Talent Manager Wendy Alane Wright has released her new e-book “How To Break Into Show Business; Secrets Of A Hollywood Talent Manager.” Wendy Alane Wright is a Hollywood Talent Manager with WAW Entertainment. Her clients have appeared in numerous national commercials, movies, webisodes, short films, and on television networks such as ABC, NBC, Comedy Central, BIO, Lifetime, plus many more. Previous to being a Manager and a Talent Agent at Burn Down Entertainment, she assisted many high profile Managers, Agents and Publicists in the careers of Neil Patrick Harris, Johnny Galecki, Sarah Michelle Geller, The Four Tops, The Bee Gees, Meatloaf, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Guttenberg, The Cranberries Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Kenny Rogers, and Neil Diamond. Wendy is also a Recording Artist, Actress, Author and Music Producer all giving her a 360-degree perspective of the industry.
If you are going to be in Los Angeles this summer this 5-week audition bootcamp would be very valuable for your children. When meeting new kids, Agents are looking for kids that know how to speak up, make eye contact, be expressive, not shy and have fun with the material they are given to audition with.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN MY CHILD MEETS WITH AN AGENT?
A typical meeting with an agent looks like this. They say hello to you and your child. They ask you to have a seat in the lobby and want to speak with your child on their own. They do this because children tend to hide behind their parents when they are around and this would prevent the agents from seeing how the child does on their own. When a child is going into an audition or working on the set, the parent isn't going to be standing there in the way, so agents have to see if the child can carry on their own conversations without prompts from the parents.
The Agent typically brings just the child into their office and sits down across from them. The agent will ask your child questions like, "How old are you? What grade are you in?" The child will either answer with lots of energy and look directly at the agent while answering, which is great. OR the child will look down, mumble, speak too softly and not have much personality. This isn't very appealing to the agent. Shyness is absolutely NOT what we are looking for.
The agent will continue to ask questions and hope the child starts to speak up and get more vibrant. It's a good sign if the child does. It means it only takes a few seconds for that child to warm up to someone new, or new circumstances. That is a great skill because that is precisely what the child will have to do in every single audition the agent would be sending the child on.
The agent only wants to work with kids who have that skill, otherwise the child will go into the audition room, not impress the casting directors and someone else will book the job- meaning the agent won't make any money. That's not good.
The agent only wants to work with kids who have that skill, otherwise the child will go into the audition room, not impress the casting directors and someone else will book the job- meaning the agent won't make any money. That's not good.
So the third test will be the Agent handing the child a commercial script and asking the child to read it. That's called a COLD READING. It means the child has never seen dialogue before. There are a lot of professional techniques for doing a Cold Reading that I will discuss momentarily, but for now the most important thing the agent is looking for is enthusiasm and energy when they say the words on the page.
"My mommy makes me eat Waffles for Breakfast. She smothers them in syrup and gives me a tall glass Alta Dena milk to go with it. I love my mom, she's great!"
So the agent isn't expecting the child to memorize this yet, but they are hoping to see spark of excitement or mischief in the child's eyes, enthusiasm, lots of energy in the voice. Even if they screw up on the words they want to see personality!! It's the personality that matters first, and then the words.
They also hope the child looks up at the agent while they are speaking, says it with clarity and means it. They want to see a genuineness. If they see these things the agent will likely be interested in signing the child. If the child is energetic and can speak up great! The agent has just found another kid to work with who can maybe make the agency money.
On the other hand, if the child isn't enthusiastic, speaks kind of monotone, mumbles, or doesn't look up, the agent probably has made up their mind and is ready to send the child back to the parent and say thank you for coming.
If the agent really likes the child's look he/she may try one more time to redirect the child by saying, "can you say that with a big smile on your face?" And if the child does it the exact same way again, without correcting themselves, the interview is over. The agent will assume one of two things, 1)the child isn't ready and needs more training or 2) the child doesn't have the personality for this business. Either way the agent isn't interested and they have 10 more kids to see that day. In this case you will be quickly ushered out. It's up to you if you go get your child training and try again in 6 months.
If your child hasn't been kicked out of the office yet, the agent will sometimes ask for the paper back and ask the child to do it again without the paper. Most kids memorize really fast so they will notice if the child can or cannot memorize quickly, but that isn't critical. Now they want to see if your child has the general jist of what the ad is about and can say something similar to it but again, they are still looking mainly for how much personality the child puts into it.
They also hope the child looks up at the agent while they are speaking, says it with clarity and means it. They want to see a genuineness. If they see these things the agent will likely be interested in signing the child. If the child is energetic and can speak up great! The agent has just found another kid to work with who can maybe make the agency money.
On the other hand, if the child isn't enthusiastic, speaks kind of monotone, mumbles, or doesn't look up, the agent probably has made up their mind and is ready to send the child back to the parent and say thank you for coming.
If the agent really likes the child's look he/she may try one more time to redirect the child by saying, "can you say that with a big smile on your face?" And if the child does it the exact same way again, without correcting themselves, the interview is over. The agent will assume one of two things, 1)the child isn't ready and needs more training or 2) the child doesn't have the personality for this business. Either way the agent isn't interested and they have 10 more kids to see that day. In this case you will be quickly ushered out. It's up to you if you go get your child training and try again in 6 months.
If your child hasn't been kicked out of the office yet, the agent will sometimes ask for the paper back and ask the child to do it again without the paper. Most kids memorize really fast so they will notice if the child can or cannot memorize quickly, but that isn't critical. Now they want to see if your child has the general jist of what the ad is about and can say something similar to it but again, they are still looking mainly for how much personality the child puts into it.
The children that show energy and enthusiasm, can speak clearly and have fun with the material are the ones the agent will want to sign. You will be invited back into the room with the agent who will explain they are interested in signing your child. They will explain that your child needs headshots, training and must be available for the auditions they will be setting up for you. If you are interested in placing your child with the agency, they will give you a 1 year contract to fill out and have you create 3 online acting profiles for your child which the agent will use to submit to casting offices. (Actors Access, Casting Networks, Casting Frontier)
You will usually be handed a list of photographers you can go shoot professional headshots with and acting classes you should put your child into immediately. In the interview your kiddo may have done a pretty good job with the Cold Reading but they are going to need to get GREAT at it in order to compete without thousands of other children for the same job. Agents know the kids that nail the personality interviews, who can speak pretty well can learn techniques they need for reading commercial material. They will expect them to grow in their acting classes as they learn how to interact with the products and other actors.
Kids usually start their careers in commercials which then leads to small roles in TV and film and then to larger roles in TV and film. Some kids get series regular roles on TV programs while others do voice overs for cartoons and video games. Kids are very busy in this industry training and working. Thousands of kids across the country are trying to break into the business. The better trained and prepared your child is, the better chance they have of getting signed to a great agency.
If you are looking for an agency there are many companies that offer showcases to exhibit your children's talents in front of agencies. But they typically charge thousands of dollars and usually don't offer good enough training. I have seen kids at showcases come out of a 3 month training program and still not know they have to look up from the page when doing a cold reading audition for an agent. That makes me so mad because I know those parents paid $5,000- $10,000 to have their kids trained and seen by agents. If you put your child into 5 weeks of training with me and you'd better believe they will be ready to audition and interview with agents. It burns me up when parents get taken advantage of.
That's why...
I decided I will offer a 5-week Audition Bootcamp with an Agent Showcase for brand new kids. I do it several times a year. Unlike every other place out there I only charge $500. I refuse to over charge parents. I don't believe in it. My next training and showcase is coming up on June 20 - August 1, 2015. If you want to enroll your child email me for more information at wawentertainment@yahoo.com
That's why...
I decided I will offer a 5-week Audition Bootcamp with an Agent Showcase for brand new kids. I do it several times a year. Unlike every other place out there I only charge $500. I refuse to over charge parents. I don't believe in it. My next training and showcase is coming up on June 20 - August 1, 2015. If you want to enroll your child email me for more information at wawentertainment@yahoo.com
To see dates of the other workshops visit my training website regularly www.talenttrainingandperformancestudios.com
As always keep coming back to my Blog of insider information. I discover kids all the time, get them agents and get them working. Right now I'm excited because I found this gorgeous 9 year old kid in a rural town Mississippi. I spent a few month developing her skills, working with the incredible mother and now this stunner is signed to BMG Models, one of the largest and most reputable modeling agenices in the world. There are a lot of beautiful kids in the world. but they don't all get signed to BMG. You have to know what you are doing. Well now that I have mentioned her I simply have to show her to you:)
Read my Blog and Books, watch my You Tube Videos and take my advice. Great things can and will happen for you and your children. You will learn a lot from me so stay close!
WEBSITE
Wendy Alane Wright
Talent Manager
WAW Entertainment
wawentertainment@yahoo.com
Here is another interesting article from PARENTS.COM
http://www.parents.com/kids/style/modeling/child-model/
