Monday, May 17, 2010

Q. Can I "re-pitch" an agent? About a year ago, I sent out a script to a few agents, got a couple of no's and a handful of no-responses-at-all. (No problem, it happens.)

Now, I've written a couple of new scripts, and re-worked the first one I sent. I still believe that the first script is my "best" one - and that the revisions I've made have made it even better. (And it isn't actually my "first" script, because that one's in a drawer.)

If I were to approach these agents again, can/should I re-pitch the same script? (Worry here: they'll think I'm a one-trick pony... if they even remember the first submission at all), or should I pitch something else, and bring up the first script later if I'm lucky enough to get a meeting?

And further to that, *should* I remind them that I've submitted it before, or forget the past and live in the now? On one hand, I want to remind them of any previous connection that we might have had if it will help open the doors, but I kind of don't want to remind them that they weren't actually interested in me.

Your instincts are correct. Agents don't like repitches. No one wants to have to read a script they didn't like again.

It's tough to re-pitch a script. You can really only do it several years later -- one year is too close -- and then only if you've done such a massive overhaul that it is truly another script -- as if another writer had taken on the same subject. For example, it's in a different genre -- you realized it was a thriller and not a drama -- with perhaps a different main character, and a completely new first act. If you re-title the script, and don't mention it's a resubmission, it may then feel like it's a script in the same territory as another script they read long ago.

That's why you don't send your scripts out until they are as good as you can make them. Which may mean putting them aside for a month before you send them out, so you can get a little perspective.

I think you have to just submit your new scripts and bring up your old script later if someone wants to rep you.

10:16 AM

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Back to Complications Ensue main blog page.