TradeVine entertainment news highlights for week ending September 20th 2013 with Roxy Shih

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 Roxy Shih 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, Variety, and Backstage.

Back Stage, September 13th – Greenlighting Movies: A High-Risk Game, by Peter Bart. Studio executives are very talented at running for cover. Hence when a movie tanks it’s often impossible to determine who gave it the green light. Picking movies is a perilous job as revealed in a candid new memoir, “Musts, Maybes and Nevers,” by David Picker, a savvy executive who presided over the slates of United Artists, Warner Bros. and Columbia Pictures during his studio years. Picker’s smart decisions helped trigger such memorable films as Midnight Cowboy, and the James Bond sequels. But he also owns up to those projects he let get away. The Graduate, and American Graffiti among them. Modestly Picker writes: the history of Hollywood decision making is replete with people taking credit for things they had little responsibility for while distancing themselves from any disaster.

Hollywood Reporter, September 16th – Ben Affleck Responds to Batman Backlash: ‘I’m Very Tough,’ by Philiana Ng. Ben Affleck spoke candidly about his Batman casting on Monday’s Late Night With Jimmy Fallon including the flurry of Internet reactions that followed. Affleck was announced as Batman on Aug. 22nd, and reactions to his casting in the upcoming Warner Bros. feature ran from excitement to poking fun. Affleck was sure he could handle the backlash when the announcement hit. Affleck recalls seeing the first comment. It just goes, ‘Nooooooooo!’ Affleck had reservations about the role. It wasn’t until after he saw director Zack Snyder’s take on the character, a different version than the one in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy that he agreed. Showing true character, Affleck said of the criticism, you can’t say that before a movie comes out. It doesn’t matter what you think then, it matters what you think when you see the movie. Good advice.

Variety, September 13th – 5 Steps To Deciding What Acting Projects To Pursue, by Gwyn Gilliss. How does the Industry see you? What is your strongest talent? Do you love working on camera or do you shine more while on stage? A lot of actors who could be very successful are not clear about marketing their talent or where they should be doing so. Here are five ways of determining your most likely successful media and location.1. Your physical type. Does the camera love you? 2. Your training. What are you really trained to do? 3. Your own option. What do you do best and love? 4. In what media do you get cast most frequently now? 5. Where do you want to be in the future? Go to the markets that will give you the most opportunity and work. That means New York for theater and Los Angeles for primetime and film. The reality is you can work in any media if you’re trained and professional but the likelihood of being specifically cast in roles on primetime TV or in films is based as much on your appearance as on the brilliance of your talent.

I’m your host Roxy Shih. Thank you for watching. Please send any questions or comments to TradeVine@ActorsReporter.com And, remember, you heard it through the TradeVine.

The TradeVine is a weekly entertainment news highlights show on Actors Reporter, a channel on the Actors Podcast Network, a Pepper Jay Production.