Chapter 6: Talent Agenting in the Age of Conglomerates

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Violaine Roussel
University of California Press

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“Now, everything in the talent agency business is different forever,” commented a talent agent I interviewed after the announcement, in late 2013, of the acquisition of the sports marketing giant IMG (International Management Group) by the major agency WME (William Morris Endeavor). Indeed, in the past decade, Hollywood talent agencies have had to undergo drastic changes, for which they are also largely responsible. These changes are intrinsically connected to transformations that have simultaneously affected and been generated by the studios, who are the agencies’ counterparts on the production side. This organizational mutation creates consequences in creative terms: it directly affects...

6.1: Introduction
Overview of the chapter scope: analysis of midsize and large talent agencies, the recent structural changes they have undergone, and the effects of these changes on agents' own professional identity.
6.2: How Agency Growth Transforms Agenting
Changes in the agenting industry over the past several decades, including the rise of systematic “packaging” of talent to present to studios, the increase in intra-agency compartmentalization and specialization with the rise of new media, and the shrinking oligopoly presented by the major agencies.
6.3: Lessons from the Rise of the “Indie Film Agent”
The rise in importance of indie film agents in the 21st century, as they take on a more artistic and "producerial" role in arranging who will participate in a project and thus distances themselves from the image of the solely commercially-focused agent.
6.4: The “Lost” Art of Agenting?
The growing gap in modern Hollywood between sales- or corporate-focused talent agents, and agents whose self-definition focuses more on the creative dimension of bringing together artists for a collaboration.
6.5: Notes