THE PURPOSE OF THE TRADEVINE IS TO ENCOURAGE THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY TO READ THEIR TRADES: VARIETY, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, BACK STAGE, ETC. ENJOY LEARNING ABOUT YOUR INDUSTRY.

EACH FRIDAY, THE TRADEVINE SEEKS OUT A FEW OF THE INFORMATIVE TRADE ARTICLES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED. VISIT THE TRADE, ITSELF, FOR THE ENTIRE ARTICLE.

Hi everybody, I’m Ric Drasin of the Actors Reporter and welcome to the TradeVine. Our goal at the TradeVine is to help you stay informed and to keep up with some of the entertainment news you may have missed in the Trades, such as The Hollywood Reporter, Daily Variety, and Backstage.

Back Stage, March 1st – How To Make Your Mark On a Character During Pilot Season, by Warner Loughlin. Many of the characters in a pilot are what is call “vanilla,” meaning that they aren’t fully developed and fleshed out yet. The breakdown gives a bit of an indication of the character, but there is open room to cast any certain character as tall, thin, short, ethnic, blonde, older, younger, etc. Many times when casting had a particular type in mind for a role, they went in a completely different direction because the actor gave such an extraordinary read, and most of all, brought a uniqueness to the character that they hadn’t seen. That is where you make your mark. Look for your opportunity to put your brand on the character. When going over the sides, know the feelings and perspective that your character has about everything. Build a uniqueness from your perspective that no other actor can build. Take the vanilla out of the character and give ‘em a strawberry, marshmallow, or chocolate swirl something they’ve never seen before. Walk in that audition to give them something, never to get something. Don’t try to guess what they might want. Think about what you have to give.

Hollywood Reporter, March 4th – Sundance Institute to Present Four-Day Festival in Los Angeles, by Gregg Kilday. The Sundance Institute will host a four-day summer film festival in Los Angeles from Aug. 8-11. The event, which will take place at the Sundance Sunset Cinema in West Hollywood and additional venues throughout Los Angeles, will be called Next Weekend after the Next sidebar section that showcases stylistically adventurous films at the Sundance Film Festival. The programming will consist of eight unreleased feature films, drawn from that sidebar as well as other new films, no matter where they premiered. The weekend also will include a panel discussion about how the films got made, a shorts program and the annual ShortsLab: Los Angeles, a half-day short filmmaking workshop.

Daily Variety, March 4th – Ang Lee: Vfx Biz ‘Very Hard to Make Money,’ by Gordon Cox. Ang Lee, who incurred the ire of vfx artists by not mentioning the Oscar-winning visual effects on his pic during his acceptance speech for director, stayed stuck to his awards season line about vfx, praising the artists but condemning the costs. Lee said the research and development fees are so high, because when you use visual effects in a movie, you always want to see something you’ve never seen before. The homevideo extras on the “Life of Pi” Blu-ray show the intricacies of the film’s 3D and CGI work, including one extended edit of the shipwreck scene that illustrates the various layers of vfx work involved in the sequence. A movie like “Life of Pi” needs visual artists, and it seems there needs to be a new business plan between the studios and the visual effects company.

Well, that’s it for the TradeVine this week. I’m Ric Drasin. Thank you very much for watching. And remember, You heard it through the Tradevine!