Development with a Manager

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  • Development with a Manager

    Hi all,

    How do you feel about managers who want to be included every step of the way, creatively?

    I'm talking about:"send us ideas and we'll tell you which one to do"; "send us the 1st act once it's written and we'll give you notes on it- and then you may continue"; "don't do it as a thriller: do it as a comedy. comedies sell right now"

    I just realized that a lot of this control might come from the fact that managers produce - so they have a reason to tailor something to their liking/sensibilities.

    But I think it's a pretty unappealing way of going about writing, and it feels more like they're the Boss and you're the lowly writer, being told what to do.

    I am sure there are different degrees of this, but I really want to hear from those who are repped. How do you do it?

    J

  • #2
    Re: Development

    There are two approaches to this and I've had experiences in both as I'm on my second set of managers.

    The first go around it was "send me 20 ideas and I'll see if anything sparks". This can potentially go on forever and you end up with an idea you aren't passionate about which starts you out already behind.

    Or the other way where you send a handful of ideas you would really like to write and are commercial, then your rep tells you the ones he/she thinks are the most interesting or have the most potential.

    Concept is extremely important so it's not crazy to think they would want to see what you plan on writing. Is it a White House down or Black Swan? If a sub-genre or small story is what appeals to you then you can always write it on the side. I usually juggle two projects at a time.

    At the same time as I mentioned before, just because they think you have a good concept, there are a million things that can go wrong from concept to finished draft. If you don't love it and are only doing it because they approved it then you aren't doing it for the right reasons and it'll show.

    Get an idea of which one they are doing. If you really love an idea then justify why it could be great and fight for it -- but don't be a butt head and do it with every idea because if you write it and no one wants to touch it well then there goes all that work.

    In my opinion it should be collaborative, or at least if they are going to shoot down the idea there needs to be a reason why and vice versa. If it's a good manager they know what people are looking for and what they don't want so that's the plus side.
    Quack.

    Writer on a cable drama.

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    • #3
      Re: Development

      Hi Ducky,

      Thanks for the great thoughts.

      Deep down there's a part of me that questions the whole development approach to begin with. I say this because I just watched a friend do EXACTLY what his managers instructed him on a spec. It was a super-commercial idea he'd had. Originally he wanted to do it as a thriller (his way) but it ended up as a comedy (manager's way). "Comedies sell right now". He spent a year on it. Guess what? It didn't sell. And he was banging his head against the wall trying to write it because he is not a born comedy writer.

      So this theory that managers have a handle on the market, on what is selling/isn't selling, that they read so much that they just know what will work narratively... all this is something I don't entirely subscribe to.

      My basic feeling is that nobody knows anything, that writers- like any artist- perform best when they are passionate about their idea, and that none of us are in the business of co-writing unless we ourselves find a collaborator (i.e. another writer)

      I mean... am I crazy for thinking that it's completely antithetical to the integrity and intelligence of our craft to rattle off a bunch of ideas and have guys who have NEVER written a page choose for us??

      Sure, getting feedback is nice. And even new ideas. New directions. "What if's".

      But the thought that managers won't lift a finger on a project if it isn't EXACTLY what they want- that they hold your work hostage, and threaten not to go out with it. All of that makes me sad, and a little nauseous. Because I always thought that they were on the other side of the fence- our side- and not the gatekeepers to the gatekeepers.

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      • #4
        Re: Development with a Manager

        You're the second person to post about this this week. My take is this: a person who makes an offer like that isn't offering to become your manager.

        A manager is someone who is excited about your work, is going to send it out, introduce you to the town, get you an agent, etc... Yes, they'll work with you on future scripts, but they should be excited about the writer you are now.

        What managers like this are basically doing is gathering writers with little investment of their time. They sign you, you send them ideas, if they like one, they'll tell you to write it, if you like it, then they'll send it out. More likely, they'll decide that this script isn't the one, and have you repeat the cycle until you give up on them.

        If I were a manager like that, I would take on every writer in the world who queried me with a halfway decent script. Why not? Have dozens of writers cranking out scripts on spec for you, and all you have to do is say "no" or "yes" and react to the work in progress.

        All you're left with at the end of the day is a script that you wrote for someone else, which is rarely your best work.

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        • #5
          Re: Development with a Manager

          There are managers who, once you have signed with them, do not want any of the scripts you have already written - they want to have complete control over your output, and you end up their typing monkey.

          The problem here is - do they know anything about the creative side or are they just business people? Some writers do need to see the business side of screenwriting, but micromanagement can result in something so pre-fab and lifeless that it doesn't work. Some are good at the creative side, some are just business people... and develop something good into crap (just like in production!). But what irks me are the "business type managers" who aren't all that good at the business side either. When someone who's entire client list hasn't collectively had as many films made as I have has a note that makes no sense at all, and I can give a stack of recent successful films that go against that note and explain succinctly why the note does not work... and that manager still wants me to implement it?

          In the other Manager thread, Emily nails it - it needs to be a partnership... but kind of unequal because at the end of the day you are the one doing the creating. Sometimes you may be ahead of the curve, and *you* can see what's going to work when they can not. Business follows, creativity leads.

          But, I don't have a manager now... just a meeting with a producer on Tuesday who has made a bunch of films that made a pile of money for Paramount.

          - Bill
          Free Script Tips:
          http://www.scriptsecrets.net

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          • #6
            Re: Development

            Originally posted by jmattar500 View Post
            So this theory that managers have a handle on the market, on what is selling/isn't selling, that they read so much that they just know what will work narratively... all this is something I don't entirely subscribe to.
            There are bad managers out there, and if they are going to be dictators about what you write, that's not a relationship and you need to get rid of them.

            As you mentioned, just because the idea is good or the manager think it has potential selling doesn't mean it will sell. You've still got to write that concept into a great script -- a zillion things can go wrong in the execution. No idea who the manager is but having a writer switch genres sounds like a terrible idea, especially from comedy to thriller or vice versa.

            Now I now only run ideas by my reps that I'm passionate about or at the very least interested in exploring because if that aspect isn't there then the execution is going to suffer -- I've written enough to know this about myself but everyone is different. I once used to spitball concepts off just to get an approval stamp and I learned for me, it's not the way to go.

            You're the writer and at the end of the day you make the decision of what you write and don't write. If you don't want someone watching over your shoulder, maybe you're not ready for a rep. But most reps I know like to at least have an idea of what you are writing, whether they want to have a say so or not. If you're a big writer making tons of money then you can do what you want and they don't care but it's typical if you are not working or newer that they like to be somewhat hands on.

            Again every manager/agent is different so it's hard to blanket them all.
            Quack.

            Writer on a cable drama.

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            • #7
              Re: Development with a Manager

              It's one thing to have a manager work with you on developing your work to make it more appealing to certain buyers. It's another thing entirely to work for a manager by allowing him to decide the fate of your work and lord over it like Commodus in GLADIATOR, merely giving you a thumbs up or a thumbs down after you've fought hard to create something.

              This business is hard enough and you have to deal with enough people judging your work on a "yes or no" basis as it is. Your manager should be helping you try to get to "yes" rather than adding another layer of "no."

              That's not to say a manager has to automatically send out everything you write, or that he should be penalized if you don't sell something... but if a pattern develops where your manager just isn't sending out anything, or is saying "yes" or "no" rather than helping you improve your work, or wants to start approving or disapproving ideas, pages, the first, act, etc. before allowing you to proceed... that's not a healthy manager-client relationship.

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