Film Courage: What would you recommend to a screenwriter who doesn’t have an agent
manager or producer to guide them?
Mark Heidelberger, Producer: So yeah…presuming that they are up and coming, I think getting
an agent or a manager (not both) when you are starting off is a great avenue because
you really need an advocate because a lot of writers are not necessarily good at pitching
themselves.
And even if you are, there is something that just comes off pretentious and arrogant about
talking about how great your work is.
I mean, you do the writing, let them do the talking.
So I do think a good agent or a manager, I just don’t think your career is big enough,
even big writers don’t often need both.
But an advocate to go out and push for you is always worthwhile.
So assuming you don’t know anybody, I think a good way to get to an agent or manager (a
few good ways) 1.
Networking (obviously) but not necessarily directly with agents or managers, as you get
to know more people in this industry whether it’s producers, DP’s, actors, whoever,
you start meeting other people who are represented.
And a good way to get in with agents or managers (even better than just meeting them at the
party and saying “Hey, look!
I’m a writer.
Can you take a look at my stuff?”) is knowing somebody who already knows them is often times
a better way.
Instead of trying to be your own agent or manager, look at your own resource-base and
see other people you know and “My friend is repped by Innovative Artists.
Hey, I’ll take you out to dinner if you can get me…if you can just get my script
over and get somebody to look at it.
Get me a meeting and I’ll take you out for a nice dinner.”
Or whatever.
Leverage your own contacts because this is a relationship business.
So even more than being able to go up to an agent and say “You don’t know me, but
I’d really love for you to take a look at my stuff.”
They usually don’t.
But if this comes from someone they already know and trust, that’s a good way…so look
at who you know.
That’s what I advise.
I have a friend of mine (a director).
He’s a visual effects guy.
His name is Lloyd Barnett.
He’s an amazing VFX guy.
He was the lead compositor on AVATAR and he directed a movie I produced called NINJA APOCALYPSE.
He also did a lot of VFX in that movie.
And he wants to direct.
He wants to do more directing, so I helped him put together a director reel.
And he was asking “How should I get to these agents?”
And I’m like “You’ve been in this business a long time.
You have to know people who have agents.”
Think about other VFX artists that you’ve worked with, think about other below-the-line
people you’ve worked with, composers, you have a friend who does music… and yeah,
he’s repped by Gersh [The Gersh Agency], talk to him.
See if you can get your reel looked at.”
I think another way, talent rises to the top, if you believe that (I do believe that).
I believe that talent will eventually be rewarded (real talent).
Unfortunately, I think a lot of people overestimate their abilities a lot.
So I think you being recognized as talented, its got to be from someone else other than
yourself saying that.
Other people need to recognize that talent.
That’s what actually elevates you to the point of…when you have other people in the
industry with some modicum of success saying “I think this guy is talented.”
I think that is legitimate.
It’s great that you believe in yourself.
Having confidence is fantastic.
I think the whole Self-Esteem Movement has done more to harm young kids than help them.
Self-Esteem is something where you believe you are owed something.
That you should feel good because you are unique and you are this and you are that (as
opposed to have accomplished something).
As opposed to confidence is a different thing, believing you can go out as opposed to self-esteem
and that you should be owed something just because you’re unique, I don’t buy that.
But I believe that you should be confident in your abilities to a degree.
Not over-confident, but confident in yourself either that you have some modicum of talent
or that you have talent that you can develop into a skill.
And so I think some people that are good to judge that are some of the screenplay competitions.
And I had written a whole article on this at FundsForWriters.com, I’d written a whole
article on screenplay competitions.
But some of the top ones like the Sundance Screenplay lab, like the Nichols [Fellowship],
Boston, Blue Cat, The Tracking Bee, Final Draft’s Big Break, there’s a few and I
think they’ve elevated themselves because they’ve been around for a long time and
they use a lot of working industry professionals to read the scripts and grade them.
So you have a lot of people who are in the industry, who are in the know.
They are not just hiring interns or kids like “Hey read this and do coverage on it.”
They have experienced readers.
When you have enough of those competitions saying “I think this guy has got something.”
Or “I think this script is something else, it’s a fresh voice,” what have you.
I think there is some legitimacy to “This person really does have some talent” because
you have some experienced third parties who have an eye for talent, this is what we do
as producers and directors, we identify talent.
And I think if you can excel at some of those competitions, you are going to get those opportunities
to interface with agents or managers.
If you can at least hit in a big competition (the quarter-final level), I think you can
get agents or managers to read your script.
If you can get to the semi-final, they will probably be calling you.
And if you can get to the finals level, you will probably get meetings.
I mean if you are a finalist at Nichols, you are going to be able to get meetings with
William Morris and CAA because that is such a limited pool of people compared to the number
that apply.
I mean literally thousand of thousands of people apply and it gets down to literally
a small handful of people, so I think that’s another way to get to agents and managers.
So play out your own resources base and see who you know that is already repped and see
if you can get in that way.
And also competitions, I think that is two ways to get to access to agents or managers.