Wednesday, November 13th, 2019

10:45 AM – 11:45 AM

Track II: Finance - Film-TV-Production Track, Herscher Hall, Room 202

Investment & Funding of Film, Indie Film and TV: from Theatrical Features to Cable Networks, Netflix and Amazon

Seth M Willenson, President. Seth Willenson, Inc., Moderator

Mike Gabrawy, Chief Creative Officer, Arclight Films

Bob Emmer, Co-Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, Shout! Factory

Jonathan Schwartz, CCO, New Dimension

Kevin Kasha, Co Founder, Three Bridges Entertainment, former, Head of Acquisition, Starz and New Line Cinema

Michael Rosenberg, Untitled Entertainment

John Kim, President, Deep C Digital

 

Seth Willenson - President, Seth Willenson, Inc.:  Seth Willenson has over 40 years of experience in the, entertainment business starting in 1970 as one of New Line Cinema's first, employees. Seth Willenson's other Executive positions included : Corporate VP of, Programming and Business Affairs for RCA; where he was a key participant, in the creation of the RCA Columbia joint venture, cable channel, investments, and the selection, creation, and clearance of content to be, released in home video where no previous model existed, Senior VP of, Programming United Satellite Communications first DBS service financed,

by General Instrument and Prudential, Vice President of Acquisitions and, Special Projects Paramount Television group, and Senior VP of, Telecommunications and Strategic Planning for New Line Cinema.   For the past 20 years, he has been head of his own consulting firm, working with over 100 clients including: Scholastic, Columbia-Tri Star,, Disney Channel, Blockbuster Entertainment, Saul zaentz, Working title,, and Warner Brothers among others. He has been active in valuation of, entertainment properties including: the Credit Lyonnais CDR Library, the, Last Emperor, Yellow Submarine, Easy Rider and Gordy the Pig.  He has represented or produced over 100 features utilizing value in new, channels of distribution. Seth Willenson graduated from Cornell University in 1968 with a B.S. in, Economics, and attended the Annenberg School of Communications at The, University of Pennsylvania.

 

Mike Gabrawy is Arclight Films’ Chief Creative Officer. Most recently Gabrawy produced the highly anticipated Hotel Mumbai starring Dev Patel and Armie Hammer, the true-life survival thriller Jungle starring Daniel Radcliffe, released through eOne October 20th, 2017, and the martial arts thriller Triple Threat starring Celina Jade and Michael Jai White released in 2018 by WellGo USA. He also serves as an executive producer on the action-adventure film Guardians Of The Tomb starring Kellan Lutz and Li Bingbing currently in post-production. Before coming to Arclight Films, Gabrawy was responsible for acquiring and developing the Sony PlayStation game Resident Evil via his production and development position at Constantin Films which then became the hit film starring Milla Jovovich released through Screen Gems. Mike’s additional credits include Fantastic Four, Independence Day, A Little Princess, Outcast, Reclaim, Silver Surfer, Stargate, Naked Gun 33 1/3, and Bait 3D.

 

Jonathan Schwartz, CCO, New Dimension: With over two decades of top level experience, Schwartz is that rare Hollywood executive whose knowledge extends to every aspect of the business. He is regularly recruited to advise companies and organizations looking to move into the entertainment industry quickly, effectively, and profitably. Schwartz’s business savvy manifested early. At the age of 20, while still in college, he obtained the rights to a book and subsequently sold the rights to Mario Kassar and Paramount Pictures, landing a 2-picture deal in the process. He went on to be named President and Chief Operating Officer of Madonna’s Maverick Films, responsible for the Twilight and Cody Banks franchises. While there, Schwartz oversaw 12 first-look producing deals and managed the 20th Century Fox output deal, as well as an international sales joint-venture. He was then recruited by Ryan Kavanaugh to launch Relativity Media’s independent finance and distribution division, responsible for 3:10 To Yuma, The Bank Job, and the only film ever to star both Jackie Chan and Jet Li: The Forbidden Kingdom. After the success of Relativity’s first in-house slate of motion pictures, Schwartz organized the distribution and production joint-venture between Relativity and The Weinstein Company, a partnership that financed and distributed David O. Russell’s Academy-Award winning The Fighter and Rob Marshall’s musical Nine. After his success with Relativity, Schwartz consulted for high net-worth individuals investing in motion pictures and for businesses looking to grow their media output, such as Shudder (the horror streaming channel from AMC). Schwartz then moved to Critical Content, where he was charged with launching the company’s scripted television business. Within a year, he set up two high-profile series at the F/X Network: Malcolm X, based on the Pulitzer Prize winning biography by the late Manning Marable, Malcolm X: A Life Of Reinvention; and Whistleblower: The Karen Silkwood Story, based on the Richard Rashke book The Killing Of Karen Silkwood. Schwartz lives in Los Angeles, where he lectures and teaches in his spare time. You can also find him at pretty much any movie theater screening 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 

Michael Rosenberg, Untitled Entertainment: After an early career in the Concert business and independent film, Michael Rosenberg began his career in television in 2002 at Madonna and Guy Oseary’s Maverick TV which he co- founded and ran for five years. Under Rosenberg’s leadership Maverick successfully produced several MOW’s as well as the FX Series The Riches (Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard) and the MTV docuseries I’m With Rolling Stone. During the WGA strike of 2008 Michael was hired by Blueprint to head Series Television and quickly put HUNG on HBO and Testees on FX. Blueprint was soon purchased by Entertainment One, a leading international studio, who made Rosenberg head of US Television. He ran the US department or the next six years packaging, selling and overseeing several series including ABC’s Rookie Blue, Direct TV’s Call Me Fitz, Haven on the Syfy channel, NBC’s Saving Hope, SKINS, Klondike, The Firm, Rogue and the AMC western Hell on Wheels. Michael Rosenberg left eOne in 2016 to start roseyTV, a fully independent production company. Since Going out on his own Rosenberg continued producing Hell on Wheels as well as the comedy Let’s Get Physical. roseyTV has set up projects at AMC, NBC, ABC Studios, Pop, Netflix, Amazon, Comedy Central and internationally with ZDF and ITV.

 

John Kim, President, Deep C Digital: Few people in the home entertainment industry have as wide-ranging and hands-on experience as John Kim, principal of Deep C Digital. With over 20+ years of sales and marketing experience, John sold both independent and major studio movies and TV content directly to iTunes, Amazon, VUDU, Sony, Google, Microsoft, and Hulu for the past 5 years. Prior to this, he spent 10 years at Disney and Paramount; marketing over $1Billion dollars of DVD and Blu-ray sales to big box retailers Walmart, Target, and Best Buy.  Before entering the home entertainment industry, he served as a brand manager at Nabisco and a Marketing Director at Mattel. John is a graduate of Yale University and has an MBA from the Kellogg Management School of Business at Northwestern University. He currently resides in La Canada, CA with his wife of 24 years and they have 3 children.  John is a former nationally ranked tennis player, avid fisherman, and golfer.

 

Bob Emmer, Co-Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, Shout! Factory: Bob Emmer brings over thirty years of entertainment industry licensing, acquisitions, and business affairs experience to Shout! Factory.  His business and legal skills are complemented by his creative abilities and industry relationships.  His ability to identify and execute acquisitions, license and create new projects has proven to generate significant long-term value. As Shout! Factory’s Co-CEO, Bob oversees Shout! Factory’s legal and business affairs activities, including major deal negotiations for content, as well as major contracts including distribution, manufacturing and financing.  His entertainment experience has led to close relationships with many of the top entertainment attorneys, artist managers and rights holders; and Bob has great expertise in all issues surrounding music clearances.  He also oversees Shout! Factory’s international activities. Bob previously served as Executive Vice President at Rhino Entertainment for twelve years beginning in 1984 where his responsibilities included business affairs, deal execution and project oversight for Rhino’s record, video and film divisions.  During this period Rhino’s revenue increased to over $100M, largely driven by acquired and licensed video and audio product and integrated projects.  In 1996, following the initial stage of Rhino’s acquisition by the Warner Music Group, Bob was recruited to serve as Senior Vice President, Business Affairs at WMG whose record labels include Elektra, Warner Bros, Atlantic and Rhino Entertainment. Prior to joining Rhino Entertainment, Bob served as Director of Business Affairs for MGM/UA Home Video and Senior Vice-President, Creative and Business Affairs at Alive Enterprises, a multi-faceted entertainment management and production company.  His early career includes assisting in the commercial development of numerous music talents, including Alice Cooper, Blondie and Teddy Pendergrass.  Bob was also Executive Producer/Creator of the NBC late night music show Rock ‘n Roll Tonite. Bob is a frequent panelist and guest lecturer at entertainment industry seminars.  He has also taught several college courses on the music industry and serves as a member of the Board of Directors of UCLA’s Entertainment Extension School.  He is a graduate of Loyola Law School and the University of Southern California.

 

Kevin Kasha has been a key player in the entertainment industry for more than two decades, overseeing acquisitions, production, programming and distribution for some of Hollywood’s leading independent studios. Kevin most recently served as Head of Acquisitions at Starz. In his previous position as Anchor Bay Entertainment EVP of Worldwide Acquisitions and Co-Productions, Kevin oversaw film, television series, and digital acquisitions for all of the Starz businesses. Kevin acquired more than 100 films in a mere five years including the box office successes and award contenders City Island (starring Andy Garcia) and Solitary Man (starring Michael Douglas). Kevin showed his unique understanding of the marketplace when he acquired the home entertainment and digital rights to AMC’s smash hit “The Walking Dead” as a pre-buy. Prior to joining Anchor Bay, Kevin held senior posts in sales, marketing and acquisitions at New Line Home Entertainment, Miramax Home Entertainment where he reported directly to Bob and Harvey Weinstein, as well as Vestron Video.   Kevin was instrumental in the production of each of the following movies and series: The Walking Dead, Rush Hour ($141mm Box Office), Dumb And Dumber ($127mm Box Office), Mortal Kombat ($70mm Box Office), Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay ($38mm Box Office), Rumble in the Bronx ($33mm Box Office), Brooklyn’s Finest ($28mm Box Office), Boogie Nights ($27mm Box Office), Air Bud I&II (total $33mm Box Office), Undisputed ($12mm Box Office) and City Island ($7mm Box Office).