UN-REALITY SHOW

From Steven Soderbergh's And George Clooney's Section Eight production
company comes Unscripted, a new fictional series revealing the lives of
struggling actors in Hollywood.

http://www.hbo.com/events/unscripted/index.html

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THE WRITE STUFF

Novelist Rushdie condemns Britain for not protecting Sikh playwright

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041226/en_afp/
britainsikhsplay_041226172831

[click on link, then copy and paste line two at the end of it in the browser -
not sure why yahoo group does this. -Anup]
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Q&A WITH TV CASTING DIRECTOR (CD)

"...do you look at non-represented actors?

...Yes, I do. For the most part, we go through agents. It's just the way it is.
But
interestingly enough, and for whatever reasons, last year on Eve, we Taft-
Hartleyed so many people. It was usually always the smaller parts and we
certainly always had to justify to SAG what we were doing. I know a lot of
casting directors who won't even see anybody who is not SAG because they
don't want to get fined. You really have to—you know the Taft-Hartley
situation, right? The casting director has to prove to SAG that they auditioned
a certain number of actors and then to say why this non-SAG person got the
part. "

Part One: https://www.nowcasting.com/actorsink/article.php?articleID=380&
lastUpdate=20041215094737

"If a chair is sitting there, don't ask them if you should stand or sit. You
make
that decision. If you ask, they're usually going to say, "Go ahead and do
whatever you want." And by asking you've already given away some of your
power. The other thing I've noticed is that a lot of times the chair maybe
moved over to the right where another actor has put it out of their way. The
next actor will come in and sit in it figuring that's where the chair's supposed
to be. Don't. Command the space. You decide if you want to use the chair,
and where you want it. You decide what you're going to do rather than asking
the producers what you should do.

And then, don't shake hands with everybody. Producers really don't like that.
It's fine to say, "Hi, how are you?" being nice and friendly and all of that
stuff,
but they have twenty actors waiting in the lobby and they want to get on with
it.
So don't chitchat for a long period of time. After the initial, "hi, how are you
doing?" you pretty much should look to the casting director and ask, "Am I
reading with you?" or "Are you ready?" Or nod to them to let them know you're
ready. And get on with it. And then if they want to chat afterwards, then you've
already auditioned and that's fine. That gives them room. It's fine to say,
"Would you like to see anything else?" And sometimes that will open it up to
where they may direct you. "

Part Two: https://www.nowcasting.com/actorsink/article.php?articleID=381&
lastUpdate=20041216154832


The above is through their newsletter, so I will not be repeating their work
after this. Sign up on their site: http://www.nowcasting.com
-Anup
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NETFLIX vx. BLOCKBUSTER ONLINE

"...DVDs now representing more than 50% of all revenues for a Hollywood
film (e.g., equal to the total domestic, foreign and TV revenues),...

...So, what does DVD visionary Lieberfarb foresee in the future of the shiny
disc? You got it; video on demand, delivered over the Internet. Again, what's
at stake here is not just Blockbuster vs. Netflix, or TiVo vs. Amazon. It's the
very infrastructure of one half of the movie business, unfurling in parallel to
the digital delivery and projection systems that will eventually transform..."

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/fs/20041223/110384050400.html
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KEEP WATCHING THOSE FILMS

"He's [Martin Scorsese] not only one of the greatest filmmakers of all time,
but he's a film historian. The man has seen almost every film ever made, up
until 1980."

"You get an education while working with him, every single day," adds
DiCaprio. "You can ask him a question about a character or a way that a
scene should go, and he can show you 20 different examples of filmmakers
that have done that in the past. The way it's been done right and the way it's
been done wrong. It's an incredible learning experience."

http://www.filmstew.com/Content/Article.asp?ContentID=10437&Pg=2