The Truth about Talent and Obtaining Agent Representation.
The number one question that I get from screenwriters, whether I’m teaching, doing a Q and A, a Facebook chat, whatever, is “How do I get an agent?” or some version of that. How do I get connected to the industry and how do I find a manager, what do I do with my screenplay when I’m done? How do I get it to the right person? After I finished, how do I get it to people that will assist me in obtaining a career as a professional writer of television and/or movies?
If every writer of every television show and every movie is listed on IMDB, and every one of those writers has their agent, manager, lawyer, publicist listed on there, and if you can google and find all of their email addresses, if you can find every address of every agent and manager that’s been involved in every sale, every pitch deal, every rights purchase, to every studio, if you can find every email address of everyone on the Blacklist, then what are people talking about when they ask me this question? The question which is by far the most popular and asked question asked by amateur screenwriters (people that don’t have agents and managers).
Why are they asking this question?
Maybe they didn’t know they could find the email addresses of everyone, or think they can’t email them and tell them they have a script available. Maybe they have heard of writers emailing a query and sending off a script, and then heard nothing back. Or they got a business card at a pitch fest, typed a phone number into their iPhone of an agent they met at Austin, met a producer at a party, followed up with someone after a panel, and they reached out with their script and got no response.
But the assumption, the expectation, when they ask the number one question is their screenplay is ready. It’s really great.
Well, it’s not.
It’s not ready.
It’s not really great.
There is a high demand for great screenplays and television pilots. There is no debate on this. Ask anyone at all and they will tell you the industry seeks material. They are always, always, always, looking for good work. This has never changed and will never change. Why?
Writing a great script is very difficult and doing it is extremely rare.
And the reason no one is hearing back after making contact with the marketplace is the marketplace is not interested in your work.
The industry is a market and it behaves like any other market—-supply and demand.
If you run out of supply, and the demand is high, they look to find more of what they need. The market is setup to locate the supply. They are experts at finding the supply.
Or can’t make what they need.
There is no maze to the marketplace for writing. None.
Brilliant scripts get offers, often from multiple buyers.
Ask writers how they broke through.
This person can be in Rochester, Minnesota, or southern Mississippi, or Pasadena, knowing nothing at all, where to go, who to talk to, and their story of making it will be mostly about one thing.
They will tell you a story about writing. Of working beyond where they have ever worked, sticking with a script past the despair and fatigue and boredom of each and every rewrite, a story of listening to feedback from the unlikeliest of sources.
Bottom line is when their script was great enough, the market easily found them. A reader must be able to pick up your screenplay, open to any page, and be blown away.
You want to know how to find an agent? Blow us away. Stop listening to podcasts, scanning tweets, buying another book, signing up for another class, or reading this blog.
Work harder.
Write in a way you never have. Write to save your life. Don’t waste another decade. Another morning. Don’t ask questions about what to do based on something you haven’t achieved. Your script isn’t good enough.
When everyone you know reads your script and says it’s the best they’ve read in a long time, you’re getting somewhere. But if you’re still getting comments from people about your story, lukewarm reactions, fuzzy feedback, then why would you ask how do I get paid for it?
The shortest path to success is taking a long time to write your script.
Read that again.
Because when you will have gotten there finally, you will have outlasted everyone else, you will have read and listened and witnessed your last source of help and inspiration, you will have written something remarkable, and they will find it in a hole in Wyoming.
They always have.
Truer words have yet to spoken.
Bravo Mr. Hoffman, bravo.
That was like a punch to the nose. My scripts not good enough yet, nowhere near it and I know this! And you’re right about the boredom of the rewrites and the fuzzy feedback. This article is a timely sign for me and resonates so I must be on the right track! Thank you!
Refreshingly un-jaded advice. Usually, articles and videos and industry talks are filled with “experts” talking about how impossible it is to get a script sold…this article actually leaves some room for hope. Thanks for that.
Whether a screenplay is outstanding is sooo subjective. I have one screenplay that scored from a 4 to a 9 out of ten on The Blacklist by five different readers. I have a short that made Second Round at Austin which received completely opposite feedback from two different readers (one said “fresh and edgy”, the other “tired and boring”). Yes, I believe as a writer you have to work to hone your craft, but in the end there is a certain amount of luck and timing involved too. I liken it to a giant pinball machine, where your screenplay can get batted up one level only to be batted down again. You need luck and timing in order to get batted up the next three or four levels to the decision-makers. Yes, this is sad and frustrating, but if you believe in your story, your only choice is to persevere!
Luck and timing are obliterated by the material.
Except the poster is right- it’s at least 75 percent subjective. I had the same experience. The readers all seem to be looking for what is wrong with it. I’ve placed very highly in some big contests and also been completely trashed in others with the same script. The article is a good reminder but it doesn’t answer the question. The reason people want agents is because they want someone to read their work. The best script in the world still needs to be read, and that is a very hard task indeed. Writers are thirsty not for an agent but for how to have their work taken seriously. We all know we need great scripts.
I agree with Goldman and Tjg here. Not only is it subjective, but, often, really *great* material is not even recognized in its historical context. Many famous artists, philosophers and geniuses have been ridiculed by the masses for their work, only to become world famous centuries later. Indeed, it seems that one’s piece of work *must* be rejected by the establishment to leave a lasting impact. The only way paradigm shifts can occur is with revolutionary material. And yet, revolutionary material will likely be seen as ‘trash’ by low-level readers who are actively perpetuating and unconsciously promoting the status quo (which includes ‘hip’ religio-political views, such as the group-think woke culture).
Isn’t obvious why so many movies are the same, and why film appears to be a much more stagnant art form? Films require the establishment to get made, unlike a novel or a painting, and so the art form is far less amenable to paradigm shifts and pure novelty.
Let’s look to historical analysis to prove how superficial and vague this article’s advice really is (‘just write a great script!). Someone’s trash today may be someone’s great script tomorrow. You don’t know, and I don’t know. But, nevertheless, what this blog post lacks in nuance it makes up for in comforting platitudes. And we all need that sometimes.
I agree with all y’all.
Therefore the resulting advice remains, submit to readers, contests, etc. and learn, rewrite, write anew, and keep playing those odds. In fact if the odds ARE only 25% accurate evaluations, that’s GREAT. It means you only have to submit 4 times to get an accurate review. Now which one is it? Well, if you’ve been doing your homework, ti won’t be difficult to spot. It’s the one that sees what you were portraying, and points out why.
Gordy this rocks! I’m on the shortest path to success for sure. #SmugglersBay isn’t ready yet but I’ll outlast them so they can find it in the hole in Wyoming. Thanks. Guy
On the other side of the coin, there is such a thing as taking too long to write your script.
Baloney-get an agent
That’s the $1,000.000 question. How do you get an agent???????
How can luck and timing be obliterated by the material when evaluation of said material is so totally subjective? No one script is going to be perceived as “amazing” by every reader. What’s speaks to you on a deep level may be just so-so for me. So I argue that you need luck to have your script passed to the reader who’ll champion your script and timing that it fits the needs of an agent’s roster, a producer’s slate or an A-list actor’s search for a role. As well, it’s not enough to simply write a brilliant script. You have to put time, effort and money (e.g.contest fees, script hostng fees, lead service fees) to get it out there, to get it read by as many industry people as possible. You have to work to increase the odds.
I agree with a lot of the above. But it is subjective for sure. As the Austin play festival turned down my play, it was being read on Broadway by actors that are currently on Broadway. I found that summed up the process. There are those who aren’t taken or interested by the material and those who have interest and want to be involved. Hard work writing plays a huge roll, but never underestimate connections. I’d be hard pressed to be convinced that having a great script hidden in a folder on you computer would ever be found let alone a hole in Wyoming. But the point of the article is well taken.
Mr. Hoffman dishes out some tough love here, and I believe every word. My partner and I are new at this…at this level anyway. I am willing to listen and learn, let me put it that way, and the lesson is truthful.
Some screenwriting competitions are not worth the effort because of the quality of the readers they employ. I have had a script become a finalist in London, chosen to be pitched to industry professionals at the Edinburgh IFF and criticised because the divorce was unrealistic: there is no divorce in the screenplay. When this happens the review is not even subjective. Criticism I can take but where do we go when the script is not read properly?
If the reader is confused, you can either blame the reader or revise. One of these options involves writing.
Whining wastes writing time.
I’ve heard it said, most writers fail at the concept level. Then spend all their time trying to resurrect the thing. So, if one concentrated more on writing something so amazing, it jumps off the page, agents will automatically show up on their own. Talent is great, but the writing is in the sweat factor. Thanks.
BEST ADVICE EVER!!!! Anyone who says writing is subjective is totally wrong, too. The truth is, when a screenplay is “ready,” everyone who reads it knows right away.
Example. When the screenplay for Tuff Turf came out in the 80’s, everyone who read it was like, “This is ready.” It was. Agents flipped to the page where James Spader serenades Kim Richards at the country club and pretty much freaked out with excitement (as did audiences later).
Another example. I was reading one of the Bluecat blogger’s screenplays and I turned to a random page, started reading it, and was blinded by a light of readiness that shot out at me. Disoriented and dumbfounded, I looked back and noticed Jesus was giving me a back rub. As I high-fived him, I glimpsed, for a moment, the origin and meaning of the universe. Now that’s ready!
As I work on my own screenplay-Ninja Armageddon 4: the readiness-I am writing so hard that I whip myself when I whine about not having an agent and then slap my face when I cry about whipping myself. I also do exercises where I write, bury my script in a hole, and wait for Hollywood people to find it. When they don’t, I know it’s not ready. Then I whip myself. Usually in a mirror.
The point is, brilliant scripts, like Titanic and Tuff Turf, get multiple offers. So write harder. And maybe you’ll get there. I’m proud to say that Ninja Armageddon 4 started out as a French language film about a mid-life crisis and cat shows. Now it’s about ninjas. Probably because I’ve been using the secret of taking a long time to write it. Like ten years. Or maybe it’s fifteen. Anyway, it’s about ninjas now.
I’m still new at this and have only submitted two short scripts to a contest. I am working on a feature and this time I will submit it around, but I will make sure I submit one entry to a genre specific contest (hello Screencraft). That way I will have a better idea of how to approach a rewrite (as I’m sure will be required).
There are exceptions. Ladybird was not really written but rewritten on a film set. Her script did not go through the production process river stream.
She can barely answer questions on her own story in interviews. Her Actors helped her. It’s about who you know. And if you know critics your more than half way there. Critics nominate to the Academy. So, there are always exceptions to the River stream of fishes that go in the same Direction. This year’s Oscars are proof of that. There were a lot of Firsts. First Director, First Screenplay etc…Ladybird was Not a complex screenplay that took a long time to write and there are others. Just write Your story and find that story’s Best strategic path to getting it on screen. That path is in the characters, locations and the Elements to finding the right people not just for You, but for the story. Sometimes you got to let it go. Sometimes you got to do it yourself. For example, my script lead me back to Bluecat. ; )