Example Career: Talent Directors

Career Description

Audition and interview performers to select most appropriate talent for parts in stage, television, radio, or motion picture productions.

What Job Titles Talent Directors Might Have

• Artistic Director
• Casting Assistant
• Casting Associate
• Casting Director

What Talent Directors Do

• Review performer information, such as photos, resumes, voice tapes, videos, and union membership, to decide whom to audition for parts.
• Read scripts and confer with producers to determine the types and numbers of performers required for a given production.
• Select performers for roles or submit lists of suitable performers to producers or directors for final selection.
• Audition and interview performers to match their attributes to specific roles or to increase the pool of available acting talent.
• Maintain talent files that include information such as performers' specialties, past performances, and availability.
• Prepare actors for auditions by providing scripts and information about roles and casting requirements.
• Serve as liaisons between directors, actors, and agents.
• Attend or view productions to maintain knowledge of available actors.
• Negotiate contract agreements with performers, with agents, or between performers and agents or production companies.
• Contact agents and actors to provide notification of audition and performance opportunities and to set up audition times.
• Hire and supervise workers who help locate people with specified attributes and talents.
• Locate performers or extras for crowd and background scenes, and stand-ins or photo doubles for actors, by direct contact or through agents.

What Talent Directors Should Be Good At

• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.

What Talent Directors Should Be Interested In

• Artistic - Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.
• Enterprising - Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.

What Talent Directors Need to Learn

• Fine Arts - Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Communications and Media - Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.