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If you have an agent or manager (or both) it doesn't necessarily mean that they're doing anything for you. If you're suddenly hot, then they'll make phone calls all over town. But because you're hot they won't need to. Producers, studios and networks will be calling you.
In my own experience with agents, as well as my friends, colleagues and former students, if they're not pushing you they're pushing someone else. They WILL push you if you give them a kick ass new script that's got a great sentence and is highly commercial, but how often do you give them one of those? And if you do, you have to hope that something just like it didn't just sell the week before because then your agent won't return your calls.
But this really isn't about agents. It's about the person providing the energy for your career. Until you become hot or at least get a little heat the only person who'll be there for you is, well--you.
It means that you have to make the calls, write the letters, send the e-mails, do the networking and everything else. It means being relentless and maybe a little pushy (or a lot if you have that mechanism). Being nice and warm and fuzzy never seems to work. Politeness goes only so far. What I've found is that appearing to be confidant (even if you're cowering inside) tends to work.
If you're naturally confidant and tough and aggressive and don't care if people like you and you're not worried about your mother being disappointed in you for not being nice...wait a minute...if you're like this you should be an agent not a screenwriter.
Look, here's the deal: be your own energy. Nobody else gives a damn. Even when you get representation, be your own energy.
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