IATSE or International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees is a union of professional stagehands, motion picture technicians, and allied crafts. Different locals of the IATSE have their own web-sites and contact pages. Do a Google search for the Union you’re interested in.
The Hollywood Reporter began as the entertainment industry’s first daily trade paper in Hollywood. This magazine is the definitive source for information on the entertainment industry in the U.S. (there’s an international issue published weekly), including movie, TV, theater, and DVD reviews; casting calls; box office rankings; and weekly MPAA ratings; as well as overviews of everything from the music industry to the commercial real estate market. While the entertainment industry itself is clearly the intended audience, anyone who wants to see the Hollywood that exists beneath the surface glitz that has become synonymous with Hollywood will find this magazine well worth the money.
Subscribe to The Hollywood Reporter
For 48 years, Back Stage has been the most trusted place for actors to find performing arts and casting information. Started in December 1960 by Ira Eaker and Allen Zwerdling, Back Stage quickly became required reading for young actor who came to New York to cut their teeth.
Subscribe to Backstage
Women In Film’s purpose is to EMPOWER, promote and mentor women in the entertainment and media industries.
WIF recognizes the importance of developing pathways and opportunities to encourage current and future generations of women to explore and pursue careers in all fields of the entertainment industry. WIF actively supports women in the entertainment industry in four key ways:
www.wif.org (Los Angeles)
After debuting with a program in the 1979 New York Film Festival, the nonprofit IFP has evolved into the nation’s oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers, and also the premier advocate for them. Since its start, IFP has supported the production of 7,000 films and provided resources to more than 20,000 filmmakers–voices that otherwise might not have been heard. IFP believes that independent films enrich the universal language of cinema, seeding the global culture with new ideas, kindling awareness, and fostering activism. The organization has fostered early work by leading filmmakers including Charles Burnett, Edward Burns, Jim Jarmusch, Barbara Kopple, Michael Moore, Mira Nair and Kevin Smith.
Currently, IFP represents a network of 10,000 filmmakers in New York City and around the world. Through its workshops, seminars, conferences, mentorships, and Filmmaker Magazine, IFP schools its members in the art, technology, and business of independent filmmaking (there are special programs to promote racial, ethnic, religious, ideological, gender, and sexual diversity). IFP builds audiences by hosting screenings-often in collaboration with other cultural institutions-and also bestows the Gotham Awards, the first honors of the film awards season. When all is said and done, IFP fosters the development of 200 feature and documentary films each year.
Guide to Releasing Independent Records
by Tim Sweeney
Ask any major label A&R rep and they’ll tell you: the best way to develop your music career is to release your own record. What they won’t tell you is how to make your release a success by getting your record played on major college and commercial radio stations, reviewed in key music publications, and stocked in national chain and independent record stores.
That’s why you need Tim Sweeney’s Guide To Releasing Independent Records. Packed with hundreds of money-saving tips, helpful hints, and never-before-revealed secret strategies used by industry insiders, this informative guide will teach how you to set up your own independent record label; make a great-sounding record without spending a lot of money; get quality distribution into major retail chains and indie record stores; design a winning promotional strategy for your release; convince college and commercial radio stations to play your record, and use the exposure generated by your release to bring! yourself to the attenetion of a larger label.
Send your printed or recorded material using this service. Media Mail® service is a cost efficient way to mail books, sound recordings, recorded video tapes, printed music, and recorded computer-readable media (such as CDs, DVDs, and diskettes). Media Mail can not contain advertising except for incidental announcements of books. The maximum weight for Media Mail is 70 lbs.
While you won’t save much if you are mailing individual CD’s, this is very cost effective for bulk mailing like getting your product to Amazon or CD Baby for third party fulfillment.
Local 1000 was created by and for traveling musicians. No matter where you live in Canada or the U.S., if you tour on the folk, bluegrass and acoustic music circuit, Local 1000 is for you, working together to make things better for all traveling folk, bluegrass, blues and acoustic musicians. (Their members also include performance poets and sign language interpreters.)
You will perform under union contracts, with union power to back them up. Instruments, computers and equipment are insured for replacement value, at rates you can afford.
Everyday the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada helps thousands of musicians just like you. They are the largest organization in the world representing the interests of professional musicians. Whether negotiating fair agreements, protecting ownership of recorded music, securing benefits such as health care and pension, or lobbying legislators, the AFM is committed to raising industry standards and placing the professional musician in the foreground of the cultural landscape.
American Federation of Musicians
How To Be Your Own Booking Agent: THE Musician’s & Performing Artist’s Guide To Successful Touring
by Jeri Goldstein
This book will get you on the road, making more money, booking better gigs, with more press while playing to larger audiences.
“As an Independent Musician or Performing Artist Managing Your Own Career and Booking Your Own Tours, and You Want to Take It to the Next Level, You Need to Know How To…”
This is one of the best “How To” guides for booking yourself both locally and as a touring act.
