On the path to becoming a full-time screenwriter, you will ask yourself, Do I need representation? Do I need an agent or a manager? Do I need both?

Here at Stage 32, we're big believers that you make your own success. Therefore, you may not feel you need a rep. But reps are champions for their clients and can work with you to create opportunities and success. You already know what's needed in your portfolio when you want to approach a potential literary manager. So today, we're talking to our Stage 32 network to find out how managers and agents view their roles as industry representatives while working together to get you ahead in your career. Here's what they said...

"[Agents'] jobs are fairly simple," says Adam Van Dusen. "We are providers. We provide opportunities for our clients. We call every business executive out there. We negotiate and field offers for our clients. Of course, we involve the client and the manager, and the lawyer on negotiations when an offer is presented. But we are simply primarily a business tool. We are a big access tool we have access to a vast amount of information around town. We hear about things before they come out in the trades. But we are pretty much the business function while the manager is the personal function for one's career."

Adam is an agent at Gersh, one of the top industry agencies, representing over 2,000 clients from their Beverly Hills and New York offices. When asked what managers do, he says, "A manager, in a lot of ways, is the architect of your career. ... The manager is out there, first and foremost, believing in your voice as every representative should. But anyone creatively you're coming up with a script, the manager should be the one that's forcing the conversation of this is where it needs to be story-wise, this is what this character needs, this what we need in this pilot or feature script."

So now that we know their general roles, how do they work together?

"I would say the agent is doing more of the negotiating with the manager in hand. ... The manager is there to advise and create the future," says Scott Schulman of Schulman Management.

"If you're buying a house. The manager and agent are sitting there with the person buying the house. The manager will say 'Yeah, let's look at these houses. Let's look at the different ones.' The agent will say, 'Hold on a sec, before we choose, let's make sure we get the best deal, the best bang for our buck. You're not walking away signing papers unless the best house is yours."

Scott previously worked at A3 Artist Agency as a junior packaging agent before switching to managing. While the packaging rules have changed, the process of packaging by combining talent to create a desirable and sellable project is still an important part of the industry, and Scott sees the importance of having an agent and manager working together to build that package.

"The agent's job is to amplify the project," says manager Scott Schulman of Schulman Management. "We're going to need the agency's help when we take it out to add a pod we know has a first look."

Adam adds that while agents can package projects, they're not producers. He says, "In regards to producing, managers do that function, but it is by law illegal for agencies to produce."

Industry veteran Doug Draizin has his own view regarding the relationship between agents and managers. "Management, it's more or less, you're engaged to get married. Agency business, you try it out, sometimes it's about numbers. ... Right now, the management I enjoy because it's more one-on-one, and I enjoy getting to know people more."

Doug has held agency and manager roles as he was previously an agent at APA and the Vice President at United Artists Pictures before becoming a manager and independent producer.

He says that he tends to get involved with a writer when he can "see the journey," calling back to what Adam referred to when he called managers the "architects." When that journey isn't fully visible to Doug, but he sees potential, he says he may take on a "hip pocket" client. "[Hip pocketing], you take on somebody that you're not 'formally' engaged in 100% representation. Like, 'Hey, Jason, I read your script there's something about it, let me test the waters, I'm not committing.' ... It's a way of experimenting on something maybe I'm not so sure of."

Doug advises writers in a hip-pocket situation to be as committed to the manager as the manager is to them. So, if another manager approaches you while someone is hip-pocketing you, you'll have to make a choice.

Representation roles have changed over the years as more companies have emerged and their agreements with the WGA evolve. However, the overall operations and how they work together remain the same. Not every writer needs representation, but if you do take on reps, the most important thing is that they are the best champions for you and your work.

Do you have questions about representation that Stage 32 can help you with? Let us know in the comments below!

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