The New Business of Acting: How to Build a Career in a Changing Landscape

by Brad Lemack, Isabel Sanford (Foreword by)

Overview

In an expanded and updated follow up to his popular, first book, The Business of Acting: Learn the Skills You Need to Build the Career You Want, talent manager Brad Lemack offers both young, new-to-the-business and "working" actors a vital perspective on the changing landscape in which they seek to launch and grow their professional careers. The New Business of Acting: Create and Launch an Action Plan for Career Success teaches actors how to be smart, pro-active and strategic throughout their career journeys. Lemack teaches actors the critical, non-performance skills they need to build the careers they want — and how to apply those skills in positive, professional and productive ways.

Back Stage calls The Business of Acting a "must read" for actors. The New Business of Acting explores the revolution taking place in how business is conducted and how those dramatic changes impact how actors must conduct the business of their own careers.

Certain to become another "must read," this empowering new book builds on the lessons taught in The Business of Acting, while addressing how to apply those lessons to the digital and economic landscape that is the "new" business of acting.

Key chapters explore the changing roles of agents and manager, as well as the new demands on casting directors in the new landscape. Readers will learn the art of managing expectations, a required skill in learning how to act (and when not to) on the global Internet stage of self-submission opportunities.

Creating and launching an action plan for success requires a perspective and an education on how to use the tools available to you and how to be a smart actor, always, along the journey.

It's not about talent and performance; it's about planning and process.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780971541054
Publisher:	Ingenuity Press
Publication date:	09/01/2010
Pages:	225
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Brad established Lemack & Company Talent Management/Public Relations in 1983, after working as a publicity executive for TV producer Norman Lear's production company. He has been involved with talent management and entertainment PR for nearly 30 years. Clients range from TV stars Isabel Sanford and Sherman Hemsley to pop culture icons Village People. His first book is The Business of Acting: Learn the Skills You Need to Build the Career You Want. He is also a professor of performing arts and communication studies at Emerson College and hosts the Web TV series "Inside the Business of Acting.”

Isabel Sanford won an Emmy Award as Best Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Louise "Weezy” Jefferson in the long-running comedy hit "The Jeffersons.” She originally created the role for Norman Lear's ground-breaking series "All in the Family.” Four years later, she and husband George (played by Sherman Hemsley) were spun off into a ground-breaking series of their own.

"The Jeffersons” ran a record breaking 11 seasons on CBS-TV and is still seen today in worldwide syndication.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements xiii

Foreword Isabel Sanford xv

Preface xix

Introduction 1

1 The Transition from Student to Working Professional 5

2 Skills to Build a Career On in The New Business of Acting 17

3 The Art of the Head Shot: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words and a Potential Opportunity 29

4 The Business of Talent Representation: A Perspective on the New Landscape 43

5 The Business of Talent Casting in the New Landscape 58

6 Self-Submitting: The Art of Selectivity in Pursuing Casting Opportunities 73

7 Unions and Actors 87

8 An Actor's Resume and Bio: Create Critical Work-in-Progress Tools that Define Your Unique Brand and Your Potential 111

9 Emotional, Physical and Fiscal Fitness in the New Landscape 123

10 It's All About the Plan: Create and Launch your Action Plan for Career Success 157

11 Notes for the Beginning of Your Journey 177

12 An Actor's Code of Ethics 179

13 Resources for Actors 183

14 Websites Referenced in The New Business of Acting 185

15 The Last Word 187

Notes 189

Appendix: About the Author 191

Index 195

Editorial Reviews

"... details the practical considerations of being a performer... with excellent tools that can aid performers in the preparation and execution of a steady ascent in the industry... a must read." — Back Stage



"... a clarifying voice with a deep and compassionate understanding of the actor's journey with a wealth of valuable information to share in the business and in life." — SAG Foundation

From the Publisher