An agent or a talent agent as they are usually referred, is a person who looks for jobs for actors, filmmakers, scriptwriters, musicians, models and writers. Amongst many other people involved in the creative line of work, including broadcasting industries. They are useful because they defend their clients as well as promoting and supporting them in whatever they need their agent for. Typically an agent will take 10-20% of their clients earnings. You do not need an agent, however it can be quite imperative in helping to find work because often casting directors approach talent agencies. It is very hard in the creative industry to find work, because it takes both talent and luck. Getting your name is very hard and agents can help solve this.
Talent agents can help to negotiate contracts and strike deals with writers looking to sell their work or win them a writing job for a production. Talent agents can be very useful to work with, because they often work with many talented individuals. Therefore employers are more likely to approach agencies because they know they will have someone who fits the criteria well. A lot of major film studios will often not hire people if they aren't part of a talent agency, however many other film studios (especially independent ones) won't hire people from agencies. This is because it can also be off putting as it can cause hassle and can make the client look more unapproachable if they do all their business work via an agent.
For an up and coming screenplay writer who is looking to sell his script to production companies, or similarly a writer looking to become employed on a production to write a script a talent agent would often be a good route into finding work. This is because an agent can advertise their work to different companies, as well as finding them internships for different productions, to work behind the scenes as a script advisor. A script advisor usually works with the script/screenplay team, helping to advise in making better decisions as well as coming up with different concepts to further develop a script. Becoming a script advisor is a good stepping stone to trying to find work as a writer, because it can help to promote your own personal work, as well as proving to professionals the standard of your abilities. So therefore for a writer, having an agent can be useful because they can help to find you advisory jobs, or even better finding companies which will buy your scripts. Of course when a production company buys your screenplay/script, there is then the issue that they can then change absolutely anything they want as the rights are now theirs. Often companies will completely change the idea, just keep some of the ground work the same.
Commissioning Editors/E-Commissioning
E-commissioning is a form of receiving exclusive material from television and online companies and producers. It is in the form of registration, where producers, writers, filmmakers can submit their proposals of television shows online. No ordinary member of the public can sign up to e-commissioning. You must be part of a production company or have verified credentials in the industry. A proposal is an outlined idea for a production, this could range from anything to a film all the way to an advert. The proposal is the pitch which you try to sell forward to other companies, once a proposal is sent through to the e-commissioning service, a unique reference number is issued. Around about 10'000 proposals are sent through to the BBCs e-commissioning service every year. So to ensure that as a writer you have the best possible chance of getting a meeting with the commissioners, it is highly important that your proposals are top notch, engaging and filled with correct grammar.
While doing my research on e-commissioning I found a BBC Commissioning Editors contact page, her name is Clare Paterson and she works for the BBC in Wales, specifically for documentaries and all knowledge programmes from independent filmmakers in Wales.
The role of a commissioning editor is that they go out and find work in which they can publish, for example they will find new screenplays and filmmakers who they can then approach to get their work known or made. For example a commissioning editor might discover a screenplay idea for a new television show, if they like the idea of it they will have talks with the head of commissioning so that they can commission a production to be put in place. The reason an e-commissioning service is made available via the BBC is because the BBC is a public service broadcaster, meaning we the public pay a license fee so that the BBC can exist. So to thank the public, the BBC need to come across as friendly and working with the public, so that the people that pay for the BBC carry on supporting them. It also paves way for exciting new talent which is being discovered. Commissioning editors are the key link between the proposal, right up until the finished product.
Below is the link I found to Clare Paterson's profile
http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/whos-who/tv/knowledge/documentaries-1/clare-paterson.shtml
Getting stuff greenlit for Warner Brothers
In terms of getting your programme/film commissioned for a company or television channel, say BBC or Channel 4. You may be unsuccessful, other independent production companies may be interested. However this isn't the only option, as many filmmakers like to go big and try their hardest to get their show commissioned by the bigger companies who are at the top of the chain. For example Warner Brothers could be an option, if they weren't so bothered about your television show, a film may be ideal. The term greenlit, means when a programme or film has been given a commission, meaning it has the go ahead to be made with a fully functioning budget and team behind it. There are different ways of doing this, the most common way is to get your proposal seen or spoken to by a Director of Creative Development or by a Production Executive/Producer. The current president of Warner Brothers is Paul Broucek, he makes the sort of decisions which can make or break a filmmaker, because he has the overall decisions in what gets greenlit for production in the upcoming year. In conclusion he has more of a say than even the producer, when coming in terms with considering a screenplay to become a fully functioning film.
Being a producer carries a lot of risks in terms of copyright infringement and so forth, as soon as a filmmakers film is released many copyright inflicted risks are carried. So to ensure this is avoided, it is their responsibility to take out an errors and omissions insurance. This must be done prior to the release date, this is so that they have the chance to cover themselves in case copyright claims are made against them. Possible claims which could be made against them, resulting in expensive court action (hence taking out insurance to help cover this) could range from;
- Using a persons name without their consent in the film who is mutual with one of the main producers or part of the crew
- Saying a brand name in the wrong context during the screenplay
- Inadvertently breaking copyright infringement laws
- Misusing a brand name or logo, for example if a serial killer wore a Nike hoody this would anger Nike as it would paint a potential concern on their company.
While doing my research on independent production companies and errors and omissions insurance, I found an example of writers selling their ideas to producers. Tracking how their input into the production was. The first example is of the author Kaui Hart Hemmings, she is the author of the book The Descendants. Her agent sent a load of copies of her manuscript to many different filmmakers in London, they could apply for the option to buy the rights to make her book into a movie, something she had wanted for a while. The filmmaker who buys the rights can usually have the option for two years. After that they can hold, renew, let go entirely or buy. Right up closely until her book hit stores, screenwriter and producer Alexander Payne 'optioned' it. She then met with Payne to discuss the movie, as well as meeting the set designer and talking about the ideas they had. By the time Payne had optioned her book, she was living in Hawaii. So he flew out there to discuss the movie, while she walked him around locations where she thought of while writing the book. Payne met all of Hemmings family, her family also all had cameo roles in the film. Hemmings was on the set the whole time, she also got to be in the film. Most of the dialogue in the movie was also nearly directly extracted from the book. The writer also got to make the decisions on most of the sequences, the music, the clothes the characters wore and the places they visited.
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