Christopher Barrett

New Media Sherpa

The entertainment industry is going through dramatic changes as the Internet and digital media technology transform the landscape creating significant opportunity for content owners. Christopher Barrett is a 35 year veteran in the Entertainment Industry who has turned his attention to these new opportunities and is showing the way forward to many of his clients.

I have consulted for PermissionTV, Datagenics, Strike.tv,and others. I have been involved with numbers of companies in the video space. Direct or indirect relationships with customers like Adobe, Disney, Fox, Regent and Porchlight. My experience leads me to see solutions for companies and content owners.

I have competed with video suppliers like Maven, Brightcove, Move, Narrowstep, Roo and others.

As the traditional media delivery systems become even more disrupted the opportunities to reach the mass audience rise dramatically. Timidly in investment and normal media metrics inhibit success. In fact we know that most users will get bilateral, unsynchronized data. The choice will empowers them on every screen. The model that was will recede unleashing creative pursuits without network and studio executives. That's not to say the media will go away in fact they will change in unforeseen ways to satisfy viewers as well as artists.

I have deep corporate media relationships as well as creative ones.

About ME

Christopher Barrett is CEO and President of Metropolitan Talent Agency, located Los Angeles. In 1982,Chris formed Metropolitan Talent Agency.

“I was tired of business as usual,” notes Chris. “There is an attitude that is pervasive in Hollywood agencies - it’s ‘us versus them.’ Us versus the producers, us versus the clients, me versus the agent down the hall. I knew in my gut that there had to be a less toxic way of doing business…which would also provide my agents with the incentive to give their all.”

Barrett’s musings led him to reinvent the corporate structure at Metropolitan. The chief elements are compensation rules that foster collaboration, and a computer data system that makes all intelligence communal.

“Basically, it means that all of our agents work for all of our clients; so it’s in everyone’s best interest to share information,” says Barrett. And the agents must agree unanimously on a new client before the talent is signed, thus ensuring that everyone works unreservedly for the entire client list. Barrett feels deep, personal satisfaction for having created what he terms, “the healthiest work environment I’ve ever known.”

Metropolitan Talent Agency is truly unique in this industry in the way it does business.

"The Front Lines," Thomas Petzinger, Jr., The Wall Street Journal, January 26, 1996.

Metropolitan Talent Agency

Metropolitan Talent Agency is a small agency in Hollywood, California. Unlike most talent agencies where information hoarding is the norm, Metro's owner believes in sharing knowledge and encourages employees to share data concerning their individual clients with others. The agency typically handles emerging, rather than established, talent for whom all potential jobs are important. By sharing information about opportunities, the agents are able to secure more and better jobs for their individual clients.

The company is headquartered in a Victorian mansion replete with sitting rooms, patios, landings, and stairs, which encourage spontaneous meetings. In fact, some offices are directly in the path to other offices. Metro has established an electronic network throughout the building, which links all the agents and their assistants. Through this network, employees can easily access needed information about clients and projects related to them. They also can input new information they have received about clients for their fellow workers' benefit. "The Front Lines," Thomas Petzinger, Jr., The Wall Street Journal, January 26, 1996.

The Long Tail

Chris Anderson. He gets it. Read  him.
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