The Digital Hollywood Experience

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"The Conference that Defines the Future of the Industry"

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Wednesday, March 4th, 2015

3:50 PM - 5:00 PM

The Strategic Workshop II - Financing Strategies - Cinema, 1st Floor

Art of the Deal: Strategies and Hands-on Tools from Master Negotiators

Beth Roberts, Executive Vice President, Business Operations, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment

Garrett Bess, President, President, Two River Pictures

Julie Jarrett, Owner/Executive Producer, Jarrett Creative
Sachin Dosani, Managing Director and co-founder, About Corporate Finance (ACF)

Gary Delfiner, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Sylvia LLC, Creator of WATCHFREEFLIX

David Tenzer, Entertainment Attorney, formerly Generate, CAA, Moderator

Garrett Bess, President, President, Two River Pictures: Garrett is an Emmy and James Beard-nominated producer with over 25 years of television and commercial experience. He sold his first production company to Grey Advertising after which he served as President of Grey Global Group’s direct response subsidiary, Great Response from 1995-2000. After working for large media conglomerates such as Viacom, Garrett returned to his entrepreneurial roots and his true passion, original programming, to create Two River Pictures.

Mr. Sachin Dosani is a Managing Director and co-founder of About Corporate Finance (ACF), a leading international Investment Bank, specialized in advising companies and individuals in the Media and Entertainment sector on sales,

acquisitions, and fund raisings.   ACF has offices in New York, Los Angeles and London. Mr. Dosani and the ACF team have advised on more than 60 Transactions in the last 13 years in the TV production space alone, with 26 of those deals completed in the last 3 years with a combined transaction value of over $3 billion.  Sachin was an Associate Director in Grant Thornton's corporate finance team where he worked alongside Thomas and Richard for seven years. He has significant experience in sell-side and buy-side transactions as well as raising finance. In addition to his key focus within media and entertainment, Sachin has a range of experience within other sectors including leisure, technology, food and retail. He has worked with many businesses across the globe including the US, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand and mainland Europe amongst others.  Sachin undertook his training contract at Grant Thornton.  Sachin holds a first class honours degree in Finance, Accounting and Management from the University of Nottingham.

Beth Roberts is Executive Vice President, Business Operations, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, reporting to Bonnie Hammer, Chairman, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment.  Her responsibilities include leading all business affairs and legal affairs strategies and negotiations for the cable entertainment portfolio of ten entertainment networks and two production studios, along with identifying and implementing strategic operational and organizational opportunities that enhance the growth and strength of the portfolio.  The NBCUniversal cable entertainment networks encompass USA Network, Bravo, Syfy, E! Entertainment, Esquire Network, Oxygen, G4, Sprout, Cloo, Chiller and Universal HD, and of the two production studios, scripted projects are produced by Universal Cable Productions and unscripted projects by Wilshire Studios.  In her role, Roberts works closely with Hammer and the Cable Entertainment business leaders in identifying and executing portfolio-wide strategies that help focus the brands and reinforce collaborative approaches to the changing media landscape.  She runs point for select group-wide projects and supports individual networks and their senior management on their respective high-priority initiatives as well as overseeing high-level talent and program negotiations.  Roberts works closely with the strategy and business development team on new media content initiatives.  Roberts most recently served as Chief Operations Officer of Universal Cable Productions, managing day-to-day operations as a member of the studio’s three-person management team.  As operations lead, Roberts’ role involved identifying cost-effective and forward-thinking strategic initiatives in the areas of content creation and asset management.  While COO, she concurrently served as Executive Vice President, Business Affairs, Cable Entertainment and Universal Cable Productions, where she guided the activities of the business affairs divisions of USA, Syfy, E! Entertainment, G4, Style, Cloo, Chiller and Universal HD, UCP and Wilshire Studios, including their branded integration efforts and digital content initiatives.  An innovative dealmaker and operator, Roberts has worked with internal distribution teams to bridge the entitlement gap between broadcast and cable content pricing, partnered with Canadian production companies to enhance tax credits and license fee revenues to support increased production value for UCP programming, and created a brand-focused internal organizational structure to drive employee engagement and expertise, among other initiatives.   A 16-year veteran of NBCUniversal, Roberts started her career at NBC as Director, Business Affairs.  During her tenure at the company, she has held numerous senior business affairs positions, encompassing both broadcast and cable entertainment network and studio leadership roles.  Her business affairs oversight and expertise includes writer, producer, director and actor script, overall, and talent hold development deals for comedy, drama and longform scripted projects, as well as unscripted presentation and sales materials, program licensing agreements, program acquisition deals, music services oversight and business affairs administration.  Prior to NBCUniversal, Roberts was Director, Business Affairs & Legal for United Paramount Network.  Her first job in Hollywood was at the William Morris Agency, now WME Entertainment.  A well-respected industry leader, Roberts is consistently recognized in trade publications including The Hollywood Reporter’s annual list of influential executives, Women in Entertainment Power 100; the top 100 list for CableFAX: the Magazine’s Most Powerful Women in Cable, and Variety’s exclusive Power of Women collective of impactful leaders.  Roberts is on the Board of Governors for The Hollywood Radio and Television Society, is a member of the Professional Advisory Committee of the Motion Picture and Television Fund, and is a founding member of the WomenAgainstAlzheimer’s Network (WA2), which is part of the USAgainstAlzheimer’s organization whose mission is to mobilize resources to stop Alzheimer’s by 2020.

Julie Jarrett, Owner/Executive Producer, Jarrett Creative:  When Hollywood studios and top-tier cable television networks want dynamic and compelling shows with broad audience appeal, they approach Seth Jarrett and Julie Insogna-Jarrett at Jarrett Creative. Seth, a visionary director, and Julie, an intuitive producer, have created a multitude of original and wildly entertaining series for networks such as TNT, Disney, Syfy, TLC, Oxygen, Lifetime, NatGeo, LMN, and TVGN.  Seth’s skills as a director and storyteller have always driven his career. He began as a film & television Producer and Director at MTV, VH1 and Oxygen. After flourishing in music television production by directing and producing landmark artist interviews and over 30 concerts on TV and DVD, Seth realized that shows and specials with a strong narrative drive – both reality and non-reality – were his true sweet spot. During the same time period, Julie became an acclaimed senior talent and music executive at MTV, Lifetime and Oxygen. She had great success partnering talent with original TV show concepts, and developing ideas with celebrities and musicians to create memorable scripted and non-scripted programming – including an Emmy Award nomination.  Since establishing his production company almost ten years ago with his wife and partner Julie Insogna-Jarrett, the company has created critically acclaimed series such as “Celebrity Ghost Stories”, “The Haunting Of”, "Boston's Finest" on TNT with partner Donnie Wahlberg, as well as the new series “The Sorrentinos” on TVGN.  Jarrett Creative currently has several projects in production including a new reality sitcom about New Kids on The Block and the 3000 'fan'atics who will join them on an exclusive 5 day cruise called “Rock This Boat”. As well as a romantic comedy series called “My Crazy Love” for Oxygen.  Expanding their work past unscripted television, Jarrett Creative recently launched their scripted department. They are currently developing two feature films in the pranormal genre, an animated series for children with the award- winning creator of the StinkyKids brand and book series, and will be filming their first film for Lifetime Television this winter.

Gary Delfiner is Chief Executive Officer at Digital Sylvia LLC. Digital Sylvia LLC creates and develops proprietary movie and TV streaming channels. The company’s first channel, WATCHFREEFLIX, launched in September of 2014 on both Roku and the worldwide web. Digital Sylvia is planning to launch, at least, five additional channels in 2015.  Gary was previously the President of the Digital Division of Screen Media Ventures, where he conceived POPCORNFLIX. Gary left SMV in January of 2014 to found his own company, Digital Sylvia LLC. Gary resides in New York City.

David Tenzer is an entertainment lawyer and business consultant, with extensive experience in many sectors of the media industry. His clients include talented artists and companies in all areas of entertainment, including actors, writers, directors, producers, on-camera personalities, lifestyle experts, film and television distributors and digital content providers. For 24 years (1982-2006), Mr. Tenzer worked at Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles, one of the world’s leading talent agencies. He started at CAA as an executive in Motion Picture Business Affairs, then transferred to the Television Division, where he soon was named the head of Television Business Affairs. After several years, he became a Television Agent, working first in television movies, then covering CAA’s projects at CBS. Mr. Tenzer co-founded and operated the agency’s International Television Department, Alternative Programming Department, and later its Lifestyles Department. During his tenure at CAA, he also worked with the agency’s New Media, Film Financing and Marketing Departments, handling clients such as eBay, Delta Airlines and Procter & Gamble. As a Television Agent, Mr. Tenzer was responsible for selling over 40 produced series, movies and specials, with budgets in excess of $800 million. These included scripted prime-time series for broadcast and cable networks, reality shows, documentaries, children’s programming and international co-productions, as well as projects (such as “Home Made Simple” and “Dear Santa”) directly underwritten by advertisers. As a Business Affairs executive, he negotiated virtually every type of television production contract, including license agreements on behalf of production companies, distribution and co-financing arrangements, overall deals with studios, sponsorship and endorsement deals, contingent compensation definitions and agreements with above-theline talent. He was also responsible for all commission and packaging issues within CAA’s Television Division. Mr. Tenzer has served on the Board of Directors of the International Documentary Association, the Banff World Television Festival, NATPE (National Association of Television Program Executives) and the Hollywood Radio and Television Society. He traveled to Beijing and Shanghai with Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan as an entertainment delegate on the city’s Trade Mission to Asia. He was named one of “Twelve to Watch” by Electronic Media in one of its annual cover stories. Prior to joining CAA, Mr. Tenzer was a contracts attorney with IBM Europe in Paris and Columbia Pictures in Los Angeles. He also worked in private practice with the law firm Rosen, Wachtell & Gilbert, where he specialized in commercial transactions and business litigation. Mr. Tenzer has an undergraduate degree in Politics from U.C. Santa Cruz, a law degree from U.C. Davis and an M.A. in Urban Studies from Occidental College. He was a Coro Foundation Public Affairs Fellow, and earned a Certificate in Advanced International Legal Studies from McGeorge School of Law. Mr. Tenzer is a member of the State Bar of California and a licensed real estate broker. He is an experienced public speaker, and has testified as an expert witness in several lawsuits and arbitrations, including the recent Golden Globes litigation in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. He is a native of Los Angeles. Contact: Law Office of David Tenzer, P.C.