Representing Talent: Hollywood Agents and the Making of Movies
Autor Violaine Rousselen Limba Engleză Hardback – 23 oct 2017
Audiences love the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, but beyond the red carpet and behind the velvet curtain exists a legion of individuals who make showbiz work: agents. Whether literary, talent, or indie film, agents are behind the scenes brokering power, handling mediation, and doing the deal-making that keeps Hollywood spinning. In Representing Talent, Violaine Roussel explores the little-known but decisive work of agents, turning the spotlight on how they help produce popular culture.
The book takes readers behind the scenes to observe the day-to-day activities of agents, revealing their influence on artistic careers and the prospects of Hollywood’s forthcoming projects. Agents are crucial to understanding how creative and economic power are intertwined in Hollywood today. They play a key role in the process by which artistic worth and economic value are evaluated and attributed to people and projects. Roussel’s fieldwork examines what “having relationships” really means for agents, and how they perform the relationship work that’s at the heart of their professional existence and success. Representing Talent helps us to understand the players behind the definition of entertainment itself, as well as behind its current transformations.
The book takes readers behind the scenes to observe the day-to-day activities of agents, revealing their influence on artistic careers and the prospects of Hollywood’s forthcoming projects. Agents are crucial to understanding how creative and economic power are intertwined in Hollywood today. They play a key role in the process by which artistic worth and economic value are evaluated and attributed to people and projects. Roussel’s fieldwork examines what “having relationships” really means for agents, and how they perform the relationship work that’s at the heart of their professional existence and success. Representing Talent helps us to understand the players behind the definition of entertainment itself, as well as behind its current transformations.
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9780226486802
ISBN-10: 022648680X
Pagini: 256
Ilustrații: 4 line drawings, 1 table
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 20 mm
Greutate: 0.48 kg
Ediția:1
Editura: University of Chicago Press
Colecția University of Chicago Press
ISBN-10: 022648680X
Pagini: 256
Ilustrații: 4 line drawings, 1 table
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 20 mm
Greutate: 0.48 kg
Ediția:1
Editura: University of Chicago Press
Colecția University of Chicago Press
Notă biografică
Violaine Roussel is professor of sociology at the University of Paris VIII and affiliated faculty at the University of Southern California. She is coeditor of Brokerage and Production in the American and French Entertainment Industries and How to Do Politics with Art and coauthor of Voicing Dissent: American Artists and the War on Iraq.
Cuprins
Prologue: An Agent at Work
Chapter One Introduction
Conclusive Word
Chapter One Introduction
The Invention of Agenting
Filling a Lacuna in the Sociology of Hollywood
Facing Stereotypes
In the Field with Hollywood Agents
What This Book Unveils: Agents and (E)valuation Communities
Chapter Two Mapping HollywoodFilling a Lacuna in the Sociology of Hollywood
Facing Stereotypes
In the Field with Hollywood Agents
What This Book Unveils: Agents and (E)valuation Communities
Agenting in Big versus Little Hollywood
“The Other Side:” Interdependent Transformations of Studios and Agencies
The New Reality of Agenting in Big Hollywood
Chapter Three The Making of Professionals in Talent Agencies“The Other Side:” Interdependent Transformations of Studios and Agencies
The New Reality of Agenting in Big Hollywood
“Fulfilling Somebody Else’s Dreams”
An Agent’s Initiatory Path
Under the Wing of a Mentor
Forming “Generations” in Hollywood
Chapter Four Agenting as Relationship WorkAn Agent’s Initiatory Path
Under the Wing of a Mentor
Forming “Generations” in Hollywood
The Meaning of Relationships
The Definition of an Agent’s Style
“Trust” between Agents and Production Professionals
Chapter Five Agents and Artists: Enchanted Bonds and Power RelationsThe Definition of an Agent’s Style
“Trust” between Agents and Production Professionals
Agents’ Emotional Competence
Controlling Talent?
Embedded Identities and Hierarchies
Chapter Six Naming Quality and Pricing TalentControlling Talent?
Embedded Identities and Hierarchies
Agents in Hollywood’s Evaluation Communities
“What It Takes to Get a Movie Made”
Pricing the Unique
Chapter Seven Agents of Change: The Formation of New Evaluation Communities“What It Takes to Get a Movie Made”
Pricing the Unique
Conclusive Word
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index
Notes
References
Index
Recenzii
“A masterful excursion into one of Hollywood’s least familiar professions—its talent agents. Through diligent fieldwork, Roussel reveals their work routines, career inspirations, and occupational aspirations, and how the industry’s organizational structure defines their scope. With nuance and sophistication, Roussel explains agents’ essential contribution to the artistic valuation of talent and elevates and enriches our understanding of Hollywood as culture producing industry.”
“Roussel provides a much-needed sociological intervention into the growing field of production studies. She uncovers a different Hollywood than the ones charted by predecessors Rosten and Gitlin. A model of situated ethnography, this book details the in-between cultural work—of relationships, mentorships, and evaluation communities—that industry uses to counteract the creative precarity foregrounded by other scholars.”
“Talent agents are surrounded by popular myth and misperception—but who are they really and what do they do? In this pathbreaking book, Roussel draws on interviews and behind-the-scenes observation to cast a detailed, ethnographic eye on the ‘show’ and ‘business’ of Hollywood agenting in the new media era. Across large, mid-size, and boutique firms, agents must connect talent to jobs by harnessing their own capacity to broker personal relationships within and across deeply hierarchical structures where a dizzying array of industry stakeholders compete for power and influence. How and why agents foster ‘professional intimacy,’ build reputations, negotiate deals, and place a value on talent in a media landscape that is both risk-averse and ever-shifting is the subject of this book. A sociological tour de force of great depth and sophistication, Representing Talent is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the high-stakes game of Hollywood cultural production today.”
“Roussel’s analysis of Hollywood’s power dynamic is perceptive and convincing. . .This book will not help readers to find the good agent who is clearly an indispensable requirement for a successful career in the movies, but it will help them to understand something of Hollywood’s inner workings.”