then sound design, and that’s when I usually finish up my product.”

“The most rewarding part of filmmaking — a lot of people would say the final product — but for me, personally, it’s having a certain challenge of doing something and getting through that — that’s the most important part because I’ve learned something in the process. I’m just a little bit better than I was before, and that can be applicable to other things I do in the future. That’s one of the most important things is learning along the way.”

“I’m most proud of having Maid to Kill finished and having the entire feature film. Not only because it’s a major project I built, but also what I learned along the way is tacit knowledge you can’t get from a textbook. When I did Maid to Kill, I was taking 18 hours while working on the feature film and officering two organizations as well as having a part-time internship. It’s a hard balance sometimes because I like to challenge myself.”

“One of the number one things I do with a project is understanding the importance of branding for films and filmmakers themselves — from how you title a film and the design of the poster, which is something I go to a lot of independent filmmakers with. In Aggie Screenwriting, Acting, and Movie Production Club, there are some people in there that I have helped out with stuff like that and doing database marketing, SEO, stuff like that.”

Global Opportunities

“I ended up choosing Denmark because I really like the Scandinavian culture and some of the history, mythology, and all the stuff like that, and Denmark was one of the most feasible study abroad programs that fit into my schedule. Just going there, I ended up loving it. Being able to go to their business school, I was able to join their film club there. They were really inviting about it, and I helped work on their first short film.”

“Cannes was definitely not something I would have been able to do had I not been studying abroad there. The first week of May, I did a couple of days in Italy, came back, and then a couple of days later, I went to Iceland. I came back, went to Sweden for a day trip, took an exam, then went to Cannes. It wasn’t something I planned on, but it definitely was one of the most notable parts of my study abroad. Some of the people from the film club also went to Cannes too so I got to see them while they were there. Ending my semester abroad with Cannes was probably, I would say, the cherry on top — except it’s like the sundae itself.”

Mays Impact

“So I started at A&M as an economics major, and I ended up doing an internal transfer into Mays specifically because I wanted to pursue a degree in marketing. I know how prestigious Mays is, as well as the Aggie Network and your Aggie Ring, but it’s also having all that experience under my belt in a classroom format.”

“Consumer behavior with Dr. Gao was one of my favorite courses here. He just really expressed that interest in learning, and being a lifelong learner is something I will take away from here — just the value of lifelong learning and continuously trying to improve yourself in any way possible. Another one is public speaking with Dr. Conrad, who retired last semester. That was another one of those people who really showed an interest in wanting people to succeed and how he genuinely wanted other people to learn.” 

“When we were marketing our film… I cold emailed all my professors asking, ‘Hey, can you show this flyer in class?’ Some of them went as far as, ‘Yeah, I can mark out time before class starts if you want to present about it.’ The professors aren’t only here just to teach you things, but they’re also here to see you succeed, and they want you to give you that platform to give yourself opportunities for success.”

“I would like to go into entertainment marketing. That is where I’ve been trying to align a lot of my experience. Either being like graphic design or being a producer in marketing and distribution for independent films. I think some of that I find really interesting because it’s a lot more of a challenge; however, success is a lot more rewarding.”

“If you can’t get experience, make it. That’s the philosophy I’ve been following for my entire time here. As a freshman, transferring from economics into marketing, I had nothing to do that summer because I didn’t really have any professional experience or classroom experience to get an internship in anything that I would have wanted to do. So that’s why I ended up signing up to make a feature film. Find those opportunities to express yourself to develop your skills and find things that you never knew you would have a passion for.”