blog archives: Agents

Below are past postings from Paul Russell's weekly blog ANSWERS FOR ACTORS - Demystifying the Casting Process for Actors. The archival topic here is Agents.

Postings below on this subject begin with the most recent entry on the subject.

(Left: Paul Russell)

This week: Timing; Finding a talent agent / Changing talent agencies

(Sunday, May 17, 2009)

When is the best time of year for seeking an agent?

Now.

Pilot season is over. Casting for regional theater and summer stock has ended. Film and TV casting won’t pick up again until August. Regional theater resumes casting in late July. So May, June & early-July are anemic as far as activity between casting and talent agencies.

During this sluggish semester agents, aside from sitting at their desks surfing the web, are seeking new clients as they clean house (i.e. dumping troubled  and lackluster clients). So now’s the best time for anyone without representation (or represented actors seeking a change) to seek their champion.

This is the time of year when agents have time on their hands – which is often taken up by anxious clients asking thier reps, “Where are my auditions?” You would think these inquiring actors would know that year-after-year this is hibernation season for casting. It’s cyclical folks.

Agents are more receptive to taking on new clients before the hustle of pitching for projects picks up again in late July, mid-August. There’s no better time of year for seeking an agent, fully prepared with an effective audition, revamped marketing materials and honed interview skills than now.

All of this is why I've invited Joel Carlton of DGRW (a bi-coastal agency), Judy Boals, President of Boals Talent and Michael Rodriquez of The Roster as the guest agents for the next agent panel for Access to Agents. And this is NOT one of those paid-audition scnearios where you rely on yourself to do all the work while a lazy, disinterested host obscenly profits. I'm not a fan of that bullshit.

This is a four-week seminar intensive in which you and I work together preparing your audition and interview for the panel. Plus you get a marketing make-over. Then I personally introduce you to these champions of talent. They give youwritten feedback and hopefully more than that as did with my April students. They got invites from the attending agents. I want actors to succeed. I'm miserable when they don't.

So enough of the plug. In anyway that you can, get yourself in front of agents somewhere. Now. This is the best time of year for you to either seek or change representation.

For Access to Agents registration visit: http://paulrussell.net/Access_to_Agents.html. 3 Openings Remain. I only accept 10 actors per series.

My Best,
Paul
Paul Russell Casting
SDC Director | Author, ACTING: Make It Your Business

THIS WEEK'S TIP: Part 2 of 2 Negotiating Black Market Breakdowns

(Sunday, March 29, 2009)

This has got to stop. Actors paying thieves for black market breakdowns. Especially actors with representation.

Last week’s Part 1 of this blog caused a stir. It also prompted a reader to send me an e-mail he received from a thief selling the black market breakdowns. Attached to the e-mail was an example of the breakdowns. I couldn’t fucking believe it. Disgusting is the best I can say of the e-mail’s contents.

Here was someone preying on actor vulnerability and profiting off of actors by committing a serious crime of fraud and theft. Actors who engage in buying these breakdowns are just as culpable and can be prosecuted as well. I immediately contacted Breakdown Services.

More than likely the person who was selling the illegal Breakdowns is/was an intern or an assistant at a talent agency. Agencies pay a subscription fee to receive the Breakdowns. And Breakdown Services scrutinizes their subscribers. Joe-blow-off-the-street can’t get a talent agency subscription from Breakdown Services.

Now, actors with talent representation who receive black market breakdowns: Stop it. Beyond the illegality of the act you’re jeopardizing your relationship with your agent. For those with or without an agent who may be wondering how.... here we go;

The represented actor getting the illegal breakdowns often calls their agent and says, “I just saw on Breakdowns a role that I want to be submitted for...” The agent does one of two things (or both) rolls their eyes and reminds the actor, in terse tone, that as an agent THEY get the breakdowns and submit appropriate clients. After the call is ended, the agent usually mumbles to another agent in the office, “We need to drop that one.”

When an actor phones an agent with the, “I just saw on Breakdowns...” call; immediately the agent is thinking, “This client doesn’t trust me. Why should I be representing them?” Agents hate, repeat; HATE clients who use this supposed proactive choice for career advancement. Often the client doesn’t advance, they lose representation.

Agents talk to me often about this, including my partner who owns a talent agency. It’s one of the surest ways for a client to stop being a client. If you’re still not convinced think of it this way. Calling up your agent and telling them you saw a role on Breakdowns you think you’re right for, is equal to one actor giving another actor performance notes. It’s wrong. It’s rude. It’s not professional. And it needs to stop!

Trust that your agent is doing the best that they can for your interests. Stop engaging in activity that could bring serious charges against you and cost you money, time, reputation AND representation.

And finally; a reader asked me,  "Is it effective for actors living beyond the metro areas of New York or LA to subscribe to Actor’s Access?" (Breakdown Services subscription service to actors). No. Most of the auditions are in NY or LA. Auditions come quickly after they are announced. You need to be living in or near the area that the majority of auditions that are happening. Casting personnel don’t want to bother with actors who submit themselves for an audition in NY or LA when the actor permanently resides in bum-fuck Kansas. (No offense to Kansas, my finger just went for the “K” key and there were only two state options after that. I'll offend the blue-grass moonshiners another time).

So, wrap up here. Represented actors, stop using and paying for illegal breakdowns. Stop calling your agent with the, “I just saw on Breakdowns...” call. Unrepresented actors, I do not condone or suggest the use of illegal breakdowns. But if you do engage in that illicit behavior read Part 1 of this blog (which is below). But be warned, you are committing a crime.

Besos,
Paul
Paul Russell Casting
SDC Director | Author, ACTING: Make It Your Business

THIS WEEK'S TIP: How often should an actor send a submission to an agent when seeking representation?

(Sunday, March 15, 2009)
That was the question that came flying at me this week during my Access to Agents seminar. And it was a great question. The look I got when I shot back my answer, "Every other month for 12 months" was jaw dropping surprise.

There are valid reasons I suggest that actors seeking their champion do the costly (and soon to be costlier) land-mailings with frequency:

As I was sitting at a talent agency this week, I was going through the multitudes of actor mailings bound for the trash. At this particular agency the assistant opens and filters who gets a glance from the agents and who gets sent off to Fresh Kills, Staten Island.

I was perusing the landfill bound P&Rs and noticed one mailing from an actor that should have been given a once over by the agents. It came from an actor who is a regular on an ABC series. He wanted to leave his present agency and start anew with another (an unjustified trend happening a lot lately as many actors panic over the economy).

So here was an actor, with a series and some other good credits on his resume that was being tossed. I handed his materials over to one of the agents.

Often at agencies it is NOT the agent who opens the submission you sent to them. It's an assistant or more than likely an intern (as I write in ACTING: Make It Your Business, there is a way to exploit that filtering system to your advantage).

So being that your materials are often not opened by the intended recipient, you want to hit the agency more than once; preferably every other month for 12 months. This way if your submission is misplaced, overlooked or worse never opened you're giving your marketing materials more opportunities to be seen.

Now you may be thinking; "But Paul, the agents will think I'm being rude or obsessive compulsive. They'll hate me." Guess what... if they DID look at your materials once and tossed you into the trash; they weren't interested in you to begin with. So what are a few more mailings to someone who wasn't previously interested? But you could change that. Also how do you know the agent even saw your materials?

Plus another reason I advocate re-sending several times is that if you have new project announcements to put on your resume or in your cover letter (you SHOULD always, always have a business formatted cover letter) there's something for the recipient to discover about you. You're working. Which means you're a valuable asset that an agent can exploit and champion.

There's a wonderful study that was done and written about in The Tipping Point, which talks about the point at which someone stops saying "No" to an inquiry and relents with a “Yes”. You could hit that tipping point with someone with multiple mailings (just don't do it every week or month).

So send. But make sure what you're sending is professional, clearly defines you, doesn't have a lot of prose bullshit or gimmicks. If so, you’ll be always going into the trash. Or worse placed into the Freak File.

For more info on finding agents and successful mailings read ACTING: Make It Your Business and/or register to meet and audition for agents in our Access to Agents seminar.

Never give up.

Besos,
Paul
Paul Russell Casting
SDC Director | Author, ACTING: Make It Your Business

A Broadway Production. An Audition. An Agent. An Arrogant Actor. Danger Will Robinson...

(Sunday, March 8, 2009)

We all make mistakes.

I’ve made plenty (even here openly on this intermesh thing).

After three decades of working with, and for actors, I’m still surprised by the career destroying fuck-ups that some actors will willingly and without-thought-to-consequences do with what little gray matter may pulse within in their cranium.

This week as I was sitting at a talent agency I witnessed a first-rate screw-up by an actor that jeopardized his relationship with a Broadway casting office, director, producer and agent all in one simultaneous, mind-blowing shoot-themselves-in-the-career crash. It also made me never want to work with the actor as well.

For this exercise we’ll tag him as Actor-Withholding-On-Logic; a.k.a. A.W.O.L.

A.W.O.L. dumped his agent, via a weekend e-mail missive, for he felt that his life was quote “boring” and he needed a change (no, that’s not the main mistake for my mussing here, although being bored and leaving your agent because the Prozac dosage is no longer controlling the mood swings could be considered a career careening crash).

As I was chatting in the talent agent’s office a call came from another casting director’s office (one that I once worked at). The casting director, along with a well-known director, choreographer and several producers were sitting curious at a casting session for an upcoming Broadway production. They were left waiting for an actor who had not shown up to his scheduled appointment for a leading role within the production. The M.I.A. actor? A.W.O.L.

A.W.O.L.’s former agent got off the phone with the now irritated casting director and called A.W.O.L. to ask why he had not shown up to the appointment he confirmed to attend. He had gotten the audition appointment via his agent well before trashing said talent rep. A.W.O.L. informed his former champion that he felt he no longer had to attend the audition because he had just left the agency. Excuse me?!?

So here was an unemployed actor who had just dumped his agent while also dumping upon a casting office and a production team for Broadway. Can someone explain to me, especially in this economic climate why such arrogance (and obvious ignorance) exists? Wait, I may have answered my question; arrogance and ignorance are close cousins.

What’s the moral here? No matter what your relationship with your representation, an actor is to keep their commitment to confirmed audition appointments. And not only audition appointments but also commitments to commissions on projects that your representation helped get you seen for and negotiated the contract(s). One of the few pardonable excuses on making a pass on a confirmed audition is passing, literally, as in six feet under or oven-ash time. Even then you’ll need a doctor’s written note.

Be considerate of others. Don’t become known as problematic. The number of people working in this industry is very small. We talk. We share stories. Don’t become a story that you would not want to be a part of.

Besos,
Paul
Paul Russell Casting
SDC Director | Author, ACTING: Make It Your Business