John Brunton and Barbara Bowlby

World Screen Weekly, October 30, 2008

John Brunton, President & CEO, Executive Producer

Barbara Bowlby, Executive VP, Executive Producer
 Insight Productions

What has made Insight Productions one of the leading and most prolific production companies in Canada? A combination of talent, experience, unabashed passion for television, and a propensity for being “Switzerland,” as John Brunton, the company’s president, CEO and executive producer, puts it.

Brunton and his sister Barbara Bowlby, Insight’s executive VP and executive producer, have based the company on hard work and a firm belief in the value of partnerships—and most importantly, a desire to remain independent and work for as many Canadian and U.S. broadcast and cable networks as possible. “We cut our teeth on big projects for Disney, NBC, CBS and that helped give us credibility,” says Brunton.

This strategy has made them the partners of choice for major players in the entertainment business. Insight has worked with FremantleMedia on Project Runway Canada and Canadian Idol, which turned out to be the highest-rated show in the country; with Endemol on Deal Or No Deal Canada, and with Mark Burnett Productions on Are You Smarter Than a Canadian 5th Grader?

The relationship built with FremantleMedia producing Canadian Idol led to a first-look deal in 2006, which was recently extended and now includes an overall development fund. “We’ve been working with FremantleMedia for six years, starting with Canadian Idol,” explains Brunton. “It was the beginning of a great relationship. We then produced the drama series Falcon Beach, which aired on ABC Family and Global. David Ellender, the CEO of FremantleMedia Enterprises, approached us and said, ‘We’d love to be the international distributors for Falcon Beach. They did a terrific job selling the show to more than 100 countries. Out of that came our first-look deal, where everything that FremantleMedia does in Canada, particularly with formats, would go through us, we gave them a first look at our international distribution and together we looked at co-venture opportunities and international co-productions. That led to a tremendously successful relationship where we launched Project Runway Canada with Iman. So when we started discussing whether we should continue this relationship, we were both really enthusiastic. In addition to the first-look part of the deal we now have a rather significant pool of money for development funding.”

The fund will be used for both scripted and nonscripted programming and a number of new projects are already under way.

While the financial aspect is always critical, when making any deal, Brunton is equally guided by his personal interests and passions. A recent deal best exemplifies Brunton’s love of the unusual and for adventure. Insight and Ripley Entertainment have developed a new one-hour series that extends the Ripley’s Believe it or Not! brand.

Shot on location around the world and featuring a host of new-media components, Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Shockingly TRUE Stories is a search for the world’s oddities and the incredible stories behind them, like a three-armed monkey in Sri Lanka or a mummified head from a lost tribe in Indonesia.

“There’s such enormous curiosity in discovering these shockingly odd and interesting stories,” says Brunton. “It feeds my personal wanderlust; I love to travel. I love to do challenging things myself. I’m a deep-water scuba diver. I love to dive with sharks, as do my kids and my wife. So it speaks to my idea of adventure.”

All successful independent production companies eventually get to a certain size and accumulate a certain track record that they become attractive acquisitions for larger media companies. Insight has reached that point. “People are courting us and it’s an interesting opportunity,” states Brunton. “As I said, I like the idea of being Switzerland. In the last year and a half, we’ve done business with finance companies and Endemol and FremantleMedia and with RDF. And we don’t just work with the CBC, or just with ABC or just HBO. We really try to play the field. But that’s not to say that we are not open to the prospect of investment.”

Brunton and Bowlby have also always been keen on producing a variety of genres, “We do what the broadcaster needs, so if formats are hot, we do formats,” says Bowlby. But they also produce documentaries, drama, mini-series, comedy, live events, and are even working on a feature film.

The diversity of product Insight produces should shelter the company from any economic downturns. If anything, Brunton feels that his company’s expertise in partnerships puts it in a good position right now. “All the doom and gloom requires more people to share the load of the cost of production,” he says. “Let’s all get together and do this show. The set that we built collectively as a group will get shipped to America and our partner there will ship it to Brazil. That was unheard of two or three years ago.”

“We have to share resources,” agrees Bowlby. “And that’s why the formats business has become so hot,” adds Brunton. “In many ways it is a shared resource.”

How well do the siblings work together? “It’s easy for us to divide our activities in the business,” explains Brunton. “I’m the promoter and I’m creatively oriented. Barb, while she is involved as an executive producer and we share that title on most of our projects, she’s really the operator of the business.”

And how often does Bowlby have to tell her brother to stop spending? “I try!” she says with a laugh, adding, “but we have respect for each other. I know the creative has to be good. If it’s not on screen, it’s not going to work. But then if we don’t have money in the bank we can’t develop the next show, but we respect each other.”