Talents
ECI Paris is the European talent agent for Chinese actors, actresses, artists, creative minds and hosts.
ECI Beijing is the Chinese talent agent for European actors, actresses, artists, creative minds and hosts.
Most of talent agencies in China are owned by film producers and A-List celebrities. When you hire an A-List celebrity for your Chinese film, you will have the opportunity to work with most of the A-List celebrity agency's talent. The talent agencies' market in China is step-by-step getting structured, with today's relationships between the film's Production Director, Casting Director and talent agencies still blurr.
Regarding the agreements between the Chinese talent and their Chinese talent agencies, these agreements are mostly long term with a descreasing Chinese talent agency commission as years pass by. It's organized differently as in the U.S. (with a strict 10% commission, with agreements that have to be signed between the talent and the agency) and in Europe (a most-of-the-time 10% commission, with agreements rarely signed). In the U.S. the agreement makes the relationship between the talent and the agency (with most of the talent agencies web sites being one page without talent listing). In Europe the talent agencies' web sites officialize the relationship between the talent and the agency. In China you will not find the talent agencies' web site, they don't exist, it's all still network(ing) based to find-out wich agency represents which talent.
Another particularity of the Chinese talent agencies' market, is that it's sometimes still family driven. It's not rare to have the talent's Mumm or Brother very much involved in the Chinese talent career's management. It happens that trust is more important than expertise and experience.
Speaking of managers, that word/profession is still mainly a Hollywood way of differenciating the agent's work (mainly agreements' negotiations, "forbiden" to produce, with so many talent per agent) from the manager's work (mainly career management, authorized to produce, few talent per manager). In Europe the talent's fees are not high enough to have an agent taking a 10% commission, plus a manager also taking a 10% commission of the talent's fees. In Europe actors only have an agent, music artists only have a manager. In China agents can be managers or casting directors, managers can be agents, and vice-versa depending on the contexte.
At ECI, for booking, casting and work opportunities: info@eci.net