Anyone have any experiences with this management company? They're requesting a read of my script.

They're a division of Pierce/Williams Entertainment (Produced "The Cooler" with William H. Macy).  They appear to definitely be reputable.

http://www.piercewilliams.com

That website also has a link to the Zero Gravity page.  Good luck!

By the way, did you query them or did they find you?

I have had dealings with them. They are very respectable and polite - meaning, they do actually talk to you.

Quoted from Kujan I have had dealings with them. They are very respectable and polite - meaning, they do actually talk to you.

Kujan, so have they asked to read your script before? If so how long did it take them to give a response?

They found a first script through a contest I'd placed in, asked for a second and called ten days after I'd mailed the thing to ask to meet with me. They were very polite and professional and detailed in asking about my work and future goals, and how they could help...I found them to be quite attractive, but ultimately went with another firm.

I assume you've been dealing with georgia?

Contests are usually the best way to get someone's attention.  If you place, it means that other people thought your script was worth a read and agents like this.


Phil

Other than the Nicholl, I don't think contests really mean anything. There are so many that attract so many useless writers...I don't know too many agents or managers who really give a lot of credence to contests other than the Nicholl...the reason most sponsor is that they get a piece of the pie.

It's just another avenue of getting your work out there.

I disagree with you, Kujan.  Winning even an insignificant competition will always give you an edge when you write a query.  If you were an agent who received two hundred letters a week, and one of them mentioned that a script won a prize at a competition (or two) wouldn't you be more interested in that one?


Phil

If it was a contest I'd never heard of, or sponsored by some collective of wannabe mega-titans...

There are so many contests they run over themselves. I ask my agent all the time to read the work of friends of who've done AAA or Expo or whatever, and he always says, "let me know when they make QF of the Nicholl".

Like I said, it's a way to get your work in front of the Producers or whoever's sponsoring the contest...but the studios and major prodcoms, to my knowledge, honestly don't give a damn.

I've had numerous people contact me (not the other way around) after winning competitions.  Not all of them have been from the competition itself.

I agree that there are way too many competitions out there, so I just choose the ones that I think will help me.  At the same time, I like entering Shriekfest, which judges only horror and sci-fi scripts (and movies).  I took second place with them two years ago and I'm currently a finalist for this year (winners are announced Sunday).  With these little nuggets of honor, I go to the sci-fi and horror production companies with my scripts.  Has anyone ever won with a horror script at Nichol?  I kinda doubt it.

Anyway, all I'm saying is that your letter to an agent/producer will have a little more impact if you can list some honors that you won.


Phil

Kujan and Phil,

You're both right.

Kujan appears to be talking more about getting into big studios.  You know the ones that won't look at anything unless it's submitted by an agent, manager, or whatever.

Phil appears to be talking about getting your script read wherever, whether it be in response to an internet or something along those lines.  Certainly, placing in a contest, any contest, is going to put you just a litle bit above the other 500 applicants who have nothing.

What about the value of getting produced?  I myself am ineligible to enter a contest like Nicholl, and really don't look in to entering many others.

Wouldn't being produced go a little bit further to say somebody liked what you wrote?  So much so that they actually invested money in it?

You can win a contest and get an option, but when a producer takes the script to a studio of prodcom, the words, "this won such and such..." don't really mean squat.

Hell, there've only been maybe a half-dozen Nicholl winners that ever got produced.

Winning a contest will get your foot in the door.  That's all.  If an agent has a slush pile of 2,000 scripts and he has time to look at one, he'll take the one that's received recognition.  Less chance of a stink-burger that way.


Phil