There is no doubt that the quality of a filmmaker’s script is a paramount consideration in order for an indie division to consider the script, as well as validation from a trusted professional, such as an attorney or another reputable talent agent.

It is also important for a film to already have at least one key attachment already committed to the film, such as a reputable director or actor. Filmmakers also have to have produced a short for their project.

How do indie filmmakers attract A-list talent to their film? A pay-or-play offer is definitely required. This is where private funding or a foreign sales agent is used to back financial offers to stars.

Lets start by saying that if you’re thought is to finance the film yourself, this is a darn near impossible task. There are not enough payday loans in the world to finance the distribution of a film, especially an indie film, never mind paying the actors, camera personnel, etc.

How much do agencies receive for packaging? They will usually charge a percentage on commissionable elements (writers, directors etc who are clients) – this is around the 10% mark, as well as charging a packaging fee if the film was financed with the assistance of the agency. Packaging fees are often in the vicinity of two percent of the budget of the project, with a floor.

Agencies will often distribute films domestically, as well as placing the films with foreign sales agents. The sales fee charge is a percentage of the sales price and is usually about 10 percent.

Naturally, indie divisions are also concerned with ancillaries flowing from the films, such as sequels, TV applications, stage adaptations, and game and mobile content.

A similar “packaging” system operates with TV.

Packaging fees can be much more lucrative for an agency than straight commissions from clients because fees include participation in the back-end. An agency will usually receive a percentage of the license fee of the show payable when an episode is produced, a percentage of the budget of the show, which is recoupable when the show is in a net profit position and a double figure percentage of the back-end, when the show is syndicated.

The great thing about this model is that studios pay the packaging fees – which are built into the cost of the show. Studios are often happy to pay these fees because agencies often put multiple elements together and act as a development executive.

Gene is a talent agent and lawyer. He has a law degree with honours, and a business degree. He is a member of the Beverly Hills Bar Association.

Every significant opportunity of mine has come through a relationship I either sought out or happened by chance. Finding these figures to help you is often referred to as having mentors, but that term makes me cringe because it sounds so cheesy, hierarchical, a little too intimate and also limiting because having more than one mentor almost sounds promiscuous. “Mentor” is like having a serious girlfriend…and when you start out in entertainment you can’t be tied down like that, need to play the field and get different points of view & tips.

I prefer the term “supporter” or someone who is available for guidance because it lends itself to a more professional/friendship relationship that can be casual and develops naturally among the multiple people you find yourself having a connection with and trusting across your professional & social life.

To get started building your network of potential supporters, you should comb your existing contacts of professors, friends, family, and co-workers for any people that are connected/have connections to the entertainment business in any facet and pick their brains and learn as much as possible about what they do and let them know what you’re interested in…advice is free and if they like you they’ll go out of their way to call in a favor or make an introduction.

In my case, I got my first job out of college working in the mailroom at Endeavor, because I played basketball in NY with Tom Cavanaugh (yep, “ED” the bowling alley lawyer) and he set me up on an interview with his agent, Brian Swardstrom, a partner at Endeavor at the time…If I had approached him for help because I knew he was an actor I think he’d have been less inclined, but having conversations naturally, eventually my interests came up and he was inclined to offer an intro.

Another example of how you never know which meetings or relationships will lead to opportunities was how I got my next position at CAA…it came shortly after starting at Endeavor through a college buddy of mine who was a mimbo but phenom golfer and said he had a relationship with this old guy from his country club who used to be powerful in Hollywood…and that he could make an intro for me if I was interested in talking to him.

Next thing I know I had the opportunity to have lunch with one of the original founders of CAA. The CAA founder was then semi-retired and significantly aged, but still active in various digital/media investments. I listened closely to everything he had to say and asked questions about how he got started in entertainment and the history of CAA, as well as what I should do/could read to become successful…and not to be mean, because I really admire him and his career, but he kept drooling out the side of his mouth which made me very distracted and almost compelled me to hold my hand out to catch it while he talked…

Anyway, his advice to me was to stay at a smaller agency like Endeavor and be successful and then move over to a larger firm like CAA…but I wasn’t happy at Endeavor because the culture didn’t really suit me (I could be fratty, but they were an annoying, obnoxious kind of fratty) so I emailed the founder that afternoon thanking him for lunch and his advice, but letting him know that I was steadfast in achieving my goal of working at CAA because I wanted to learn from the best…

The next evening I got an email (pasted below), which in a weird coincidence/chance of fate was my last day at Endeavor, because it wasn’t working out on the TV Literary desk I was on and I was unhappy with the people I was working with…

—– Original Message —–
From: “Lovett, Richard”
To: XXXX
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2004 3:45 PM
Subject: RE: CONFIDENTIAL – Liam Buckley

Dear XXXX,

I hope all is well. As always, I appreciate your support.

We would love to meet with Liam Buckley. I think that the best thing
would be for him simply to call me directly and I will make arrangements
for the correct meetings. He would be meeting with those who run our
training program, which I will explain to him when he calls.

Thanks again and I hope all is well with you.

Richard

—–Original Message—–
From: XXXX
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2004 10:39 AM
To: Lovett, Richard
Subject: CONFIDENTIAL – Liam Buckley

Dear Richard,

I am sending this to you ‘CONFIDENTIALLY’ as I would respect your
opinion on the best way for me to handle a response to the following ‘e-mail’ from
Liam Buckley.

I had never met Liam Buckley until I had lunch with him yesterday. I had this
lunch because the son of a fellow Bel-Air CC member who I have known for
some time was friends with Liam at the University of Pennsylvania, where
my friend’s son still attends. He asked me if I would please meet Liam and
try to advise him. As I am always willing to mentor young people I agreed
for him to have Liam call me and arrange to meet and talk with him.

I was extremely impressed with Liam and the way he handles himself and
his clear vision as to what he wants for his future. He also has read all the
contemporary books on the agency business and had interned in the summer
at ICM in New York (where he is from) before being introduced to and being
hired by Endeavor. At Endeavor he is an assistant in the Television Literary Department.
His goal is to function as an agent in the MotionPicture Literary Department.

As you can see from the note to me, I encouraged him to stay at Endeavor, as I
thought I could reach agent status more quickly, and then he could explore
approaching CAA. I could tell that he understood CAA and admires and
respects what you do and how you do it, and that is why he wanted to explore it.

While I appreciate his thanks, I frankly did not expect him to bring up
CAA again, but I feel that I need to respond to him. I don’t know if it is
the right thing to do, or if he would want me to contact you this way, but I
was impressed enough with Liam, that I wanted to bring him to your attention.

I would appreciate it if you could ‘e-mail’ me back as how you think
would be the best way for me to respond to Liam at this time. Obviously, I
wouldn’t want to be the one to cause Liam a problem at Endeavor by
letting his interest in moving to CAA become public knowledge, so that is why I
asked for the ‘confidentiality’ between you and me.

I was very impressed to see CAA’s ever expanding list of Emmy nominees…Congratulations.

Warmest personal regards,

XXXX

For those unaware, Richard Lovett is the president of CAA, the top talent & literary agency. Feeling pretty disappointed after leaving Endeavor, seeing the email exchange with the president of CAA couldn’t have come at a better time and made me realize that every meeting and introduction is a potential interview so make the most of those opps.

On the other side, mishandling introductions and opportunities developed through relationships can be very costly and potentially haunting, particularly in entertainment because it’s such a small community….

Regrettably, I have a fitting example here from when I had just started as a floater at CAA.
My sister’s best friend’s boyfriend was in the same fraternity as a young talent agent at the Gersh Agency and he gave me his email which led to an informational breakfast at Nate N’ Al…pretty distant intro…and I found out over breakfast that the agent didn’t even remember who the guy from his fraternity was…

Breakfast went well and the agent had an interesting point of view…he asked me if I wanted to “F*** models and do coke with celebrities” or start earning money to buy a house and have a nice life…it reminded me of the scene in Glengarry Glen Ross with Alec Baldwin because he even pulled his car keys out on the table and said he drove a BMW X5 that “he owned, not leased.”

That Friday I got a call from the agent asking if I’d be interested in working for the head of Motion Pictures at Gersh who he had worked for and was his mentor…I didn’t want to leave CAA but I was excited to take the meeting so agreed to go for breakfast that Sunday at Le Petit Four on Sunset.

Unfortunately, I never made it to breakfast because I partied too hard Saturday night and woke up so hung-over that I called the restaurant to tell the senior agent that I couldn’t make it…but I couldn’t even get him on the phone, the waiter had to tell him…total disaster.

I emailed the agent explaining the situation but lied and said I had a family crisis that prevented me from making the meeting…he never responded and I knew he thought I was full of it.

I found out for sure a few months later when randomly a friend was seated next to him at a dinner party and somehow my name came up…The agent then referred to me as a “douche bag” and proceeded to tell the table the story of my blowing off the breakfast and lying about it.

In this case, I was just starting still so it actually was a great lesson because I’ll never forget how humiliating it was and think that I blew what might have been a long, rewarding relationship with someone successful in the entertainment business. Also, reputation is everything so you can’t afford to have your name tainted, especially when you’re trying to become established.

The ultimate point of these personal examples, is that when getting started you need to leverage every relationship you have and meet with as many people as possible and follow up appropriately and respectfully, because you never know where and when people might help you out or who they know…

Moving forward, this post aims to cover the first of a three-fer including:

• Legal requirements—business organization, certification requirements, talent agent representation agreement.
• Duties and responsibilities—just like the name says, duties and responsibilities of the agent (me) and principal, the latter of which being somewhat atypical because of the whole agent-to-a-minor deal.
• Principles and ethics—standards to maintain that are above-and-beyond legal requirements and which cover the special needs and goals of Menna and Mom.

Yeah, yeah, I know: not the most fun topics ever. I do think, though, that getting down with the nitty-gritty and not-so-fun is a good indicator of whether a profession is something that will be consistently engaging, right? I mean, if one actually likes the nerd-out, detailed stuff and the fame and glory are gravy, how can it fail to be the thing one loves 5, 10, or 15 years down the road when the big dividends accrue?

In the ‘what more do you want from me?’ department, let’s note that these are blog posts not treatises, so comprehensiveness should not be expected. Accuracy should be expected, though, and I am all-in for comments from readers who spot errors or feel something important was omitted.

Business Organization

An LLC is a fast and relatively easy way to get started with a business. These are the steps for a domestic LLC provided over at  D.C.’s government website:

• File Articles of Organization to register a limited liability company in DC. Many limited liability corporations work with an attorney to develop the Articles of Incorporation.
• Choose a registered agent, a person who will serve as the point of contact between your business and DC, and complete the Written Consent to Act as Registered Agent.
• Submit the forms and fee to the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs at 941 North Capitol Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002.

With that complete, an Employer Identification Number (EIN) is needed for tax purposes and can be applied for online. This is needed even without employees.

Regarding the articles of organization, the business purpose is reasonably broad. And, for those perfectionists out there, I’ll note that the level of organizational complexity, from business structure to how to obtain a quorum, is relative to the complexity of my business in the near-term; i.e. when things get going, I’ll make adjustments as necessary.

There are books on this topic and I could put a link to Amazon here for a book on forming a business, running a business, etc. but I don’t have any particular recommendations and hey, libraries are free.

Licensing

Living and working in D.C., I’m well apprised of the many levels of bureaucracy—from restriction to requirement, regulator to righteous-naysayer. Thus, quite surprisingly, there is no talent agency license required for representing a child-actor in Virginia, Maryland, or D.C. (See: Agency Licensing Detail at the Association of Talent Agents) There are some requirements for a D.C. sports agent and CA and NY have a heavy dose of standards for talent agents. I will be electing to adhere to standards and principles such as these, but being that I’m not legally obligated, these matters are better treated later under the heading ‘principles and ethics.’

Talent agent representation agreement

Here we get to the real nuts-and-bolts stuff: what will I do and what will I get in return? My primary role is as any agent’s, to procure employment for my client, Menna. In return I will be asking for significantly less than the industry standard. Additionally, and it’s a bit unorthodox, I will be insisting that the bulk of any monies earned after costs go toward a trust or some other vehicle to benefit Menna’s future, possibly a 529 Plan.

Of course, ‘what I will do’ goes well beyond activities directly associated with procuring employment. An agent can wear many hats and this should all be specified in a talent agent representation agreement or addendums thereto. Having a written record of the agreed responsibilities helps avoid confusion and upset clients. And, if there are associate activities—such as managing a client’s image, aka brand-management—that the agent doesn’t think is their job, this should be clear to the client who may well be expecting those services (and if they don’t at the start, they may well learn to). Again, there are some special measures taken for the fact that Menna is a minor and these should be reflected in the representation agreement.

Agents can be basically broken down into different categories, A, B, and C. An “A level” agency has the greatest power, “pull”, and prestige. Most new actors are not even considered by these top agencies because they mostly handle the big stars. The top five agencies in Hollywood are Creative Artists (CAA), The William Morris Agency (WMA), International Creative Management (ICM), United Talent Agency (UTA) and Endeavor. However in recent times, The William Morris Agency and Endeavor have joined forces to compete for the place as the number one agency in tinsel town. Yes, there are smaller boutique agencies in between these Hollywood powerhouses, but just about every major star you see in the movies or on television most likely are represented by one of these five agencies.

Most up and coming actors seek representation from agents on the B and C levels. Furthermore, a legitimate talent agent is always considered “SAG Franchised”, meaning they are licensed and registered with the main actor’s union, The Screen Actors Guild.A  talented individual is wasting his/her time with any unlicensed SAG talent agent. Legitimate agents receive 10% commission off the jobs they book for actors and never charge you upfront fees. However, many talent agents will have agreements in place for themselves for when they achieve extra deals for talented individuals, such as endorsements or sponsorships. For example, when an actor does commercials for a company, the agent will receive a percentage for how much the deal is worth and some royalties of how many commercials their client pursues in the future.

As a professional talent agent, you are ranked depending on how much wealth you can create for your clients, the agency you work for, experience, contacts, the years in the business and who you represent in the business. Through an actor’s eye, having an agent on a “higher level” can determine you getting a role (job) over another actor just as talented as you.

Professional talent agents are known to have great business savvy and expertise to negotiate contracts on how much money their clients receive from jobs and future projects. With this in mind follows the question of, what do talent agencies look for in a trainee and where do agents start their training?

In most cases, talent agencies will recruit graduates with a minimum of a four-year degree and relevant work experience. But it is also known that talent agencies favor people with professional educational achievements and who can bring more to the company in terms of skills and business knowledge, such as MBA and Law graduates.

The starting point for a prospective talent agent at an ‘A level’ agency is in the mailroom, where the individual spends four to six months sorting, routing and delivering mail, manuscripts, packages and internal documents to different departments of the company. While performing these day-to-day duties, trainees are given the opportunity to learn as much as possible about the agency’s various businesses and be able to rotate positions so that they have a taste of the different divisions of the organization.

The next step for a trainee is to become a floater. This is where a trainee acts as an assistant to agents in many departments on a temporary basis, to learn the skills required to be an effective assistant to the agency.

If you do well as an assistant, you are eligible to apply for a full time position, as an agent’s assistant, where you will work one-on-one with an agent on a regular basis to learn the ropes of how to be an effective agent within the company. If you then perform well in this role, your achievements will be reviewed by a selective team of senior agents to evaluate if you are worthy to work as a full time talent agent.

As a full time talent agent, most of your day will be spent trying to get auditions for your clients. There are many other factors that can determine them getting the role though, such as, do they fit the part of the role? How much will they get paid? The job of the agent at this point is to negotiate with other parties, such as studios, producers and directors, to ensure that the right deal is in place for his/her clients. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the talent agent to phone and secure deals, look through the “breakdowns” (a daily listing of all the acting roles the studios/casting directors are seeking) and submit pictures to casting directors, hoping to get a client in on an audition.

Finally, as in any occupation, you must have some experience in order to get the job, and the entertainment business is no different.

Realistically, working as a talent agent can be hard work, stressful and will be long hours, but if you want to work as an agent and represent actors, celebrities and models etc, it is not impossible. All you need is persistence, courage, motivation and to keep abreast of what is happening in your industry on a day to day basis to achieve first class results.