Chapter 10
Talent Agents & Managers
Introduction
This chapter reviews the delicate business aspects associated with producers’ vital relationships with talent and their representatives. Two effective metaphors for this relationship are the relationships between a general contractor of a construction project and the craftspeople, and that between a symphony’s conductor and the orchestra’s performers.
Like a general contractor, the best producers are familiar with, and consequently respectful of, the many talents necessary to create their projects. As a group, the talent the producer attaches will make many more creative contributions to each project than does the producer. Writers, directors, actors, cinematographers, composers, set designers, special effects, unit production managers (UPMs), editors, assistant directors (ADs), costumers, make-up artists, casting directors, transportation specialists, and many other critically important people contribute their creative brilliance to each project.
Each of these talents is like a construction project’s subcontractor in many respects. The artist maintains independent relationships with the producer—each responsible for performing according to the terms of the relationship—and contributes a crucial service that affects the entire project. Further, just as a building project would be hurt if the general contractor personally handled the plumbing, electrical, or some other building aspect, so would producers hurt their film projects if they did not delegate each critical responsibility, such as directing, acting, and editing, to others.
The producer-talent relationship is also like an orchestra whose performers must be sensitive to each other in addition to the conductor. At certain moments, the brass section must sound like one overwhelming instrument, not the trumpet section sounding distinct from the baritones or the French horns from the trombones. Brilliance, if it is out of harmony with other creative elements, ruins the creation. A stunning set design that is incongruous with its story’s action, costumes, and color is counterproductive to the project. The producer, like a conductor, should balance all of the project’s elements to create the audience’s greatest emotional impact. Even during principal photography, though all eyes must be on the director, it is good for all to remember that the director is also a talent who was brought into the project by the independent producer. And to whom is the producer accountable? Always the audience. If the audience is pleased so are the distributors, the production team, and all other stakeholders.
Great projects are created by a team of artists who contribute their inspired personal interpretation, within the story universe and parameters provided by the producer, and are harmonically tempered by all other key craft providers. For a producer to engage such a team of talent may seem improbable. Doing it consistently well, under the inevitable creative and financial pressure that accompanies each project’s creation, is a clear indication of seasoned genius. Steady-handed veteran producers like Gary Goetzman, Frank Marshall, Brian Grazer, and others consistently select, inspire, and negotiate great talent teams for their projects. These producers commence from a foundation of respecting their co-creators’ talent, the necessity for contributing brilliance by empowering their independent expression and treating them fairly, which naturally draws the best from them.
Creation in its most celebrated form is both intimate and delicate. Losing oneself in the work and celebrating in the personal and collective triumphs is possible largely because of the temper and tenor of the producer. The producer establishes the universe in which everyone works. When producers are committed, skillful, valiant, wise, grateful, patient, merciful, generous, and being true to the project’s creative demands, then the wrenching, chaotic frenzy that seems to necessarily settle into each project’s creation can actually be sweet when participants reflect back on it.
This chapter focuses on the business aspects of the fragile and crucial task producers undertake to engage talent relationships that stir their enthusiasm for the story, give them the creative freedom to perform, and motivate them both creatively and financially to give the ultimate expression of the story’s entertainment fire.
Agents vs. Managers
Most producers do not understand the difference between agents and managers, and it is crucial to creating an effective creative team. An agent works for a talent agency which is licensed by the state and gives them the legal right to solicit employment for their clients and negotiate their deals.
Managers do not have to be employed by a management company and can work on their own. Their sole function is to provide career guidance and development strategies. Managers are not allowed to negotiate agreements. Managers have the legal freedom to attach themselves as producers to projects they secure for their talent – and may even assist in securing further financing.
The Relationship Evolution
Because writers were discussed in Chapter 9, this chapter considers other talent relationships, especially those involving directors and principal actors.
Attaching a Director
Director selection usually commences at one of the following development steps:
- The producer attaches a director at the start of their development process, which can be from option of story idea, life rights, treatment, or screenplay. At this beginning point, the director becomes an intimate creative partner with the producer in the project’s vision, development and creation.
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The producer attaches the director after the story is substantially developed, as well as most other elements necessary to bring a project close to beginning its preproduction. The selection of the director at this point is based on discovering a director with a vision and passion for the project that is complementary with the producer’s, has the proven skill necessary to deliver an audience-electrifying story, and has sufficient key-territory confidence from distributors.
Before either option being implemented, the potential directors’ prior projects should be screened and studied in the context of the project in development. Further, discussions/meetings with the bond company and distributors concerning these directors and their projects become important sources of information.
The primary purpose of the bond company discussions/meetings is to vet the reliability of the directors to come in on budget and schedule and to discover any problems past producers might have had working with them.
- The two primary purposes of the distributor discussion/meetings are (1) for distributors to inform the producer relative of marketing and relationship advantages that each director being considered could bring to their territory and (2) to advance each distributor’s commitment through their participation in the selection process.
Though producers have a single preferred director, they should have five or more on their consideration list.
Attaching Actors
The process with attaching actor talent is similar, but it typically happens later in the development process than attaching the director. The director is the producer’s key visionary to create and deliver the project. The producer and director must be in synch with the actor talent to be attached, in counsel with distributor relationships. The director is always a major component in attracting actors. They want a director who will give them the confidence they need, knowing they will be treated with seasoned care, respect, and be given the crucial freedom to deliver a life-brimming character that will thrill audiences.
Attaching the actor talent deserves close distributor counsel in each major territory to consider likely effect on their audiences. The likely earnings impact is crucial to know before attaching talent.
Meetings with Talent, Agents, and Managers
Each project is a new story, a unique creation, and a new business venture—and its producers must assemble a new team of co-creators.
It is essential for producers to raise sufficient development capital to have the story very close to a shooting script and to have development funding, ideally in some form of bank facilitated production financing that allows the producer to make pay-or-play contingent offers or holding-fee deals to attach talent. Having this capital before meetings with director and actor(s) can be essential to a successful meeting outcome.
Neither talent nor their agents/managers should be placed in a position to waste their time with projects that have scripts that may be years before they are ready to produce, or projects without the funding necessary to fully engage the project’s distributors and full production and distribution financing.
On the other hand, producers’ first principal objective is to test each major talent’s creative affinity for the project, especially director and lead cast, before negotiating the financial aspects of the relationship. Ideally, producers first need a creative meeting.
The purpose of the creative meeting is to obtain the most essential element in the producer’s evaluation: how the talent feels about and envisions the story. Beyond reviewing their preceding projects and possibly discussions with prior producers and/or directors, it is in these creative meetings that producers can receive a clear revelation of a project’s director and lead cast creative energy for a project.
Fortunately, most seasoned producers have direct contact with major talent from prior projects or through people they know who will put them in direct contact with major director and cast talent. When creative meetings are held, it is always best if the talent’s agents/managers are informed before the meeting.
During these creative meetings, the producer’s conduct should clearly represent the following:
- The meeting is confidential to those attending.
- The meeting is exclusively to explore possible interest in the material.
- No representation will be made to anyone outside the production company that the talent has been contacted regarding the project or that any relationship exists between the talent and the project, the producer, or the production company.
- The producer will not talk with the talent about schedule, money, or other deal points without the agent’s/manager’s participation.
- Should there be future project discussions, these will be with the agent’s/manager’s participation.
- It is always best to take creative meetings before business meetings with the knowledge and participation of the talent’s agent/manager.
- Once the essential creative meetings are finished, the producer has all the crucial creative information and prepares to negotiate the deal.
Attorneys as Agents
Talent with brand-significant names may use their attorneys in negotiations along with their agents. As stated previously, managers are not allowed to legally negotiate agreements. Other major talent may use only their agents, and still others use only their attorneys. Just as agents become expert in the legal aspects of deal making, some attorneys become exceptional in talent negotiations. For some talent, their attorney may be their agent.
Planning the Deal
Some members of the production team join during the development/packaging phase. These include writers, directors, line-producer or UPM, production designers, and others busy developing the project often months before preproduction officially begins. This includes lead acting talent who may be attached early to assure their schedule and for the producer to receive the value-benefits of their project commitment. When planning the proposed talents’ deal structures, it is best for producers to create the production portion of the deal terms first, then the development/packaging terms. The producer first discovers what may be a fair fee for the performer’s production services, keeping in mind the talent’s current quote (usually what they were last paid for ether a studio-level project or an independent project), in context with the project’s projected gross, its budget, and the services and time demanded of the talent. The talent’s fee, then, should be within the bounds of the production budget, or that talent should not be considered unless he or she is willing to consider a deal less than their current quotes.
Development/Packaging Negotiation
It is essential that the production terms are agreed upon first, including the schedule, the payment amount (including points), the talent’s credits, and all other associated benefits. Once the production terms are agreed upon, the stage is set for development/packaging terms. The production portion of the relationship will not commence until after the project has been completely developed/packaged.
The agreement’s development/packaging period typically will last somewhere between 3 to 6 months for actors, and 6 and 12 months for director. Producers should add a contingency period to the actual schedule to provide for unforeseen scheduling and other unexpected issues. These are often associated with script problems or talent schedule conflicts. As the greatest talent earnings are usually paid during production, negotiating these first allows much less pressure negotiating the development/packaging terms. These deal points include how long the development/packaging period will be; if there are to be extensions (and if there are, how long) and how much the fees will be, if any (sometimes referred to as a holding fee); and if this is an exclusive or nonexclusive deal (if it is exclusive, it actually binds the talent to a specific performing schedule).
If the deal is nonexclusive and has an unspecified start date, then it will have a significantly lower holding fee, or none at all, because it will not interfere with the talent’s other activities. Nonexclusive deals are easier to negotiate and have lower upfront fees, if any; however, they can be challenging in terms of schedule coordination as the development/packaging of the project matures.
If the producer binds the talent to a set performance schedule, the producer should assume that during the project’s development/packaging, the talent will turn down other offers that conflict with the agreed-upon schedule. Consequently, the producer should include a fair “pay-or-play” payment guarantee or a holding fee, which ensures that the talent will be paid, regardless of whether-or-not the talent actually performs the production services.
Advance fees cover two general categories: the expenses incurred by the talent and representatives to investigate and negotiate the deal and talent compensation for the value the producer receives in attaching the talent to the project.
Development fees are largely affected by talent participation during development. If they are hardly involved, these fees typically begin at 1 percent of the production performance fee and are often much higher than this. For example, if a director’s production fee is $3 million, the corresponding development fee would be at least $30,000. Most directors and writers also provide services in a project’s continuing development and will be paid fees commensurate with their services and guild requirements.
Mature production companies typically have generous financial elasticity to match the demands of their deals. In contrast, newer production companies may be limited to rigid development budgets. In every case, though, talent should receive fair value for their participation. Producers with budgetary restraints will likely need to entice their talent with additional profit participation. The critical producer objective in these negotiations is not to end up with the maximum points or profits, but to attach the ultimate team who feel appreciated, well treated, and motivated/incented to deliver high-value participation.
Points Participation
It can be an advantage to the project to have the director and principal cast receive part of their fees as profit participation in the project. Nothing is more valuable than increasing talent commitment and enthusiasm in their telling of a great story.
Because points are most often represented by a percentage, producers should first calculate the projected value of these points in future income by applying the points percentage to the sales breakdown of the producer’s gross profit. This provides talent and their representatives a critical point of reference when evaluating the producer’s offer. Such representations should always be given with the explanation that these are projected figures and cannot be guaranteed.
Definitions of long-form contract profit participation are typically 10 to 20 pages long. The fairest position for profit participants to partake is in the producer’s actual gross profits. This is all the money that the producer earns from a project before any of the producer’s overhead is deducted. This is the amount from which talent who have points in the project should participate.
Producers may finance in-house distribution units that directly license some of their projects’ rights. It is therefore fair for such producers to deduct distribution fees and actual out-of-pocket direct distribution expenses from the producer’s gross profits, before talent profit participations. This fee should yield these participants more income than from industry-independent distributors. The fairest deal is the one in which all parties participate at the same level.
Preparation of a Fair Deal
Like the genius strategist Napoleon, who is known for “winning his battles in his tent,” the industry’s most prosperous producers owe much of their success in every area to studied tent work. Before talent and their representatives are approached, producers should become thoroughly familiar with all the important aspects of each of the players under consideration. They should clearly measure the deal points and ensure they are in balance with the talent’s quote, the talent’s unique contributions, the project’s demands, and its budget.
All the producers’ research, analysis, and presentation preparation combine to assure them of the ultimate creative team attachment. In addition, it serves to reassure the talent and their representatives that they are appreciated, appropriately valued by the producer, are receiving a fair deal, and are beginning a relationship that is well planned. The beginning of this relationship should be reaffirmed in the producer’s documentation and deal performance.
Agents/Managers as Creative Resources
Agents, managers, talent, and yes, even attorneys can be exceptional creative resources for producers, both inside and outside their agencies and firms. In seeking to make allies of these important resources, a studied approach will yield a producer easier negotiations, fairer deals, and projects with talent who are more content to deliver their maximum creative capacities. This approach will also help the producer avoid difficult negotiating deadlocks and development delays.
Talent Reserve
Before producers should begin their first-choice talent negotiations, their secondary talent offers should be completely prepared and ready to negotiate. Having done this, producers create at least two advantages for themselves: they won’t be negatively influenced in the negotiations because they rely exclusively on a single talent, and if the need arises, the producer is prepared to approach secondary talent without time loss. It often seems like the secondary choice would be a distant second. But this is not necessarily so, particularly when you look at the long list of distant seconds—many of whom consistently become absolute genius selections—in comparison with the producer’s first choice.
The Participation of the Producer’s Attorney
Following the preparation of a talent proposal, producers should present a written summary of the deal proposal to their attorneys for review and comments. For even the most experienced producers, these reviews are often very beneficial.
Further, new or obscure producers often benefit by allowing their attorneys to make the initial talent-agent contact. First impressions are important, and the point-of-reference of a substantive attorney and law firm is often more beneficial in the establishment of the relationship.
Chapter Postscript
The strongest tie that binds producers and talent is that together they turn great stories into wonderfully entertaining content. The most effective beginning for the producer-talent relationship is in initial meetings, in which each party can test the other’s creative affinity for a project, followed by deal-making meetings that have the blessing and participation of the talent’s agent, manager, or attorney. Research, planning, and preparation will help render talent attachment a more predictable experience.