Managing the artist.

The film industry, as well as any other industry, is form of hundred of person who work on it in different areas in order to deliver a high quality product to the audience, in this case films.

Actors, directors, producers, camera-operators and make-up artists are some of the crew member that work on the film industry “on-stage” filming the movie and work through the entire production process that includes pre-production, production and post-production.

This may lead to the misunderstanding that the film industry is just formed by the people we see on screen, famous actors, directors and producers. Even though these are very important figures to the industry, due that they are consider as the image of the industry, there is also space, and a very important space, for people that work behind these famous figures, better known as managers and agents or, as they are known in the film world, talent managers.

Talent agents are well-connected people that work in the entertainment area, they work consist in representing actors, actress, musicians, comedians and any type of talent useful in the whole entertainment industry. A talent agent in the film industry more specific is in charge to go in between the casting director (who is the person in charge of hiring actors for the project) and the actor in order to gain auditions for the talent. Casting director usually receive high amount of people willing to become an actor and “break it big” in the film industry, due to this high amount of possible performers they need the help of the talent managers. The casting director sent the talent agent the notification of castings and auditions with the characters specification they need for a certain project, the agent then analyze the information he received and recommend the casting director one of their clients, pitch him/her to sell the talent to the director and lands the audition for the actor, from that point on, it’s the talent work to gain the part. Licensed talent agent work for a 10% commission (basically on every state) of the artist gross income in exchange of giving the actor opportunities to land auditions, follow up the meetings with casting directors and arrange contracts for the artist. According to The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts

Talent Managers and talent agents are similar, they work with the same objective of landing a work opportunity for the actor, but they differ in the sense that the managers specialize in guiding the actors career, counseling in business aspect, represent the actor to other industries professionals (casting directors, producers, directors, etc.) and offer different services, a Manager since its not regulated like the agent can charge more than the 10% in commissions but can also give the artist a more personal attention and build a better relationship.

Agents are in charge to build up the artist career from scratch and some are able to take them to the fame level that everyone would desire to have, turn them into "hollywood stars" see a list of the top ten hollywood agents that have achieved taking his artist in to the "next level." According to askmen.com

         Agent Name                       Top Clients

10. Cindy Osbrink -  Dakota Fanning,  Elle Fanning

9.   Fred Specktor -   Morgan Freeman, Danny DeVito

8.   Sam Gores -        Laurence Fishburne

7.   Jim Wiatt  -         John Travolta, Eddie Murphy, 50 Cent, Tommy Lee Jones

6.   Sharon Sheinwold -  Jason Segel, Jack Black

5.   Patrick Whitesell -    Jennifer Garner, Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Ellen Page

4.  Tracey Jacobs -     Johnny Depp, Gwineth Paltrow, Harrison Ford, Jennifer Lopez

3.  Kevin Huvane -   Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, Tom Cruise, Reneé Zellweger.

2.  Ari Emanuel -     Martin Scorsese, Robert DeNiro, Michael Douglas, Conan O'Brien

1. Richard Lovett -  Will Smith, Jim Carrey, Nicolas Cage, Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Lindsay Lohan, Steven Spielberg, Julia Roberts.

If you are interested in knowing how a contract between an artist and a talent manager looks like, here is a plus, the Personal Management Agreement Taylor Swift signed with his ex manager Dan Dymtrwo.

Resources.

1. Agent and Manager =  http://www.sft.edu/tips/acting-agents-and-agencies.html

2. Top 10 Agents in Hollywood = http://www.askmen.com/top_10/celebrity/top-10-hollywood-agents.html

3. Taylor Swift contract = http://www.artistmanagementonline.com/Artist_Management_Book_Site_Fin/Taylor_Swift_Contract.html