I remember signing with an agent. As an eleven-year-old actress, the prospect of TV and radio work was thrilling. When I didn’t book a print job, my agent blamed it on the braces. But when I landed a local Cleveland radio spot, my flair for voiceover was celebrated, but not too much. With children for clients, my agent was careful to keep any star-driven egos in-check (even though the moms were bigger hazards). What I remember most during this year-long agency exploit is not the disappointment of frequent rejection or the high of occasional validation; I mostly remember the relationship between my agent […]
by Taylor Hess on Apr 14, 2015The following piece on TV writers’ interactions with their agents is excerpted from Chad Gervich’s just-released How to Manage Your Agent: A Writer’s Guide to Hollywood Representation. It can be purchased on Amazon at the link above. How much should I talk to my agent during staffing season? I know they’re superbusy, and super-stressed, so I don’t want to bug them, but I also want to know what’s going on. Should I call once a day? Once an hour? Once a week? What?! “It’s not about how frequently you call,” says Verve agent Amy Retzinger, “although please do not call […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Nov 26, 2013My film Between Us is about to come out in theaters and one of the questions I’ve been asked at some of the 22 festivals in seven countries I’ve been to (and yes, that sound you hear is my feet splashing on the beach when I won the Grand Jury Prize in the Bahamas) is how the hell I got a cast like Julia Stiles, Taye Diggs, Melissa George and David Harbour in a movie that according to Kickstarter only cost $10,000? So let me explain… 1. Choose Castable Material. One reason I chose to adapt an Off-Broadway play in […]
by Dan Mirvish on Jun 20, 2013Last year when we asked our contributors to discuss their seminal indies of the ’00s, Brandon Harris wrote of John Sayles’ Lone Star, “It was the first time I saw an American Independent narrative that seemed to deal with the ways in which different communities, even ones right on top of each other, see history in vastly divergent ways.” Maybe it’s because I’m currently working my way through Season Three of The Wire, but it strikes me that, in America, at least, the kind of multi-character, socially-critical storytelling that wasn’t exactly prevalent in 1996 when Lone Star was released is […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 20, 2010