Interview: Jewerl Ross, Manager
Here is a good interview at DoneDealPro with manager Jewerl Ross:
How is being a manager different from being an agent?
As I mentioned above, the job of agent and manager are very, very similar. For me, it’s mostly in how I talk about my job and how I sign clients. The nuts and bolts of how one moves careers forward are pretty standard.
The main difference between most agents and managers is that managers have the legal ability to produce their clients’ work. I don’t produce for a whole host of reasons.
First, I got into representation because I love representation. I’m good at it and it brings me joy. In order to produce, I would have to leave the comfort of my office and go to meetings: three-hour casting meetings, four-hour development meetings, pitch meetings around town, etc. I know I’m valuable to my clients because I can sit at my desk, every day, and make 50 or 60 calls pushing their careers and projects forward. If I had to sit in and through these meetings, I couldn’t make those calls and couldn’t continue to (consistently) make them money.
Second, I don’t produce because producing and management are a conflict of interest. Most managers produce. Every one of them will tell you that it’s not a conflict of interest. I think that is bullshit. The one project that I did produce a few years ago, there were so many instances that I had to think about my interests and saw where my interest did not always line up with my client’s interest, it made me uncomfortable. My clients are loyal because I can always put them and their needs first.
Third, I don’t produce because producing — real producing — is hard fucking work. I know hundreds of producers. The few that are good at it are special individuals. Even these special people make bad movies. Why? Because making a good movie is fucking hard. There are so many things that can and do go wrong that even when you are special, you can end up making a bad fucking movie. As a typical overachiever type, I only like doing things that I know I will be good at.
Fourth, because I want to represent these clients for the next 20 years, I know that sometimes when a manager produces, the client resents it, sometimes just a little. If I want to continue to represent these clients for 20 years, I can’t afford to plant seeds of resentment that can grow into trees of contempt.
Fifth, I don’t like producing. Every time I have gone to the set of a client’s movie in production, it’s not fun. I’m either too cold or too hot or too bored. It sucks. I’d rather stay in my office and call people and keep the thermostat at 72.
Keep in mind, in many ways I have and will continue to act as producer on many of my clients’ projects: developing them, being very involved in putting them together and pushing them forward. But I can do that as a manager who only gives a shit about one person, the client.
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Describe a typical day or week or month.
My weeks are pretty standard. Every two weeks I do “follow ups,” which means I spend two days of that week calling to follow up on every submission I’ve made to see if the producer or exec has read my client or seen their movie. I can have anywhere from 60 to 260 outstanding submissions in the market at any one time. These are not spec submissions. These are samples and submissions for jobs or introductions of a client to a new relationship. During these follow-up weeks, in addition to what I just described, I also spend an additional day doing “information follow ups.” There is a document that I keep open on my computer where I track information on everything that could possibly make my clients any money: book rights that could work for a particular client, status updates on assignments that could be right for a client, tips on upcoming jobs, names of particular execs who are special fans of a particular client with dates on the last time we spoke about said client, etc. So on the follow-up weeks, I will print that doc and circle 30 to 60 bits of info on that document that I feel it’s time for me to do additional follow-up on. That takes one day to do, and I usually do it on the same weeks that I follow up on outstanding submissions.
About every two months I’ll circulate a new spec. That can take up two or three days of a week. I’m different than most managers or agents because I tend to send material to lots of places. Even scripts that I don’t love, I have sent to 80 places. (Yes, I will send out a script I don’t love if I respect the creative point of view of the client. Sometimes the clients are smarter than me and I am smart enough to know it!) About three months ago, I sent a script to about 215 places. If I really believe in a piece of material, I want to get it to as many places as possible to give it the best chance of selling. After that “spec process” is complete, I want to be able to tell clients: This script has been serviced as well as it can be serviced. My feeling is that if I service a script well once, it prevents clients from not being able to move on to other things if it doesn’t sell.
I spend one day a month making a list of open assignments that I’m interested in tracking for the entire client list. It takes one day to make the list with info gathered from all the agencies, and it takes two to three days to make all the calls and submissions related to that list. Generally, there will be 40 to 100 assignments that I’ll want to call on, and I will call multiple execs and producers related to each assignment. Thus, a list of 40 assignments might mean a list of 120 to 160 calls and submissions.
Outside of follow-up weeks, spec weeks, and assignments weeks, there are weeks that I will make a big push of a particular sample for a particular client. Let’s say a client has written a script for Universal on assignment and he’s done and it’s good. I’ll spend two to three days sending that script to everyone he has ever met and everyone who has read and liked material he wrote in the past. I’ll do a big sample push once a month for one client.
These are the standard big things that I always do no matter what. Outside of these things, the week is filled with all manner of random stuff: This is TV pitch season and I’m helping a client develop his idea and navigating the politics with his agent who also reps the A-list director who is attached to the idea; sold a script a month ago and the paperwork has not come in and the client wants to make sure we get it signed and him paid ASAP… I mean, I can go on and on listing the little details on all the things I do. Because I am a micro-manager, I want to know about or push forward anything related to my clients making money. I want them to feel like they have the freedom to call me and ask me to make any and all calls they don’t want to make or shouldn’t have to make.
Because I call so many people all day, I don’t talk to most people that long. I can get through 40 calls in one afternoon if I keep everything short.
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What do you look for in writers when considering whether to manage them? What turns you on about a writer? What turns you off?
The most important thing is being good on the page. I want to personally connect with the material. If it’s a comedy, I want to laugh. If it’s a horror movie, I want to be scared. After that, it depends on what level of writer they are. If they are a new writer, I want to see how our meeting goes: Are you likable in the room, what are your ideas, how do you communicate, would others want to sit in a room with them for hours to discuss a script, do you inspire dread or confidence? My first meeting with a writer can take up to two hours. I ask a ton of questions in an attempt to discern if they have that special something to make it in the business. In an interview, by really getting into a person’s past, I can often get a sense of whether they have that special set of qualities to make it over the long term. Are they well read: Did they grow up reading everything they could get their hands on, did they study literature, what are the books and ideas that inspire them? Are they students of the business: Have they read many other screenplays? Do they read the trades? Are they passionate: Is this a part-time hobby or a real career path? Are they financially stable enough to endure a long window before they hit it big? Do they have a unique set of knowledge that would fascinate me or someone else: Did they work in politics or a jail or on an archeological dig? I don’t ask these questions specifically, but truly spending some time getting to know a person, so much of these details come to the surface.
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Clearly you’ve set up a lot of assignments and rewrite projects for your clients over the years. What should new writers understand about this aspect of the industry? Do you subscribe to the popular notion that unless you’ve sold a spec, you can’t be seriously considered for an assignment?
Writing a screenplay that sells is one skill set. When a buyer buys a script, they clearly see what they are getting and can read it. However, in order to get a job on assignment, it takes a whole other set of skills that must be learned over time.
* You have the ability to rewrite yourself. So many writers are too precious with what they put on the page and can’t rewrite themselves.
* You have the ability to communicate an idea in a way that gives someone else the confidence that you can get it on the page. They must feel like they understand how your mind works, that there is creative common ground, that you see the same movie and can talk about it in intimate detail.
* You have the ability to actually hear notes. Learning how to understand notes and hear “development speak” can sometimes take years. Often when execs want something executed, the biggest stumbling block is effective communication. Can you hear them?
* You are likable. No exec wants to sit in a room with a curmudgeon. It takes a long time to get a script just right and execs want to work with those who make the process fun and easy.
* You have political skill. So many execs are stupid or have stupid ideas. Telling them that often doesn’t go over well and so many writers can’t play the game.
* You have the ability to come up with “a take.” A take is your verbal pitch selling your ideas for the job. Usually it involves reading the material they send you for the job (a book, a broken script, a treatment) and coming up with your totally unique way of envisioning the movie. Most writers can’t quickly digest material and have a take ready in two weeks.
* The ability to think on your feet. I’ve seen clients come in with a take that nobody likes but in the room be able to understand what they want so quickly that they re-imagine it on their feet and sell their new vision on the spot.
* Patience and persistence. Getting a job can take four months or even a year. It can involve an avalanche of creative meetings with the execs, massaging an idea this way and that, breaking down elements of a story to the finest detail. Taking their notes and coming up with inspired revisions over and over again.
In my mind, you don’t have to sell a script to get a job on assignment. However, in order for me to actively look for jobs for a particular client, I need to have a sense that you have at least a few of these skills. Also, you need to have two scripts that are excellent and that are both in the same genre and sub-genre.
I can’t teach all of these skills. Most of these things have to be learned by attempting and failing over and over again.
If I was you, I’d print out those bullet points in this last response and think about them long and hard. Some of them are about creative capabilities that you can work on:ability to rewrite yourself, pitching, vamping on ideas. Some of them are basic life-skills: communication, listening, likability. And then perhaps the most important thing of all: persistence.
Of course, learning how to write a script is critical. But knowing how to think like a professional writer is equally important.
Managers and agents are always looking for a great script. More than that, they’re looking for writers whose creativity and personality they can nurture into a lengthy professional career.
For more of the interview, go here.
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