It's a long road from concept to premiere for a project. Before creative talent can even deal with buyers, executives, producers and the people who can greenlight or torpedo their long-coddled project, they must first engage in a frustrating, peculiar rite of passage to find someone to represent them and their work to the marketplace. All talent have their ideals of what a representative should be like: honest, with integrity and a high regard for the client's unique and bountiful talent; but ruthless, dragon-slaying and loyal to a fault when negotiating with the buyer for money, rights and credit. Of course, representatives have their own fantasy standards for what comprises the perfect client. AWN asked the top agents, managers and lawyers working in the animation business today what they look for when signing new clients and what kind of relationships they value. Novices and established talent alike will be interested in all the factors representatives must consider before taking on a new client.

Harvey Harrison of Catalyst Agency looks for artistic talent and a good personality in new clients.

Harvey E. Harrison, Partner and Founder, Catalyst Agency
Harvey founded Catalyst, a literary and talent agency in 1996. He began his career as an entertainment attorney and continued as a business affairs executive before joining the Jim Preminger Agency in 1989. Catalyst represents all aspects of animation, digital and interactive media for motion pictures and television. More on Harrison's company can be found at www.catalystagency.com.

Catalyst is seeking artists with two main qualities: (1) Artistic talent about which we are passionate and (2) human beings with whom we would like to go on a long journey. Moreover, I designed Catalyst based upon a simple, single idea: it is the agency I would want if I were the client; consequently, we tend to attract clients who meet the criteria above.

At the same time, I must stress that current and future conditions in the animation media are more unpredictable, let us say fluid than ever before. I have seen it from a variety of angles from my 25 years in this field as agent, attorney, producer, studio head and executive at Columbia/TriStar. Also, I have been devoted to the digital entertainment media since their infancy, and those media grow and spread wildly. "fluid" may be the best term. So, I would add to the two criteria above that I seek collaboration, understanding, and versatility in a client. The conditions are just too, well, "fluid" for anything less.

Potential clients need to show samples of their work in forms that are as creative as the work itself... whether on a Website, a CD, a videotape, on a good ol' script... but the work must be presented in a way that SELLS the talent who created it. I believe that our business — our society really — suffers from what I call "chronic attentional panic"... that queasy, jittery feeling that you have to hurry up and do something other than what you are doing right now... hence, multitasking! In selling today and in the future, the client and I must hit the buyer fast and effectively... the talent's sample must accomplish this task. For those who want the entire book-length message on what I recommend, the Catalyst site contains "For The Creative Mind," a text I use when I teach art students "Professional Studies," a course designed to prepare them for the adventures of the Real World.

Matthew Ellis of Metropolis Agency thinks about how a potential client will fit into the current marketplace.

Matthew Ellis, The Metropolis Agency
Matthew Ellis is a talent agent at The Metropolis Agency specializing in the representation of artists and writers working in animation and children’s programming. Ellis works closely with Metropolis' founder and president John Goldsmith. Prior to joining Metropolis, Ellis was an agent at The Irv Schechter Company. Matthew began his career as a stage manager in Beverly Hills, California.

When evaluating which clients to sign, we're looking for a strong background in animation with a wide variety of training ranging from traditional to CG. We look for people who have original series/feature ideas that we can help sell while simultaneously staffing them on a series or feature while their personal properties are in development. We are always looking for clients that will expose us to new arenas in the animation/entertainment industry, where new and interesting opportunities can be found for our clients.