Building Your Business in the Entertainment Industry

THE ACTOR’S HANDBOOK

RANDY BECKER

“Until one is committed there is always hesitancy, the chance to draw back, but this impulse should be resisted at all costs. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth – ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: The moment one definitively and passionately and unselfconsciously commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision to act, to create, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, material and spiritual assistance, which no man or woman could have dreamed would come his or her way.

Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it! Boldness has a genius, a power, and a magic in it. Embrace it. Begin it now…”

-Goethe

The business of acting is an exciting one. It involves a tremendous amount of dedication, persistence, confidence and, ultimately, patience, but, like any other business, if you commit fully to the journey and choose to be strategic at all times, the ride can be extremely rewarding.

What is essential to keep in mind is that actors are not like most other professionals. There is no boss, there is no steady paycheck, there are absolutely no rules of conduct…just YOU AND A THOUGHT, AN IDEA, A DESIRE…those are the tools you and all other actors have to begin your journey with.

Actors are entrepreneurs, and like all entrepreneurs, they must make something out of nothing, translate ideas into concrete results. Create a business where there was none before.

GOAL, KNOWLEDGE, ACTION PLAN. Every idea-turned-reality has these three elements, and your acting career can be no different…

Whether it is a skyscraper or a painting, a presidential candidacy or a hat, the path of deliberate creation is not different: GOAL, KNOWLEDGE, ACTION PLAN.

In this workbook, we will begin to crystallize these three concepts, as they relate to your specific journey, and put you on the path to building a healthy, sustainable business in the entertainment industry.

WHY LISTEN TO ME?

My name is Randy Becker and I have spent most of my adult life as a professional actor. With parents that grew up in New York City and instilled in their kids a great reverence and love for the theater, success meant one thing to me: Broadway. And success was not just something that I wanted, it was something I found myself needing. With no religious upbringing, only loose geographic affiliations and a burning desire to find an identity, success was a way to live forever; to exist in the minds and on the lips of those I most respected, even after my death. While I may have enjoyed exploring the human condition in the way that only actors do, what really drove every fiber of my being was the desire to achieve that mythical goal, that larger-than-life history-making way to get my parents attention…Broadway. Every decision, every thought, every moment of my day was filtered through the lense of that burning desire.

By the time I was 24 years old, I was, indeed, starring on Broadway in a Tony Award-winning play, and, for a brief moment, the toast of New York City.

I have spent most of my professional life as an award-winning actor, starring on Broadway in films and on television, but from the moment I achieved my life-long goal, things began to change. I did not have another goal in mind and my career reflected it. Some films, some TV, but no unified direction or sense of purpose.

I have since become a businessman operating in the entertainment industry. I quit acting to pursue a career as a producer, which led me to form a company where we represented screenwriters and produced their original material, giving them the opportunity to direct their own material. Additionally, I began an acting school. As an actor, I struggled to find a way to be pro-active. As a businessman, I didn’t exist unless I made things happen out of thin air. I soon began to realize that the same principals and methods that rule my way of life in business, apply to actors looking to move their careers forward. The book that follows is a practical manifestation of this idea. A guide to developing the foundation, tools and habits of a successful businessperson in the entertainment industry. It is designed to retrain you so you can wake up every morning and get to work, rather than wait around for others to throw you an audition or a job here and there. Like anything else, you must practice the discipline of working on a daily basis. Much of the work here is very time-consuming by design. Not only will the work itself be helpful, but more importantly, that act of doing the work each day will begin to change how you approach the business on a daily basis. It’s extremely rare to find a serious actor who wouldn’t work their ass off to get to where he/she wants to go. It’s just as rare, however, to find an actor who has a real handle on WHAT to do to truly move his/her career forward on a daily basis.
TAKING STOCK: CREATING A SOLID FOUNDATION

If your intention is to earn a living in this business, as an actor, there are three concepts that you must embrace, before we get started building or rebuilding your business.

You do have control over your career.
Your career is a business that you create, own & operate. You must work ON your business, in order to be given the opportunity to work IN the business.
YOU ARE NOT YOUR CAREER. Your career is not YOU. You are not defined by it, unless you choose to be. You do not have to be emotionally connected to it, unless you choose to be. You must separate yourself from your career, so you can give it the objective attention that it needs to flourish, or it will simply not be given the objective attention that it needs to flourish.

Nobody in this industry, or any industry, for that matter, will hire you because they like you or care about you or want to be friends with you…in fact, nobody in the industry wants to hire YOU at all. They want to buy what you are selling, or not…period.

When a vacuum salesman comes to your door, he may smile and dance for you, but it is his vacuum that you will or will not buy from him. Some salesmen are better at convincing you that you need his/her vacuum, some vacuums are simply more in line with your particular needs …the basic concept does not change. The most successful salesmen are the ones who have chosen their audience of potential buyers well, then allow the products to sell themselves.

With these basic assumptions under our belt, let’s begin building this business step by step.

SEEING YOUR CAREER AS A BUSINESS…A SHOE STORE

1. IDENTIFY DEPARTMENTS

a.Product Development (your artistic output is your product)

b.Sales/Marketing

c.Research and Development (create new opportunities, expand your product line)

d.Administration – Revenue flow. Providing the tools for all departments to run smoothly.

Note: One day you won’t be running the day-to-day, but you will always be responsible for it all.

Week 1 Assignment:

I. WHAT IS YOUR BUSINESS?

It is of vital importance that you continually reinforce the concept that your career is a business, a shop, a store that you are working to create.

Separate yourself from your career in the most stark and clear ways.

NAME IT:

(It could be “Randy Becker, Inc.” or it could be something more telling about the nature of your business…not relevant what you name it, as long as you embrace the idea that this new “corporation” now has a life of its own…and, like every other business, a name. It will be your job to serve this new corporation.)

CREATE A MISSION STATEMENT:

What is this business ultimately about? Be honest and take your time with this. Why are you an actor? What do you want to accomplish, what niche do you want to be filling, etc…

Note: Below is an example of a mission statement I recently created for the media company I founded, NexTv Entertainment…it makes my daily work clear and focused. Yours does not need to be this elaborate. Just begin to formulate the central focus of the business that you are creating. Play around with it until it begins to ring true. This is for you, so don’t bullshit yourself…nobody’s watching. This may change as you explore your company more deeply over the next few weeks.

Mission Statement:

NexTv Entertainment is a multi-faceted media company based in Los Angeles, CA with the mission of finding the best content (and talent) from around the world, then repackaging it for mainstream film and TV. It is our goal to help connect (and create) cutting-edge, pro-active content and content-creators to the most relevant people in the entertainment industry.

NexTv Goals:

Brand ourselves to filmmakers, writers and actors as the company that can connect them to the top circles in the entertainment industry
Brand ourselves to industry leaders as the company that can deliver highly developed talent.
Run 4 competitions per year.
Attract investment capital by Fall, 2010.
Build a huge online community of filmmakers, writers, and actors.
Continue to develop strategic alliances with the most powerful execs, agents, managers and vendors in the industry.
Launch The NexTv Online Channel in January, 2011
Launch NexTv Productions in January, 2011
Develop an exclusive relationship with a high-level talent Agency.
Establish a ‘Production Services’ portion of the company by summer 2011
Establish an exclusive relationship with an Equity Fund by 2012.

NexTv Entertainment was founded in early 2009. I began with 100 people on my database, no experience in creating competitions and $0 for overhead. Currently we have 15,000 subscribers to our weekly newsletter, 4,000 followers on FB and Twitter, have run three successful competitions and are being courted by several venture capital companies. The key has been keeping the mission simple and focused, then working in a strategic manner all day, without fail.

3. SET GOALS –

25-YEAR CAREER GOALS (Looking back over your long career, what have you accomplished…Be ambitious). Perhaps there is an actor's career that could be used as a guide.

5-year career goals(Be as specific and clear as possible – be ambitious and realistic). This will be the most relevant set of goals for now, the first real landmark destination on the map that you are creating.

5-YEAR FINANCIAL GOALS – how much will you be earning as an actor each year? What percentage of your revenue will come from acting?

I-YEAR GOALS

I-YEAR FINANCIAL GOALS

12-WEEK GOALS (What do you hope to accomplish by the end of this course.)

CREATE A LISTof the 10 shows/projects similar to the ones you see yourself doing in 5 years. The best way to determine a productive path is to know, specifically, what your destination is. Even those who want to focus on feature films should choose television shows to focus on at first (it is the best way to connect with the ‘buyers’ that are relevant to you.)

PROJECT

CASTING DIRECTOR

PRODUCER

Ex: LOST / April Webster / JJ Abrams

A great resource is imdbpro.com. This is a database that will give you all of the information you will need about projects you would like to target.

Take stock of all marketing material you have (including pictures, resumes, reels, cover-letter templates, etc…)

Make note of all revenue flowing IN and OUT of the company

(In order to mark improvement, you need to know where you are beginning. You may choose to keep this confidential).

Make a list of all industry relationships

NAME

POSITION

RELATIONSHIP

Ex: Joe Shmoe / President – Fox 2000 / I can call him personally

Take note of how much time you spend working on your career each day. Distinguish between time spent on the business and time spent on acting.

DAY / BUSINESS / CREATIVE
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY

Take 10 minutes each day to visualize yourself in 5 years having accomplished your goals.

WEEK 2

As in any other small business, one of the fundamental steps in building your business will be identifying WHAT you are selling, and WHO you are selling to.

What “products” does your store sell?
Is there a market for the products you are selling?
Who are the buyers for your products (i.e. Casting Directors)

I. WHAT PRODUCT ARE YOU BRINGING TO THE MARKET?

Nearly all roles in television and film can be broken down into a set of “stock characters” that get used and re-used in one form or another. While the lines may get blurred, it is useful to begin by seeing the marketplace in these stark terms…your buyers do (whether consciously or subconsciously).

FINDING YOUR BREAD-AND-BUTTER ROLES – BUILDING A BRAND

When your company begins generating a consistent flow of revenue, it will attract those people into your life who will provide opportunities to expand and “stretch your wings”…for now, being specific is key.

As actors, we value versatility, creativity, and the ability to tell a story effectively to all audiences. However, strategically, finding your niche within the business will give you a far greater chance at success…and success leads to expanded opportunities.

So, rather than working to be good at everything and to appeal to all buyers, become the actor that buyers think of every time they need a specific role filled.

Most successful players in this industry (and all industries) do it, from casting directors to film executives to producers. Joseph Middleton, for example, perhaps one of the top 5 feature film casting directors in the industry, has become the guy people turn to when they want to ‘discover new talent’….he does it well, has had success doing it, but, most importantly, he continues to get hired to do it. He made his name with films like AMERICAN PIE and DONNIE DARKO. Now, while his identity hasn’t changed, he has had the opportunities to branch out beyond his niche to films like THE BOURNE IDENTITY (and its related franchise), MR. AND MRS. SMTH and other blockbusters.

You need to find your identity, your ‘niche’ in this marketplace…your product.

Name the one, two or three roles that you currently perceive to be your BREAD-AND-BUTTER-ROLES...don’t edit yourself.

Ex: Quirky Best Friend (sitcoms)

______

Now, let’s do the empirical work to see how productive your current perception is.

What roles, that are actually out in the marketplacetoday, can you do as well as anyone else?
Keep a journal
Force yourself to watch different channels and shows than you usually would (Disney Channel, Sci-Fi Channel, etc…).
Take note of roles that you are perfect for.
Go to imdb.com to see who is casting the show.
This is not about what you WANT to play.
This is about examining the actual marketplace to discover your niche.

ROLE

PROJECT

CASTING DIRECTOR

ROLE

PROJECT

CASTING DIRECTOR

Look for patterns emerging (this may take a few weeks, so keep making notes as you watch TV and film).

Historical data: What roles do you get called in to audition for? What roles do you “book”?

List as many roles as you can recall in recent times:

ROLE/DESCRIPTION

PROJECT

CASTING DIRECTOR

Were You CAST?

Ex: Bad-ass cop / CSI MIAMI / Nan Dutton / Yes

By now you should be formulating a fairly clear picture of your Bread-and-Butter roles…

1. WACKY BEST FRIEND

II. IDENTIFYING YOUR BUYERS

CASTING DIRECTORS

You have identified examples of shows that you’d like to be on in 5 years (and the casting directors for these shows); you have identified shows that have your “bread-and-butter roles” in them (and the casting directors for these shows); you have identified roles that you have been called in for and/or cast as (and the casting directors involved).

The intersection of these lists is where your buyers are. These are the casting directors who are casting shows that are in line with your goals and are actually right for what you bring to the marketplace…all efforts from now on must be focused on these specific buyers…your TARGET LIST.

Create a target list of10 CASTING DIRECTORS

CASTING DIRECTOR / CONTACT INFO / CURRENT PROJECTS

AGENTS/MANAGERS

The same concepts must apply when searching for an agent or manager. Most actors distract themselves with irrelevant criteria for determining which agency to pursue. They ask around to see if they are considered good? Are they prestigious? Do they have clout in the industry?