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Casting agents work directly with the production company and director of a film, TV show or commercial. They are hired by them to look for potential actors/actresses to audition for roles in the production that is being cast. The casting agents will send out a "break-down" of the roles they are seeking actors for to all the talent agents.
The talent agents then submit pictures and resumes of their
clients (actors) that fall into the descriptions of the roles sought by
the casting agents. From these submissions, casting agents will then
select the actors they want to audition and notify the talent agents,
set up the date and time for those actors for the respective roles
being cast.
Talent agents represent the actors. They submit the
actors' picture and resume to casting agencies and productions
companies. They do not cast the actors for an acting project.
In
the USA, franchised agents/agencies (talent agents/agencies that are
registered, approved and abide by SAG (Screen Actors Guild) rules) take
a 10% commission of any work their actors get. Also, franchised agents
negotiate the acting contract for the actors with the casting agencies
and/or production companies for a given role. They will add their
commission to whatever the actor gets. In other words, if an actor
gets, let's say, $1,000/8-hour day, the agent would say, "$1,000/day
plus 10%." So the production company pays the agent the $1,000 for the
actor plus $100 for the agent's commission.
Managers are very
much the same as talent agents except they cannot negotiate a contract
and usually take 15% to 20% commission for work they get for their
actors. Managers also represent smaller numbers of actors allowing
them to focus more on those actors, doing public relations, publicity,
promotions, etc. for them.
In the USA, other than franchised
agents, lawyers are the only other people who can negotiate acting
contracts. Managers use lawyers for negotiating acting contracts.
However, presently in China, legitimate agents take 20% commission.
Other shadier agents will take anywhere from 40%-60% commission.
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