Babz Buzz

Each month Literary Agent, Babz Bitela of Silver Bitela Agency talks soup to nuts about screenwriting.

The subject is Your Questions.

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Babz also talks about

• 1 What stories can you tell us about scripts that started out as small innocent things and grew into different creatures, monstrous deviants than their original concepts?
• 3 Why do people who work craft service get treated so poorly on the set?
• 4 Seriously though, does it help to pitch a script if you have sequels in mind? Franchise is always attractive.
• 5 If I add the word “3D” to the end of my script title will it get more reads?
• 6 What genre is going to be hot in the spec world next year?
• 7 I think my scripts are definitely not for everyone. Any suggestions for writers who write weird stuff that most people don’t like?
• 8 Should those writers change their way or continue to write what feels real to them
• 9 What’s the appropriate turn around time for a script
• 10 Same question — but for edits/rewrites. Let us say an extensive rewrite, where you are given notes, and there will be alot of changes that are beyond superficial. “ASAP” has lost its meaning in today’s world — what is reasonable, and (generally, of course) asking for how much time is asking too much?
• 11 What makes people in your position balk?
• 12 Do you think there are any stories that have been told enough now?
• 13 When working with a client, is it more about a single property or the package deal?
• 14 Is it more about constantly developing new ideas or keep polishing that one big apple
• 15 Which client do you think is better to have in your stable?
• 16 The one with a polish complete script with solid concepts? Or…
• 17 The one with a fistful ideas in development, but only registered treatments up front?
• 18 Do coverage providers offer those services for script treatments as well as scripts?
• 19 Is it viable to pitch a writer to executives with only a treatment or synopsis?
• 20 What qualities in a script inspire you to take a chance with a new client?
• 21 How would you segregate or differentiate the categories of the producers seeking your company’s services? Big, medium and small organizations by percentage? Commercial, speculative productions and in-house corporate projects?
• 22 At SS we see a moderate amount of absolute nube “material” (including my own). Likewise, do you have a fair percentage of nube producers coming to you without a clue?
• 23 Would you consider the producers pretty good at what they do or do you run across the gamut on their products?
• 25 Across the five years you’ve been doing this what desired product trends have you noticed
• Mr Silver’s been doing this a while longer, right? What trends has he picked up on, as far as general, desired subject content?
• 26 It seems you’ve hit the market at a very unique period of history. You were doing this a few years before US unemployment started bouncing around the 10% mark. Are you seeing every Tom, Dick and Harry without a day job all of a sudden banging out “material” all over the quality spectrum? If so, does it make the industry more daunting being choked with “more product” of the previous quality? Is the Coverage business doing pretty well as a (suspected) result?
• 27 What does the agent industry buzz about behind closed doors? What articles in professional journals or seminars do you glaze over?
• 28 What would writers be surprised to know about many of the producers that come to you?
• 30 What are some professional disasters “other” agencies have had befall them? Almost happened to us; I literally hit a wall of disgust. I can’t speak for other agencies but for a while I was allowing writers to take the joy out of what I do.
• 31 Through the Babz Wants… thread there are many generic, standard genres your business receives requests for: action, comedy, thriller – nothing really specific. And there are the “niche” market small dog, Hispanic wedding, Irish setting, airplane comedies, horse scripts, Jewish characters, etc. requests.
• 31a Why does a production company look for such specialized screenplays that they don’t already have a director that can write that him/herself?
• 31b Like a real estate broker, the buyer is responsible for having the subject house inspected and it’s the local city/county inspector’s job for gross violations and issues – not the realtor’s, are there similar caveat emptors writers should know about directors and producers?
• 33 What industry agencies does everyone go “Oooo and Ahhh!” over? Are there villains, fools and other party animals? Can you name names?
• 34 What in the biz makes you go “WTH?! Ya’ll are… freaks/nuts/bonkers/whatever”?
• 35 What makes you groan, beat your head against the desk or make you want to beat the customer’s head against the desk?
• 36 Do you have a professional specialty—Does your agency?
• 37 What jobs does your company not touch with a ten foot pole? What can you not get enough of?
• 38 What impresses you about a producer and/or writer?
• 39 How many times have you seen a perfectly good deal get shot right down the toilet? What are the top three reasons?
• 40 What quality do writers need to hone on the page?

Talk about this Babz Buzz podcast on the Discussion Board

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Babz Buzz is produced by Michael Cornetto and released under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 3.0 license^*

Music provided by Incompetech

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^*In English, this podcast can be share with others as long as you mention the site and link back, but you can’t change it in any way or use it commercially.