Gervich Chad - How to Manage Your Agent: A Writers Guide to Hollywood Representation

Small Screen, Big Picture: A Writers Guide to the TV Business

Psychs Guide To Crime Fighting For the Totally Unqualified

Chad Gervich

First published 2014

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2014 Chad Gervich

The right of Chad Gervich to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Gervich, Chad.

How to manage your agent: a writers guide to Hollywood representation/Chad Gervich.

pages cm

1. Motion picture authorship. 2. Television authorship. I. Title.

PN1996.G47 2014

791.450232dc23

2013024318

ISBN: 9780240823775 (pbk)

ISBN: 9780240824048 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9780240824048

Typeset in Akzidenz Grotesk BE

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Brad Wollack

Producer: Chelsea Lately, After Lately, The Wayne Brady Show

Remember, Brad agents are nothing more than brokers. They go for the easiest, quickest buck. With those encouraging words from my father upon signing with an agency two weeks before graduating college, I was thrust into the world of Hollywood representation.

Thirteen years and three agencies later, Ive come to learn that my dad was mostly right. Ive had the privilege of dealing with agents in almost every capacity imaginable, both as a buyer (a producer and executive looking to hire a client or acquire a project) and a seller (as a writer, performer and producer hocking my wares and half-baked ideas).

Basically, my dad was saying that agents, like any form of broker, only get paid when their clients are working. To that end, they obviously want their clients to work. While you hope that theyre taking the time and care to find just the right project for youtheir prized clienttruth is they fling as much crap (in this case, their clients) at the wall as they can to see what sticks. That is a very broad categorization of what they do, but its a basic reality (my current agents excluded, of course).

Full disclosure: at the time of writing this introduction, I havent read Chads book. He hasnt finished it even though it was due eight months ago. So, Im not even sure what Im supposed to be addressing. However, Ive bluffed my way through most of my career, so why stop now?

I suppose this book could be a lot of things. In fact, it could read like a classic romance novel because, to me, the evolution of the client-agent dynamic is very similar to a romantic relationship, or even a marriage. Ill elaborate

After signing with an agency (the first date), the next six months to a year are total bliss because you receive what is commonly known as new agency love (the courting process). Both client and agent are still trying to impress one another, and you fantasize and talk incessantly about the life youre going to build together. You have shared dreams and projects you want to nurture together. You have found your knight in shining armoryour one true love. You plan to grow old together and take care of each other when no one else will.

Then reality starts to set in. Phone calls are no longer placed everyday to check in; youre not dining at the hottest restaurants anymore; and your knights armor suddenly has more chinks than shine. You realize hes buried in work and just doesnt have the time for you anymore. But you tolerate it and, over time, you settle in as most couples do and accept your fate. You have some good times and some bad, but you motor through. You put in the minimum effort to sustain the relationship, but eventually you both know its over. Sure, you still sleep in the same bed, but the lust is gone.

One day, youre at lunch with your friends or co-workers who start talking about their agents and how fantastic they are. You suddenly realize youre stuck in a loveless marriage. What you have isnt rightits not a healthy relationship after all. You begin having impure thoughts about other agents and what they could do for you, and, one day, you finally act on your deepest desires and secretly rendezvous with a new agency. Its a thrill. They remind you how beautiful you truly are, and if they were lucky enough to have you as a client, they wouldnt ever take you for granted. You agree to run off with these new agents and a flurry of excitement and nerves you havent felt in years wells in your stomach. You finally work up the courage to announce to your current agents that its over. To your surprise, theyre fairly understanding. Theyve wanted to end it, too. The split is surprisingly amicablethey still get to receive a commission from your current employment, but you get the chance to start the romance all over again with someone new.

As in love, each clientagent relationship is different, and managing one isnt without its complications. It typically comes down to the age-old battle between art and commerce. Youre the talent, or the show. Theyre the brokers, or the business. In fact, show business should really be called show-versus-business. While you both have the same intentionto make money off of your artyoull often have differing views on how exactly to achieve that. Like any fruitful bond, it takes a lot of communication, understanding and belief in one another.