R oger B atchelder i n Front o f C reat i ve A rt i sts A genc y
all movie buffs. They eventually convinced him to follow them to L.A. and share an apartment. That’s how Batchelder ended up melding his friends’ interest in movies with his own interest in financial modeling. At CAA Batchelder works intimately with lawyers and agents in film negotiations, creating financial structures that enable the agency to make the best deals for their clients. He credits his initial studio experience at MGM plus his studio relationships with allowing him to be so successful at CAA. Of CAA he speaks only in superlatives. “It’s a great company to work for and the leadership is especially great. It’s very much a team agency. You can go as far as your motivation and ambition can take you.” “Talent doesn’t leave here,” he said. “When clients get here, it’s a major career move. We’re dealing with talent at the top of their game like Will Ferrell (Editor’s Note: Ferrell is married to Viveca Paulin ’87) or Julia Roberts. Though I’m in talent evaluation, no one is stopping me from participating in other areas if I have the time and knowledge.”
sarah B o w man ’ 7 9
Creatively Opting Out, Entirely on Her Terms Yet another entry in Nobles’ Hollywood registry is Sarah Bowman ’79 who did what many do: she left her mark and moved on. Bowman made a meteoric start in Holly- wood, working for the likes of Stephen Spielberg while still in her 20s. But when she and her husband started a family, the amount of time spent outside the house began to disturb both of them. Going from success to success, she and a friend in the entertainment business created an online company, www.kidsoffthecouch.com (see sidebar, page 27), which offers ideas for media-based adventures for children and parents all over the country. Like her close Nobles friend. Cary Bickley (page 25), Bowman gained her love for images and clarity of expression from the Nobleman under Joe Swayze. “Joe gave me my eyes,” she recalls. “And Nobles gave me even more… My world came alive when I went to Nobles,” she confided. Bowman and her two sisters, Margaret Bowman Hunter ’80 and Barbara Bowman ’82, all reaped the benefits of a Nobles education. Sarah continued these passions at Brown where she majored in semiotics and was in classes with media luminaries such as Todd Haynes, Jeff Eugenides and Christine Varhon. After a brief stint in San Francisco, she moved to New York where she worked in the Chairman’s office of Tri-Star Pictures, eventually moving to Los Angeles as the company’s story editor. From there it was script-reading for Spielberg at Amblin Entertainment, where she became a vice president of production, working with writers and directors on the production of televised plays and the Robin Williams’ movie, Hook. While at Amblin, her creative group developed Jurassic Park, The Bridges of Madison County and How to Make an American Quilt. What motivated Bowman to move on was the realization that the only job worth having on a set was that of director. With a baby on the way, she gave up the pursuit of production work and took up screenwriting, and soon sold a few scripts to Warner Brothers and Universal. Through friendships forged at her daughter’s preschool, she met a former CNN reporter who was having similar reservations about spending so much time away from her family. 26 l the Nobles Bulletin l Spring 2009