How I feel about a certain someone

 
After my last post about what a relationship with a manager should look like, Paul asked a question:

what happens once you're signed in terms moving forward? Do you just need one good script?...or do they expect you to follow up with another right away? Are you working with producers to do a free spec...or do they have you go out and try to do assignments? Most of the info out there is about how to get in...but not a lot explains where to go once you get a rep and become a working writer, not just a repped non-working writer.

Depends.

Everybody's career trajectory is different, and everybody's relationship with their rep is different. You can land a rep with one script, but they certainly don't expect that to be it. You should always be working on the next thing.

Most reps will want a list of ideas you're working on. I've heard of reps who demand X number of ideas per week. I don't know how common that is, but I do know that once you're signed, your rep is going to want to choose the perfect next script. He may reject everything you've ever thought of. If he truly loves your first idea and tells you to go write it, I envy you.

While you're working on your next project, your rep is likely doing two things: 1) Trying to get your movie made. This is where agents are extremely useful. And 2) Setting you up for meetings.

You will do a crapton of general meetings. At some of these meetings, you will be pitched an idea. If you like the idea, you will send the producer a treatment for your take on that idea - sooner rather than later - and then chances are good you will never hear from that producer again.

Will you have to do free work? Depends. It depends on your rep and his relationship with the producer, depends on how much you love the idea, depends on the likelihood that there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It's really up to you. The rep gives you advice, but he's not your boss. You make the choice of how much free work you're willing to do.

It's a hustle, pure and simple.

Some people *cough* John. *cough* walk into a room, open their mouths, and land a job. I've been to so many meetings where a certain someone's name comes up and every fucking producer is like He was just here and he sold me a project it was so great OMG isn't he fantastic don't you wish you were him I love him so much blah blah blah fuck off. Seriously, I've been to THREE meetings where he was literally on the same couch like half an hour earlier and pitched something for like a bazillion dollars. I've started to feel like I'm just following that guy around picking up his leftover water bottles.

That's extremely rare, and if you meet a person like that, you should knock him out and steal his identity.

Anyway, the important thing is to ask your rep for advice. That's part of his job - to guide you so that you make both of you look good. And then make your decision. You have to figure out what's best for you.

One piece of advice, though: I don't recommend doing anything behind your rep's back. If he doesn't like the script you want to write, either write what he wants you to, tell him you're going to write it anyway and see if he is willing to help under protest, or find a new rep. But don't deceive him. He can't help you if you don't trust his expertise.

Good luck.

I got a little busy catching up on TV shows this week. You know how that goes. Everything else just stops until you've caught up to the present episode.

Anyway, I've noticed that on the Done Deal Pro forums, a lot of people show up to ask about what a relationship with a manager should look like. Many of these people have been "signed" and don't know whether or not their relationship is normal.

So what does a normal relationship with a manager look like?

First of all, a disclaimer. I've worked with two managers. One, a couple of years ago before I was totally ready and when that person was in a transitional period, so it wasn't the ideal pairing. The second, my current manager, who is wonderful and gets me and has made me a happy girl. Both great managers with good reputations, but only one that was right for me.

I am speaking partly about my own experiences, but also from stories I've heard other writers tell.

Here's what a manager does:

He has a plan of attack for your work.
He listens to your ideas and tells you which ones he can work with.
He reads your scripts and gives you solid notes.
He gets your name out there as successfully as possible.
He sets up meetings.
He keeps you posted about goings on.
He keeps reminding you about how awesome you are.
When you're ready, he helps you find an agent.

Some managers do a lot more, but they shouldn't be doing less. And of course, there are those who also produce.

And some managers, for whatever reason, sign clients and then forget about them.

You see it all the time in threads on DDP: People asking if it's normal that they haven't talked to their manager in three months. Once, a guy said he hadn't talked to her in almost a year. Honey, if you haven't talked to your manager in almost a year, she ain't your manager.

You should be talking to your manager about two to four times a month at least. They should constantly be working on the next step in your career.

Meanwhile, you should be working, too. Their job is to get your reputation started. Your job is to give them something with which to work, and to show up for meetings prepared and perky.

If your manager gives you no notes, sets up no meetings, never calls you, or seems to have forgotten you exist, it's time to move on. A manager who never calls you is not your manager.

The thing is, most people in this town do not want to reject you. They'd rather you slowly fade away so they never have to face the confrontation. So if your manager stops responding to your emails, or emails back a sentence about how busy they are to every request for an update, or they don't seem particularly interested in your latest project, or they haven't set you up for a meeting since you met.... you don't have a manager.

And if that's the case, you have to throw out the security blanket and go it alone. I know, it's really nice to tell people you're repped. It makes you feel safe, like you've gotten over some kind of hurdle. But if you're sticking with someone who does nothing for you, you're doing your career more harm than good, because the whole time you're with them, the people who would actually push your career forward can't find you.

Only you can decide whether or not your relationship is working out. Your manager has to be someone you trust, someone you're not afraid to ask when you have a question or call if you need an update. A good managerial relationship is really important, especially now that selling a script has become so much more of a challenge. These are the people who navigate the waters for you.

And one more thing: If you go to an Industry party and mention your manager's name and nobody knows who he is, he's not worth having.

So some time ago I got repped. It was a glorious day. A day of Validation.

I don't suck! Somebody in an influential position thinks I can write! Yaaaay! And then I waited for success to roll in.

Manager was successful. If you've seen the Black List, you've heard of her clients. She read my zombie action script, liked me, started listing people she could get me in a room with. I was so excited I thought I'd pee my pants.

When we finally met in person, she said "What I like about you is that you write commercial scripts." I write things she can sell! They like it when you write things they can sell.

At the time I had a lot of garbage on my computer and this one good script. But Zombieland was coming down the pike so my script wasn't really as original as it was when I started working on it. It's also got a huge budget, so it's great for showing what I can do but not likely to sell outright.

Now, at the time, I had this good script, but not the most original idea, and now it seems like everybody and their mom has a zombie script in their collection. So I decided to write something truly original. I wrote a martial arts script that takes place during the Civil War and features a female Confederate sympathizer as the lead and includes an interracial sex scene. I was working on this script when I hooked up with Manager. I raced to get it done so I'd have something to show her.

So basically, the same day she told me how much she liked that I wrote commercial projects, I handed her the most impossible to sell project she's ever seen. NOBODY will buy this. And on top of that, it had weaknesses. In my rush to get the script to her, I didn't take the time I needed to perfect what was a VERY difficult script to pull off. Maybe if it had been genius it wouldn't have mattered that it was so risky, but it wasn't genius.

She got me a meeting that went well and landed me an unpaid project. At the time I was just glad to be in with a legitimate production company, so I didn't mind not getting paid. But the project fizzled and died over time.

I wrote another script, this time trying to make up for the unsellable scripts I had given her. I wrote a chase movie that never really worked. I sent it to her even though it wasn't ready. I was just in such a hurry to get some attention before my opportunity passed.

Mind you, Manager is at this point working for one of the major management firms in the city, managing careers of writers who make her money. And here I am, floundering, trying to impress her with subpar work. Because no matter how low I am on the totem pole, had I given her a brilliant script, she would have dropped everything and thrown me in front of every producer in town.

I realized at this point that I had jumped into the fray before I was ready. I realized that I'd kind of blown it, because now she had no motivation for reading my next script. I decided it was best to back off and start over with one brilliant project.

So I did. I told Manager that I appreciated everything, which I did, but I needed to work on my scripts for a while and seek out new representation when I'm ready.

That's why I've spent the last six months writing and rewriting and rewriting the project I've almost finished. I will not quit working on it until it's absolutely perfect. In the meantime, I made new friends and found myself in a position to hand my script to plenty of successful agents and managers. So in a few weeks when I have a perfect draft of Nice Girls Don't Kill, I will proudly pass it around, knowing that I now have the patience and skill to do what it takes to build a career.

So this is what I learned from that experience:
1) Do not do projects for free. Ever.
2) Do not send out a script you know isn't as good as it could possibly be.
3) Just having a manager is not enough. You have to make sure the projects you hand them are projects they can sell.
4) If you have a manager who doesn't call you, you do not have a manager.

My rep is a very very busy person - they all are if they're any good - so I've been gently tapping her on the shoulder on occasion to remind her of my existence. Things in this business move remarkably slowly and even though you're tapping your foot with impatience, the people on the other end are actually busting their asses. So while my rep is busting her ass for her successful clients, I sort of wave, take her advice when she gives it, and keep writing and reading, which is the majority of her advice anyway. She's very pleasant and I'm grateful for her time, but she only has so much of it.

Every time I contact her she has the same question, have you been reading screenplays? This is very important to her, so I know I always need to be able to tell her what is the last thing I read. In fact, the best thing about being able to contact her has been goal setting. I know now that someone will read my scripts and ask what I've read, and for that reason I bust my ass to make sure she approves of my answers.

But as yet, I've just been building my script library. The networking is still my responsibility.

So I wrote a chase movie called Salvage that takes place in North Carolina, where I'm from, so I had this idea of trying to get the script in the hands of actors from the area. In researching contact information I discovered that Danny McBride, Jody Hill and David Gordon Green, who all went to school together in North Carolina, formed their own production company.

That's just terrific news, ain't it? Because even if an actor loves a script, they can't always get it to go anywhere, but the guys behind Eastbound and Down have got to have a little pull. Sure enough, if you check IMDB, this is a company that actually produces things.

I researched the company thoroughly and listened to the interview last week on KCRW's The Treatment, wrote out what I was going to say and called. I got voice mail so I panicked and hung up.

The next day I called again, this time reaching a live person. I did my pitch, thinking as soon as I said North Carolina I'd get at least a cheerful response of recognition. Nope. I got that old standard "we only accept project submitted by a lawyer or agent."

This is just wrong. People from North Carolina are supposed to be friendly and talkative and call each other "honey." I know I do. Maybe the guy who answers their phones is not from North Carolina.

Anyway, I HATE bothering people, which is why I'm not very good at the nagging you sometimes have to do around here. You should have seen what a horrible news reporter I was before I discovered teaching. I don't like being the squeaky wheel. The angry, fuck-you-because-you-just-disrespected-me wheel, but not the squeaky pay-attention-to-me-please wheel.

But Manager's name, and the name of the company she works for, gets my projects past that guy on the phone, so now I have to ask for her help. So we'll see what happens next.

In the beginning you can write whatever you want, you know? If it sounds good, fuck it. Let those words fly. Don't worry about what's commercial or interesting to other people, just write for you. It doesn't matter because nobody's buying this anyway.

But then you get tired of writing stuff that sucks so you say to yourself, "Self, write something good," and then you do. And so what if it's not the most original idea? And so what if the budget is ridiculously huge in a genre such as zombie films with their tiny little budgets? This script shows what you can do as a writer. Everybody says so.

But people sort of wish you had something a little more original. So you say to yourself, "Self, write something really original. But still good." And you go off an put together such genre twisting elements you're just pleased as punch at the glorious piece you've concocted. Nobody has ever written anything this bold and daring in the action genre, surely the world will be clamoring for your marvelous new script.

Then your manager points out that you have written a martial arts period piece starring a woman in an inter-racial relationship who fights on the side of the Confederacy. Not what the boys are clamoring for on the studio lots. Do you pull it off? Heck yeah. Will anybody buy it? Only if they're super duper awesome. But do you really need a second writing sample? Not really.

So then you say to yourself, "Self, perhaps it's time to write something someone will want to make," and you set to work on that modern-day chase story that can be made for a low budget and a high star power and appeals to everybody. And you hope your manager doesn't give up on you before you finish.

I didn't want to say anything until it was official, but it's official.

I have representation.

Not just any representation, either. She's kick ass. I have my first meeting this week.