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 by Chris Davison, chris@lthmedia.com
Jacob Fenton is an agent with the United Talent Agency (UTA). A long time television fan, Jacob began his career in an Agent Training Program, later joining the JHRTS and becoming a Board member and then Co-President of the group, subsequently becoming a full agent at UTA and a member of the HRTS. I recently had a chance to interview Jacob to discuss clients, iTunes and Michael J. Fox.
Q: Can you tell us about your background and what made you want to work in entertainment? How did you get involved with the HRTS?
-I grew up in the restaurant business my entire life-and I loved it too, so that's what I thought I was destined for as a career. But when my family decided to get out of the business after 20 years, I realized I had an incredible opportunity to try something new and get out of my comfort zone. I had always loved entertainment, in particular television (I have always and continue to watch an enormous amount), so when I found out about the Agent Training Program at UTA, I jumped at the chance. Everyone had told me that an agency was the best place to get your feet wet, to learn 'who's who' and 'what's what,' and they were 100% right. There is no better place to learn how the industry operates than at a talent agency.
After working at UTA for a while, I heard about JHRTS and I was curious about it, so I joined as a member. A few years later, I was named to the JHRTS Board, which is made up of assistants, coordinators and junior executives from all the major studios, networks, agencies and production companies. It's a peer-nomination and election process and terms on the board are two years. In my second year I served as Co-President of JHRTS alongside Kiersten Robinson, who at the time was at NBC and who now is an executive at
USA. That was a great experience, and that's how I became involved with HRTS.
Question: What are some of the benefits you received from being in JHRTS?
-JHRTS helped me to establish great relationships across all spectrums of the television world, and I feel I've made some lifelong friends as well. The other great benefit to JHRTS membership is that it provides a counterbalance to the relentless part of our day to day lives. They have made a giant effort to make sure their lecture series, social and networking gatherings and community service events are all incredibly worthwhile. It's an extremely well rounded operation, so that no matter what you're looking for in a professional organization, they do it. One example of what they do well is the annual Holiday Party that traditionally has benefited the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. It's the signature event of JHRTS, and it's become a staple event for Young Hollywood. It's held every December at a popular nightclub venue. The celebrities come out, corporate sponsors lend their support, and a lot of money is raised each year. It really shows what the power of the junior constituency of our industry can do when they come together for a cause, and it really shows how impactful and relevant JHRTS is. Even though I've graduated on from JHRTS to HRTS, it's an event very close to my heart and I continue to help the new class of JHRTS leaders any way that I can. In fact, my former assistant Eric Skinner is now in his second term on the JHRTS board.
Question: What is your decision-making process when considering a potential new client?
-I don't want to give away too much about our process, but we think we have an excellent track record in identifying great talent. We want to be fully invested in people and as passionate about them as they are about their craft and their goals. We don't like to chase heat, we prefer to make long term investments in people.
Question: What do you like best about being an agent? least?
-There's a long list of reasons why I like being an agent, but the best part is the satisfaction of seeing my clients achieve their goals. It's a challenge sometimes to apply a business format to what artists and creative people do, but it's the job of an agent to get clients from point A to point B, and I get a lot of satisfaction from helping artists succeed and get better and better opportunities. That's the essence of being an agent in my opinion, and it's easily the best part. But there are other reasons too. I was a marketing major in business school, so as an agent I get a lot of opportunity to use those skills. So much of being an agent is about how you market your clients. Many agents went to school for something completely unrelated to entertainment or business, so I like that I can put my education to work. I also love the pace of being an agent, particularly in television, as it moves much quicker than anything else in my opinion. There is never a dull moment, and I believe that makes me more effective and a better decision maker. The flip side of being an agent is that it's very demanding on one's personal time. Do any of us love being on call 24/7? Not really, but it's the nature of the industry we're in and the career path we've chosen, and I consider myself lucky to be a part of something I love so much. The trick is to find the balance.
Question: UTA has landed some major talent signings recently, what sort of competitive advantages do you have as an agency versus the other majors?
-I can only say that my colleagues who work at UTA are utterly passionate about representing great artists and great material. They are the most dedicated professionals I've ever met, and the agency as a whole is by nature client-centric. It's also known for being very forward thinking, especially in the area of digital entertainment where UTA has been an aggressive first mover. We are champions of great material and we believe that's the core of the best storytelling, the best performances and the best opportunities. Some of our competitors like to be a little more flashy and play the quintessential agent role, and that's fine with us. We're just focused on our clients.
Question: What sorts of opportunities do you see for your clients in new media over the next few years?
-New opportunities are arising every day when it comes to digital media, but we are still very much in the early stages of establishing the market and how to monetize it for clients. The good news is that we are learning to recognize and understand opportunities faster and to figure out how clients can more easily incorporate and take advantage of them. There are definitely opportunities for professional artists. UTA has a special division, UTAOnline, that identifies exciting new content creators - the industry's future Oscar-winning filmmakers potentially - and helps them build careers in producing content for the web. UTA was also instrumental in launching 60Frames Entertainment last year, which provides financing for artists to create content for the web and then distribute it throughout the internet while maintaining better control and ownership. That's a really exciting development for artists, to be able to own what they create. There's also the impact digital media has on traditional media. For example, what defines a hit television show has clearly changed. Is “Gossip Girl” a runaway Nielsen ratings hit? No, the numbers are clear. But if you define the series by its iTunes downloads, streaming webisodes, extra online content, etc., you might arrive at a different conclusion, since the show is clearly having a significant impact on its target demographic and pop culture as a whole. What defines a 'hit' show nowadays is quite different than what defined it before. Do I think that watching television on your screen at home will ever be replaced? No, I don't. There is no substitute for that experience, just like I don't believe people will ever stop going to the movies or to baseball games or to
Disneyland. Those activities are part of our cultural fabric and will never disappear in my opinion. But the entertainment landscape is changing, and more opportunities are presenting themselves for actors, writers, directors and producers. It's an exciting time for our business for sure.
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