Ask Bob Blume – Column #14 Pet Peeves from Talent Reps

Bob discusses this week what are the ‘pet peeves’ that he and many other talent reps (agents & managers) have with respect to working with their actor/ clients. 

Bob opened up by welcoming all to this edition of his column and mentioning that the column is a benefit for The Actors Fund and elaborated on it. Then he announced that the column of the day would be a discussion of the “Pet Peeves”.

The pet peeves discussed were when talent doesn’t update their pictures, media and other materials on casting sites. He made the point that children should have new materials every year, whereas adults, should update every two years.

Next topic was when clients don’t confirm their auditions in a timely manner, especially when casting may be waiting for rep confirmation. This led to a discussion about waiting until the last minute to submit video auditions. A common problem for clients is not reading the casting instructions carefully, especially with respect to slates. Casting will delete auditions that don’t follow their instructions and begin to not trust the actor. 

Next, the video discussed matters of shooting horizontal (widescreen) for scenes or vertical. Bob made the point not to edit vertical and horizontal together as it may corrupt the video.

Bob’s acknowledged that the biggest pet peeve talent reps have is actors declining auditions for reasons that are NOT acceptable. Among these are not enough time; my equipment is not working; don’t have the money to get the proper tools. Ultimately, rep and client working relationships depend on communication. If cooperation from the client is non-existent the actor will go nowhere and eventually be dropped. With no money coming in or the movement of a career stalled in mid tract the relationship will fade away .

Bob thanked everyone for watching/reading the column; spoke again about The Actors Fund and to write to AskBobBlume@gmail.com with questions and to let him know their thoughts on the column. Goodbye!

Bob Blume’s company site is www.StepForwardEntertainment.com 

To Donate to The Actors Fund: www.actorsfund.org/stepforward

To Send in a question: askbobblume@gmail.com

To see ALL of the prior columns: ASK BOB BLUME columns