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  • All Blogs/ Entertainment Industry Insights: Jan. 03 2023

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New Projects - New Year Sale - Changes to Audition Protocols - Production Boon - 2022/2023 Review

By Abigail Hardin, January 03, 2023

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Happy New Year, UTD!

I spent a lot of time thinking about the difference between resolutions vs manifesting. While there is room for both acts at this time of year, there are subtle differences that can achieve different things. More often than not, resolutions resolve to give up something negative, to change a habit, or to try to start a new one. Manifesting is more of an action toward making a dream or a goal a reality, to create the experience you want, to make it so.

To help you manifest your career goals this year, we're offering a New Year Sale on our ANNUAL GOLD plan. Read more below and start the year with focus and clarity.

Part of the key to manifesting is setting small tangible goals that support a larger goal. Rome wasn't built in a week and neither is your career. Set yourself up for success by creating 1-month goals, 3-month goals, 6-month goals, and 1-year goals. Give yourself the flexibility to know halfway through the year, those longterm goals might change.

By setting up short term goals (such as 3-month) think of 3-month goals as a business quarter. Most businesses set out goals for Q1, Q2, etc. At the end of the quarter they assess, did they meet their goals? If not, the company can pivot and change to a new strategy without wasting more valuable time on a plan that is not working. The same strategy should apply to your manifesting. Try something, stick with it, and if in three months you don't notice a change, then reassess the actions you are taking to achieve those 3-month goals and pivot to a new strategy. Or maybe the goal is too lofty or not in line with your core passion and drive. Whatever the case may be, after three months you are free to make a change.

Be sure to check out one of our upcoming free workshops. Our next topic is TAX TIME. We offer this super important workshop once a year. Start the year off with easy bookkeeping habits that will help make next year's taxes significantly easier and ensure that you get as many deductions as possible. As always at our workshops we'll have a Q&A where you can ask all of your career or Up-To-Date Actor related questions.

Let's manifest a great year!

New Year Sale 🎉

With pilot season just around the corner and theatre auditions headed back to in-person, start the year off with BOLD precise action! Let the Up-To-Date Actor help you be more informed and put the power back in your hands.

Take advantage of this once a year offer for 20% off of our ANNUAL GOLD subscription. This is the lowest price we offer for this plan. Providing you with all of the numerous features and resources of the Up-To-Date Actor for an extremely low cost of $10/month, this sale is offered for new paid subscriptions only once a year.

Put yourself center stage in 2023. Be the CEO of your career and get ready to move your artistry to the next level in 2023.

Looking Back / Looking Ahead

December and January are naturally two months of reflection. Where have we come from and where are we going? On the Film side of things, the resounding message from 2022 has been regarding the slow return to movie theatres and their bleak box offices numbers. Back in 2019, four studios grossed over a billion apiece, with Disney-Fox reaping $4.28 billion alone. In 2022, only three studios grossed $1 billion or more. While yes, audiences (especially adults) are not returning to theatres in as great of numbers, part of this is due to the lack of tent-pole releases in August - October. SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: DEAD RECKONING PART 1, THE FLASH, and AQUAMAN: THE LOST KINGDOM are just a few titles that are tied up in post-production and were pushed back to a 2023 release date.

We lost some major greats in 2022. Sidney Poitier and Angela Lansbury are just two of the countless notable legends that passed away last year. Take a moment to read their obituaries and scroll through this photo gallery. A toast to all of the legends and behind-the-scenes people who passed in 2022.

Speaking of things lost to us in 2022, here is a list of every show canceled by Netflix in 2022. Netflix is notorious for canceling some fan favorites (hello, 1899 😭) and doesn't seem keen to stop anytime soon.

40 productions opened on Broadway in 2022 (25 plays and 15 musicals). Take a look at Broadway's Year End review.

Looking Forward..... Here's a list of what's coming to Broadway in 2023. Make sure to look up any productions of interest on the Up-To-Date Actor for casting information, audition and networking opportunities, and more! Add them to your targets to learn about changes to production and any upcoming opportunities.

Lastly, it seems there is a lot of great content coming to the big and small screen in 2023.

Pilot Season & Upfronts

As we embark on the New Year, pilot season is fast approaching. Look for casting announcements to snowball in the coming weeks as the industry gets back from their winter wonderland vacations. There has been a lot of speculation surrounding pilot season and the many changes brought on by the pandemic. Part of that conversation is about Madison Avenue, advertising spending, and the ongoing conversation around in-person events.

Paramount, owner of CBS, Nickelodeon and Paramount+, is ditching their annual in-person event and “will be hosting a series of high-impact, intimate gatherings in April for each of our major agency partners and their clients in lieu of our traditional presence at Carnegie Hall,” said John Halley, the company's new president of U.S. ad sales, in a statement. “We believe this expanded format will prove more effective in facilitating our upcoming Upfront discussions.”

Tri-State Production Boon

New Jersey is looking to expand their Film/TV production with two new studio deals with Netflix and Lionsgate. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy unveiled Dec. 21 that Netflix has submitted the winning bid for a redevelopment plan for the long-shuttered former Army facility in Fort Monmouth, N.J., about 50 miles east of Trenton. The same day Lionsgate disclosed a pact with New Jersey Economic Development Authority to advance a plan to establish Lionsgate Newark Studios. That venture is billed as generating up to 600 jobs and up to $800 million in economic impact for Newark and the state.

Across the river, New York City's mayor, Eric Adams, has stressed the importance of the creative community to NYC's economy. Adams' Blueprint for Recovery, released in August, created a film council with a seat at the table for studios, producers, unions, and trade groups and mandated film industry liaisons at every city agency. With the new Deputy Film Commissioner, Kwame Amoaku, the city now has a highly visible go-to person for production. Addressing the logistical headaches of filming in NYC is key as competition grows — including from across the river in New Jersey — content spending dips, and production generally is squeezed by inflation, interest rates, and the ongoing cost of Covid contingencies and insurance. Read more on the 2022 NYC production number in this Q&A with Amoaku and Anne del Castillo, head of the Mayor's Office of Media & Entertainment (MOME).

Changes to Audition Protocols
New Self-Tape Guidelines for Low-Budget Projects

SAG-AFTRA has implemented new protections for the self-taping of auditions for low-budget productions. The move was made, the guild said, "to address members' concerns about this common yet frequently challenging practice." The new guidelines limit all low-budget projects to the reading of five script pages for a first self-taped audition, although additional pages can be requested for a callback or on zoom. A newly seated Self-Tape Committee will coordinate the ongoing work of various union committees around self-taping "with an eye toward added safety enhancements for other entertainment contracts," the guild said.

AEA Mandatory In-Person Auditions

New year, new Equity requirements: in a statement released via email to Actors' Equity Association members, the actor and stage manager union has announced that their "pandemic-era policy" allowing virtual-only open calls will come to an end this year. Beginning January 2, 2023, all required Equity Auditions must be held in person.

Employers are able to allow video submissions as an additional option, but video auditions alone will not fulfill Equity's contractual audition requirements. This measure is separate from the union's newly created pilot program, established by the recently ratified Production contract, that will allow for video submissions as an official part of Equity-required calls.

Now more than ever, I encourage you to research regional theatre seasons prior to an audition announcement. Find out what are the most produced plays in the upcoming season. If there is a production for a play or musical you are perfect for, reach out to the Artistic Director or In-House Casting Director. Don't wait for an EPA, especially now that there will be fewer virtual opportunities. Here is a recent blog with more info on how you can best direct submit for regional theatre projects and to theatre casting directors.

At the Office: Regional Theatre

Adding tragedy to trauma, The Kansas City Star has reported that Jeff Church, The Coterie Theatre's artistic director for more than 30 years, was found dead this weekend after he had resigned from his position amid sexual assault allegations. The cause of death has not yet been released by the medical examiner's office. Church's death followed days after social media posts alleging that Church was responsible for sexually assaulting young men. Following the allegations, The Coterie Theatre posted a statement that it had accepted Church's resignation and was committed to investigating the allegations.

More theatre companies have announced recent executive staff changes. Here are a few to note:

Women in Film

A pair of studies released Monday from San Diego State's annual The Celluloid Ceiling report and USC's Annenberg Inclusion Initiative showed few gains for women and people of color working in the film industry in 2022. In the SDSU study, which has tracked women's employment on the 250 top-grossing films for the past 25 years, this year's findings reveal that 11% of directors of 2022's 100 top-grossing domestic films were women, down 1% year-over-year. Among the top 250 films, that number rose to 18%, up 1%. Overall, women comprised 24% of all directors, writers, executive producers, editors and cinematographers working on the 250 top-grossing films of 2022, a 1% decline from 2021. In 1998, the first year of the Celluloid Ceiling report, that number was 17%.

Help support women in film by making an effort to see and support their films. Check out this list of upcoming 2023 & 2024 films directed by women.

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