Plagued by global pandemics and industry-wide strikes, Hollywood has experienced an unprecedented era of frugality in the past few years. However, financial experts such as Erin Oremland, general manager of AgilLink and senior VP and head of ecosystem delivery at City National Bank, are working to provide new data and analysis tools to help make managing the business of entertainment more efficient than ever.
“We all know that businesses are changing, particularly our industry right now in entertainment,” Oremland said. “There’s a lot of consolidation, downsizing, adjustments and everyone is really looking for ways to do more with less. And the best way to do that is to leverage your technology.”
As part of Variety‘s Entertainment & Technology Summit presented by City National Bank, Oremland sat down with VP of engineering at United Talent Agency Shahin Mohammadkhani and David Garelick, CEO and president of Global Business Management, to discuss advancing business priorities during these trying times. The conversation was moderated by Andrew Wallenstein, president and chief media analyst of the Variety Intelligence Platform.
Mohammadkhani and UTA have worked with City National for about two years. Through their partnership, Mohammadkhani was empowered to “demystify the banking process” for UTA’s clients, completely automating the exchange of funds between studios and talent.
“[We are] removing the stress [the clients] have on the payments they get, providing business managers the opportunity to view all the transactions that are happening for the clients, and in turn, reducing our internal processes,” Mohammadkhani said. “All that goes down to, without getting into a lot of the details, the complete understanding on both ends of what our desires are, and how we can work together to get those done.”
Before the age of automation, Garelick saw “hundreds of checks” come through Global Business Management, Inc. every month, which sometimes took up to “two weeks or a month” to get cashed for their clients. Now, through the help of Oremland and the AgilLink system, those payments are delivered “instantaneously.”
“The money is in client accounts right away, auto-credited right to their accounts,” Garelick said. “It’s kind of been a game changer. Checks aren’t lost in the mail, clients are getting their money and they’re getting it very quickly.”
Watch the entire conversation above.
(Pictured: David Garelick, Andrew Wallenstein, Erin Oremland and Shahin Mohammadkhani)