Meet a Talent Agent, "What Teens Want", TV Producers' Boot Camp, NashCamp Songwriting Week Top July Media DatesWritten by Actorschecklist.com
Essence Magazine's annual music festival is in New Orleans through July 3 and has slated performers, speakers and seminars as part of its 35th anniversary celebration. The Thirty-ninth annual Montreux Jazz Festival takes place at foot of Swiss Alps this year in Montreux from July 1-16 and spans a wide musical spectrum. Screenwriter Steve Kaire has sold or optioned eight projects to major studios including Warners, Columbia, United Artists and Interscope. On July 2 he discusses "High Concept: Creating and Selling to Hollywood" at Alameda Writers Group Meeting in Glendale. Writing One-Hour Dramatic Teleplay is focus of a one-day workshop meeting on UCLA campus July 6 in Los Angeles. Los Angeles Area Emmy Nominations covering Broadcast and Cable Previews are set to be announced July 7 in Los Angeles. Meet Margaret Emory, talent agent for Dulcina Eisen Associates and columnist for "Ask an Agent" in Back Stage newspaper, in an evening that includes interactive on-camera demonstrations, on July 7 in New York. "Battle for HeArt Creative Roadshow," making stops in several cities, examines role Web is playing as both a change and transformation agent during a stop in Chicago on July 7. Professional and commercial media produced in Florida is previewed in "Best of Florida, Made in Florida" running July 8-10 in Downtown Fort Lauderdale. At July 9 "No Budget Film Workshop" in Los Angeles, attendees can learn how filmmakers like Christopher Nolan, Joe Carnahan, Darren Aronofsky, Marc Forster, and Tim Story launched careers with no-budget films. Youth culture experts and thought leaders from apparel and entertainment to music, gaming and publishing tackle marketing and selling to teenagers in a July 12 session titled "What Teens Want" taking place July 12 in New York City. This year American Black Film Festival is introducing a new networking event - ABFF Soap Box, a two-day event designed to highlight festival participants careers and projects - when it opens up a four day session, July 13-17 in Miami. After a welcoming cocktail party, classes, panels, chat sessions, and pitch sessions form "How to Beat Odds in Hollywood - 12 Steps to an Independent Film" with sessions running July 14-17 in Las Vegas. At Songwriters Guild of America Week, opening July 17 in Nashville, needs of both songwriter and performing songwriter are addressed through educational workshops and networking opportunities for both. At Diversity Film TV Market happening in Washington DC, attend business and industry-related seminars, meet and discuss potential sales and acquisitions from July 21-24. Henry Mancini Summer Music Festival showcases works of new, competing artists taking place July 23 to August 12 in Culver City. National Association of Broadcasters Management Development Seminar for TV Executives will be held July 24-29 in Evanston. KidFest opens July 25 in Winter Park and includes a Young Filmmakers’ Academy and screenings of unusual and classic children’s films until July 29. Songwriters in round can discuss and perform their songs in a casual setting at a BMI Acoustic Series on July 27 in New York City.
| | You Can't Not CommunicateWritten by Kevin Eikenberry
Most of us would like to be better communicators. As leaders, co-workers, team members and in all of other roles we play both professionally and personally, we know that communication is a major key to success.When we are frustrated or stymied by something, often better communication would have improved it. Consider new executive or manager who walks into their first meeting. Every movement is watched. Where they sit is analyzed. What they say is discussed later. Did they make declarative statements or ask questions? Did they smile? Were they quiet or too quiet? What about their tone of voice? Or consider seeing an old friend with a new business partner. You’ve not spent much time with new partner before. You care about your friend and so you are trying to build an informed opinion of their partner, so you observe them very carefully. Of course not every situation is this obvious, but in every situation we are all being observed as people try to truly understand our message. Yes, communication certainly is important – and valuable. And guess what? As these two examples clearly show, we can’t not communicate. Think about it. We communicate with our words, of course. Our eyes and our facial expressions convey many things. We communicate with tone of our voice, with our movements and hands. We even communicate when we are silent. The Paradox So it is a paradox to think that we are always communicating and yet we still want to improve our communications skills. Just because we do something all time, doesn’t mean we think about it all time. And if we are doing something without thinking about it, we are operating from habit. Habits are our helpers. They allow us to get through all of many tasks we encounter each day – many of which we do subconsciously. And while habits help us, sometimes they don’t serve us in ways we would most like. In those cases, we can adjust those habits. Making a Change If we want to think about improving our subconscious communication, it helps to think about ways we communicate. I mentioned a list above. Others have split up communication components into these segments: What we say How we say it How we look While I agree with those components I think it is also important for us to consider a fourth component too– what we don’t say.
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