These days there’s a wide variety of modeling and acting agencies.
But how do you really choose an agency that will lead you to results?
We sat down for a conversation with Haim Shraga, one of the pioneers of personal talent management,
who gives us a glimpse of the secrets behind the scenes.
What makes a manager good in your eyes?
Intuition. In fact, it’s one of the only professions you can’t learn.
Either you have the bug or you don’t.. Many think it’s a relatively easy and cool job, but that’s only on paper.
A manager needs to find solutions in minimal time, create opportunities, think ahead down to the smallest details,
and see every actor for who they are. Every actor is a whole world and is treated individually.
What do the clients, advertisers and directors ask of you?
It’s important that the message in the brief comes across perfectly, and that’s why matching the talent to the product is crucial.
The brief varies according to the client — from comic actors, through familiar actors, to presenters who evoke emotion in us.
I know the talents personally, so I can say what each one’s strengths are and what value they can bring.
What’s the primary parameter for matching actors to campaigns?
The starting point is in ‘type casting’. In my view, many actors try to escape ‘type casting’,
but without an identity — that thing that distinguishes you and thanks to which you jump out at the casting director —
you might be in trouble and simply fall between the chairs.
Beyond a unique and memorable look, I examine the actor’s personality for the project: energy, charisma, special abilities and any added value.
There’s room for variety, as long as it comes across authentic, aesthetic and interesting.
There’s a tendency to think it’s easy to get into commercials compared to series?
A mistaken assumption. It’s work in every respect, like any work. It requires skill, ease in front of the camera and precision —
on one hand to bring your own interpretation and a memorable audition, and on the other to stay authentic.
You don’t have too much character work like in an audition for a series or film,
and especially in this era of remote auditions — you need to connect and bring purely yourself, without a casting director’s guidance.
Can you give me an example of a talent’s success with a major advertiser?
They approached us in search of a local presenter, with an excellent look, a good voice, not slick yet still pleasant.
Uri Shilo beat dozens of candidates and landed in the Spanish islands for a crazy shoot in a high-budget Trivago campaign.
The consideration that guides me all the time is either interest or respectable pay; if there isn’t one
of the two, it’s not relevant to us.
There are quite a few projects I’m proud of, but the gaps between how actors are treated in Israel versus abroad
we actually saw with Trivago.
What’s truly unique about your talent agency?
I’m a big believer in initiative and ideation.
I have access to most of the influential people in the market, so breaking boundaries is possible and tangible.
If I distill it — it’s the holy triangle: interest, persistence and personal management.
Artists always intrigue me. I truly enjoy what I do,
and I’m in control of every detail. So when there’s a diamond — I simply know how to polish it and be there for it, without filters
and at eye level.
The role of my talent agency requires handling quite a few challenges, and that requires human relations,
inspiration and teamwork with the industry’s experts, in media management, PR, contracts.
I know the talents so well that they also know they can rely on me on any matter.
Why is it so important to you to emphasize that you accompany your talents personally?
I don’t take for granted that there’s always someone who’s always with you, in better moments and in lesser ones — and there are such moments.
The work is at a very high volume, an unbelievable pace of tasks, so if you don’t have the manager who ties up loose ends —
you simply get lost and might sit on the shelf during your very best years.
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