The Talent Whisperer #2: ‘Our Secret Weapons’ / Marrying Up (with Mark Burnett) / What’s Next?

We continue our two-part Case Study of Jarrett Creative, the producer of Bio’s hit Celebrity Ghost Stories. 

This week:

• Jarrett’s Key Success Factors for the Celebrity / Reality genre
• A new project: Why marry up with Mark Burnett?

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Secret Weapons

What are Jarrett’s secret weapons for attracting celebrity talent?

1. The Booker

• “Lesley Mallgrave is the best celebrity booker.”
• “She booked the Golden Globes and Academy Awards: she works at the highest level of booking.”

2. The Recommenders

• “We ask celebrities who have enjoyed working with us to recommend their friends.”
• Ileana Douglas lined up of her 11 friends.
• “20% of our celebs are referrals.”

Partnering Up

• “We met with Mark Burnett’s development team at Real Screen 2011.”
• “They said that they wanted to create a series in the Paranormal and Celebrity spaces.”
• “We had developed Haunted High, about real school students who had experienced a haunting at school.”
• “We had pitched it but at the time it was hard to find a buyer in the paranormal space.”
• “We worked with Burnett, and we eventually changed the title to ‘School Spirits’ to cover colleges as well as high schools.”
• “Burnett brought credibility – ‘muscle’ – and development expertise.”
• “We pitched to SyFy and they loved it.”
• “SyFy commissioned 6 episodes, and we’re waiting on word for Season 2.”

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Team Expands

Development

• Jarrett added Tracey Baker-Simmons as head of development in 2011.
• “She lit an explosion of commissions in 2012.”
• Tracey had worked in music and Television, including creating and serving as an Executive Producer for Being Bobby Brown.
• Tracey says: “I’m not afraid to approach celebrities. I know how to give them the space to be themselves.”

Other key team members:

• “Our attorney is an essential part of our team.”
• “We added others to help continue growth.  For example, Maria Lokken is our head of production and Gregg Jablonsky is our head of finance.”

Projects in Development

• Jarrett is now testing children’s animation using celebrity talent voice-overs, and has optioned its first book to become a scripted series.
• There are 10+ projects in development, including at Syfy (2), TLC and History.

International

• A+E Networks International owns and is exploiting the international rights to CGS.
• Regional versions have been created for A+E’s  affiliates in the UK.
• The show has aired in international markets such as Asia and Latin America.

Big Takeaways

Seth Jarrett and Julie Insogna Jarrett sum up their key success factors:

 1. Over-produce / Over-deliver

• “Lots of our shows are recreation-driven.”
• “Seth is a Director first: ‘For all our unscripted series, I like to look at great films as inspiration in terms of storytelling. We always put story first, above the budget and above the politics. A great story will always catch on.’ “
• “That’s his # 1 agenda: to bring a cinematic feel to his shows, no matter what the budget.”
• “For us it is always about taking chances, especially with the talent we tie to our projects.” 

2. Build from a Core expertise: In our case TALENT!

• “Seth had worked on Growing Up Gotti. He was known for his successful work with difficult talent.”
• “That was my job at Oxygen.”
• “We strike the balance between ‘kissing arse ‘ and ‘not losing your shirt!’  “
• “We always fight for our talent.”
• “We give them as much respect as we can.”

3. Hire a strong person in development

• “You can’t run a busy production company and develop shows at the same time!”

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Jarrett Creative: Output

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Peter Hamilton / DocumentaryTelevision.com
Markets Attending / Speaking Engagements

• WCSFP: World Congress of Science and Factual Producers, Washington DC, November 27-29
• Script DC/WIFTI Summit Workshop, Washington DC, November 30 (Workshop)
• ATF: Asia Television Forum, Singapore, December 5-7 (Keynote + panel producer)
• IMPACT Media Summit (formerly History Makers), New York, January 23-25, 2013 (Sponsor / panel producer)
• Real Screen Summit, Washington DC, January 27-30, 2013
• AIDC: Australian International Documentary Conference, Adelaide, February 25 – March 3, 2013 (Speaker)

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