Cyber Trail Can Be Rocky Through Entertainment Valley

It’s a migration fueled by some of the same motivations that led European immigrants from East to West, and African Americans from South to North.

In increasing numbers, entertainment voyagers are leaving the motherland for the wide open spaces of the brave new cyberworld.

Drawn by the promise of a blank slate, artistic freedom and, until earlier this year, a steady cash infusion from the old money economy--producers, graphic artists, directors, and even the on-camera talent are staking a claim in cyberspace, launching Internet sites that do everything from show movie clips to help safeguard your health.

And in few places is the occupational passage more evident than in the San Fernando Valley, and the broader Los Angeles area--the content capital of the creative world.

And what are they finding, these new settlers in cyberspace?

In some cases, the thrill of seeing their ideas take shape and the financial reward that comes from giving birth to a potential gold mine. In others, the journey has been marked by an aggravating culture clash between the entertainment Valley, the Silicon Valley and the bean counters who may not understand either world.

Despite the hazards of the trail, there are more outbound wagons than pioneers in retreat. And industry insiders say they don’t see an ebb in that flow coming any time soon.

“So many friends of mine, colleagues of mine, have moved over to the Internet,” said Jim Chabin, president of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in North Hollywood.

“I’ve asked them, ‘Would you go back?’ Most of them say they really love the excitement, the danger, the fear and the challenge of this new world. They say, ‘It’s exciting, it’s scary, it’s exhausting, it’s fun and it’s my future.’ ”

The Academy, which hosts the Emmys, has about 11,000 members, Chabin said, and about 40% of them live in the San Fernando Valley.

“I suspect that at least half of them, in the next five years, will be directly or indirectly employed in some sort of online venture,” Chabin said.

Chabin rattled off a long list of names of friends and associates who already have made the quantum leap. He mentioned Andy Kaplan, a former top Columbia Pictures TV executive who is now the first chief executive for the Hollywood Stock Exchange, an online game; Dana LeVan, formerly with Paramount Studios and the UPN network, who’s now with Hearme, which launched the Hearme.com Web site; and E! Entertainment Television marketing veteran Dale Hopkins, who left entertainment to become president of IWin.com, a post she no longer holds.

People in both the traditional and ethereal worlds say the Internet is attractive to so many in the industry because so many of the skills are transferable: storytelling, graphic design, audience building, content awareness. And when they cross that bridge, they take their Hollywood contacts with them.

Chabin said many of the new cyber recruits “have come to the conclusion that television is a mature business. That the growth and freedom and excitement associated with being able to be entrepreneurial, that those kinds of opportunities are fewer and fewer in television.”

Northridge native Kaplan, who’s been CEO at the Hollywood Stock Exchange since May, admits he developed a case of Internet fever.

“I was looking for a new challenge,” said Kaplan, who was with Columbia for 13 years. “This was a great opportunity for me to run my own shop. So far, so good.”

But not all of the trips into cyberspace end with new homesteaders flourishing. In some cases, they end up buying the farm.

Sherman Oaks resident Brad Sexton thought he had a good idea in December 1998, when he founded ReelPreviews.com, with the aim of providing the studios a cyberspot in which to promote upcoming films.

Sexton, who started in the entertainment business in the mid-’90s as a production assistant, felt he had the studio contacts to make the site a hit. All he needed was money.

After starting with funding from relatives and less-than-hoped-for revenue from online ads, Sexton realized he’d need more cash and began to bring in outside investors.

The company did grow, eventually acquiring--and changing its name to--movieCONNECT.com. The site (https://movieconnect.com) offers up-to-date movie information, live Web casts from movie premiers, such as “Mission Impossible II,” as well as movie trailers.

But though revenues grew by an estimated 50% between June 1999 and June 2000, the company remained unprofitable--an affliction affecting many an Internet start-up.

“From the inception, I knew it was going to take a little bit of time to establish the brand,” Sexton said. “I knew that, with a little patience and a little time, it would definitely pay off.”

But time was not on his side.

His investors, who by this year controlled a significant portion of the privately held company, voted him out of office in early August, replacing him with Andy Meyer, an executive producer with film credits that include “Fried Green Tomatoes” and “The Breakfast Club.”

Sexton attributes his problems to a clash of cultures.

“I know entertainment really well,” he said. “I founded and had a vision for the company.”

But he felt that most investors did not know the entertainment industry as well as he did.

“They didn’t understand that vision completely, and it took so much effort for me to explain it,” he said.

“It’s been an uphill battle for me personally. That’s what you get for taking in bad money.”

Meyer declined to discuss Sexton’s departure in detail, saying “He made a transition out, and I made a transition in. It happens all the time in the Internet business.”

Film producer Julia Pierrepont, a distant relative of legendary financier J. Pierpont Morgan, says she’s familiar with such tales of woe.

“I’ve heard of that over and over again,” said the Calabasas resident who is making two forays into cyberspace. “It starts with a great idea and a little bit of money. And then the big boys come in and people end up losing their companies.

“I have sympathy for both sides,” she added. “Some computer head who starts a company in their garage is not necessarily the person to grow it into an empire.”

To be on the safe side, Pierrepont has launched two Web sites, one of which makes money selling health information to doctors and hospitals, and another that is designed to promote her upcoming film, “Lost in the Pershing Point Hotel,” starring John Ritter and Marilu Henner.

With her feet planted firmly on both sides of the Internet line, Pierrepont feels she’s well positioned to ride the Internet wave, while still pursuing her love of film.

“I doubt I will pick a camp,” said Pierrepont, who acknowledged that it’s still “quite difficult” to make a living on the Internet.

“Both are so wonderful, I can’t give either of them up.”

But scores of entertainment adventurers are making the full leap, and not looking back.

“There’s a whole new generation of kids in the Valley that will be born and raised and sent to college by people who may have started in traditional television, but who will be raising their kids and paying their mortgages with money that comes from the Internet economy,” said the Academy’s Chabin.

“And I think that’s a very good thing for the Valley economy. I really think it’s essential.”

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Valley@Work runs each Tuesday. Karen Robinson-Jacobs can be reached by e-mail at Karen.Robinson@latimes.com.