AGENTS OF CHANGE\Representing new media an obsession for a dedicated few.

Byline: Yardena Arar Daily News Staff Writer

When the art of the deal is digital, a 10 percent commission usually doesn't amount to much. But for a handful of talent agents specializing in the field, multimedia isn't just about bytes and bucks - it's a passion.

"We're not your Armani suits at CAA," said Harvey Harrison, referring to his counterparts at one of Hollywood's most powerful agencies. "My suit is a T-shirt."

Harrison pioneered the profession of cyberagent in the early 1980s. "When I started, the money was ridiculously bad," he recalled. "But I loved it so much I would work in the mature media to make my money so I could finance my activity. The money is still not as good as the mature media, but it's getting better every year."

Harrison, who splits his work week between the Jim Preminger Agency in Westwood and his home in Westlake Village, was working primarily in TV at a firm representing Hanna-Barbera when two young men brought him a game that he took home and played on his Apple computer.

"I had an interactive epiphany," said Harrison, whose clients have included "Myst" creators Rand and Robyn Miller, Rhythm & Hughes (the computer graphics house that did the effects in "Babe"), and Michael Kaplan and John Sanborn, creators of the recently released CD-ROM game "Psychic Detective."

"Now, over a dozen years later, my mission is still the same," Harrison said. "It's to help the founding artists of interactive media connect to the public."

Stuart Miller of Studio City first heard the siren song of interactivity five years ago at a now-defunct trade show in Las Vegas where Philips was demonstrating its then-new CD-i. He remembers being blown away by a tour of the Smithsonian Institute that included close-ups of an original musical score by Mozart.

"I was struck by the realization that the technology would allow the average human being to pursue their interests in any form. If they could do that for Mozart, they could do that for anybody," said Miller, who at the time was in charge of the literary and packaging department at the Agency for Performing Arts.

He went on to found and head the agency's new media department until his abrupt departure last summer (he declined to discuss the circumstances). He now has his own agency, and half of his clients are in multimedia.

He has represented Greg Roach ("Quantum Gate," "The Madness of Roland"); "Return to Zork" designer Doug Barnett and writer Michele Em, and the team behind Broderbund's recently released CD-ROM mystery, "In the First Degree."

Agents perform much the same services in the new media as in the old, striking deals for creative artists and the entities with the means to produce and distribute their work.

"The culture is different, the business is different, but the essence of the transaction is the same," Miller said.

Carl Bressler came to multimedia from the production end. The bulk of his clients at his Santa Monica-based Montana Artists are cinematographers, production and costume designers, film editors and other below-the-line personnel, but he also has six new media clients.

A fan of games and science fiction, Bressler three years ago recognized the potential of new media when game developers began hiring his clients. He asked some of these companies how he could be of service, and the reply was: "You bring us people we wouldn't meet, help keep egos out of the room, and act as mediator between talent and the distribution cycle."

Major agencies such as International Creative Management, William Morris and Creative Artists Agency also have new media departments. But Bressler believes they aren't as aggressive as he or other smaller cyberagents.

"I think the traditional agencies are making sure that their traditional clients feel comfortable that they are keeping a foot in new media, so that when traditional clients ask questions there's someone on hand to answer them," Bressler said. "They don't have to be ground-breaking."

Richard Thompson, a partner in the Beverly Hills entertainment law firm Bloom, Hergott, Cook, Diemer & Klein, said larger agencies tend to represent development companies as opposed to individual writers, producers and designers.

"Except for a situation where there's a big name actor being brought in to work in a project, it's unusual for an individual to make more than $100,000 a pop even at the high end, which is only $10,000 commission. And a lot of these jobs only pay $10,000, $20,000 or $30,000, so they're under more pressure to find bigger things that generate more money."

Thompson said he encourages multimedia clients, who now account for half to two-thirds of his business, to work with agents. He said there are parallels between the multimedia industry today and Hollywood several decades ago.

"In the software business, historically, people have been employees instead of free-lancers. I've heard it compared to the old studio system, where everybody is under contract and works for one company that gives you really low wages, makes you work very hard, and if you're really lucky gives you some stock options that you can sell at a profit.

"Some people see that model changing, just as it did in the entertainment business where the old studio system broke down and for the most part everybody's a free-lancer. The studios don't carry a lot of overhead, but they pay a lot for individual deals when it's someone they want."

That's where the agents come in, especially when the talent either doesn't like to negotiate or is no good at it.

"When you get to the deal-making point, it can get ugly and people can get hurt," said Scott Russo, vice president of the interactive division at Studio City-based Film Roman, a client of Harvey Harrison's.

"What Harvey does in my situation is give me the ability to be more creative. I go to him (and Film Roman's top managers) and say, 'This is what I'm planning on doing - you guys figure out whether it makes business or economic sense.' " Another Harrison client, interactive producer and designer Elizabeth Young, said she asked him to represent her when she decided she wanted to give up staff work and free-lance out of her Topanga Canyon home in order to spend more time with her kids.

"I'm one of the people who does the work and does it well, but when it comes to negotiating the deal - that, I don't like," said Young, whose recent credits include the interactive documentaries "Seven Days in August," "Desert Storm" and a greeting card CD-ROM called "QuickCards."

"The other real reason to have an agent is, when you have original ideas they pitch them to people," said Young, adding that Harrison is doing just that for her right now. "I wouldn't have a clue how to pitch an idea without giving it away."

Multimedia publishers aren't always thrilled to deal with cyberagents. Laurie Cohen, senior vice president of the Home and Entertainment Division at Philips Interactive Media, said that while a good agent can bring new talent to a publisher's attention, a bad one can blow a deal. She tells of a developer who had almost negotiated a deal with Philips when he got an agent who upped the client's asking price by 600 percent.

"That has to be a year and a half ago and he has yet to make a deal," Cohen said, adding that at Philips, the developer's representative was known as "Agent Orange."

At Interplay Productions in Irvine, executive producer Alan Pavlish said he tries to avoid dealing with agents.

"In our case they don't really bring any benefit to us other than bringing talent to me that I may not be aware of," he said. "I'd say 99.9 percent of all the deals we do I negotiate directly with the developers.

"I really hope that agents don't take over the business of representing developers," he said glumly.

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Photo (1--Color) Harvey Harrison enjoys being away from the "Armani suit" crowd as the cyberagent in a T-shirt. David Crane/Daily News (2) Stuart Miller of Studio City has a talent agency devoted to new media. Myung J. Chun/Daily News