The first and foremost thing to know before entering the Show Business is that you should analyze yourself whether you have it in you to break into Show Business. Somebody can teach you acting but cannot make you an actor unless you have it in you called the desire. Question yourself whether you will be able face the challenges like different work environment, different style of living, new people, new places and many more that might come in your way and the tough competition ahead. A lot depends on how flexible and adaptable you are. If you have a rigid personality then forget about getting a break as this industry demands you to work with people having different kinds of personalities and the possibility of differences creeping in cannot be ruled out.

Once you analyze yourself and you are confident you must be willing to pack your bags and get started. But a piece of advise here, do not quit your job or even if you quit your job to move to a different place keep working part time to keep yourself financially supported. Do not wait until the time you are broke. Many big actors kept working until they made it big. Find a job which is flexible and doesn’t come in the way of your auditions or plan things in such a way that you get to attend at least one audition a day.

Talking about auditions, do not go to the auditions unprepared. Best thing to do is join some classes which offer training in whatever area of Showbiz you want to get into. One of the benefits of joining the classes is that they will help you polish your skills according to the needs of the market you are intending to work in. Further they will help you market yourself better by making your resume work to the modern day requirements. The marketing part is important because you cannot do anything with all the talent you have unless you know how to market your talent and skills. You should be prepared for the interviews and also to give confident answers to the questions. Attend workshops organized by many artists. Be prepared to meet new people and socialize with the people who are in this business. Social networking is very important in this industry for the people to take note of your talents. Make it a point to attend events related to what you are pursuing.

The best thing to break into Show Business is to start with local market and then move to the big market. So find a good agent who knows the local market very well. Do not get into the trap of fraudulent agents. Good agents never ask for money upfront instead they work on commission i.e. they get money only when you are hired and start earning. You should research the market well to find a good agent if possible try to audit the agent and call his/her previous customers. Make a good portfolio and have some good photographs in it. It is important that you style you hair according to the demands of the market you will be going to work, so spend your money on getting a good hair stylist.
A person who gets all these things right and with a right attitude would have nobody stopping him/her on the way to making it big in Show Business.

Starting with characters interaction is also a good idea as the audience concentrate on them for a while to decide whether they want to pursue them or not and also keep them wondering about the plot of the story. But it’s very important that whatever is portrayed in the first few scenes or the first ten minutes should be directly related to the story. If any irrelevant stuff is being displayed it will simply confuse the audience and can also make them lose interest.

After gaining audience’s interest the next ten pages should explain about the unfolding of the story and at the same time holding the suspense of the story. Most of the characters can be introduced, environment can be created, past events can be enacted and the villain can also be introduced but that isn’t a must. To build the suspense the villain can be pictured as a good guy but his reality comes to light after a bad incident or when he caught red handed by another character. But this shouldn’t take long to test the patience of the viewers.

Next is the catalyst or the inciting incident which creates a twist in the movie. The normal flow of the story should be disrupted. The audience should be kept on their toes so as to retain their interest in the story. Questions like what do the characters want and what is obstructing them should be answered here.  After these questions are answered the next question will be very important, that whether the evil-doer will win in his plan. Until this question isn’t answered the audience waits for something to happen, they wait for some action or they wait for the climax of the movie. If the antagonist doesn’t win the story will have a happy ending and the characters will live happily ever after. But if he does win, then the story will have a tragic end and sometimes will result in the death of the main character. This is known as the first act of the movie.

The catalyst or the inciting incident can be depicted as small scenes which when linked creates a mystery or with the receiving of vital information by some character or as a clash between the good and the bad characters. In the movie “Disturbia” the hero watches reports on the television about missing girls and were later found murdered. In another scene, the hero hears a scream of a girl from his neighbor’s house, who is also the antagonist of the movie.

Plot point one is the climax of the movie. It occurs after the first act. They are usually meant to surprise the audience with something unexpected with the occurrence of a pivotal event.  The main lead takes a risk and faces his opponent. And if it’s a happy ending kind of a movie, the main lead gains victory over the villain by either killing him or making him learn a lesson. And if the story is supposed to have a sad ending, the villain gets away by causing harm to the good character. The last page should give an idea about what the future will be for all the characters and if it’s a sequel, it should keep the audience guessing about the future.

The writers face two kinds of deals, a development deal and overall deal. Development deal requires the writer to write for only a single project. Only a single story is being developed for which the writer gets paid from $30,000 – $50,000. Overall deal requires the writer to write on a long term basis and the income is more than development deal.
After the initial filtering, about 4-10 writers are selected and they are placed in hierarchy. Showrunner is at the top and is the program creator. They are the ones which have maximum experience in writing and receive an Executive Producer status and earn up to a million. Later in the hierarchy of writing team are co-executive producers, supervising producer, producer, co-producer, and executive story editor and at the end is the staff writer, also known as baby writers as they are the starters.

Aspirant writers should start by joining classes which are taught by experienced TV writers. The classes help to get the basics right and the same time helps increase the friend circle, which will be of help at some point of time. Beginners can get a break by hiring an agent which has contacts as most of the shows don’t hire baby writers and it would take about three years to get the break. But at this level originality of work is what matters. Original material relating to screenplays or even a sketch material will be of good help. One can also work on spec. Specs are trailers which give the outline of the story. This shows the grasping power of the writer. Plays should be carefully chosen when writing a Spec. Do not choose a series just because it is hot or is based on fiction. While choosing a play the writer should keep in mind what he finds interesting and what he wants to work on in future. After preparing the spec, send it to the showrunner of the same show, because the showrunner will be under the assumption that no one knows his show better than himself.  It is advised to send the spec to showrunner of a similar show. Specs reflect the writing ability, the grasping ability, the scene structure sense, story narration style of the writer.

With these entire qualities one can land up as a writer’s assistant and if a showrunner hires the starter, it would be a good boost to him. An assistant can also witness the actual proceedings of the show and the basics get brushed up .One must never quit writing. Even if a writer doesn’t get anywhere for a short period of time at least he will improve his writing skills which will be of great use in the long run. The writer should meet the deadlines when on job. Sometimes the deadlines can be short too. So constant writing can train in that aspect too.

The writers have the greatest power. He can play with the mind of the viewer. He is responsible for the shaping of dreams of millions of viewers and all this can be achieved by constant practice.

Walt was also attracted to the beauty of nature as he grew up and he began to love and appreciate it. Though his father was particularly opposed to his plans her mother and elder brother Roy encouraged him to pursue his dreams. Disney even tried to get into military service but was rejected because he was only 16 years of age and thus was underage to join military. But he joined Red Cross where he was sent to France and he spent a year there driving ambulance.

After returning from France he pursued a career in commercial art and even started a small company called Laugh-O-Grams which went bankrupt soon. This prompted him to go to Hollywood. It is said he had only one suitcase and $20 with him when he went to Hollywood. His elder brother Roy was living in California, he pooled in $250 and they borrowed another $500 and constructed a camera stand. It didn’t take a long wait before they received an order from New York to make the first Alice Comedy and they started producing cartoons in the rear of a real estate office in Hollywood.  After successfully making Alice Comedies Walt became a famous figure in Hollywood.

Walt married one of his employees Lillian Bounds and they had two daughters. The cartoon film Mickey Mouse was created in 1928 and his talents were exposed to the world in a silent cartoon called Plane Crazy. The year coincided with the introduction of sound in movies just before the release of the cartoon. The cartoon character Mickey made its screen debut in Steamboat Willie which was the world’s first fully synchronized sound cartoon. The cartoon premiered at the Colony Theater in New York on Nov. 18, 1928.

Walt was never content with his work and his quest for excellence made him introduce Technicolor in cartoons in 1932. He used multiplane camera technique in 1937. On December 21, 1937 Walt released the first full length animated musical film called “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” made at a whopping cost of $1.5 million. The animated film is still regarded as one of the rare feats of the motion picture industry.

Walt had a studio in Burbank constructed which was ready in 1940 and the employee count went up to 1,000 which comprised of artists, animators, story men and technicians. Disney used combine live action with the cartoon medium in 1945 in the musical “The Three Caballeros”. Walt went to make many award winning cartoon films such as “True Life Adventure” series, “The Living Desert” and many more. Disneyland was launched in 1955 with a capital of $17 million and the investment increased by 10 fold within a few years. Walt turned to social causes in 1965 and directed a film on Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow to improve the quality of urban life in America. But Walt Disney died on December 15, 1966 leaving many achievements and unfulfilled dreams behind him.

Walt Disney envisioned and had directed to purchase about forty three square miles of land, double the size of Manhattan Island in central Florida. It took about fifty months to complete the planning and construction of the Walt Disney World which was eventually opened to public on October 1, 1971. Walk Disney was truly a pioneer and visionary of many modern days’ technologies. No wonder why he has received more than 950 honors and 48 Oscar awards and 7 Emmy awards. Truly this man stands out for his outstanding contribution to the improvement of art of cartoon making.

They began film production by the onset of World War I and they soon opened the Warner Bros. studio in 1918. Sam and Jack Warner were into film production and the other two brothers handled finance and distribution. Their first big success came after the creation of the character “Rin Tin Tin”. It became so popular that it was used in twenty six subsequent movies. They bought the pioneer Vitagraph Company, which had presence all over the nation, with the help of loan taken from Goldman Sachs. They also took over many radio stations and also constructed many theaters.  They incorporated music and special effects in their production and were the first ones to start talking pictures.

The Warner Bros. bought the Stanley Company and gained shares and control of the First National Pictures and the merger was named as A Warner Bros. – First National Picture. After the merger their first all-talking and all-color film caused the whole industry to change overnight. They made many musicals after that and after a point of time, the audience wanted a change. The production head Darryl F. Zanuck now concentrated on making more serious and realistic productions. These productions were said to be encourage gangsters and thus faced many censorships. The studios then changed their course of direction to historic dramas, melodramas and adaptation of best sellers to avoid scissors of censor. Though the Warner Bros. were ruling the industry for a while, MGM slowly took over them after some time.

In 1930s, Warner Bros. took a plunge into cartoons with Looney Tones cartoons. They launched their own Warner Bros. Records in 1958 but by 1960s the motion pictures were on a decline. Finally they decided to sell the studio to Seven Arts Productions and the company was renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. Steve Ross purchased this company later and made Ted Ashley as the head of the studio and renamed it as Warner Bros. Pictures. Warner Bros. joined with Columbia Pictures for film distributions till 1988 and then made a joint venture with Walt Disney Pictures till 1993. Along with Tribune Company of Chicago they launched The WB Network in 1995.

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “Dawson’s Creek”,” Smallville”, “7th Heaven” and” Charmed” caught the eye of millions of people. 7th Heaven went for eleven seasons making it the longest running family drama and Charmed went for eight seasons making it the longest running drama with actresses in the lead. CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. replaced The WB Network with The CW Television Network. They obtained rights to produce the famous Harry Potter series in the end of 1990s and the first Harry Potter movie was released in 2001 and till date a total of four Harry Potter movies have been released.

Laemmle’s dream was to make his presence felt all over America. His next target was the west where he bought the Nestor Studio in Hollywood. He formed the Universal Film Manufacturing Company on June 8, 1912. This company which was New York based, incorporated the already existing Independent Moving Picture Company and five other companies into it. By that time he had already conquered the east and the west coast of America and now he decided to centralize his production companies. He asked Isadore Bernstein to buy plots in Los Angeles. The two hundred and thirty acre land bought became the Universal City, the entertainment center of the world. Although film production here began in 1914 and in 1915 it was officially inaugurated on March 15, 1915. The first production of this studio was Damon and Pythias. Many films were released after the studio opened including comedies, drama, action, and adventure.

Some of the popular movies that were produced in this studio are “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, “Dracula”, “Bride of Frankenstein”,” The Phantom of the Opera”, “The Mummy”, and “All Quiet on the Western Front”. Laemmle developed a habit of inviting guests to watch the movie making procedure and to give suggestions to improve them. It then became a tradition at Universal studios, and later temporarily visitors were banned because of the disturbances on the sets.

Carl retired in 1936 and sold the company to Standard Capital Company. In 1946, Universal merged with International and it was named as Universal-International. In 1947, the company produced “Hamlet” which won the Best Picture Academy Award. In 1952, Universal-International was sold to Decca Records. Decca Universal gave many hits in Milt Rackmil.  Music Corporation of America, Inc. bought the Universal City studio and shifted its studio there and both the companies merged officially in 1962. Jules Stein was the founder of MCA, Inc., who was later joined by Lew Wasseman in 1936. At first this company prepared bands to perform in clubs and parties. Later it became the leading talent agency and conquered the entertainment world. They made motion pictures and also serials for television. Later they also ventured into the world of musical entertainment around 1960s to 1980s. The tradition of tours was started once again.

The company was taken over by Matsushita Electrical Industrial Company Ltd. in 1991. The Seagram Company Ltd. Bought large number of shares in 1995 and MCA Inc. was finally named as Universal Studios on December 10, 1996. The Universal International television operations merged with USA Networks in 1998. At the end of the year the company took over PolyGram and Universal Music Group became the largest music company in the world.  The Seagram collaborated with Vivendi and Canal in June 2000 and today Universal Studios is a part of Vivendi Universal, a global media and communications company.

William Fox built many theaters and created many legends in his impressive career. Sound Fox bought the rights of a German film sound processing technique and Fox was able to produce movies with music and effect track in 1926. The company was growing and more land was required for expanding. He bought around three hundred acre of land in Beverly Hills where he built the Movietone City.  After the death of his rival, Marcus Loew, William thought of buying Loew’s Inc. It had nearly two hundred theaters and also MGM studios under it. The deal was made and the companies were officially merged in 1929. But the owner of MGM studios, Louis B. Mayer, wasn’t happy with this idea and he revolted by calling on the Justice Department’s anti-trust unit and using political influence. Luck wasn’t on William’s side and he was injured in a car crash and by the time he was back to normal again the stock market crashed and he was totally bankrupt. He lost all his fortune and was even had to go to jail. The only way out was to merge with another larger company. This is when the merger of Twentieth Century and Fox took place. Fox had nearly two hundred theaters under its belt, but at that time the Twentieth Century was in better financial condition, so the name of the new company was Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, which began functioning on May 31, 1935. Schenck became the chief executive and Zanuck was the head of production. The leading actor of this company Will Rogers was killed in a plane crash and the leading actress Janet Gaynor also began losing popularity. Zanuck then decided to sign up new artists with some fresh talent. That was when Tyrone Power, Betty Grable, Henry Fonda, Sonja Henie, and Don Ameche became a part of the Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation. They made many musical-dramas and movies on famous biographies, which became huge hit with the audiences.

The fortune of the company was rising rapidly and it became the third profitable studio of America, by overtaking RKO and MGM. During the World War II, Zanuck went to serve the country and his partner William Goetz took over the company. He made many lighthearted movies. But after Zanuck returned from the war, he wanted to produce some serious entertainment and made movies like “Gentleman’s Agreement”, “Pinky”, “Wilson” and “Boomerang” which also fell into adult films category.

After the World War, public were more attracted to television. Fox started experimenting on new ideas so as to bring the crowd back to the theater. With the help of three projectors the movie was projected on a huge concave curve, which created the illusion of three-dimensional character. The effect was achieved without polarized glasses with the help of French anamorphic projection, and this feature was named Cinemascope.  They made other theater owners to switch to this technology and also bore the conversion costs. “The Robe” and “How to Marry a Millionaire” were the first experimental films using this technology. After seeing their success other rival studios also adopted this technique. Although this attracted audiences for a while the numbers started to diminish again by 1956. The same year Zanuck announced his resignation.

Buddy Adler fitted into the shoes of Darryl Zanuck but he also died after a year. Others who followed couldn’t do anything to bring success to the company. Producer Walter Wagner convinced Elizabeth Taylor to star in “Cleopatra” and the movie proved to be a hit. Actress Marilyn Monroe was also roped in to work in “Something’s Got to Give”. But due to her untimely death the film was left uncompleted.  Other movies were also rushed and Spyros Skouras the successor of Buddy Adler wasn’t able to manage the company properly. Zanuck returned back again and somehow made the directors to take him back. He made his son Richard Zanuck the president. At first Zanuck was able to give big hits like “The Sound of Music” but his credential were questioned again there string of flops after that. Eventually he was removed from the company and president Dennis Stanfill and production head Alan Ladd, Jr. pulled the company back. Many investors joined the bandwagon and great hits were produced ever after that.

Zukor made the first slogan of the company “Famous Players in Famous Plays”. He was the man behind successful actors like Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, Mary Pickford, Wallace Reid and Gloria Swanson. Paramount Pictures were the first to introduce the concept of block booking; this meant that if a particular firm wanted to buy the rights of a particular actor, they were also required to buy the other productions of Paramount Productions for that year. This concept proved to be a huge success and boosted the company’s sale.

Under the leadership of Zukor, Paramount had huge success. He was responsible for building number of theaters which had nearly two thousand screens altogether. He also had big investments in radio and in 1926 he gained control over the Balaban & Katz chain. Barney Balaban became the president and Sam Katz handled the Paramount Publix theater chain. The company’s name, Famous Players-Lasky was changed to Paramount-Publix Corporation, in 1927.  Due to the success of Publix theater chain the name was changed to Paramount-Publix Corporation in 1930.

By 1932 Zukon left all his old partners behind as the company was facing bankruptcy due to the enormous expansion projects. A bank reorganization team, consisting of Otto Kahn and John Hertz took over the company but kept Zukon in the company. After dealing with bankruptcy, the company was named Paramount Pictures, Inc. and Barney Balaban became the chairman. Many actors and singers were roped in and on a yearly basis; the company was producing nearly seventy movies a year. They also tried their hand at cartoon and the two characters, Popeye the Sailor and Betty Boop became an instant hit.

The government was having problems with the block booking, so the company decided to end it in 1940, after which the company’s production went down to twenty movies a year. While the company was making an effort to attract audience during the World War II, the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department reopened the case, U.S. vs. Paramount Pictures and the Supreme Court ordered the split of the company into two. Due to the loss of theater chains, the position of Paramount Pictures was very unstable and the company was sold to Gulf and Western Industries.

Paramount collaborated with Universal Studios to form Cinema International Corporation in 1970. They began producing for television. After the realease of movies “Grease” and “Saturday Night Fever”, the interest in movies were back again. Paramount Pictures began making albums when they purchased rights for Paramount Records. Cinema International Corporation became United International Pictures, in 1981, which was renamed as Paramount Communications in 1989. Paramount became a prominent name in Hollywood once again and gave tough competition to its rivals. Some survived by moving to another place like Warner Bros. and some closed down like for instance RKO.

For many years the venue for the Grammy Awards was The Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California that was also the home of the Oscars. But once the categories began expanding, the venue was shifted to the Staple Center, Los Angeles, California. The nominees and other non-presenting attendees are expected to pay for the ticket to attend the ceremony. In 2007, the entree fee for the members was $750, which later went up to $2500. To attend the official post party, additional $250 should be paid. All the attendees get a gift bag with lots of goodies in it like perfumes, jewelry, CDs and gift certificates with the Grammy award seal.

The ceremony is telecast live on television and there are several live performances by renowned artists.  The first Grammy Awards was aired on ABC channel in 1971. Presently it is being aired on CBS channel.  On February 10, 2008, the fiftieth Annual Grammy Awards will be celebrated at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

From time to time, the Grammy Awards have been blamed that they consider only the mainstream music and do not take alternative groups into consideration. The rumor was further heightened by criticism that the big record companies are influencing Grammy Awards. Many even say that Grammy Awards doesn’t honor the artist’s talent; rather it’s just held to promote the music industry as a whole and never understood the sentiments of the common people. The critics also blame the Grammy Awards to use this platform for advertising the recording industry. Many also question the nominating and the voting process from time to time.

Sir Georg Solti received the largest number of Grammy awards in a year.  He was the conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and he received a total of thirty-one Grammys. U2 is the band, which received the most number of Grammys, a total of twenty-two. In a single night Rick Rubin won the maximum awards. He received five awards at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards. Grammy Awards have even faced fraud when the reality of the pop group Milli Vanilli came to light. The group just lip-synced the song sung by someone else, which resulted in their Grammies being taken back from them instantly. But the awards still go on attracting people from all walks of life.

Clark Gable’s had a miserly childhood. He was only seven months old when his mother passed away. He quit his school at the age of 16 and began working in a tire factory in Akron, Ohio. Still his tough days were not over. He worked in stock companies, oil fields and sold ties. It was after watching the play The Bird of Paradise that he wanted to be an actor. In the year 1924 Clark Gable was able to reach Hollywood somehow with the help of Josephine Dillon who was a theater manager of Portland, Oregon who also coached him on acting. Josephine Dillon who later on became his first wife who was twelve years senior to him played an important role in helping Clerk Gable enter Hollywood.

Lionel Barrymore the famous actor and the director recommended Gable to MGM’s Irving Thalberg that he be screen tested. After the screening Irving Thalberg was not impressed particularly with his looks. But the studio eventually hired him after several screen tests in 1930. He worked as a co-actor with Joan Crawford in 1931 film Dance, Fools, Dance. Public liked his on screen chemistry with Jean Harlow in Red Dust in 1932 which took to top of the popularity chart. There was a spat between Gable and MGM as refused to do assignment for which he was heavily punished by loaning him out to low rent paying Columbia Pictures. Again his destiny wanted him to be a star, working with Columbia Pictures in Frank Capra’s “It happened One Night” Gabel won an Oscar which was one of the best romantic comedies to be ever produced.

He was called back by MGM with far more intense roles in movies like “Mutiny on the Bounty” in 1935 and “Gone with the Wind” in 1939 for which he was nominated to Oscar for best actor role. Gable left Hollywood for three years after his third wife Carole Lombard died in a plane crash along with her mother. He joined Army Corps and served Europe during World War II. He starred in “Adventure” in 1945, which was highly promoted, as his comeback movie. But the film had a lukewarm response. MGM thought that Gable’s salary is too high and thus did not renew his contract with the studio. He starred in many unnoticeable films there on during 1940′s and 1950′s. During the filing of his last movie “Misfits” in 1961 he announced that he is going to become a father. But to his misfortune he passed away without seeing his son. Clark Gable was laid to rest in the shrine he built for his third wife Carole Lambord and her mother in their memory. He may be gone but to us he remains a legend even to this day and forever.