Advice for techies who want to star in Hollywood

Any technology firm trying to cut deals in Hollywood should find themselves a good guide, say entertainment industry insiders.

"You need a Sherpa down here," said a Lynda Keeler, a former chief of Sony Pictures Digital Group. "Finding a good lawyer or agent to help navigate is important."

Managers at the big TV networks and film industries say they are more receptive than ever to tech companies with good ideas and they say this has begun to draw Silicon Valley start-ups (see main story here).

Tech companies have plenty of people to learn the ins and outs from. One of them is David Tenzer, an agent at the Creative Artists Agency for 24 years before leaving to work briefly for video-sharing firm Revver in 2006. Tenzer has been a booster of digital entertainment for years and now is with Raskin Peter Rubin & Simon, a law firm that has designs on helping entertainment companies plan digital strategies as well introduce technology companies to Hollywood's power brokers.

Philip Lelyveld is also a good guy to know. He's the former vice president of Digital Industry Relations at Disney who is now on his own, advising entertainment-technology firms. Lelyveld said there is a large community of technologists who have been in Hollywood for years, mainly in the special effects fields. "You got an existing generation of people who have already made mistakes and the new wave can learn from them," he said.

Start-ups can also do themselves a favor by doing their homework, said Derek Broes, an executive at Paramount Pictures, in charge of finding new ways for the studio to generate revenue online.

"Make sure you won't be shut down based on the limitations of the business you're approaching," Broes said. "Many times, people come to me and say, 'Hey I want to do this with your content.' It's a contradiction many times to the creator and difficult to do or in impossible to do because of our business itself. Have a better understanding of what is possible to do on the content side."

[dascha1]

Simply amazing at how they start to talk when foreclosures are through the roof. The lure of a desperate society is that they'll do anything to get a deal going to fan it in the news. Hollywood is a place of laggards in technology. Artists rule the area, and lawyers are there to scoop up the rest. So, engineers listen-up. You are respected but will come last in the food chain when it comes to credit, and fortune in any-pictures. Bear it in mind... good luck with your phone calls and lunches.

[Penguinisto]

Foreclosures were a result of massive speculation and artificial price inflation. California as a whole is notorious for mismanagement of finances IMHO, from the state government all the way down to the typical house-flipper. From an engineer standpoint, Hollywood is a lost cause anyway for an engineer... ask any one (of any discipline) who has had to sit through a typical movie stuffed to the rafters with bald and blatant technical errors. Most of us view these attempts with not much more than derision. :)

No worries, though - I figure that eventually, Hollywood will leave its little shell and come to the engineers, not the other way 'round.

[adguy101]

Ugh. does anyone read these articles other then engineers. It all about the code. World peace...Solution, Code. Global Warming....Solution, Code. Let's not elect a politician. Let's convince Bill Gates to run for President so we can have all the problems of the world solved by an engineer. Wait...Microsoft has more engineers than anyone and they are totally screwed up. There goes that theory.

[benjaminstraight]

The main part is 'find a good lawyer'.