HerzogisGod
Well-known member
My new feature screenplay is nearly complete. Need to find literary agent to represent me. Who is best? By best I mean, who will return my phone calls?
Thanks
Thanks
so many scams...so where can I find a literary agent
- Thread starter HerzogisGod
- Start date
Batutta
Major Contributor
If they aren't on this list, they probably can't do a damn thing for you.
http://www.wga.org/agency/agencylist.asp
http://www.wga.org/agency/agencylist.asp
HerzogisGod
Well-known member
Thanks....
Randall_Oelerich
Veteran
Batutta
Major Contributor
Not that I can find...A note, if you send a query letter, send it to a specific agent if you can, not just "to whom it may concern".
wcmartell
Well-known member
WGA list is not top people, it is *signatory* people. I had the worst agent in the world, and got him from the WGA list. http://sex-in-a-sub.blogspot.com/2006/05/flashback-2-my-first-agent.html
As with anything else, you need to do research. Make a list of sales and deals from reading the trades and list the agents. Find the agents who have sold screenplays like yours - target them.
Make sure your screenplay is ready before you send it out. You have rewritten it to near perfection and you can read your 5 favorite screenplays and then read yours and it fits with the others - is of equal quality. Know that the average WGA writer wrote 9 screenplays before they made a cent - there is a learning curve and your first few screenplays will be learning experiences rather than earning experiences.
Good luck!
- Bill
Barry_Green
Moderator
Awesome. Bill Martell rocks.
wcmartell
Well-known member
You mean "you're" a playwright...
And I think playwrights actually have the most to learn, as that medium is almost the opposite of screenwriting. A play is told through the medium of the actor and the dialogue. A screenplay is told through the medium of the camera and the actions of the characters.
Screenwriting is writing for the screen, not the soundtrack.
- Bill
"And I think playwrights actually have the most to learn, as that medium is almost the opposite of screenwriting." Yes I don't disagree, but as unfair and undeserved as it may be
playwrights can walk into situations and earn immediately on their first screenwriting job.
I was hired to rewrite a screenplay after a play I wrote was produced (very small production).
"Screenwriting is writing for the screen, not the soundtrack."
True, but actors at least in my experience at least initially put a higher weight on great dialogue more than other aspects of the screenplay (rightly or wrongly). It is the only tangible element that might actually end up from the page to the screen. Its also the element that will most likely embarrass the actor if handled clumsily. If the actor/producer loves the playwrights work they can always pair them up with a more seasoned writing partner.
playwrights can walk into situations and earn immediately on their first screenwriting job.
I was hired to rewrite a screenplay after a play I wrote was produced (very small production).
"Screenwriting is writing for the screen, not the soundtrack."
True, but actors at least in my experience at least initially put a higher weight on great dialogue more than other aspects of the screenplay (rightly or wrongly). It is the only tangible element that might actually end up from the page to the screen. Its also the element that will most likely embarrass the actor if handled clumsily. If the actor/producer loves the playwrights work they can always pair them up with a more seasoned writing partner.
wcmartell
Well-known member
Again - opposite. The dialogue is the most likely to change, the actions and the situations and the visual components the most likely to make it from page to screen.
I just did a class at Santa Fe Screenwriting Conference and one of the examples I used was a scene in REMEMBER THE TITANS about integrating a high school football team in the south. There is a scene where a white football player is going to celebrate with the team after a game when a car pulls up next to him - his racist white friends - they are going to a post-game party where no blacks will be allowed... even if they were MVP on the team. The white player must decide if he will get into the car or continue walking to the team. There is some dialogue - and I have not compared it to the script, but in my experience dialogue gets thrown away and actors say whatyever they want to say - and directors have them say whatever they want to say. In addition, any dialogue about the situation would be OTN, so it would stink. The decision the character makes is visual - get in the car or follow the team - and making that decision is a big meaty dramatic decision that we can see. Girl he likes in white guy's car... no girl with the team, etc.
And this is one of dozens of purely visual dramatic scenes in the film. Yes, there is dialogue in these scenes - but the dialogue isn't telling the story, the actions of the characters is... because this is a movie.
In my experience, I'm lucky if a handful of lines makes it to the screen as written... but the visual and character actions almost always make it.
- Bill
Batutta
Major Contributor
Very true. A screenwriter should look at himself as an architect. It's up to hundreds of other people how the house gets built and decorated, but give them a shaky framework to build upon and it won't even stand up.
wcmartell
Well-known member
The actor can change the line, "make it their own", "make it fit their mouth", "I don't see my character saying this", etc... but they can not change the actions without changing the whole screenplay. That example from REMEMBER THE TITANS *must* stick to the screenplay because the next scene takes place with the team. The actor can't decide to do something different, because it would change the location of the scene that follows.
But when we look at the big picture - 70% of an American movie's audience doesn't speak English. They get a dubbed version, or in some cases a version translated in the cinema by someone yelling at the audience. Your dialogue has now been changed into a capsule version... but the images remain exactly as written.
Screenwriting is writing for the screen.
- Bill
But when we look at the big picture - 70% of an American movie's audience doesn't speak English. They get a dubbed version, or in some cases a version translated in the cinema by someone yelling at the audience. Your dialogue has now been changed into a capsule version... but the images remain exactly as written.
Screenwriting is writing for the screen.
- Bill
"The actor can change the line, "make it their own", "make it fit their mouth", "I don't see my character saying this", etc... but they can not change the actions without changing the whole screenplay.' Is five or six lines from a Mamet or Richard Price script all that the producers expect to remain when the movie is finished? Maybe but its not their goal at the beginning of the process.
Many actors are drawn to work because of the quality of the dialogue along with story and compelling characters. Many of my friends (one with a recent writing nomination) see the value of dialogue very differently. While you may see little value in what I cherish many others who have paid me over the years would disagree.
Many actors are drawn to work because of the quality of the dialogue along with story and compelling characters. Many of my friends (one with a recent writing nomination) see the value of dialogue very differently. While you may see little value in what I cherish many others who have paid me over the years would disagree.
Batutta
Major Contributor
I think you have to keep in mind lambert that Bill isn't saying every line gets completely redone, just modified to the particular actor and situation. I think the reason dialogue gets modified so often on set is that a good director and actor's first priority is making sure the scene feels real, and if that means tweaking a line here or there so it doesn't feel written then that gets done. Some actors change dialogue every take just to keep the situation fresh. As a director I sometimes worry when an actor does the same thing take after take as that means they aren't really present and listening to the other performer. Some films rely so heavily on dialogue that of course, they wouldn't garner interest from actors if that dialogue wasn't great. But other films, it's not as critical that it be Mamet, just that it be plausible.