Welcome to the TradeVine whose purpose is to encourage the entertainment industry to read their trades: Variety, Backstage, Hollywood Reporter, etc. Enjoy learning about your industry.
Each Friday, The TradeVine seeks out a few of the informative trade articles you may have missed. Please visit the trade, itself, for the entire article.
Backstage – Backstage – Are You Born With Talent?, by Joanne Baron and D.W. Brown
As acting teachers, we often hear students ask the question, “Do you think I have talent?” This answer can be powerful enough to make many aspirants begin or end the pursuit of an acting career.
There are those teachers who will answer with a simple yes or no, truly believing there is an exact answer. They feel some people are simply born with the raw talent and depth of imagination to act, while others just are not. And then there are teachers, like Sandy Meisner, who was known to say, “I can make a table act.” Or Stella Adler, who said, “Your talent is in your choices.”
There is a definition we use at our school to describe what talent is, which is the degree to which the student has the ability to enter into the imaginary world; in other words, the depth of someone’s imagination. Our personal philosophy is that a person’s raw talent may be great but without training, it will remain underdeveloped and create inconsistencies and a lack of confidence. We recognize that some people are born with a great degree of natural talent, but we find that in many cases, it’s necessary to cultivate the talent in order to develop the skill required for a professional career.
Read Entire Article Here
The Hollywood Reporter – Hollywood’s 50 Most Powerful Showrunners 2016, by Michael O’Connell
Yes, it’s THR’s annual rundown of those reigning and rising (alongside the swelling number of series), as stalwarts and upstarts alike — including the newbies behind ‘Stranger Things,’ ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ and ‘Underground’ — spill all.
TV’s scripted surge, which puts the number of original U.S. series well over 400 by 2016’s end, finally has created another, quieter phenomenon: L.A. may have more show-runners than taco trucks. A role once so rarefied and coveted that you’d have been hard-pressed to name 50 people who held it now has proliferated in the era of “Peak TV” to the point where it seems almost disrespectful to highlight such a small number as the 69 featured in this piece. But to stand out as a show-runner, one can’t simply write and produce. Those at the top of the game have upward of six series on the air (calm down, Greg Berlanti!), pull exceptional ratings (Game of Thrones’ 25 million-strong audience), keep viewers and awards voters talking (The Americans finally got its Emmy nominations) or have a vision so specific (Darren Star’s hip, un-TV Land Younger) that a network or streamer is willing to build a brand around their vision.
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Variety – Netflix Nabs Chris Rock for Two Comedy Specials in $40 Million Deal, by Elizabeth Wagmeister
Netflix has nabbed Chris Rock for two new stand-up comedy specials, the streaming giant announced on Thursday.
The service shelled out the big bucks for Rock with insiders telling Variety the two-special-deal is worth a whopping $40 million. Amazon, Hulu and HBO — where he has a long history with his late-night series “The Chris Rock Show” — were also bidding for the specials.
The Netflix specials marks Rock’s return to stand-up after an eight-year hiatus. Most recently, the comedian hosted the Oscars this year.
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