John August

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How to get an agent and/or manager

Episode - 2

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Scriptnotes, Transcribed

For our second podcast, Craig Mazin and I decided to tackle the question we’ve both been ducking since we started our blogs: “How do I get an agent and/or manager?”

It’s an intractable question because while most working screenwriters have representation, no two of them got it the same way. If you ask a panel of writers, you’ll hear a series of anecdotes, but you won’t get a better sense of what next steps you should take.

Craig compares it to losing your virginity, which seems fair. I opted to flip the question to ask, “How do I get the right agent or manager to notice me?”

We won’t typically devote an entire episode to one issue, but this one seemed to require it.

In related podcast news:

* **We’re now listed in iTunes.** The first episode is up, and the rest will begin posting automatically. You can [subscribe here](http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/scriptnotes-podcast/id462495496).

* **Transcripts.** Several days after an episode airs, you’ll find the text of the podcast appended to the post (c.f. [episode one](http://johnaugust.com/2011/pitching-a-take-and-the-wga-elections)).

You can download the episode here: [AAC](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_02.m4a).

Using a non-iTunes podcast reader? You can find the podcast feed [here](http://johnaugust.com/podcast/feed).

UPDATE 9-7-11: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2011/scriptnotes-ep-2-how-to-get-an-agent-andor-manager-transcript).

Pitching a take, and the WGA elections

Scriptnotes, Transcribed, WGA

Today marks the inaugural episode of Scriptnotes, a podcast that Craig Mazin and I are trying out. It’s meant to be a weekly-or-so conversation about items of interest to screenwriters, from getting stuff written to dealing with insane producers.

Topics in episode one:

* Pitching a take. When screenwriters are asked to come in and meet with the studio (or producers) about a project, what do both sides expect? How much work do you do in advance? How different is it from pitching an original idea?

* The WGA elections. It’s time to pick new officers and new board members. We talk about issues and priorities, and what the WGA Board actually does.

You can listen to the episode here:

Down the road, we plan to have the podcast up in the usual places (like iTunes), so you can subscribe and get episodes automatically delivered. I’ll post details when they’re available.

UPDATE 9-4-11: The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2011/scriptnotes-ep-1-pitching-a-take-and-the-wga-elections-transcript).

The two kinds of endings

Indie, Story and Plot

In [The Art of Fiction](http://www.amazon.com/Art-Fiction-Notes-Craft-Writers/dp/0679734031), John Gardner makes an interesting point about endings:

>[Stories] can end in only one of two ways: in resolution, when no further event can take place (the murderer has been caught and hanged, the diamond has been found and restored to its owner, the elusive lady has been capture and married), or in logical exhaustion, our recognition that we’ve reached the stage of infinite repetition; more events might follow, perhaps from now till Kingdom Come, but they will all express the same thing–for example, the character’s entrapment in empty ritual or some consistently wrong response to the pressures of his environment.

> Resolution is of course the classical and usually more satisfying conclusion; logical exhaustion satisfies us intellectually but often not emotionally, since it’s more pleasing to see things definitely achieved or thwarted than to be shown why they can never be either achieved or thwarted.

Observed: very few Hollywood movies take the logical exhaustion route, but you find it all the time in indies and foreign films.

/via [Susan Wise Bauer](http://books.google.com/books?id=7T-1jnYgIWUC&pg=PA79&lpg=PA79&dq=logical+exhaustion+well+educated+mind+Bauer&source=bl&ots=Ym29VX-nHL&sig=Wau7gV-KQ2PfnTVn-i7l_58w714&hl=en&ei=vEU4TpaACcPTgQfLyvSEAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false)

Writing Movies for Fun and Profit

Books, Stuart

I don’t read many screenwriting books, but Stuart does. So I’ve asked him to start reviewing some.

——

by_stuartAs you would expect from two members of The State, Thomas Lennon & Robert Ben Garant’s *Writing Movies for Fun and Profit* is very entertaining.

It is also full of good information for aspiring screenwriters hoping to write studio movies.

The book is significantly less blithe than its [Funny or Die promo video](http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/5f1df15cc3/writing-movies-for-fun-and-profit), but it is still light in tone. Topics run the gamut, from basic 101s, like story structure (“If Your Screenplay Doesn’t Have This Structure, It Won’t Sell, Or Robert McKee Can Suck It.”), to a step-by-step explanation of how an unpaid intern can make or break your script’s shot with a major.

Some of the seemingly less serious chapters in that same vein are some of the book’s most useful. Lennon & Garant provide a fun and surprisingly helpful studio-by-studio breakdown of how to tell what your employer thinks of you based on your assigned parking spot:

> PARAMOUNT
>
>Important = Melrose gate, VALET. […] Ask the guy in the car next to you if he happens to have some Grey Poupon. He won’t laugh, because almost nobody remembers those commercials anymore.
>
>Not Important = The open parking lot that’s JUST TO THE LEFT of the Valet. You’ll find a spot, sure. And it’s out in the open, under the big fake panorama of sky, no real shame in that … BUT YOU’RE ALSO CLOSE ENOUGH TO THE VALET TO KNOW THAT YOU WEREN’T ALLOWED TO PARK THERE. Yep. And there’re so many open spots in the Valet area? Well, you fell just short of making that list. Chew on that as you walk the extra 300 feet to your car.

In a later chapter, they dispense advice on what to say if a star giving you notes brings up or compares your script to one of her previous flops:

>It’s best not to discuss flops at all. BUT, if they come up, YOU SHOULD HAVE ONE POSITIVE DETAIL ABOUT THEM TO DISCUSS.
>
>For example: you’ve just sat down in the trailer of, say, JENNIFER LOPEZ […]

JENNIFER LOPEZ

Wow. I can’t believe how crappy Gigli turned out.

YOU

I dunno, I thought you looked great in those fight scenes.

JENNIFER LOPEZ

Ha, thanks. I worked really hard on those. Now here’s my notes ...

>Whew! Nice save.

Another particularly useful section breaks down WGA credits and what each means in terms of dollars, with a detailed explanation of the arbitration process and strategies for winning.

The appendix provides three sample outlines, one of which is the treatment/script/plan for the unproduced Reno 911!: Miami sequel. For any Reno fan jonesing for new content, this alone makes the purchase worthwhile.