How I Got Repped
Outside the Gate
Oh man, how to get a manager was something I wanted to know SO BAD for so many years.
I remember feeling like if I just knew this secret, whatever it was, I would finally unlock the door to Narnia and achieve my dream of becoming a wizard prince (oh my God, what has listening to LOTR done to me?). Translation: I thought this was the one thing standing in my way of being a capital S Screenwriter.
Then one day… it happened. I got my first manager. Eventually, a few years later, I moved on to a manager at one of the big companies.
I had done it.
But how?
Well, looking back, it clearly wasn’t just one thing. It was the culmination of several things that I did consistently over a period of time.
What Had I Been Doing
It made a big shift in my approach after years of getting nowhere, and that’s what finally started moving the needle.
Prior to this, my strategy had been:
submitting to competitions
submitting to labs
querying managers whose contact info I could find
asking people I knew if they knew anybody
This had not led to anything.
I was desperate, however, to get representation because I felt that not having it was the main thing standing in my way of becoming a professional screenwriter- after all, they were the gatekeepers and I was standing outside the gate.
Looking back now, I can see that this, right here, was probably my biggest mistake.
What Was Wrong With My Approach
In believing that the only way I could be a screenwriter was if someone else gave me permission… I was giving all of my power away.
I felt like I NEEDED SOMEONE ELSE to make things happen.
I’m not going to totally blame myself for this way of thinking because this is the line the industry gives when you ask it pretty please with sprinkles on top to let you in.
It says, “find somebody to let you.” It doesn’t say, “let yourself in.”
But that’s what you have to do.
And yet, if someone had told me that back then I would have swore at them in all kinds of colorful ways and said, “How the #?!%@? am I supposed to do that?”
They teach you that the way the business works is you get a rep and then you get work. But that’s only true for a select few.
For everyone else, it’s flipped. You get work and then you get repped.
You have to stop waiting for someone to give you permission to be who you want to be. You just have to be that person.
A Different Mindset
It was only when I started seeing things differently that my circumstances changed. These were things that I realized:
There is no gate. Stop seeing an ‘inside’ and ‘outside’, or a ‘me’ and ‘them.’ You are not different than the people who you aspire to work alongside. You might not have as many credits, but neither did they at some point. Don’t buy into the idea that you are ‘less than’ until you achieve certain things or get acknowledged by certain people. Because if you do, then you will be. Do you think Sean Baker waited around for permission?
Baker didn’t get his start in filmmaking until his thirties, but he persisted with sheer determination. In an interview with The Creative Independent, he advises that budding creatives try and stay “within the industry, even if it’s on the far fringe. I’m talking about editing wedding videos and corporate videos, and actually at one point I was even hustling so much I was doing a duplication service because I just happened to have 10 VCRs. This was back in the late ’90s in New York where I would put up flyers, especially during IFP week, all around that block that say, “VHS dupes, DVD dupes.” I would be at home pressing play, record, play, record. I was actually a mini dupe house. It was like a desperate way to latch onto anything that was still within the industry.”
Just start doing things. Even if they’re small. Even if they are cheap. Don’t wait for money and for Heaven’s Sake please don’t wait for representatives.
Sean Baker wrote, directed, and edited his first feature film, Four Letter Words, using his own resources and the Dogme 95 movement as inspiration.
He made Take Out (2004), which he co-wrote, co-directed, co-edited, and co-produced with frequent collaborator Shih-Ching Tsou on a budget of $3000.
If the internet is correct, he didn’t get a rep until 2015! He had already made several movies at that point!
Collaborate. Working with other people expands your network which leads to more opportunities. The more people you know, the more likely someone will make an introduction for you.
The Referral
Because, at the end of the day, getting a rep, someone who will actually do something for you, almost always comes from a referral.
Most people I know got their first rep that way.
It’s how I got mine.
I made my own little micro feature by myself and showed it to someone I had just met socially and they put me in touch with a manager who represented someone else they were working with at the time.
When I got my next manager, it was from a recommendation from the producer whom I had just worked with on my second micro feature.
But I had been asking people I knew all along! What had changed? I stopped seeing a gate, I started making things, and I collaborated.
Now, do you have to go this route in getting repped? No, of course not.
I will say, though, that those I know who did get their reps through contests or queries, ultimately said that the reps never did anything for them and in some ways ended up being worse than having no rep at all.
The last thing I want to leave you with, the thing that I feel is the most important to remember, is this:
YOU DON’T NEED A REP TO MAKE THINGS
