Movie, Music and TV agents can be a valuable resource, but keep in mind, they just are that - a resource. Who would you rather have in control of your career: a person with a 10% interest or a person with a 90% interest. I hope the answer is a person with a 90% interest, which is you. Your agent makes money by having many clients and making a little money from a lot of people. You make money only if you make money. This does not make your agent an evil person, but you need to be aware of this so that you put everything into perspective.
In essence, it's your movie, music and TV agent's job to get you that meeting or audition. It's your job to close the deal. Once the deal is closed, your agent will negotiate the major deal points and your lawyer with finagle the finer points.
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You can help your agent by letting him or her know about great leads such as who could be attached to your project and so forth. Your agent works for you and not vice-versa, but once again, your agent only has a 10% interest, so you have to be out there constantly working for yourself.
If you do use an entertainment agent, allow your agent to "be" an agent. I had a screenplay go out wide once and I assisted my screenwriting agent by having my manager send out an Evite to key studio and production executives. You would think that the email would have been ignored as junk mail, but in fact, the average executive didn't seem to have the power to ignore the unsolicited email and we ended up doubling the amount of requests to read the script. The downside was that some of the additional requests were from the bosses of the executives on my agent's list. The end result was bad vibes from my agent's personal connections and bridges burned. The script made it all the way to the president of a small studio's office by 10:30 a.m. the next morning, but in the end, it all fizzled out.
The big question for most is "how do I get an agent?" Remembering, that a movie, music or tv agent is just a tool, if you choose to use that tool, here's the short answer: contact one. If you go to Samuel French Books or even Barnes and Noble in LA, you'll find a "Hollywood Creative Directory" for anything and anyone you can imagine you'll need in show business. There you can find a list of agents and agencies in your field. Pick a name and send them a query letter, headshot, or reel, etc. Writers, if you're great on the phone, you can call and briefly sell yourself to the assistant. Never ignore the assistant. No one in Hollywood wants to be an assistant and many assistants have already passed the bar or possess doctorates and masters.
I've pitched someone once who I thought was an assistant, who had actually already become full fledged agent just weeks prior. The person read my scripts. If you're an email person, you can go to websites like showbizdata.com and hcdonline.com and collect email addresses for all your favorite agents and assistants. I've emailed as many as 400 agents and assistants, sent them an amazing query letter, and had someone contact me from every top agency to read a script of mine. I'm not afraid to tell anyone about this, because it took me 180 hours of hard work to make my email list, I had to learn how to write a great query letter first, and most people simply aren't willing to go the extra mile and put in the elbow grease to get ahead.
For actors, there are publications at Samuel French books that also list what type of person agents and agencies are looking for that particular month.
For writers, a great book on how to write a query letter, as well as how to market your script is "The Screenwriter's Bible" by David Trottier. This book is also great for formatting suggestions.
Do I Need An Agent For A Movie, Music Or TV Career? If So, How Do I Get A Movie, Music Or TV Agent?
Christopher C. Odom is a Director, Writer, Author in Nashville, TN, USA. He loves filmmaking, roller skating, partner dancing and metaphysics.
You can see the things that Chris writes about and publishes at http://www.odombooks.com
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