“Be so good they can’t ignore you.”
Steve Martin
Getting an agent is easy. The actual process I mean; Script read. Phone call made.
After you’ve written a screenplay that captures the attention of someone influential in the film business. (BTW-That’s the hard part. The part that took Oscar winning screenwriter Michael Arndt ten years to accomplish.) That influential person—a studio executive, repped writer, established actor, whoever— will pass your script to an agent.
“There was a [new writer] sent to me last year. The executive that I like said to me, ‘Managers are chasing this person. He’s meeting with 15 different managers over the next two weeks. This is a hot script, you should read it right away.’ I read it that night. I reached out to the writer….For us and for new clients, it’s all about voice. Do you have a voice? It doesn’t matter if the voice is in the most uncommercial script in the world. That could still be an amazing voice. We can take and use that unconventional, uncommercial script and launch them into the stratosphere as a cool writer.”
UTA agent Peter Dodd
Scriptnotes interview with John August & Craig Mazin
If a script/voice resonates with Dodd, he said in that informative podcast interview that he’ll sometimes contact a writer he’s interested in representing right away, even if it’s Saturday or Sunday. He’ll cold call, email, Tweet the writer, Google search, or stalk them on Facebook. He will find them and let them know right away that he appreciates their work.
That’s how easy it is to get an agent.
Related posts:
The 99% Focus Rule
Outsider Paul Haggis and Your Voice
Finding Your Voice
Scott W. Smith
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