Is it neccesary to have both? I understand that an agent tries to get you work, but what would a manager do for ya?

A manager is easier to get than an agent. An one of the things they can get for you is and agent.

Agents are plugged into the studio system and have the ability and legal authority to negotioate legal contracts on your behalf.

A Manager's job is more nubulous. A Manager typically works as a mediator, a guy/gal who introduces you to "the right people" while taking a more active role in guiding your career than an Agent.

In my case, I have a lawyer, manager and agent - each one's job is slightly differentiated, but there is also a great deal of crossover.

you certainly don't need both, but yuo do need one in order to get your scripts read by anyone.

No one in this town takes unsolicited scripts.

Okay, so let me see if I got this down.... (For the sake of ease, I'll use Entourage characters even though I haven't seen anything but the first season.)


Vincent is the movie star. He basically stands in front of the camera and recites his lines.

Eric is sorta like the manager. He offers him advice and hangs out with him alot at social functions.

Ari (1 of the best characters in television history) is the agent. He actively goes out and solicits studios to give Vincent roles.


Is that about right? I guess to me, it seems like the manager is very extraneous and if you already have an agent, would be unneeded, but maybe there's some element of what they do that I'm missing. Id' be hard pressed to justify paying a guy 10% if all he's doing is introducing me to people but then again, I'm not in Hollywood and from what I un derstand it's a lot more of who you know than what you know.

I have heard that unsolicited scripts generally get returned unopened so as to protect the studios from possible theft lawsuits.

you got is exactly right. and what Eric does as Vinny Chase's manager is read the scripts, sort through material and counsel his client/friend.

Yeah, I really don't think one needs all the reps, but I'm still trying to claw my way up and I need everyone on my side that I can get.

Should I ever reach the position of power to which I strive, I will certainly cut one or the other loose. You can get by without an agent if you hae a manager and a lawyer. So I'm not sure which one will go...I'll see who treats me better :)

Hollywood is like a junior high cafeteria and everyone wants to sit at the cool kid's table - no one wants to sit alone

If you're sure it's something you wouldn't mind doing, then pm me you're email. ...And consider it sort of a friendly exchange of ideas. (My sentence structure is only "superior" after I revise about a million times, grammar book in hand. [I actually have a copy of a high school grammar text book and a college text writing text book called "A Work in Progress"]).

As for poetry, hey, you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours, as the saying goes. It's something that we could pass back and forth for just general purposes. Both of us are competent enough as writers to know whether or not a person's work is good, however, we are not equipped to judge our own work due to our own self doubt. Therefore, it might be good for you to hear someone who knows poetry (and I do) to say, "Rod Usher, you really are good, so stop staring at The Poet's Market, kay?"

Cheers!

That makes perfect sense.

Quote:

Should I ever reach the position of power to which I strive, I will certainly cut one or the other loose. You can get by without an agent if you hae a manager and a lawyer. So I'm not sure which one will go...I'll see who treats me better :) Hollywood is like a junior high cafeteria and everyone wants to sit at the cool kid's table - no one wants to sit alone

Hmmm... Good analogy.


So, has your manager introduced you to any mega stars that would make us oooo and ahhhh or gotten you into parties at the Playboy mansion yet?

Mostly just producers whose names are hardly household, but I've been pretty excited to be in the room with them.

Had a bunch of meetings with Robert Evans in his huge and very old school offices on the Paramount lot - very cool. I Always giggle to myself when I enter any of the studios, just so funny to be at Universal or Sony or Paramount or Fox.

:D

Had lunch with Vinessa Shaw (Hills Have Eyes remake) today. She's even prettier in person. Seems she's interested in one of my projects:D

Sweet! I'm sure having known actors interested in your stuff makes the studios take a closer look too.

No Playboy parties though?

the mods should just sticky this thing, because every time it drops off the front page, I am just going ot bump it back up.... :)


i have been hitting the "Writing Planning" pretty hardcore these days. i havent had time to actually sit down and write much, but this weekend i should be finishing 90% of the housework we have, so i can dedicate my free time to fun work. Thank god it's almost fall, this is the best time of the year for me.

it's like the creative dam broke and i can barely keep track of all the ideas, characters and plotlines pouring out of my head.

i have 4 screenplays i am outlining, 3 serial stories (including Gloom ;), and more short stories than oyu can shake a stick at.

Seriously, your arm would get tired before you could shake it at all of them.

Why are you looking at me like that?



Edit:
Not to be sappy or anything but between Roderick and my wife, i have not felt this good or positive that this oculd actually happen for me. i actually like my current job a LOT, but as much as i like programming, it is A) for someone Else, and B) not my #1 passion.

I would love to bounce some of my stuff off of you Rod, when i have more complete work (proffesional opinions are great), but i would hate to inundate you. I cant stand people who take advantage of free services.

No playboy mansion...yet.

Actually the role Vinessa wants is in a movie I already sold and is going into production in Missouri (it's a tax rebate thing) the first week of dec.



Vod
Glad to hear it, man. This is usually my most productive time of year as well. I say usually, becasue I'm bone-dry right now. I've got bupkiss.



Anyone who wants a laugh can check out Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep this sat on SciFI. I wrote the first two drafts (it was originally a modern-day Scilla and Charibdis tale) and then passed the work off to a friend, who was subsequently replaced by another writer. It's directed by Tibor Tackas (THE GATE) so I'll be watching to see if there's ANYTHING left from my original.

I have been keeping my eye out for this since you first mentioned it :) I think we are sending Bree to a nice weekend getaway tomorrow night (she needs a break from me and the baby BIG TIME) so i should have the tv to myself :)

BTW.... did you comeup with the title? :)

nope - the title when I was attached was
"untitled giant squid project"

but I was pushing for "Sucker"

Ill DVR it and check it out.

That would have been great :D



either way, it would have to be better than Peter Becnhly's "The Beast".

God i couldnt stand that man... a marine biologist that waited almost 30 years to say "oops, maybe it was a bad idea to write a book and a movie that would actually INCREASE the number of people and sharks getting killed in the world." Dick...


I love the one word titles by the way... "Justice", "Bearwood", "The Safe" (technically 2, but....)

I actually named "Father Dillon's Funeral" because i wanted something wordy for a title for a change :D

in all fairness - i doubt very much he knew the impact that writing that book would have...

I think my biggest problem was his attitude about it. He was pretty much "So what?' about it until a little before he died. if he had just been an author, i wouldnt have cared (i dont blame speilberg for the movie), but as a scientist, there is a certain obligation there. it would be like a doctor making a completely untrue story about a disease people commonly fear and then shrugging when i causes a panic...



It's kind of liek what Happened to Steve Irwin. Whithin a week, some dumbasses were out killing stingrays out of "revenge" :rolleyes:

Human nature is hardly that unpredictable.

have you seen the little joke gif.s circulating now of him swimmingmadly from a stingray...


human behavior is VERY predictable these days

Exactly. it's probably a big reason why horror is so popular. how many horror movies deal with undeserving people having something terrible happnening to them? So much of it is assholes and sluts getting their just-deserves; basically bad things happnening to bad people. It's getting increasingly rare that the stories involve people just minding their own business and getting blindsided by something awful. i think that was part of wht i liked about Wrong Turn and the new THHE, non eo fthe characters were really out looking for trouble, or had that appaling of personalities, so it really sucked for them when they died.

So far out of the stories i have published on my site, only Justice has an asshole getting somethign bad sderved to him, and even then, the good guy suffers too. (pats self on back)

I liked Wrong Turn a lot too. I think I liked it because the characters seemed like regular people (Kinda like you said), but I also like that they pretty acted like normal people and didn't really do anything where you are like... "Well, why the hell would you go in there?" They reacted to their really shitty situation in much the same way I think just about anybody would.

The movie that we start shooting in December is called DAMNED (one word title for ya, Vod) and it is about innocent people getting blindsided by trouble. It's also an old school 1950's style socio-political allegory while delivering a very 21st century visceral punch.

It's the first produced credit of mine that I'm really proud of. :D

sluts are not bad people !!!


well, not the girl sluts.

Do the other ones make you feel dirty? :)

Sci-fi promised you the tape would never go out, but now the entire world knows the humiliating things you agreed to...


Wow... Screenwriting sounds alot like porn....


I have to admit, i am terrified that some of what i am working on will get sold, then end up in the hands of someone like Paul Anderson or Uwe Boll and they will suck the soul out of it and turn my vivid, beautiful dreams into boring shit....

You could always take drama courses and learn how to be a director. As a former drama student, directing is quite fun. It's its own little creational process.

That's something I'm sure most screenwriters fear.


"No God no! Not Uwe Boll! Well... Guess my career is over..."

*puts shotgun in mouth & pulls trigger*

I know the remake thing drives people nuts, but my partner and I are up for the job to write the remake of THE STEPFATHER. I loved the original, but totally see room for updating and improving this one.

Not all are bad though. The Hills have eyes was great, and i was sure it was going to be crap.

The right writer, the right director, anything can be good.

I also really liked the Dawn remake & the TCM remake despite not seeing any reason for those two movies to be redone in the first place.


I watched Kraken last night ROd. How much of you story was left in there? Any? I was actually enjoying it quite a bit all the way up until the very end. I thought the way the giant squid was killed at the end was pretty anti-climactic, but overall I was entertained. Sci-Fi had a nice little creature marathon going on yesterday.

I turned Kraken off halfway through.

They kept some of the themes and scenes I wrote but eliminated most. In my draft the squid lived near a freak wave spot off the coast of Gibralter. The combo of the huge repeating wave and the squid was the real life insiration for the legend of Scilla & Charibdis. The whole story was supppoes tyo take place where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic.

The spot was a nautical graveyard, where a Nazi sub lay beside a Phonecian ship and various watercraft throughout the ages.

In my draft, the heroine gets her eye poked out by the bad guy(not Maxwell Odemus?) - in her fianal scene she had an eyepatch, sexy.

Also our climax involved the Squid fighting a Sperm Whale (staight out of old sailor's lore) and our heroes trapped in a seacave with a rising tide and surrounded by a hundred very hungry little baby squids.

Didn't watch the end, but I'm guessing that wasn't in it.

Really embarassing :o

I didn't think they were going to put my name on it.


can't wait for DAMNED to start shooting so I can put this SciFi shit behind me!

They put your name in the credits? What'd you get? A writing credit? Story credit? Something else?


Your ending (and story) sounds better. The way this ended was the 2 main good characters & the 1 main bad character were in a standoff on the last remaining floating boat. The Bad guy had the girl at gunpoint then the squid came up and pulled them both into the water & killed the bad guy. The squid then attacked the good guy who managed to trap a tentacle in some kind of cable roller of some sort and then proceeded to shoot the squid about a dozen times and it died. :rolleyes: Then his boat started sinking so he got on the liferaft and as he drifted, he heard the good girl yelling for help. He pulled her into the raft and they floated until morning before getting rescued. Like I said, pretty anti-climactic.