Actors' screen images have too often stolen the focus of attention from their behind-the-scenes working conditions. In "Negotiating Hollywood", Danae Clark begins to fill this gap in film history by providing a rich historical account of actors' labour struggles in 1930s Hollywood. For many years, one of the dominant approaches to film studies has been the "star studies" approach, like auteurism or biography wherein one actor or director becomes the object of study. Clark argues for a cultural studies approach, as she investigates both the individual and collective political conflicts that actors encountered within the Hollywood production system in the 1930s. She reveals the contradictory position of actors caught in the forces between production and consumption, representation and self-representation, their role as images and their occupation as labourers. Taking the formation of the Screen Actors Guild in 1933 as its investigative centrepiece, "Negotiating Hollywood" examines the ways in which actors' contracts, studio labour policies and public relations efforts, films, fan magazines, and other documents were all involved in actors' struggles to assert their labour power and define their own images. Clark supplies information not only on stars, but on screen extras, whose role in the Hollywood film industry has remained hitherto undocumented. "Negotiating Hollywood" should be of appeal to individuals interested in actor labour, film history and cultural studies.

Hollywood Dealmaking has become the go-to resource for new and experienced entertainment attorneys, agent trainees, business affairs executives, and creative executives. Entertainment attorneys and Hollywood insiders Dina Appleton and Daniel Yankelevits explain the negotiation techniques and strategies of entertainment dealmaking and detail the interests and roles of producers, writers, actors, directors, agents, and studio employees in crafting a deal. This new edition captures the dramatic changes over the past five years in the film and television industry landscape, with two new chapters: "Reality Television" details the sources of revenue, syndication possibilities, and format sales of these shows as well as the talent deals that are made, and the "Internet/New Media" chapter delves into new digital formats such as mobile phones, game consoles, video-on-demand, and web-based apps, and explains where today's revenues are generated, where the industry is headed, and talent negotiation issues. All the ins and outs of negotiating are explained, including back ends, gross and adjusted gross profits, deferments, box office bonuses, copyrights, and much more. This easy-to-follow reference is packed with expert insights on distribution, licensing, and merchandising. The book's invaluable resource section includes definitions of lingo for acquisition agreements and employment deals, twelve ready-to-use sample contracts, and a directory of entertainment attorneys in both New York and Los Angeles. In Hollywood Dealmaking, readers will recognize the key players in the process, understand the "lingo" of crafting deals, learn how to negotiate agreements for the option and purchase of books and screenplays, be able to negotiate employment deals for all members of a film or television crew, understand payment terms and bonuses, and be able to register copyrights in scripts and other literary works. Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, publishes a broad range of books on the visual and performing arts, with emphasis on the business of art. Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.

"I wish I could have had this book when I was starting out in the business. An invaluable reference work." —Alan Poul, producer, Westworld The legal resources of studios and networks are legendary, often intimidating independent producers, writers, actors, directors, agents, and others as they try to navigate through the maze of legal details. This invaluable reference presents the interests of talent as well as the point of view of creative executives, producers, entertainment attorneys, agents and managers, and major guilds—making clear the role that each plays in the dealmaking process. Readers will find expert insights to talent and production deals for television, feature film, video, and the Internet, as well as an in-depth overview of net profits and other forms of contingent compensation. Hollywood Dealmaking, Third Edition, also addresses digital and new platforms, changes resulting from new union agreements, and the evolution in feature film back-end (profit participation) deals. In addition, this comprehensive guide includes: Explanations of employment deals Details of rights acquisition Basics of copyright law Sample contracts and forms Glossary of industry lingo and terminology And much more! Peppered with facts on the deals of superstar players and with summaries in each section to clarify complex legal issues, Hollywood Dealmaking, Third Edition, is an essential resource for industry novices and veterans alike who want to sharpen their negotiation skills and finalize the deals they have been seeking.

Before Liz Smith and Perez Hilton became household names in the world of celebrity gossip, before Rush Limbaugh became the voice of conservatism, there was Hedda Hopper. In 1938, this 52-year-old struggling actress rose to fame and influence writing an incendiary gossip column, “Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood,” that appeared in the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers throughout Hollywood’s golden age. Often eviscerating moviemakers and stars, her column earned her a nasty reputation in the film industry while winning a legion of some 32 million fans, whose avid support established her as the voice of small-town America. Yet Hopper sought not only to build her career as a gossip columnist but also to push her agenda of staunch moral and political conservatism, using her column to argue against U.S. entry into World War II, uphold traditional views of sex and marriage, defend racist roles for African Americans, and enthusiastically support the Hollywood blacklist. While usually dismissed as an eccentric crank, Jennifer Frost argues that Hopper has had a profound and lasting influence on popular and political culture and should be viewed as a pivotal popularizer of conservatism. The first book to explore Hopper’s gossip career and the public’s response to both her column and her politics, Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood illustrates how the conservative gossip maven contributed mightily to the public understanding of film, while providing a platform for women to voice political views within a traditionally masculine public realm. Jennifer Frost builds the case that, as practiced by Hopper and her readers, Hollywood gossip shaped key developments in American movies and movie culture, newspaper journalism and conservative politics, along with the culture of gossip itself, all of which continue to play out today. Read a review of the book from the Chronicle of Higher Education blog, Tenured Radical.

A history of the Hollywood film industry as a modern system of labor, this book reveals an important untold story of an influential twentieth-century workplace. Ronny Regev argues that the Hollywood studio system institutionalized creative labor by systemizing and standardizing the work of actors, directors, writers, and cinematographers, meshing artistic sensibilities with the efficiency-minded rationale of industrial capitalism. The employees of the studios emerged as a new class: they were wage laborers with enormous salaries, artists subjected to budgets and supervision, stars bound by contracts. As such, these workers--people like Clark Gable, Katharine Hepburn, and Anita Loos--were the outliers in the American workforce, an extraordinary working class. Through extensive use of oral histories, personal correspondence, studio archives, and the papers of leading Hollywood luminaries as well as their less-known contemporaries, Regev demonstrates that, as part of their contribution to popular culture, Hollywood studios such as Paramount, Warner Bros., and MGM cultivated a new form of labor, one that made work seem like fantasy.

An intriguing look at how the American film industry imposed the rating system upon itself to control competition from films independently produced and distributed.

“This book is a must-have resource for anyone looking to break into Hollywood or seasoned veterans who need a quick reference guide.”––Matt Belloni, Founding Partner of Puck News and host of The Town with Matthew Belloni The legal resources of studios and networks are legendary, often intimidating independent producers, writers, actors, directors, agents, and others as they try to navigate through the intricate maze in negotiations. This invaluable reference presents the interests of talent as well as the point of view of creative executives, producers, entertainment attorneys, agents and managers, and major guilds—making clear the role that each plays in the deal-making process. Readers will find expert insights to talent and production deals for television, feature film, major streaming platforms, and other digital media, as well as an in-depth overview of net profits and other forms of contingent compensation. Hollywood Dealmaking, Fourth Edition, also addresses changes resulting from new union agreements, and the evolution in deals as worldwide streaming platforms and FAST channels erode the past dominance of cable and linear television. In addition, this comprehensive guide includes: Basics of copyright law and impacts of recent legislation and court decisions on the deal-making landscape New section on non-writing executive producer (NWEP) deals Explanations of employment deals Details of rights acquisition Sample contracts and forms Timely new negotiating tips on the evolving landscape straight from industry insiders Deal considerations of new technologies such as generative AI Glossary of industry lingo and terminology And much more! Peppered with facts on the deals of superstar players and with summaries in each section to clarify complex legal issues, Hollywood Dealmaking is an essential resource for industry novices and veterans alike who want to sharpen their negotiation skills and successfully close each deal.