The Rough Draft

Well the Toronto International Film Festival is almost set to wrap up. I was there as an Industry Delegate. There were some great panels and some not so great. The same could be said of the parties. In a world where we are constantly bombarded with more, bigger and better, the smaller ones were where to be…

The best party I attended was put on by Wishbone Films at Sage restaurant. Nick, K.C., Gil, and Mike throw a grat bash with good food, better booze and even better company. I bumped into a bunch of people that I hadn’t seen in months and met some with whom I hope to forge deeper business bonds with later. Of course I’d made the mistake of having a double scotch earlier so I got nobody’s name right (including my own) all evening. Where Wishbone excells in their parties is in not turning up the music so loud you can’t hear yorself think let alone talk to anybody. They know we’re there to do trade and yelling until your voice cracks rarely looks attractive or sane. I’d love to tell all about what went down business wise for myself and Sabot but we’re not there yet. You’ll know once things have been firmed up.

Over the course of the last seven days I’ve been to a bunch of seminars and small intimite panel discussions. the highlight of which was the Mark McKinney moderated Terry Gilliam interview. Terry is shooting his next film Tidelands in Saskatchewan, congats to Sask. film for nailing that project down. It was cool to see two guys both with deep roots in troupe comedy riffing off of one and other. I didn’t learn a whole bunch from that panel but man did I laugh my ass off.

The first panel I went to involved a demonstration of the latest and greatest Digital camera. It uses a 35mm DLP chip to record its images at a variety of camera speeds and frame rates. Of course it was being projected by a Christie digital projector (wow). It was a hell of an image. The camera will be available later this year, early next and it’s going to make a pretty major impact on how we do business in the long run.

There was a great horror film panel and I’m going to tell you, if you want to break in, horror’s the way to do it. It’s the one medium where you don’t need to make it a star vehicle (though stars don’t hurt). And it’s a venue where you can get distribution very quickly in either the pay per view market or the diret to video market. It’s also the one medium where sales go up when times are bad.

Independent film is very much alive and well and it looks like actors as always are willing to work for less in films they can actually give a shit about. Too bad Hollywood isn’t taking notice.

How do I get an agent has been a running thread of a bunch of discussions that I’ve had this week with various people. Do you even need an agent? What does an agent do? Are they a required evil of the trade. Will your life be smooth sailing once you have an agent?

The short answers are; it’s hard, yes, negotiate the deal on your behalf, yes and no, absolutely not. I’m glad I could clear that up for people.

Thank you.

Okay, so you want the long form answers, I knew you would. How do you get an agent? Well it helps if they live in the same city (or at least within driving distance) as you. They don’t need to but it really helps. It helps because an agent just like anybody goes on two things, their gut and your work. You might be a great writer but if you’re a total freak who can’t stand to see your work tampered with in any way, chance are you’re not going to get that agent because they have enough crap in their life already, thank you very much. So, the deal is, you try to meet them socially and behave yourself, not talking about the work in any great detail. Be secure in your talent. Have another writer friend recommend you to them, if they will not ask them why and make them be honest. It could be that they don’t feel your ready to be read yet. This is common as we tend to leap into things without having honed our craft. I didn’t seek out an agent until I’d written three feature screenplays and made a bunch of shorts. There was no point in wasting both of our times. Agents after all are investing in careers not in scripts. Be sure to have a body of work under your belt.

Above all, be true to yourself. Look at your work and really be honest, are you any good? Does the writing flow? Is the structure tight? Is it a good story? Believe me there are a bunch of people out there (tens of thousands) who never took the time to be true to themselves. I’ve read a bunch of those scripts and curse the thirty seconds they took from my life to drop each and every one of them in the round file. Agent or not, this is a tough industry be happier doing something else if you have no talent.

Do you even need an agent? Yeah, if you don’t want to get screwed on every project. For some reason every Production company in the world always looks to cut the writer’s fee first before any other budgeting considerations are covered. The star might need a massage therapist for their pet goldfish at fifty thousand a week but God forbid they give the writer another cheque for his last rewrite. Your agent will make sure the contract will see you paid for every rewrite. Your agent is there to protect you. The mere fact that you have representation will also open doors previously closed to you. You can say your a writer (and you are) but when you show you have representation also, you become a, “Real,” writer in the eyes of many. Mostly this has to do with the legal side of the business. That pretty much covers that.

Will your life be smooth sailing after you get an agent? No. You still have to fight and scrabble for work just like before. There’s only so many slots a year for production and you’re still fighting off the rest of the new talent as well as the old guard. Your agent gets in one door only to see it slammed in your face. Or you’ll go all the way only to see the project fall apart in development. Or maybe you’ll have a project handed to you on short notice and it’s in post before you can let your breathe out. You never know. I do know that I wouldn’t have gotten my last gig without my agent.

Good luck and good writing.

Steve Abbott