Film Courage: How important is it for a creative to have an agent or a manager?
Bomani J. Story, Screenwriter: I think it's pretty pretty important they help me I mean or
my manager helped me like he was the one pushing the script out there it gives you kind of a um
I don't know what the word is for it but I don't want to say efficient like making it official
but like they're just there's people I don't know and like in order to get into the door with these
people like manager or an agent is a good way to kind of bridge that gap because someone who came
in with like I didn't know anybody so like how am I supposed to am I supposed to show up and
you what I mean it's just like you look like a crazy person and it might work for somebody but
for me they were able to push my my stuff out and get my name out there so
well it could also hurt you I did that when I was younger and I
had my head served to me on a platter so yeah you don't want to overstep your
bound there's protocols exactly yeah exactly what I mean so I was like man what happened
but being young and foolish and not knowing what I was doing I thought that was okay
but yeah yeah so there are protocols how long did it take you to get representation
when did you represent something to happen around my first feature Rock Steady row that was when my
manager approached me so that was probably around 2000 17 or 18. yeah so about five years no no yeah
about five years ago or so and approached you in an email or you saw the person at a festival or
he called me because he was representing my friend and then after I wrote the script he
called me in and and asked me yeah okay so you he kind of already knew your work through your friend
yeah a little bit yeah yeah what can an agent or manager do for you that you can't do on your own
yeah again like the knocking on doors and getting the script out there it's like it's you're a team
it's just like there's only so much I can do on my own I'm not saying I can't send the script to
people but it's like how far is the reach that I have and so them as a team member to to help
you do that and also they give you feedback on what the heck is going on in the industry
on how to like not necessarily how to write your script but to tell you necessarily maybe there's
places where you can take it there are some places that don't make horror movies okay so
like the second you hear they hear Horrors just like well we're not the place for that and even
if they maybe are interested it's like it so you you never know it's just like so a manager
helps representation helps to kind of get that in the right places and and the further reach
because you're only one person so how far can you get and even if you have the biggest name
in the world right it's like and everybody even at the smallest not to minimize their job to
this because they do a lot of other stuff but it's like well you're gonna sit in your room just like
passing it around all over the place like that's it's a lot of time so but outside of that they do
they help with that they help with the reach they help shape your career that they connect and like
pretty important to me I'm wondering if we can go back to how you met your manager so it was through
a collaborator and then they got your number yeah so I wrote a short film for my friend and then the
short film went online and like and it did pretty well and that got him contacted by a manager the
manager saw it and had a meeting with him and then wanted to to represent him and then I continued
working with him so by by proxy I'm going to be around this the manager for a little bit or my
manager so I was like I was around you seeing me work with him and then he finally read the feature
that I wrote from my friend and he was like he liked what I did so he so you approached me on it
and so then you met in person eventually or okay yeah yeah yeah was it just one meeting
in person and you signed with him or you hadn't even met with him in person you'd already signed
it was a couple minutes I mean when he approached me I'd be like oh I'd like to represent you then
yeah that one was just one meeting but I had met with him a couple different times because during
the process of me writing the script he was giving notes and things of that nature to me
on the script or whatever and like we were kind of in conversation regardless so because of that
we had already had a few meetings we had already engaged a little bit off off the books or whatever
so he already kind of knew me by that time by the time he approached me to actually represent me
do pitch new ideas to your manager before you write them yes yeah yeah now yeah that's pretty
much part of the process like I'll tell them what I'm thinking about these because I have
a have a little book of ideas and I'll be like hey these these ones are kinda
speaking to me right now and we'll talk about it see which one we feel like is
has the the best shot in which one I feel the the strongest about which I think
trumps like which has the best shot most the time just because I'm I'm gonna ride it out because I
love it so much so yeah and so when you run it by him does he look at it for marketability and
for sort of what he thinks some of these networks would want or also he gauges how interested you
are I think it's a combination of all those things I think he's thinking about all those things as
I think it's part of the gig because he knows he's the one that knows these people who he's
going to push it to so he's going to have his ideas on why what he thinks is going to be a
cell or whatnot or at least get you in the door do you like Gatekeepers or do they drive you crazy
oh well like people who say yes or no basically right yeah I guess that's the definition of a
geek yeah yeah I mean I guess you have to always have a complicated relationship with them right
because they tell you no and they also tell you yes right so yeah so I mean yes and no
right no I don't like I mean why would I like no like it's like I wouldn't like that part of
a gatekeeper of course not when you tell me no because I want to push the idea through but when
you say yes then of course I'm gonna like you I guess I have to be ambivalent about them right
well we all are gatekeepers in a sense yeah to our own whatever it is so you're a gatekeeper
and I'm a gatekeeper and there's a geek but then we also have to deal with other Gatekeepers so
it's kind of like we all become it depending on what it is yeah I mean it's a it's a tough job
to like be officially be like it the person who's doing that it's a tough racket so
it's hard to say like it's hard to say like oh you're useless or whatever like it's like
I don't want to say that because they have like such a a tough gig they're reading a bunch of
stuff they're watching a bunch of stuff and people that are living a dime by their well
their projects with living or Dying by this person and their careers living and dying by it too so
um I don't know like it's it is it's an interesting question and it's like I have I guess
I have mixed emotions on it because human beings are so complex they might just not something as
simple as not understanding your humor it's just like there there's different types of humor out
there when you're watching a Cohen's brother movie or a Wes Anderson movie or a Judd Apatow movie
like these are hitting you differently the type of comedy that these that these guys are doing right
but someone might not understand one of those types of humors and say no to it and it's not
has anything to do with you personally or with your craft right so how can I be
upset at you for not it's like understanding something right so it I think it's complicated
you were living in or near San Bernardino County Redlands
did you think at one time you would be living in LA making movies was that always part of your plan
I mean I think it slowly became part of the plan I can't say that when I was young I had
dreams of living in LA and making movies because it came to me late like when I was 18 was when I
had the idea of like oh well maybe because my mom gave it to me and she saw me like editing
stuff and was like maybe you should do this and so I was kind of pursuing it to see what it means
so but I didn't have any understanding of like Hollywood is where it happens right as I didn't
know that I just knew that I gotta make stuff and then as I learned more and chased and went
to like Community College and then I was like okay so now I'm going to USC now I'm in Hollywood now
I'm learning I mean it's just like the more I learned the more I was like oh okay so I gotta
kind of need to be here and need you know I am here because I love LA in California but
yeah it slowly became part of the the journey and became a a part of the goal
so you went to Community College in San Bernardino for two years and then you applied to USC and you
knew okay once you got in you'd be living up here interesting yeah and so you did two years
you got your GE requirements yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah that's great and how different was it was
it was it the same really to go to a community college versus USC I mean community colleges can
be great there's a lot of times it's very similar teachers yeah no I was it was definitely different
like access to resources a huge difference like with but as far as learning stuff even learning
stuff is like a difference in in resources on what you have like but at Valley College but
some of the fundamentals of the stuff that I was learning in my general education is stuff
like are still paying off dividends now that I didn't learn at USC like one just one of the most
important classes I took during while I was at San Bernardino back it was a public speaking class
still paying off obviously yeah yeah it's still paying off so like that wasn't something I got
at USC but it's like San Bernardino had a film program that was good that put a
camera in my hand and taught me Avid it's like so like I got those skill sets but like at USC
it's just like I learned how to shoot on film I learned more about lighting it's like I learned
a little bit more about storytelling I was able to even like the the the craft of directing you
it's like I was able to have access to some of these instructors who were not necessarily
at San Bernardino Valley College not only because of the distance but just the resources
and just like the focus to just be like Oh I'm only here to be making short films and then it's
just like in the net Valley College it's more of like sure I'm taking the film program but there
are other people involved in it that are this is just a an elective they're not like you what
I mean so it's like I'm but like at USC it's just like nah you are with people who this is
the this is the goal we watch movies that's what we do we make you're around these people who are
just kind of like who are pushing you that way so it was definitely two different experiences
learning of course like the bare minimum is like yeah that's the same you're learning stuff but the
experience of both of them are two they were two different things and what about alumni assistance
once you graduate I mean are there other people using each other for projects even after you
graduate or most people are getting a job in the industry and so they're not making films
yeah I think a lot of people I mean it's like you're saying like people getting jobs interesting
not making movies with like what do you mean like so it sounds like people they're still making
their own passion projects once they get a job in the industry on weekends or whatever are you
part of an alumni association or do they do they kind of have a placement program to something oh
I mean I think I see had like a job board that I was using for a long time that got me jobs
and stuff like that which was cool and I mean definitely just like the people you meet while
you're at school like yeah they hook you up like a lot of my friends would hook me up with jobs
and even now though like because you have the connection like you guys are sharing
connections as well to help each other out so yes it does this thing yeah yeah I can
remember going to LA Festival of Books and I'll see at least two different film crews just doing
things and it seems like they're part of the film program seems like a very active
campus yeah beautiful place yeah I loved it I thought it was great I had a great time yeah.