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LITERARY AGENCY                     The Pitch

INT. OFFICE – DAY

 

The office is brightly lit. Shelves line the space and contain hundreds of screenplays. We pick up a phone conversation with GARRET, 49, a literary agent and president of The Gary-Paul Agency is on the phone.

 

GARRET

The advantage of an analysis is that

you'll have an edge over writers when

submitting to a competition or festival.    

 

There’s a pause.

 

INT. STUDY – DAY

 

The study is sparsely furnished, Ikea perhaps. ANGIE, 32; a writer, leans forward in her chair. She wears the face of doubt.

 

INTERCUT

 

ANGIE

What edge?  Be specific.

 

GARRET

Most writers submit what they think is

a final draft but what they really

submit is a first draft.

 

Most scripts I've covered in this
stage have inconsistent format and
are not accurate to spec. writing.

 

ANGIE

Yes, but is format really that important if the story is good?

 

GARRET

I recognize your point, but do you have a good story?

 

ANGIE

What makes you think you know a good story from a bad one?

 

GARRET

I have about twenty years experience as a
filmmaker and fifteen years as a
professor of screenwriting. Beyond that, I can recognize a good script because my knowledge of screenwriting is supported by a clear understanding of human nature.

 

ANGIE

You're a psychologist?

 

GARRET

Not exactly, but I know that all characters, real or fictitious, are motivated by basic needs created out of human vulnerabilities. Storytelling communicates a direct path to fulfilling the characters' needs which in the final analysis creates an indirect path to revealing our vulnerabilities.

 

He puffs.

  

The up-shot is that novice screen-writers do not always recognize the reasons for their characters' actions because they are unaware of the vulnerabilities that they are engaged in revealing.

 

ANGIE

Can't the writer assume that he or she knows this intuitively?

 

GARRET

Maybe, but usually the result is under developed characters and weak story potential. Knowing the vulnerabilities of the characters that the screenplay reveals is key to understanding them, the story and most importantly, your audience. Deconstructing the screenstory by comparing it to the gamut of human vulnerabilities allows the screenwriter to verify the potency of the storytelling.

 

ANGIE

So you're an agent, a consultant, what else?

 

GARRET

A theoretical deconstructionist of course.

 

Even Angie nods.

 

 ANGIE

Perhaps I should brush up on my Jung, Freud, and Campbell?

 

GARRET

That, or allow me to do what I do best, it's my job.

 

ANGIE

You've got my attention.  Now what?