A CONVERSATION ABOUT THE STUDIOS SUBMISSION POLICY WITH THE ASSISTANT OF A DIRECTOR/PRODUCER

Here’s a recent email conversation I’ve had with an assistant working for film production company, as you’ll see this one lets slip some surprising revelations on the « unsolicited material policy » of some studios production companies and agencies and uncomfortable with my questions starts contradicting herself...


This is how it all began:

I caught this strange film on tv last week, actually the film wasn’t remarkable at all, in fact, it was boring for my tastes, but there was animation and I thought I had to contact the guy who had made it, since a friend and I recently wrote an animation screenplay.
So as most screenwriters do, I queried the DIRECTOR/PRODUCER about the script and sent him an email as I was watching the animated sequences of his film. His ASSISTANT replied to my query a few hours later.

First message the « traditional « query letter sent out to the production company:

Dear Director

I’m currently seeking a production company for my screenplay…etc…

Reply from his assistant a few hours later:

Hi Jordan,


For legal and clerical reasons we do not accept submissions at our office. Everything must go through the director’s agent at CAA. Thanks.


Best,
assistant to director



My reply a few hours later too:


Believe it or not I have heard this reply quite a few times before.
Is (his agent) accepting screenplays submissions, or is she going to retort the unsolicited material thing?

Best regards, Jordan.

Her reply a few hours later:


= Unless you submit through an agent, it's likely you'll get that response.


My question a few hours later:

Thank you for your courteous reply.
I have a blog and I'm currently debating whether the "no unsolicited material" thing is a discriminatory policy or not.

As a reminder:

Discrimination definition:

Discrimination is a sociological term referring to the treatment taken toward or against a person of a certain group in consideration based solely on class or category. Discrimination is the actual behavior towards another group. It involves excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to other groups.

If we consider that unagented writers are a category, and most often a (social) class, (most the agented writers already know someone in the film industry) isn't this policy a discriminatory policy excluding this class?
I would be happy to get your reply on this and maybe publish it, (I will remove your name and the name of your company naturally)

thank you.
Jordan.

Her reply to this:


It is indeed unfortunate that it's so hard to get something in front of an agent. But in this office's case, we're not being discriminatory because we do not accept any submissions at all, period. The director and I are the only employees at (their production company), so it would be impossible to read submissions based on time restrictions alone. Also, since he's a writer and director, he is always concentrating on getting his own projects off the ground rather than seek out new ones. And thirdly, there are people out there who will submit something, then claim their idea was 'stolen' and threaten legal action against (their production company). For those reasons we have a firm 'no submissions accepted' policy. Hope that makes sense.



Best,


JORDAN TATE NOTES:

As you see there are a lot of well known excuses in this, I bet you probably heard of this quite a few times before too! For the moment, this person still does not know if I have an agent or an attorney to represent my work, but to tell you the truth I’m not interested in working with this kind of people. People beginning their messages with « for legal reasons », as I’m speaking about a screenplay sound a little too paranoiac for me! Sorry!
Plus, the messages from this company denote a terrible lack of intelligence which I really don’t need to develop my work. I need creative people, true artists, not robots delivering the legal terms they even don‘t understand themselves!

Also, since I never believe everything people tell me without a little research… I googled this company…And found out that the guy actually works on 2 movies written by other writers than himself, moreover, I found out that this company employs around 15 people, including readers (they call it interns)! So obviously they receive screenplays! Moreover, someone i know worked for them as an unpaid intern and part of his duties included reading screenplays sent by the agent to their office.

But of course…They are different, they are not being discriminatory at all! (lol)

My questions a few hours later:


Dear assistant,

In your previous messages you told me your company accepts screenplays submissions through an agent at CAA (as a reminder: Everything must go through 's agent at CAA, . Thanks.)

And now you retort your company does not accept any submissions at all? Does this mean you won’t accept my attorney to submit the script on my behalf? I’m confused…

You also retort that the director and you are the only employees at (the company) as one website actually lists your company as having between 11-50 employees.(including some people I know)

You tell me the director concentrates on his own projects... (heard this excuse quite a few times before)
On « film number 1 » the director worked on a screenplay written by someone else: two screenwriters names
On « Film number 2 » he will work on a screenplay written by screenwriter 3.
And thirdly, (I have heard this one quite often too) you are « apparently » afraid of people submitting something, then claiming you stole their ideas???

This is one of my blog threads actually, because I'm truly surprised to hear that big studios and production companies, (I think you are affiliated with Warner independent) represented by firms like CAA, and several lawyers, (moreover, studios and companies who can afford to pay the best lawyers in Los Angeles), are afraid of a few young starving writers, who can’t afford to pay a lawyer to sue the "alleged" stealer, and won’t be able to afford a trial.

Moreover, ideas can be found anywhere, especially when you use the internet, I don’t think production companies employees have stopped watching videos on you tube for instance…I don‘t think they close their eyes when they see street advertising, I don‘t think they‘ve stopped reading books or articles on the web?

So no, actually it does not make sense at all, I’m confused, to me it looks like some kind of « filter » to exclude the newcomers, and I’m not the only one thinking this way.


Thank you for your replies anyway, I realize you are an assistant and you were told to answer this back. I only hope that my questions will help you reflect on your company policy.

Jordan.



Her reply a few hours later;
=


= Hi Jordan,


Yes, we do accept screenplays from the director's agent, but not from anyone else. That's why I suggested you contact CAA. As you probably know, the director does occasionally direct films he did not write or adapt (like film 1, Film 2, etc.). He trusts his agent to only send things to him that might be a good fit. No, I will not accept your attorney's submissions but CAA might. Sorry.

I don't know what website you're looking at, but our company does indeed only have 2 employees (not including our three unpaid interns). If you're ever in Austin, TX swing by our double-wide trailer on the Austin Studios lot. This is what we work out of year-round. When we are in production, yes, we take on lots of contracted employees temporarily. No one is here full-time except for me.

We are not big at all, and are not affiliated with Warner Independent. Yes, we have worked with them on a couple of our projects, but we are by no means 'affiliated' with WIP.

I am not just an assistant–I run the office as well as assist the director.

Best,


As you can see, the assistant keeps contradicting her own messages! And by the way I found her resume…here is a copy and paste:

Assistant (director) 2008

Film 1 - Staff Assistant 2006
Film 2 - Office Assistant

NO COMMENT…

As I said I’m not interested in working with dishonest people like this, I haven’t posted all the messages on this blog, but part of her last emails was conveying a true irritation about my researches on the company, she of course told me that replying to my questions about « the policy » was taking too much of her time and she had plenty of work to do and ended the conversation this way… Not surprising!
Personally, I believe that if she can take all this time to reply to my emails, she can also take some time to read scripts, even if I truly don’t think she has the necessary skills to do it…unfortunately even her director needs an agent to read screenplays for him and makes the decisions for him! (deplorable)

To be sincere, I had never heard of this director before seeing this film, and I thought it was boring to death! I only contacted him for his animation since only very few people direct animation movies.
And as I continued my researches on his company I found out that he had been sued by some of his former friends for the unauthorized use of their names and images in one of his film, representing them as stoners, and damaging their reputation.

No comment! Apparently, this dear Sir wasn’t too much concerned about legal issue at this time…I would even say the guy is pretty selective when it comes to legality.

To sum up.
Here are the deplorable excuses used by dishonest film professionals to discriminate people they don’t know:

We only accept screenplays through our agent
He’s a writer director and only work on his own projects
We are too busy right now.
For legal reasons we can not accept « unsolicited material ».
we do not take on new screenplays submissions currently.
(for agents/lawyers: we do not take on new clients at this time)