I like to read the stuff that is outside
the box and
is bold and exciting and if it feels
redundant and down the middle then i
start to lose interest
Hey, welcome to Behind the Curtain. 
I'm Nehemiah Jordan and
one of the biggest non-writing questions
that i get asked
is "how do i get a manager?" and "what do
managers even do?"
which is a great question because
if you had asked me maybe a year ago
what a manager was and and what the
difference between a manager and an
agent was i
probably would not have been able to
tell you i i never really knew
what managers did or how to be one this
is Jon Hersh
[Jon: Thanks for having me]
He runs the literary management company
Housefire management
Jon: [I've sold specs to
studios]
Jon: [I've had client staff on tv shows]
so I figured hey
this is the perfect guy to answer those
questions after all
a manager is looking for not only good
material but good
people that they can help springboard
their careers
so i asked him if he wanted to give some
tips to aspiring screenwriters that
watched behind the curtain and he said
sure thing yeah so today we are focusing
on the key highlights from that
interview
and talking about how you can actually
apply that information
to your writing process and to your
journey as a screenwriter
and as always if you want to hear the
full interview go to
behindthecurtainfilm.com
and become a member today let's begin
i would say don't chase trends but
in my point of view there's like two
paths that you can choose
and i think every writer should have
like one piece of material in each of
these categories
john has an interesting strategy that
i've never considered before
like the first category would be
something super
like high concept idea that's commercial
and that can be made
for a price like you don't want
something that's like transformers where
it's 100 million dollar 200 million
budget but you want something that's
like a big idea that can be done
kind of on a small scale whether it's
horror sci-fi action
you know one of the commercial genres
the key word here seems to be
commercial something that a studio exec
can look at and say
i can make that and make a profit doing
it
this is because there's already a proven
audience
that will watch these types of films on
the flip side of that
um something that will never get made
something that you write because uh
because you have to write it and because
you're so passionate about it
but um but there's like almost no chance
in hell that it'll get made but it'll
get people
talking and it's so out there and bold
and unique
that it'll be the thing that you know
the exact
junior c or the assistant somewhere will
be hey did you guys check this out
like you need to read this because it's
just like a such a fun read and it's so
different than everything else
that'll then catch fire and get you a
meeting get you a writing assignment
stuff like that i mean it depends but
i've almost had more success with that
um category because it leads to
writing assignments versus the trying to
actually sell something
to because it's just so hard to sell a
spec
but i would say yeah it's great for a
writer to have
one piece of material for both of those
uh
categories so what do we do with this
information
personally i don't really think about
the function of my screenplays
strategically you know i i have an idea
that i like
and then i write it which i think is a
fairly
common tactic but after talking to john
it really really made me think about how
you know a certain script that is meant
to really grab the attention
of studio execs and different uh people
in the industry
doesn't have to be the same script that
i really try to sell and get produced
and win my oscar with there have been so
many ideas that i've dismissed because i
thought they were
too crazy or you know they would never
get made or too unrealistic
and now i'm thinking that that's not the
right
way to operate especially as a beginning
writer it is always more beneficial to
write the story and learn from it than
to be super selective i mean i think
that's
that is the function of every screenplay
as a new writer which is just to become
a better
writer by going through the process
period
one thing that i think every writer
should do
is read as many screenplays as you can
get your hands on
now this seems obvious right but
confession i've gotten lengths of time
where i haven't read a single screenplay
and i don't think i'm the only one
because i think some people i've spoken
to
don't read it all and it's like are you
gonna have any perspective on
your own writing if you don't read other
people's writing and this is a massive
reason why i've been hosting script
clubs for the membership
i'll talk a little bit about it later
but the main thing has just been it's
been an
excuse for me to read one screenplay
every week really analyze it and then
discuss it with other writers
and i would say sometimes it's even more
educational to read
the bad scripts and the mediocre scripts
that don't make it so then
then you have an idea of kind of you
know
maybe i should change some things in my
own writing to make it not like that
and strive for it you know i think
sometimes
it's more educational to read the kind
of down the middle
fives and sixes out of ten um
that you see just to kind of
figure out how to differentiate yourself
to get unproduced scripts
i would recommend getting things from
annual lists
like the hit list or the blacklist these
are regarded as some of the like best
unproduced screenplays in the industry
and some are good
and some are bad but i think the biggest
benefit of it
is just reading things that only exist
on that paper that you can't really
compare it to a film with acting and
direction and cinematography it's
just what's on the page which is very
important as a writer
and then the other thing i would say
swapping scripts with people to get
feedback
reading what your peers are writing and
being able to formulate constructive
script feedback is honestly more
beneficial for you as a writer
than it is for the people that you're
giving the feedback
to so i have a client
that the question you've all been
waiting for how do i get a manager
from our conversation it seems like
query letters
uh getting on lists contests
those all work fine but i wanted john to
talk about a specific example
of how he found a client and what he did
with them
to better their career i was kind of
scouring
all of the lists um that they put out
and all of the labs and fellowships and
stuff like that and i found
through the film independent website
there was a lab
that had a list of the finalists and
there was a script with a title
that i really liked called jawbone
and i thought it sounded cool and it
turned out to be about the plastic
surgery industry in south korea
which i thought you know was bold and
interesting and i read the script and it
was really really dark
and i was like i don't know if if it'll
get made but i
i love it and i want to meet with the
writer and so i met with her
and then i just went to work
and start put together a list and i
think i made
90 submissions of just producers and i
tried to get in touch with these korean
companies
and you know cj entertainment which made
parasite this was before parasite
um but i was trying to
and then i was trying to connect with
korean filmmakers and like figure out a
way to package it and put it together
and surprisingly like the agents of
these
filmmakers like pretty well established
filmmakers like took my calls
um but didn't really give a shit
you know because i wasn't i didn't have
any credits i wasn't
calling to offer them money for their
clients
so what happened was i met with an
agent and i was pitching him some things
and he was kind of like okay
sure and then i pitched him that and he
was like send me that
and i sent it to him and then pretty
soon the client's signing
with the agency and they're putting her
up for stuff
i'm putting her up for stuff and then
so that script was really really really
dark um
and somehow she got an opportunity at a
a studio called paramount players which
is like an offset
of paramount they had a book that they
had just optioned
in a bidding war and they wanted to find
a writer for it and she went up against
all these writers and we just
developed her pitch until she was
completely sick
of saying it and i was listening to it
on the phone and
we were tweaking it here and there and
she pitched it to the agents
we went in to pitch it to the agents and
at first
they said this isn't going to work and
it was heart-wrenching and we had to
completely
rework it and then they said okay this
is a little bit better
and then finally she went in and it was
like okay you're down
to there's two of you up for it and then
she had to go in i think for
three full pitch meetings all the way to
the top and then got the job
so that'll give you an idea of how
difficult it is
um yeah but she got the job she's
since gotten to
writing writing assignments since one
and tv at a streamer and one
at a major studio is a rewrite so even
if you don't have a manager i think
getting an objective point of view on
the material is super helpful because i
used to write stuff
and i would send it to a family member
or something and they would say wow this
is great
but you don't really know that until you
have a stranger
who doesn't know you or care about you
read it
and tell you what they think about it so
i think that's super helpful
and also finding somebody who can give
you constructive feedback
and if it's worth developing help you to
make it better
most people are not surrounded by a
group of storytellers
you know like he said most people are
surrounded by their
moms and their friends and their
brothers who
aren't interested in screenwriting or
storytelling
and yeah the feedback you get from them
is like oh cool that's so dope
and that sort of feedback doesn't make
you a better writer
this is i mean this is why i created the
behind the curtain membership
you know it's not just the interviews it
is to create that community of people
that are just as passionate as you
that want to go on that journey with you
to become
a better writer that are
constantly challenging each other
constantly having discussions about
screenplays about writing about
storytelling about film
really pushing each other to make those
steps
forward on our journey and
that's really the only way to do it
doing it isolated and alone
has its limits and i don't think anyone
wants to do that
but we have been doing that especially
with how the world is right now
and if you're interested in becoming a
part of
our community behind the curtain
becoming a member
go to behindthecurtainfilm.com if you
have any questions
um you can comment it or you can reach
out on the public discord server
which i'll have the link in the
description um but i really think it
could be something special and
beneficial to you on your process if
you're
if you're alone if all you have are
brothers and mothers who you know
can't really give you good feedback or
you know you can't really
rave about film with
join behind the curtain become a member
it's there for you but i hope you're
able to take something from this
discussion today
i really enjoy talking to john hirsch i
think there's a lot of valuable insight
there and something you can actually
apply
to your writing today i'm nehemiah
jordan this has been behind the curtain
um i'll see you guys next week
you
