Hollywood Hoyas Speak to What’s Next in the Biz

Fledgling but already focused, the Georgetown Entertainment and Media Alliance inaugurated its speaker series before a packed theater at 20th Century Fox studios recently with a panel discussion of the future of moviemaking. The Hollywood Reporter sponsored the event, and the trade paper’s film editor, Gregg Kilday, moderated the discussion.

Recent trends in the movie industry are keeping six Hoya alumni on their toes looking for the next "Big Thing." For each of them, divining what’s next may lead them down different paths, but the panelists agreed that film won’t be replaced by digital production any time soon, because of film aesthetics, cost of production, and the scarcity of digital projectors, especially abroad.
Breaking into the Biz, however, is the same as it always was: grueling.

“This isn’t an easy business, and while it’s fantastic, it takes enthusiasm,” said James Whitaker, (C ’90), who is Executive Vice President of Imagine Entertainment. “You have to want to do the extra thing, to learn and to grow, but mostly you have to want to work. You’ve got to wake up and trudge through each day and get excited about it.”

The assembled panelists—including three studio executives, an independent producer, a writer/director, and an agent—were well positioned to discuss the all-important business of show business. They agreed show biz ain’t like it used to be. Ideas for new film projects are hard to deliver without at least a few bows to economics.

“The marketing department isn’t in the room when you’re pitching a new idea,” said writer/director Tony Abrams, (C ’86), whose first directorial effort in 2002, “Pumpkin,” starred Christina Ricci. “That means you get a chance to influence executives by showing them marketing ideas. It’s actually fun to imagine how your film might be marketed, and it helps during the sale of the project.”

Tighter budgets and fickle audiences can weed out films with less commercial appeal, “but in good years you can do stuff like [the Academy Award-–nominated film] ‘Adaptation,’” said Amy Baer, (C ’88), the Executive Vice President of Production at Columbia Pictures. Baer noted how studios establish business models and aim to replicate previous marketing success.

“You have to work to the strengths of your marketing department, but still allow for wiggle room,” Baer said. “This marketplace changes every eighteen months. Everybody used to love sequels, but they failed this year. It’s causing [Columbia] and others to re-think strategy.”

Aspiring Hollywood power players may want to know to which demographic they should target to focus creative efforts. You have to match the right movie to the right market, whether it’s teens or baby boomers or another group, you have to know what fits, said Robert Osher, (L ’84), who is the Co-President of Production for Miramax Films. All the panelists agreed that the largest slice of the movie-going audience pie is the under twenty-five years old set. “The studios are trying for a broad audiences,” Osher said. “But you can lose focus trying to think too broadly and try to make the film please everyone. When you deviate from the film intrinsically, you run into problems.”

Or maybe you’re not the creative type. Maybe you just need a job and want to work in entertainment? Looking back on his own career, Osher said, “It was hard to get in but easy to move up.”

“Take any job. Don’t have an ego about it; just do it,” Osher said. But he added, that at a certain point, “You’re a function of the jobs you turn down. A job offer might give you more control but be the wrong fit. Think it through.”

Speaking for independent producers, Diana E. Williams, (C ’98), said there was “no such thing as independent anymore.” Media conglomerates put up ever-bigger stakes for films, making them even less likely to take a chance, she said.

How producers can excel is by learning the lingo of both the creative and business sides of the industry. “You have to know a lot of different languages. Sometimes, I think, ‘Thank God I went to business school and not film school. I can speak to investors on their level and even toss in terms like R.O.I. [return on investment].”

Williams also advised the Hoyas present not to despair if their ideas fall on deaf ears. “There is no such thing as a bad meeting. Your project may have to go to the back burner, but every project has its time period. Listen to what [studio personnel] want and be ready with fifteen other ideas.”
Agent extraordinaire Eddy Yablans, (C ’88), is an Executive Vice President of International Creative Management, or ICM. “Here’s how to start out in the business: Go work at an agency, and pretty soon you’ll get a chance to read a good script,” he said. “Everyone knows when a good script’s out, and generally the agencies know what’s going on around town.”

Yablans said his job is getting tougher, and he expects smaller agencies to merge in the future. “It used to be it was easy to get your client into a movie. But now, for example, the cable and network movie business is nearly gone. It was such a seller’s market for a long time, but the buyers are firmly in control now.”

Emmett Berg (C'97) is a journalist and writer on urban environmental issues. He directs research on land use at the nonprofit, nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, as well as contributes articles to the Los Angeles Times and other publications. Now working from Santa Monica, Calif., he began his career at the Hungry Horse News in Columbia Falls, Montana.

etb@journalist.com