On September 21, a select group of invited agents revealed how pitches and proposals become feature films during Agents Roundtable, A Conversation with Those in "The Trenches." The event was a joint effort of the DGA's Latino Committee and the Writers Guild of America, West's (WGAw) Latino Steering Committee.
Members of both guilds filled the boardroom of DGA headquarters in Los Angeles to hear how feature films are packaged today. The panel consisted of Jay Cohen, a Partner and Head of Film Finance and Distribution at The Gersh Agency; Alexis Garcia, an agent at WME Global, who has been part of projects such as Brokeback Mountain, Che and Transsiberian; Peter Rawley of Ambassador Media, who has raised more than half a billion dollars for productions such as Hamlet, Braveheart, and True Lies; Rene Rigal, Executive VP of Motion Picture Development and Production at Richard Branson's Virgin Produced who has overseen productions such as Nothing Like the Holidays, Notorious and Faster; and Paul Schwartzman of Filmagents, who packages artists, intellectual property, and celebrities between the four major talent agencies. The panel was moderated by DGA Latino Committee Co-Chair/Director Betty Kaplan (Almost A Woman).