Film Courage: Corey, let's talk about someone who has an agent okay and two scenarios either
they've been dropped by their agent and and I don't know how you would be
dropped would be via email telephone call and on the flip side those who feel
that they should drop their agent so two scenarios. Corey Mandell, Screenwriter/Instructor: well second one's hard because
of course the question is why do you want to drop your agent and it's usually
because they're not working for me and they're not doing what they're supposed
to be doing and I'd have a career or better crew if they were well the
challenge you're in a really tough spot because if you're gonna try to find
another agent they're gonna know it's sort of like trying to find a wife but
you're married right so they know you're married to someone so then the question
is why are you leaving your wife and why do you want a new wife and then because
if the writers start saying well my agents not doing this maybe just not
paying attention to me everyone in towns gonna say you're blaming your agent but
it's you and your writing is not good enough and and oh yeah I want to take
I'm a super busy agent what I want to do is take a client who's not that good
who've always blamed their agent also as an agent you know what I love is
spending time and energy on someone who's not loyal to me so yeah let me
jump in business with you when you have an agent and you want to switch agents
like that's the hardest place to be and if you really are there first of all
just stop and and and the question becomes imagine that there is a factory
that's polluting a river and then down river all these kids are getting really
sick and Doctors Without Borders flies into that village and they start working
with those kids giving them medicines and treatments to help those kids get
stronger Doctors Without Borders doing a great thing but they're running in a
circle because they can't they're not fixing the problem they're fixing the
consequence of the problem the only way to fix the problem is to stop the
factory from polluting or get a different water source for the village
so the question is is the problem that your agent isn't working for you
probably not that's probably the sick kids
what's the factory so if I'm with that writer let's sit down and talk about why
your agents not working for you because in a day an agent is a salesperson and
an agent is selling writers and and they have only so much time and
energy so they're gonna prioritize on the ones that can sell so if that means
your agents not prioritizing for you why not and nine out of ten times the
problem isn't the agent the problems with you or your writing and if you
don't realize that and work on that you can try to switch agents as long as you
want all that's gonna happen you're going to reputation as someone who
blames everyone else and is it loyal and you're gonna be in a really bad shape
now is it possible that just something happened to your agent and there's
nothing to do with you it's possible but it's very unlikely let's say that's the
case I don't think you as a writer should be trying to change agents you
need to find an intermediary so you're gonna that's why you have a manager or
an entertainment lawyer but that's why you owe everyone has a manager today so
if your agents not working for you you talk to your manager and your manager
will tell you it's your fault schmuck this is what you need to be doing or if
it's something with the agent then the manager can talk to another agent and
sort of put the thing and that you might want to try to steal this person but you
don't want to be out there doing it okay so let's suppose you get the call
or the email that you've been dropped what do you do well I believe in working
with rioters is when something like that happens I believe that you should give
yourself a 24 hour fixed mindset pity-party because like when you try to
say growth mindset and it's so exhausting when you're pushing
everything down so scream cry drink yell blame your mom blame your dad blame your
a blame your cat I mean 24 hours just have your meltdown but then the end of
24 hours that's done spend those 24 hours wisely now it's time to go to a
growth mindset and now what you want to know is why they dropped you and you may
not be able to find out because agents won't always tell you the truth it'll
depend on the agent in your relationship again you probably have an agent and a
manager and the manager should be able to tell you the truth and the manager
won't tell you the truth probably not the best manager for you so you try to
figure out the truth and if you can figure out the truth then
will lead you to what you want to do about it but if I can step back for a
second I love major I think he's the best agent
in the world I'm Repton abrupt at WME there was another agent WME who I think
is the second best agent the role in her name zadran at Alba Getty and she said
something once that I think is so important for writers to hear she said
that some writers get it and some writers don't get it and the writers who
get it are all working and the writers who don't get it
most of them aren't working and so as an agent she just wants to work with
writers who get it and this is what it is
a lot of writers think that you know to write a script that changes your life to
write a script that gets you your first job or to get really Scott to hire you
or to get a show whatever it is you're aspiring to you have a career you're
trying to take it to the next level they think it's about writing that having the
right script at the right time at the right place that's not it and that's a
mistake that surrenders all control and power to the universe the reality is
your job is to think in six script cycles and you have to be writing the
right kinds of scripts pitch perfect authentic we talked about that earlier
and let's assume when you trained yourself not to bill to do that
you need to write six of those every two years and the reason is if you write six
of these pitch perfect authentic scripts one of them is going to go out to the
marketplace and just fizzle and you'll never know why and then two or three of
them will go out and they'll start to get some traction but then something
will happen in Doral it and then it'll be one or two that's absolutely going to
happen you have the director tats you have the stars there's a bidding war
there's no way it's not gonna happen and something at the very last second is
gonna derail it and one of the six will actually go the distance and sell or
it'll be that script that gets you the next three or four years of getting
staffs on show there'll be one of those six scripts that will just catch
lightning in a bottle one of those sex you don't know which one it'll be so if
you're not working right now you ought to be writing three or four of these
scripts a year because you're thinking and six scripts cycle
so anyone script goes out and ultimately doesn't do what you need to do you don't
feel like a victim that's one of six this is the key if you are working you
have two jobs now you have your day job and your weekend night job so if your
day job is a feature assignment for Ridley Scott or your day job is you just
got staffed on Jane the Virgin and one of my students just if I keep saying
Skye staff she's very excited you have to do everything you have to that you
have to excel at that job but then at night so we can you got to be writing
pitch perfect Authentics preps and maybe you're not writing three or four a year
maybe you're writing two a year because but you don't stop writing these scripts
and creating these scripts because one of these scripts is going to be the
thing that takes your career to the next level and so the writers that don't get
it is I'm working I'm making money I've made it plus I'm busy it's like I have a
family I am writing there's no other time and I get that but the reality is
the writers that get it even though they're working they're still always
creating these new material and they think about it in six script cycles and
so a lot of times agents drop the writers who aren't doing
that and you know I get it because like when I was a working studio writer I
wasn't continue to write these scripts I was just doing my studio assignment work
and I was making good money and I was really I was too busy I didn't want to
do that my agent kept telling me to do this I didn't and he said at some point
your writing career is going to end badly and I worked non-stop for 11 years
but I was a working writer but I never became an a-list writer and the only way
I could have become an a-list writer is to keep writing the script so there was
another writer Erik singer who wrote a script and he started getting all these
studio assignments and he was making a lot of money but he kept writing on his
own time he's pitch perfect authentic script year after year after year and
eventually one of them hit and it was American hustle and so he's now suddenly
a huge writer I know the guys that wrote the Nick same thing you know they're
their staff writers and they were making really good money but they were writing
stuff that they really believed in and the Nick was one of them and
that's in that script just took them to a whole other level
Alan Ball with American Beauty we can go on and on and on so often agents drop
writers who might be really great writers but they don't get it they don't
keep creating this new absolute so it's either they don't keep creating material
or they're not creating the right kind of mature it's not good enough I have a
lot of friends or agents and if you keep creating the right kind of content even
when you're working in the contents amazing and you play well with others
it's very unlikely they're going to drop you because that's exactly the kind of
person they want to represent and in that case if they drop you it could be a
conflict of their client play it could be a lot of things have nothing to do
with you but if you're not doing all of those things and an agent drops you then
you have to look in the mirror
you