BrainCamp is an annual cross-media conference for the children’s entertainment community. Images courtesy of BrainCamp © 2004.

We are supping on lunch in the top-floor restaurant of the Radisson Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica, California, watching the clouds darken across the expanse of Pacific Ocean. It is the sort of dining experience one imagines executives take for granted, where the waiter unfolds the napkin on your lap if you have forgotten to do so, and the chef is keen to accommodate the most discriminating palette.

We stab forkfuls of food into our mouths, between polite introductions and casual banter. This is BrainCamp, an industry event that is small in scale, but not in scope.

Founded in 1997 through the organizing efforts of Howard Leib and Fred Seibert, BrainCamp is an “intimate” two-day, cross-media conference for family entertainment leaders to meet with their peers and discuss their work. Held annually in New York City, with its large market of licensors and other related children’s entertainment businesses, BrainCamp has recently had a couple of venues in Los Angeles, BrainCamp West.

True to its nature as an informal forum, there are no power suits, no closing-deal handshakes, no panel discussions on stages separated from an audience of attendees. Rather, there is plenty of food to munch on throughout the day (to keep the blood-glucose levels sufficiently high), plenty of free promotional schwag to take home (to remind us of the market penetration, if not just the Earth’s dwindling resources), and plenty of time to get to know each other over cups of tea and coffee and isn’t the weather lovely today? Why, yes, it is.

But let’s get down to the brass tacks, and recapitulate the recent BrainCamp West proceedings. Eight presentations over the course of two days, October 21-22, 2004.

Day One
John Hardman, former svp of Kids’ WB!, was the first speaker of the day. He was responsible for development, acquisitions and current programming during his five-year tenure, having overseen shows such as Yu-Gi-Oh!, Jackie Chan Adventures, X-Men: Evolution, What’s New Scooby Doo?, Static Shock and Xiaolin Showdown, among others. Prior to Kids’ WB!, Hardman worked at DreamWorks as head of development and current programming for its TV Animation division, on series such as Toonsylvania for Fox Kids. And, before DreamWorks, Hardman was the director of creative affairs at Klasky Csupo, working on Nickelodeon shows like Rugrats, The Wild Thornberrys, Rocket Power and As Told By Ginger.

Without pulling any punches, Hardman began with the sober news that creating a cartoon franchise is difficult and daunting. While this may not be what creators want to hear, it is not an entirely surprising revelation. With his insider perspective, Hardman explained the process for approaching networks to sell one’s shows, along with the politics inherent to the medium. Among networks, there is a strong trend toward niche marketing to target very specific core audiences. The maxim that “ratings is revenue” is antecedent to the network philosophy of “more money for less work.” While independents may have a passion for their shows, the fact remains that, with some rare exceptions, creators are not going to get rich from television programming.

Next up to bat was Scott Greenberg, coo/evp of DPS Film Roman. The parent company of Film Roman is IDT Ent., born from the telecommunications behemoth. As a lawyer in a previous life, Greenberg didn’t mince words in describing the breadth of IDT’s interest in the lucrative (albeit competitive) animation and interactive entertainment markets. In addition to developing direct-to-video animated projects to feed through its home distribution subsidiaries, Anchor Bay Entertainment and Manga Entertainment, Greenberg also spoke of IDT’s efforts to found a full-blown CGI feature animation studio in Beit Shemesh, Israel. (Though, from recent news reports, the fledgling studio may be having some difficulty in taking flight.) Still, with its animation subsidiaries Mainframe Entertainment and New Arc Entertainment, if an independent producer has a property they are looking to finance, IDT certainly has a lot of money to throw around.