“One doesn’t get to a place of success without having made mistakes.”
That’s CAA founder Michael Ovitz at the All-In Summit. In a conversation with the besties, Ovitz tells us how he built CAA from nothing and where Hollywood goes in the era of AI.
A Man Who Spots Opportunities
What struck me most about Ovitz is how good he is at spotting opportunities.
Ovitz was a poor kid who got his first job in the mailroom at William Morris, the preeminent talent agency of his day. He quickly moved up the ranks, and left to start his own agency in 1975.
Creative Artists Agency (CAA) was a new type of agency. It didn’t just represent clients. CAA put together teams of people to create movies and TV shows together.
It’s called “packaging,” and Ovitz invented it. Ovitz could sell you everyone you need to make a film, all at once.
This gave Ovitz and his clients extraordinary leverage. Either take the whole package at the price Ovitz said, or nothing.
But Ovitz didn’t just spot opportunities in Hollywood. In 1992, he began to visit Silicon Valley.
Who in LA cared about Silicon Valley in ’92? Practically nobody. But Ovitz could see where the future was headed.
He helped create Tele-TV, an interactive television service, in 1995. It was basically Netflix, 10 years too early. It didn’t make it, but you have to admire how innovative it was.
Will AI Put Hollywood Out of Work?
“250,000 people in Los Angeles make their living in the media business. They are all afraid of one thing, and that’s are they going to have a job…”
AI tools can create realistic videos of anything you want in seconds. With tools like that, is there still a place for humans in entertainment?
Ovitz thinks that AI could replace some technical tasks, but not the human’s creative vision. I agree with him there.
I think AI could replace some people, like extras or CGI designers. I’ve done some extra work myself as a hobby, and I doubt that job will exist in 10 years.
But I don’t think AI will ever completely replace humans in entertainment.
Give me an AI tool that can generate any video, and I’ll still never come up with The Sopranos. I just don’t have any ideas that good!
What AI will do is lower the cost of making a movie or TV show. That will result in more content.
But we still need humans to tell the AI tools what to make.
Wrap-Up
Even though entertainment isn’t my main profession, I find Ovitz fascinating. He’s a guy who came from nothing to completely take over an industry. And even today, you can tell he’s still excited to go to work.
I’m looking forward to reading his autobiograhy, Who Is Michael Ovitz? Regardless of the business we’re in, we can all learn something from this special man.
What did you think of Ovitz’s talk?
More from the All-In Summit:
Ukraine, China and the Deep State: Mearsheimer and Sachs at the All-In Summit
From $50 Million to $50 Billion: Thomas Laffont at the All-In Summit
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