Confessions Of A Casting Director

A must-have for any aspiring actor or stage parent––the definitive guide to breaking into film, television, theater, and even YouTube from a top casting director Packed with information that aspiring actors clamor for, this up-to-the-minute advice from a true expert is essential reading for anyone pursuing an acting career. Longtime casting director Jen Rudin demystifies the intimidating and constantly changing audition process, sharing insider tips on how to prepare for every type of audition, from musical theater, television (including reality TV), and film to voice-overs, animated movies, and even Web series. In this comprehensive guide, Rudin covers everything that today's actor needs to succeed on subjects like: finding an agent or manager, using technology to your advantage, understanding the world of child acting, living in New York versus L.A., turning a callback into an offer for the role, and many more. Every actor should walk into an audition room feeling confident and prepared, and this book is full of the dos and don'ts and surefire tricks to help turn rejection into that first big break. Complete with checklists, easy-to-follow game plans, and advice from successful actors, agents, and industry professionals, Confessions of a Casting Director is like having a private audition coach in your back pocket.

First published in 2013. Have you written the script for the next box office blockbuster or hit TV show and just need the right agent to sell it? Not sure whether to accept an if-come deal or a script commitment? Debating which manager is the right choice to steer your career? Well, worry no more...How to Manage Your Agent is a fun, friendly guide to the world of literary representation. Enter the inner sanctums of Hollywood's power-brokers and learn how they influence what pitches get bought, what projects get sold, and which writers get hired. Find tips from top-level executives, agents, managers, producers, and writers to help you maximize your own representation and kick your career into overdrive! You'll learn: How agents prioritize their client list... and ways to guarantee you're at the top; When to approach new representation... and what you need to capture their interest; Hollywood's secret buying schedule... and how to ensure you're on it; The truth about packaging... where it helps and when it hurts; Which agents are best for you... and where to find them; Advice on acing your first agent meeting... and why so many writers blow it; Managers' tricks for creating buzz... and when to use them yourself; How to fire your agent... without killing your career; When you don't need representation... and how to succeed without it. The value of good representation is undeniable-especially in a world where agents and managers control which projects (and careers) live or die. How to Manage Your Agent puts you on the inside track to get your work the attention it deserves!

SEVEN STRANGERS LIVING TOGETHER IN SIN CITY. IS IT ANY WONDER MTV'S THE REAL WORLD LAS VEGAS HAS HIT THE JACKPOT WITH ITS MOST OUTRAGEOUS AND DEBAUCHED SEASON YET? All bets are off when The Real World hits Las Vegas Strip for the original reality TV show's most decadent episodes so far. Here's all the beyond-the-scenes dish and dirt on Frank, Irulan, Alton, Brynn, Arissa, Steven, and Trishelle -- seven cast members who work their way through the seven deadly sins in grand style, all the while living in a luxury, high-roller suite in one of Las Vegas's hottest new hotel-casinos. Get the lowdown on the heat between Alton and Irulan and the Steven-Trishelle hook-up -- and find out whether the other roommates think these onscreen couplings will last. Find out which roommate everyone agrees was the sloppiest; who filled out their casting application while intoxicated; who regrets the hot, wet, bathroom threesome, and more. You saw them drinking, smoking, drinking, gambling, drinking, hooking up, passing out, then doing it all over again the next day...and the day after that...and the day after...Now find out what the cast and crew think of each other (or what they remember!) after it's all said and done...then fill out your own application for next season!

Top Hollywood Casting Director Harriet Greenspan helps demystify the casting process for young actors and their parents, guiding them on their journey to book roles in television, movies and theater. Harriet Greenspan casts projects for all the major cable youth networks including Nickelodeon, The Disney Channel, The Hub and The Cartoon Networks.

Theater veteran and acting teacher Joanna Merlin has written the definitive guide to auditioning for stage and screen, bringing to it a valuable dual perspective. She has spent her career on both sides of the auditioning process, both as an award-winning casting director who has worked with Harold Prince, Bernard Bertolucci, and James Ivory, and as an accomplished actor herself. In this highly informative and accessible book, Merlin provides everything the actor needs to achieve self-confidence and artistic honesty–from the most basic practical tips to an in-depth framework for preparing a part. Filled with advice from the most esteemed people in the business, such as James Lapine, Nora Ephron, and Stephen Sondheim, and charged with tremendous wisdom and compassion, this indispensable resource will arm the reader to face an actor's greatest challenge: getting the part.

"From his humble beginnings on The Mike Walsh Show as the 'snake boy of St Ives', Craig Bennett really has seen, done and reported on it all. In this delightfully honest book he takes us through his early days of fawning over the classic stars of Australian TV; from working as a cadet reporter at News Limited to his bubbly and breathless entertainment reporting on Studio 10. Bennett shows us life behind the scenes through the eyes of a gossip reporter, sparing no details! His heartwarming and witty commentary his adventures and the people he meets along the way will have you shrieking with laughter and clutching your pearls in disbelief. Bars and bed-hopping; beauties and beasts. People that have shaped Australian television and international celebrities. This book delves beyond what the public sees and opens up the lives of those who have shaped our TV, radio and movie experience. It shares the explosive truth behind the scandals we love to love, and dishes the dirt on those we love to hate! This is a candid, uplifting and at sometimes outrageous memoir from a man who has seen how the rich, powerful and influential live - and survived to talk about it! Behind-the-scenes insight in to the Australian media scene. Intergenerational appeal - Covers 4 decades of Australian TV and radio. A unique perspective from a media veteran. Part biography, part confession, it touches not only on this recognisable face's life but also of the myriad celebrities around him." --Publisher's website.

A provocative and urgent essay collection that asks how we can live with hope in “an age of ecocide” Paul Kingsnorth was once an activist—an ardent environmentalist. He fought against rampant development and the depredations of a corporate world that seemed hell-bent on ignoring a looming climate crisis in its relentless pursuit of profit. But as the environmental movement began to focus on “sustainability” rather than the defense of wild places for their own sake and as global conditions worsened, he grew disenchanted with the movement that he once embraced. He gave up what he saw as the false hope that residents of the First World would ever make the kind of sacrifices that might avert the severe consequences of climate change. Full of grief and fury as well as passionate, lyrical evocations of nature and the wild, Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist gathers the wave-making essays that have charted the change in Kingsnorth’s thinking. In them he articulates a new vision that he calls “dark ecology,” which stands firmly in opposition to the belief that technology can save us, and he argues for a renewed balance between the human and nonhuman worlds. This iconoclastic, fearless, and ultimately hopeful book, which includes the much-discussed “Uncivilization” manifesto, asks hard questions about how we’ve lived and how we should live.

Is this new land a place where magics really happen? From Gregory Maguire, the acclaimed author of Wicked, comes his much-anticipated second novel, a brilliant and provocative retelling of the timeless Cinderella tale. In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings.... When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats.... We all have heard the story of Cinderella, the beautiful child cast out to slave among the ashes. But what of her stepsisters, the homely pair exiled into ignominy by the fame of their lovely sibling? What fate befell those untouched by beauty . . . and what curses accompanied Cinderella's exquisite looks? Extreme beauty is an affliction Set against the rich backdrop of seventeenth-century Holland, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister tells the story of Iris, an unlikely heroine who finds herself swept from the lowly streets of Haarlem to a strange world of wealth, artifice, and ambition. Iris's path quickly becomes intertwined with that of Clara, the mysterious and unnaturally beautiful girl destined to become her sister. Clara was the prettiest child, but was her life the prettiest tale? While Clara retreats to the cinders of the family hearth, burning all memories of her past, Iris seeks out the shadowy secrets of her new household--and the treacherous truth of her former life. God and Satan snarling at each other like dogs.... Imps and fairy godmotbers trying to undo each other's work. How we try to pin the world between opposite extremes! Far more than a mere fairy-tale, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is a novel of beauty and betrayal, illusion and understanding, reminding us that deception can be unearthed--and love unveiled--in the most unexpected of places.