Breaking into Acting For Dummies. Larry Garrison
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rejected today may turn out to be the superstar of tomorrow. Don’t ever close any doors, because the person you antagonize today may be the one who might hire you tomorrow.
Chapter 3
From Agents, Managers, and Unions: Introducing the Movers and Shakers
IN THIS CHAPTER
You may have heard the old saying: It’s not what you know; it’s who you know. Show business, like any business, depends on people.
This chapter introduces you to the different people in the world of show business and what they do so you can better understand how your own role as an actor fits into the chaotic world of show business.
Producers: The Champions of Every Project
Show business is full of great ideas, but nothing happens until a producer takes the initiative to turn a good idea into a finished product. Producers are responsible for guiding a project from a raw idea or script to a finished film, play, TV show, or commercial and often risk losing money or their reputation if the project never gets completed (or gets completed poorly). So the overriding goal of a producer is to create a quality product that’s both marketable and profitable as quickly and inexpensively as possible.
Basically, producers do the following:
Search for and obtain the rights to a story or script that has the potential to be both interesting and profitable.
Get money to finance the project. (The money can come from a studio, a production company, individual investors, the producer’s own bank account, or wherever the producer can get it.)
Hire a director and writer to work on the project.
With the help of a casting director, audition actors and ultimately suggest which actors to cast.
Oversee the filming, taping, or rehearsals of a film, TV show, play, or commercial.
Supervise the editing of the project.
Work with studios or distribution companies to market and distribute a project.
Producers also have the less than enviable job of soothing frayed egos and dealing with problems that may occur between the director and stars on the set. When directors and stars can’t agree on the way a project is developing, one or both of them may threaten to walk out of the project (or actually do it), citing creative differences. Sometimes, the producer has to replace the director or star, and sometimes, the producer can convince the warring parties to stick together long enough to finish the project (and hopefully do a great job despite any professional or personal disagreements between them).
Directors: The Bosses on the Set
After the producer, the director is usually the second most powerful person involved with a project. Directors typically do the following:
Help the casting director decide which actors to hire for the major roles
Control the creative aspects of the set, including lighting, background design, and camera angles
Work with the actors on a daily basis to shoot the various scenes in the script
Polish the final film prior to its official release
The lighting and set designers may create the actual backgrounds, but the director has the final say on whether to alter the look, add more lighting, or film the set from a particular angle. The director determines the overall mood and tone of the final production. The actors’ roles comprise just one of many pieces that the director has to juggle when completing a production.
After shooting a film, the director (along with the producer and, occasionally, the writer and an actor or two) remains with the project in post-production, where scenes may be cut or rearranged and sound effects and music added. In some cases, the director may need the actors to dub in their dialogue in scenes where the existing dialogue doesn’t sound right due to technical difficulties, an airplane flying overhead at the wrong time, or any number of problems.
Writers: The Idea Makers
No project gets done without a script, so every project relies heavily on the people who write (and rewrite) those scripts. Basically, writers convert a bunch of ideas (good or bad) into a cohesive script that tells a compelling story with interesting characters that (hopefully) the general public will want to pay money to see.
Writers may write a script from an original story, an existing story (such as a novel, poem, or short story), or an idea given to them by a director, producer, or another writer. No matter how a writer starts with an idea, the final result should be a script that a director can use to tell the beginning, middle, and end of a story and that a producer can use to generate interest (and money) to get the project rolling.
Sometimes, writers