Should you get your script covered at CAA or William Morris if you're a nobody?

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  • Should you get your script covered at CAA or William Morris if you're a nobody?

    CAA and William Morris are obviously the two biggest literary agencies out there (I believe). I know low-level people in both who can get my script read by their reading departments. However, I'm wondering if I should focus more on smaller agencies since - and correct me if I'm wrong - once you're read by those two agencies, it's kind of like a "the verdict is in" thing.

    Since everybody in town talks to each other, as soon as someone from Agency F asks WM or CAA if they've read this new script by "me", and they hear, "Oh yeah, we passed on it", dosn't that kind of taint the writer? Or at least the script?

    If you're a nobody, shouldn't you focus on the lesser agencies instead of going to the big ones? Or is it more like, since your'e a nobody it doesn't matter if your script isn't liked cause both you and it will soon be forgotten?

    I know they have a record of everything ever submitted. I'm just wondering how extensive it is. Like, is the coverage of every script on file? If you send a script that everyone hates, might you be "blacklisted" in essence, since everyone can access the cliff notes of the coverage which might say, "This writer sucks. Don't bother"?

    I know there are some who don't have an agent who will say, "Are you kidding? If you have the opportunity to submit to those agencies, do it!" But I'm looking for writers who have or have had representation before and know a little bit about that whole world and how it works.
    Script Reviews - 5 a week! http://scriptshadow.blogspot.com/

  • #2
    Re: Should you get your script covered at CAA or William Morris if you're a nobody?

    Dood, unless you have some hot spec that's being carefully tracked all over town nobody's gonna care or nobody's can ask. Agencies cover hundreds of scripts a week...yours would just be one of many...probably forgotten an hour or so after the coverage is done. Sounds like to me your low-level contacts would be doing you a favor and getting you some feedback and not trying to get you an agent. Geting coverage doesn't necessarily have anything to do with getting an agent. So they can do you the favor just to do you the favor...and they stopped blacklisting writers in the 50s. If you're all stoopid paranoid and want to cover your ass...submit the script under a different title and use a pen name.

    If you don't trust the system...you can always pay for coverage. There's lots of people who'll gladly give you feedback for a fee.

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    • #3
      Re: Should you get your script covered at CAA or William Morris if you're a nobody?

      I'm asking this question out of genuine ignorance. I come off as paranoid cause I simply don't know. I hope I didn't offend you. If I did, I apologize.

      I'd like to hear a little more about how this script submitting (in both the bigger and smaller agencies) works. I know the basics. Your script gets covered by the bottom of the barrel readers, and gets passed up, hopefully to the level of getting read by an agent. But I don't know the intricacies of this process. How they keep track of writers. How that affects future submissions. My hope is that if they don't like a script, they simply forget about it. But I would assume that if they get a script in from someone, the first thing they do is check to see if the writer has submitted before. Obviously, the more I know, the better my strategy can be to submit.
      Script Reviews - 5 a week! http://scriptshadow.blogspot.com/

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      • #4
        Re: Should you get your script covered at CAA or William Morris if you're a nobody?

        Script coverage stays on file in these big agencies. For how long I don't know.
        Blog: http://writinglounge.blogspot.com
        Email: kidcharlemagne108[at]yahoo[dot]co[uk]

        "What is your greatest ambition? To become immortal and then die." - Breathless

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        • #5
          Re: Should you get your script covered at CAA or William Morris if you're a nobody?

          I'm unrepped, unproduced. I had the chance to be read at CAA based on a contest win. They read it and passed. But since that time I've had an open door with them. They've now read 4 or 5 of my scripts, and passed on every one of them. But everytime I call them with a new one they say send it down. So, I say use the opportunity...you may just find yourself with an open door at CAA. Unless you really feel uncertain about your script, in which case I'd say get some coverage on it and polish, polish, polish. You never want to put a bad foot forward in this industry.

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          • #6
            Re: Should you get your script covered at CAA or William Morris if you're a nobody?

            I got the chance to have a script covered by CAA a couple of years ago, via a referral. They passed on the script. Still, it was a useful experience, because the reader provided coverage that helped me improve both the script and my writing in general.

            If I were in your shoes, I'd use the opportunity to get some free feedback on my script. If you send the script in and they love your work, great. If they pass on it, the rejection won't come back to haunt you. As another poster mentioned, agencies like that read and pass on hundreds of scripts a week. There's no blacklisting going on that I'm aware of -- unless your script is, like, Hall of Shame horrible.

            You'd asked about how it all works. In my case, a friend referred me to an agent. The agent sent the script out for coverage to a story analyst, and made a decision on whether to rep me based on the feedback the analyst provided.

            As you mentioned, the chances of an unsold writer getting picked up by a big agency are slim. Send your best work in and stay positive (and benefit from the learning experience offered), but know that you have a better chance of getting signed by a smaller agency.

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            • #7
              Re: Should you get your script covered at CAA or William Morris if you're a nobody?

              The main consideration I would have in your position is the condition of the script. I have a script that's been covered at CAA, ICM and WMA, and all of them passed. Now that's not the end of the world, but the one real downside is that it would be difficult to re-submit the script to anyone at those agencies because bad coverage stays on file, at least in-house. And at least one of those submissions was very early in the life of the script, so I didn't do myself any favors by getting covered at that point.

              So just make sure the script is in absolutely the best possible shape before you unleash it on those readers. And don't be discouraged if they pass. A friend of mine was reading for the production company of an oscar winner and in her infinite wisdom she passed on both Juno and The Low Dweller (which sold for 650,000 against 1.1 mil the day after she passed). Readers don't know @#*%!!

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              • #8
                Re: Should you get your script covered at CAA or William Morris if you're a nobody?

                Originally posted by kidcharlemagne View Post
                Script coverage stays on file in these big agencies. For how long I don't know.

                for ever. seriously. it never goes away.

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                • #9
                  Re: Should you get your script covered at CAA or William Morris if you're a nobody?

                  Originally posted by kidcharlemagne View Post
                  Script coverage stays on file in these big agencies. For how long I don't know.
                  What if you change the title.
                  Advice from writer, Kelly Sue DeConnick. "Try this: if you can replace your female character with a sexy lamp and the story still basically works, maybe you need another draft.-

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                  • #10
                    Re: Should you get your script covered at CAA or William Morris if you're a nobody?

                    Try and see if you can get your script covered anonymously - no title, no writer name submitted.

                    I've had this as a favor from friends in industry before, it's a really good way to see how the script "reads" without "blowing one's wad" so to speak
                    "You become what you think about all day long" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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