INDUSTRY

Laura Bernieri

YOU DON’T SCHMOOZE? 

YOU LOSE!

Under the auspices of Women & Film/Video New England’s Rhea Becker and staff, a sold out crowd enjoyed a “Screenwriting Schmooze” at 38 Cameron in Cambridge, a terrific meeting space, very artsy and conveniently located on the Somerville town line off Mass. Ave. Screenwriter/lawyer and Boston College professor Drew Yanno, entertainment lawyer Janice Pieroni, entertainment lawyer/scriptwriter Vinca Jarrett and I formed the panel. After an hour of schmoozing, the audience took their seats and a good-spirited discussion ensued.

Panelist Laura Bernieri and Drew Yanno with WIFV/NE president Rhea Becker. More than 75 screenwriters attended the event. Photo courtesy of WIFV/NE.

Alice Stone of Boston, a finalist in the Screenwriting Competition; Rhea Becker, president of WIFV/NE; and Barbara Shapiro of Lexington, grand prize winner of the Screenwriting Competition. Not shown is Melinda Rose of New Tripoli, Pa., who was also a finalist in the competition. Photo courtesy of WIFV/NE

Panelist Laura Bernieri (right) in the Green Room schmoozing with WIFV/NE Screenwriting Competition winner Barbara Shapiro and others. Photo courtesy of WIFV/NE.

Here are the main points for success:

  • Don’t send your work out too quickly. Get feedback. Writing is rewriting.

  • Agents are dealmakers, not development execs. You get an agent after you sell something.

  • Join a writers group or create a network of industry professionals who will give constructive feedback, quid pro quo.

  • Write what you’d want to see the first weekend it came out.

  • Go to festivals. Learn the art of schmoozing. A writer in today’s climate especially has to be her own grassroots producer before she passes her project off to a producer. Interrupting someone at a restaurant is not recommended, but at a festival, a seminar, a book signing, it’s open season.

  • Can’t travel? Read the papers, find out who’s in town. Find and create your own opportunities to network.

  • Practice your pitch. Scope out the scene in a room full of people and position yourself. Don’t be annoying, though, or overstay your welcome.

  • Pitch your story to the press. Local papers, especially, are hungry for human interest articles. Print legitimizes your project.

  • Become a hyphenate if you want control, i.e. writer-producer or writer-director. As a screenwriter, you are not the sole author of the film because the director is the driving force that makes the film, and the producer hires the director and must sell the film.

P.S. Make friends with the assistants. They are the future moguls. Tom Strickler was working in the mailroom of CAA when I first met him in the summer of 1986. Within a year, he was on Ovitz’s desk. Now he runs Endeavor. Chris Moore was an assistant to Strickler at InterTalent when I first met him in 1993. Now he runs LivePlanet for Matt & Ben. The assistant is the gatekeeper for their boss. By befriending them, you put yourself on the inside track. And, by the way, they deserve some kindness because the nature of the job is that they get dumped on a lot. Learning their names, treating them like flesh and blood human beings could help get you in the door (and just might get you into heaven).

Laura Bernieri is a hyphenate herself, a writer-producer and all around film collaborator. She founded Harvard Square Scriptwriters, co-produced NEXT STOP WONDERLAND, and currently handles development for Saint Aire Productions.