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

• 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.
• 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.

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.