John August

First Person

Naomi Foner on How I Got My Agent

Film Industry, First Person

naomi fonerfirst personI was a producer at Sesame Street. And then The Electric Company. And then I spent a year in the UK researching an American version of Upstairs Downstairs. It got funded but they dumped me for a more experienced producer. (In those days age meant wisdom. Now it means dinosaur.)

I spent a lot of time working with writers during those years, but was afraid to pen anything myself because I didn’t want to find out that I couldn’t do it. Finally, a friend insisted and since it coincided with the birth of my daughter, I tried. It was produced on PBS Visions series.

Set in the NYC blackout, it was, of course, filmed in LA. That producer introduced me to an agent. Sent her my Vision’s script and I soon had representation and more work. Seems too easy, but I did spend many years working with writers first.
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Naomi
Foner’s screenwriting credits include RUNNING
ON EMPTY, A DANGEROUS
WOMAN and LOSING ISIAH.
She was nominated for both an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best
Original Screenplay for RUNNING ON EMPTY.

Tom Smith on How I Got My Agent

Film Industry, First Person

first personACT I

I went to a book signing at Samuel French, a Hollywood bookstore. Three writers were there with their screenwriting books. I had them sign my books and I talked to all of them. I read their books and wrote a fawning fan letter to two of them, Linda Seger and Carl Sautter. Hidden amongst the gushing I asked them the same question, how do I get an agent?

Carl Sautter read my stuff, said he liked it and suggested I send it to his agent. I did. She was…well, really rather cunty about it. But he and I continued to correspond, and proved to be a good source of advice and encouragement.

Linda Seger read my script. Of course, I paid her to do it. Script analysis. Which sounds like a rip-off, but it was actually quite helpful. Her notes and her insight helped make the script better and she passed the script onto several agents and some development people. And that’s how I got my first agent.

Moral: Get to know people who have agents.

ACT II

My agent wasn’t getting me any work. I entered a new spec script in the Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship competition – a script my agent didn’t like, a script that had gotten an insulting pass on at Universal. (The executive was looking for something more like BIRD ON A WIRE!) I won the Nicholl, firing my first agent as soon as I became a finalist. I got over fifty phone calls the week I won and one of those was my new agent.

Moral: Enter any (reputable) contest.

ACT III

My second agent became a manager. The next agent I got was through someone I ran into at a New Years’ party. We’d met years earlier. She was in development and had luckily attended the party with her ex-boyfriend. I listened to her heartache and she listened to me talk about a script I was writing. Later, she read it and recommended me to my next agent.

Moral: Be nice to people who can be nice to you later.

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Tom
C. Smith wrote BEVERLY
HILLS FAMILY ROBINSON and the infamous short
ERNEST & BERTRAM. He has also developed several television projects.

David Steinberg on How I Got My Agent

Film Industry, First Person

david steinbergfirst personWhen I finished my first script, I sent out query letters to agents to try to get them to read it. A few requested it, but they never seemed to actually read it. This went on for months.

One day, a classmate of mine at film school read the script and really liked it. She wanted to produce it so I gave her a free option. She began to call these agents and told them that she was a producer (sort of true) and that she had optioned the script (also true), but that she wanted to get the writer an agent before she sold it to the studios (a bit of a stretch). Every agent she spoke to read it that weekend!

Of course, I never signed with any of those agents, so the trick only works so well, but the rule of thumb makes sense: Someone (anyone) else saying your script is great is infinitely better than you doing it yourself.

We eventually got an agent to represent me by first getting an attorney on board. Attorneys (or managers) are easier to get and can give you that key referral the top agencies always say they want.
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David
H. Steinberg wrote SLACKERS, and received story credit for AMERICAN
PIE 2. He wrote and directed AFTER SCHOOL SPECIAL.

Howard Rodman on How I Got My Agent

Film Industry, First Person

howard rodmanfirst personI was eating Thai noodles with a friend and we ran out of things to talk about and then he said "Are you looking for an agent?" and I’d at that point written three unproduced and perhaps unproduceable screenplays, but did not want to appear overly eager, so I said, "Yes," instead of what I wanted to say, which was, "Good god, yes!"

He hooked me up with a friend of his who had just that month become an agent. She read my work and liked my work and agreed, perhaps too quickly, to represent me. She was not particularly well-known and she did not have any ‘clout’ but she understood my work and sent it around anyplace she could get a foot in the door.

Three years later she left the agenting business, having come to understand she was not really temperamentally suited for it. But by that time I’d gotten a couple of real assignments from real producers at real studios. Finding the second agent was not so difficult.

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Howard A. Rodman wrote the screenplay for JOE GOULD’S SECRET. He also wrote F., which is consistently ranked among the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood. His TV credits include episodes of "Fallen Angels" and "The Hunger." He served as artistic director of the Sundance Writing Lab in 2002 and 2003. Currently, Howard chairs the film and television writing program at the University of Southern California, and is also co-chair of the Writers Guild indie caucus.