Another marketing question: when a production company/manager requests your script what is the accepted protocol for following up? Or do you bite the bullet and accept the fact that silence == PASS?What you take as "silence" may in fact translate into "busy." Speaking personally, it can take me up to 3-4 months to get to material. Granted production companies, managers, or agents have assistants or people on staff to read scripts, so one would normally expect the turnaround to be quicker. However I know a writer who gave a script to an agent who misplaced the manuscript and didn't find it until he moved offices, read it, then contacted the writer in order to represent him -- 3 years after the agent originally received the script! So you never know.
The bigger point is if anyone has requested your script, you should view that as an open 'door' for present and future contact. You should most definitely get in touch with them to inquire about the status of your script. If they have, indeed, passed on it, don't close that door; instead talk about the script you're currently working on or have finished that you'd like to send to them. If they decline, say you've got several other scripts in various stages of development, and that you could send them a brief synopsis of each one.
The point is, once you have the door open, even just an inch, do everything you can to keep it open.
Big note: You will almost always be dealing with assistants. Be extremely nice to them! They are the gatekeepers, so try your best -- in a non-pushy way -- to engage them in conversation, ask about their background, how do they like their job. The goal is to create any sort of 'human' connection between you and the assistant. Then it becomes much easier to contact them in the future if/when you want to submit a new script.
There's also this: The assistants of today are the studio executives of tomorrow. Need proof? Burg & Myers was brought into CAA (where I was repped for a decade) by an agent-in-training named Michael Wright. What's he doing nowadays? Michael heads up TNT, TBS, and TCM.
So bottom line: Call them about your script. Even if they passed, do your best to keep that 'door' open. And stay in touch with them as you finish each new script.
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3 comments:
Thanks, Scott. Great advice as usual.
great post - it's always important to follow up; I think a lot of people just feel this ghost that says 'you can't!', but of course, you totally can, and should..
I know I'm late in responding, but be nice to the assistant EVERYWHERE you go.
I was an executive assistant at a non-entertainment company, and because of my station, I was higher ranking than many of the people in my office. Not only that, I was responsible for training most of the new hires, regardless of who actually hired them.
I remember greeting a girl who had come in for an interview and she treated me like garbage and completely blew me off.
Do you think she got the job? :)
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