Screenwriting-for-hollywood.com Interview

Here is an interview I did for screenwriting-for-hollywood.com.

 1) Thanks for taking the time to do this interview today. Tell us a little about yourself and your site…

I’m a real agent at a real agency. That’s pretty much all I can say about myself without giving up my identity. My site was meant to provide me with an outlet to express what I have on my mind as well as give screenwriters some advice.

The fact that I remain anonymous, I can be honest without feeling the need to watch what I say. Sure you don’t know who I am, but this will be useful in the answers that I can provide screenwriters.

2) Were you always set on becoming an agent? How did it all come about?

Not really. I knew I always wanted to do something in the industry, and I tried a bunch of different professions within the industry. Once I realized agents have the most information in the industry and can really make things happen, I knew that’s what I wanted to do.

3) You mention in one of your articles, some of the best ways you feel are to get an agent. Most of them boil down to making contacts in the industry. Is this something most writers fail to grasp to begin with?

A lot of writers express themselves better on paper than in person. That’s probably one reason they chose writing as a profession. Networking within the industry is great and can definitely help, but writers shouldn’t focus most of their time doing this.

The most important thing is writing, networking should supplement this career. Think about writing like any other business. People seem to forget that. Writing is way to make money and a writer should be as professional as any other businessman. And like any other business, networking is part of the job.

4) Thousands of query letters are sent to agents in LA from writers hoping to break in. Is this a complete waste of time now?

It’s not a complete waste of time. But the first question you really need to ask yourself is, would the general public want to watch my movie based on my logline? If in one sentence, someone does not want to watch that movie, then the script is in trouble. Try this as an experiment. When you are thinking of writing a new script, think of the logline. Then go to a few of your friends and tell them the logline.

Don’t tell them it’s your script, tell them that you just saw a trailer to a new movie coming out and it’s about… If they say, “that’s a really piece of < >$#@$@,” then you know your script won’t appeal to the studios. Now if you do have a good logline and a good script, maybe sending query letters may work. Although expect to send 1000 off and get 10 responses.

5) In an article you recommend writing commercial scripts. Do you see a trend that most new writers write dramas?

I don’t think that’s a new trend, I think that’s always been the case. I don’t know why new writers do this. They don’t understand the business. Repping a drama is 20 times as hard as repping a commercial script, and most agents are going to pass. Make it easier on yourself, write something people will want to read.

6) Why do you think your most successful client has got to where they are?

They listen and are easy to work with. They don’t take anything personal and they know the business. They understand they have to write several spec scripts and those might not even sell.

They know that they will have to give a lot of takes on assignments and they may not get the job. However, they continue to work hard and perfect their craft. At the end of the day, something will hit.

7) What’s one thing about new writers (or even established ones) that really annoys you?

They think they know how to do my job. This usually leads to them second guessing, and this leads to an agent or manager not wanting to deal with the client. Of course, this is not everyone, it’s just a very small percentage.

Before we let you go, any last golden nuggets of advise?

Go to the movies. You’d be surprised of how many screenwriters don’t go watch movies in theaters.