Rising Stars Talent (310) 394-6360 Representing Kids, Teens, Adults and Amateur Athletes Owner, David Matis We are currently accepting submissions. Please mail photo and resume to: 1322 2nd St, Ste 25, Santa Monica, CA 90401 You may also email photos to davidmatis@risingstars.net
Home		NEWSLETTERS David's Book: 16 Chapters of Help and Advice Below you can read some excerpts from David Matis' past newsletters. KEEPING A GOOD PERSPECTIVE: As wonderful as it for your child to achieve some degree of success in commercials, movies and TV, a downside is possible. Namely, when parents begin to take this business and their child’s standing in it much too seriously. When this happens it gives all involved a bad name - not to mention how it may affect the child. What many parents fail to understand is just because a child stars in a movie, or lands a featured role in a series, or does a few commercials, it certainly doesn’t mean that the industry is now ready to roll over and put that child on a pedestal. In the over all scheme of the business, it’s just a job. It’s just a part. That’s all. And the odds are, someone else will be coming along very soon to fill the shoes of the ‘current’ hot kid actor. There are never more than a very small number of child actors who have ever carried any real clout to speak of. The adult side of things is not that all dissimilar - just more opportunity. You have to keep it all in perspective. One way to avoid this is to develop a policy about not getting into ‘the business’ when you are around other parents. In other words, if you find yourself on an audition or set and confronted with an over zealous parent frothing at the mouth about how much work their child has done or will do and how they know this and they know that, it might be a good idea to politely tell that person (with a smile) that you make it a personal policy to never discuss the business except in the most vague terms. An excellent suggestion for you and your child’s mental well being. How you approach this business is your business. Like wise, Billy Joe Bob and his mother sitting next to you at the audition have their own approach. What they’re doing, not doing, earning, losing, booking, winning, gambling on or regretting has nothing to do with you and your special circumstances. Veteran parents understand this. They have seen a few moms and dads go off the deep end with the endless analyzing, questioning and comparing that is so easy to fall into. Be careful with what you hear at the auditions. It is not always accurate. And much of what is said in that waiting room is heard by your child. Having a conversation is one thing, but sitting there desperately trying to analyze your child’s chances against someone else, or attempting to attach special meaning to a glance from a casting director is a direct road to the funny farm. Keep this simple and fun. Prepare for the audition. Go to the audition. Do the audition. Go home. Enjoy the experience. Talk to your agent or manager if you have questions. Repeat this mantra to yourself on occasion: “It’s not supposed to be so serious.” And keep this in mind: auditioning and booking jobs, like so many things in life, are affected by many, many factors. Only a small part of which are under your control. You and your child do the very best you can and that’s that!! Look at this way. If your child is in this business and has good, professional representation from an agent and manager, and is getting the opportunity to audition on a regular basis (based on age, experience, etc. etc.), you are doing very well indeed just to say that. If your child has a fair call back to audition ratio, then you are doing even better. If your child is being given the opportunity to audition for major lead roles, then you are in a very select class. If your child is getting call backs and serious consideration for those major projects, he or she deserves incredible praise and congratulations for just doing that. You and your child do the very best you can and that’s that!! Look at this way. If your child is in this business and has good, professional representation from an agent and manager, and is getting the opportunity to audition on a regular basis (based on age, experience, etc. etc.), you are doing very well indeed just to say that. If your child has a fair call back to audition ratio, then you are doing even better. If your child is being given the opportunity to audition for major lead roles, then you are in a very select class. If your child is getting call backs and serious consideration for those major projects, he or she deserves incredible praise and congratulations for just doing that. You do what you can do. It’s up to you, the actor, the agent and manager to present to the industry the very best package possible: photos, resumes, training, coaching, availability, experience and talent. That’s all. There’s nothing you can say to the casting director that will sway them one way or the other. There’s nothing another mother or father in the waiting room can do to influence who gets picked. The intangible in all of this is plain, old fashioned LUCK, being in the right place at the right time sort of thing. If you want a clear head about all of this, do the things you know you are supposed to do and beyond that, you have to let it go. If you don’t do those necessary things, then you have good reason to give your self a little kick. Because those things can make a difference. Back to top THE AGENT - MANAGER RELATIONSHIP Personal managers and talent agents play an integral and significant role in the day to day affairs of the television and motion picture industry. Talent agencies are tightly linked with managers in a variety of ways; the least of which being that managers are a well proven source of new clients. A new client may be defined as brand new raw talent fresh off the street, or a veteran, established young actor looking to make an agency change. Talent agents often call managers they work with and ask if they have new talent for them to see, or to inform the manager of a specific age bracket or type of actor they need to add to their talent list. The advantages to an agency and to the actor in this regard are numerous. In the first place, a good manager will have prescreened prospective talent and have that talent prepared and ready to go. From the actor’s perspective, the manager will have prescreened the agency by learning what a particular agencies true needs are. And if there are conflicting actors already on their list. A somewhat similar process takes place when a decision is made to switch from one agency to another. The manager will place calls or meet personally with various agencies to discuss possible meetings between agents and the actor. The manager’s job is to direct the talent to the best possible agency for that talent’s current needs. As the talent’s needs change, the agency selection is extremely important. Each talent should be signed with an agency that understands the goals of the individual. An example of this would be an established young actor who wishes to do only certain types of acting jobs such as guest staring roles and movies, but has no desire to commit to a long term series. Some agents may not wish to represent an actor under those conditions. Others will be more open. Under this scenario the manager’s task to ensure that both the talent and the agent’s needs are understood. Another factor which plays into the agent-manager relationship is the ‘behind the scenes’ activities which take place in an agency. Agents are, in many cases, always on the move. In other words, like any other work environment, an agent may be looking for a new job, looking for an upward move, being offered a more lucrative position or the chance to head an entire department. It is well known that Hollywood is a very small town. Word travels very fast. And because managers usually have many agent contacts and relationships within the business, it is not uncommon for managers to receive a phone call from an agency looking to fill a position and asking for recommendations or wanting information about an agent they may be considering. Managers often find themselves in the position of advising an agent on a career move, passing on important information regarding an agency they have worked with and even ‘selling’ an agent to an agency. Symbiotic is an appropriate term to use in defining the manager-agent relationship. They share information, gossip, changes, gossip, rumors and gossip going on within the industry. And yes, it’s all true, they really do ‘do lunch’. And many of the stereotypical traits of language, attitude and emotion of show biz people are based at least somewhat in truth. Sometimes they do refer to each other in such syrupy endearments as ‘dear’ or ‘sweetheart’. But these relationships are how show business works on a day to day basis. And that holds true from the top to the bottom. An agent or manager can have the greatest talent in town, but if that same agent or manager has no connection to real people, that talent is almost irrelevant. The little tidbits they pick up in conversations are often relevant and helpful to their clients. Information which often leads to major decisions concerning the actors they represent. Things like: who was recently fired at Do-Dah Agency, or why the plug was pulled on a certain project, or which casting director is handling the new Disney project, or information about the background of a new theatrical agent, or who is hot and who is not and who is retiring, or who has just opened up his or her own agency, or who has switched from being an agent to a manager - or vise versa, or who has the better contact with a particular casting director. This information often leads to major decisions concerning the actors they represent. When a manager is established as a respected professional, agents will rely on him to know exactly what the capabilities and short comings are of their mutual clients. Who can handle which role. Who has the best skills at a certain activity. Who can handle this or that type of dialogue. The agents will often rely on managers to make the decision as to whether an actor should be sent on certain auditions. The decisions the managers make are of course based on capabilities. But other factors to consider are: is this in the best interest of their client? Is the project worthy of the audition? Is this a good casting person to meet, even though the project is small or not a particularly good role? Because of the much higher numbers of clients an agent usually represent, most agents gratefully leave the day to day operations of handling clients to the managers. From auditioning to scheduling to coaching to photos to training to promotion to financial advice to providing information to encouragement to hand holding and on and on. Ultimately, problems and their expected resolutions will land on the manager’s desk. And because of the smaller number of clients managers represent, they have more time and incentive to pay close attention to their clients needs. As much as managers need to fulfill the expectations of the agents, this also works in reverse. Agents are very aware of the decision making power managers have regarding their clients and will work hard to meet their expectations. So, as you can see, agents and managers working hand in hand can be beneficial to their mutual clients. This of course does not hold true in all manager agent relationships. But for those who are established and have committed to long term business relationships, it is a given. Concerning auditions . . . Managers and agents often compare daily audition lists with each other. This is advantageous to both sides. Agencies know that managers usually work with several agents and often know of projects going on that they are not aware of. The manager will usually share this information even though he or she may not have a client represented by that agency. The sharing works both ways. The agent may be able to inform the manager of a project which suits one of his clients signed with another agency. A quick phone call or two may result in another audition for that client. The combined goal of the manager and agent is to obtain suitable auditions for their mutual clients. The manner in which that is accomplished is usually irrelevant.........short of crashing an audition without a set time from the casting director. That’s known to happen, but is not encouraged.  16 Chapters of Help and Advice ### Back to Top

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