005 - Agents & Managers

Michael & Phil tackle the subject of agents and managers and what new screenwriters need to do to attract representation. They also discuss pitch fests and screenplay contests.Show NotesMichael's Screenwriting Course - https://michaeljamin.com/courseFree Screenwriting Lesson - https://michaeljamin.com/free@DavidHSteinberg will read your script - https://twitter.com/davidhsteinberg/status/1430195753373167623Sarah Cooper is a comedian who grew famous for valuable content she put out on her own. - https://sarahcpr.com/A behind the scenes look at pitch fests - https://twitter.com/ChrisAmick/status/1420501613572022275?s=20Results of screenplay contests - https://twitter.com/EricHaywood/status/1422615678436003842?s=20Screenwriting contest from a Pro's perspective - https://twitter.com/matthewfederman/status/1422615672215900164?s=20Film Festival and Screenplay Contest submission software - https://filmfreeway.com/The Nicholl’s Fellowship - https://www.oscars.org/nichollThe Sundance Labs - https://www.sundance.org/applyThe Black List main website - https://blcklst.com/The Black List evaluations and script hosting - https://blcklst.com/register/writer/Writer’s Guild of America Dispute with Agencies Explained - https://www.vulture.com/article/wga-hollywood-agents-packaging-explained.htmlTranscriptMichael: (00:00)Whenever I hear a writer, saying they're typing, they're working at Starbucks. I always laugh, come on, man. It's so cliche. I don't do that. It's very rare. Most people who work in Starbucks who are tapping on their computers, please in LA, right? They want you to think that they're a writer. "Look at me. I'm a writer." But if you are real writer, in my experience, it's like, you're not working in a coffee shop. You're working on a show. Michael: (00:28)Hey, welcome back everybody. Today. We're going to be talking about agents and managers. Oh, that's a good one. Phil. Don't you think? Phil: (00:35)I think it's probably the most vital thing for anybody to know about how to become a screenwriter. Michael: (00:39)All right. Um, what are we going to do? Well, I guess everyone wants to know how to find an agent or a manager. What would the reason why you kind of need one is so first of all, you can't submit. I people often say to me, what can I give you? My screenplay? It's just, just so I get some notes or just so you can, you know, whatever, keep me in mind for something in the future. And the answer is absolutely not because I have to me and every other working writer in the industry, we have to protect ourselves. Like, let's say you, you have a talking dog cartoon and you say, Hey, I want you to read my talking dog cartoon. And I, and I get it or whatever. I open it up. I opened up the file like, oh, because now I haven't talking dog cartoon. Michael: (01:17)We all have talking dog cartoons. It's not an original idea, but because I looked at yours now, now if I get mine on the ear, you're going to sue me because we both have terrible clammy ideas. And so naturally I stole yours and that's not the case. It's just like, these are ideas out there. And the same thing with like a joke or an area. So most TV writers will protect themselves. We will not read unsolicited scripts. We just will not do it. Even if you sign a waiver or not gonna do it. Like I, you know, it's just too risky. Phil: (01:45)It's really interesting. So I just saw two cases of this. There's a showrunner who just on Twitter for his birthday announced, "Hey, I will read your script." You have to, he's a lawyer, by the way, you have to understand his, his career was "lawyer". And now he is a writer. Also he has a waiver, you have to sign and you have to agree to, and he gave very specific parameters to get your script to him. And then I, I just retweeted another showrunner today. And she's like, as a reminder, I will not read any unsolicited scripts because I have to legally can't cause I have to protect myself. Yeah. Right. So I'm funny. So, so the case where you're seeing it, you have to keep in mind, like, I mean, they are attorneys or in the case of other people who do you know, the return page counts of your scripts, they have attorneys who have drafted documents to protect them. Michael: (02:31)Yeah, yeah. Right. I don't, I'm not an attorney. I'm not going to do it. Um, but so that's why it has to come through an agent for some reason, when it comes through an agent, you have a layer of protection, but a little bit of the, uh, you know, and that's what the Ford you. So, and I will only read a script by the way, through an agent when it's, when there's something in it for me. And by that, it means like if I'm staffing for a TV show, I need to hire people and then I'll read the script, but I'm not going to read it as a, as a personal, you know, my pastime, you know/. Phil: (03:00)Well, right. And so obviously my, my response to you was a little facetious here. I was, I don't actually think that getting an agent or a manager...

Next Step Clarified

Assuming a constant dedication to honing in on writing and story structure skillsets, this was a great clarification of next step- manager vs agent. Thank you.