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Anyone who is struggling in life - be it uphill towards a goal, or just from the weight of all your "baggage" - is a target for scam artists. Mathematically speaking, this doesn't make sense. You don't target the poor, because they have nothing. On the other hand, you can't target the rich, because they're wise to everyone trying to get money out of them. So, the optimal target is people like you and me - people who have a little bit, but are willing to risk it all on a dream.
Lucky us.
For those of you not wise to the simple ones yet, here's a quick rundown:
No "agent" charges a reading fee. It's just that simple. If you're thinking of doing business with a script evaluation service, make sure they are legit. These places do charge a fee, but it's for an evaluation, not for representation. Any agent who is looking to represent your work knows he will make money when he sells your script. Evaluation services will tell you what works and what doesn't work in your script, and it's up to you to sell it afterwards... or scrap it and start over.
Casting "services" are not casting agencies. Again, the simple rule of thumb to follow - in all things - is that if someone is making money ON you, they don't also need to make money FROM you. This is why Target doesn't have a cover charge. Don't let anyone sell you on the line that you have to spend money to make money, invest in yourself, yadda yadda yadda. It's true, but it doesn't apply at the workplace. If you're applying for a job at McDonalds, they don't make you buy lunch, shoes and a box of clown make-up. Once they hire you, you may be required to purchase your uniforms, but by then you'll be making money. If you go to a casting agency to get work and they hand you a pile of business cards and tell you where to get headshots, voice lessons, acting lessons and a hair cut, they're getting a kick-back from these places and you'll never get any work out of it.
This logic applies to all the crappy jobs you're going to have to work while you finish your screenplay... and try to sell it... then party away the option money... then wait for it to go into production... then try to sell it again when the production shuts down...
Basically, if a want-ad says one thing and the person you talk to says another, there's trouble. I once answered an ad that said they were looking for warehouse drivers. NO SALES it said, bold as can be. I show up for the group orientation/interview, and the manager explains that his company is a catalog center of some kind. What we were being hired to do was place catalogs - with our names and phone numbers on them - in public places (waiting rooms, airports, bus stations, hospitals) and take orders from people who wanted some of this worthless crap they saw in the catalogs. How is this not sales? I don't see the difference between pushing useless goods and services on people or trying to appeal to their consumer-level subconscious while they're woozy from painkillers at the dentist's office. And, we got paid on commission only. All the time I'm listening to the manager speak, I'm picturing strangers calling my Mom's house to order a spatula holder shaped like a chicken. I felt like Rupert Pupkin.
Don't buy "kits" or whatever it is they're selling you so you can sell. I recently looked for jobs for home typists, and this company expected me to buy the "jobs" from them. I just want something where I do work and you pay me. Okay?
Oh, and by the way, that "stuffing envelopes" scam is as simple as they come. The ad reads "Make money stuffing envelopes" and then they ask you to send $2 or so to an address. When you do, they send you a one-page flyer telling you to put the same ad in the newspaper, and when people send you $2, you send them the flyer telling them to place an envelope stuffer ad in the paper...
The greatest Hollywood scam is the "friend" who is going to hook you up so big because you're just the coolest person he's ever met and he really wants to see someone like you succeed. It's not going to happen right away, but while you're waiting for this miracle to happen, there is something you can do for him... Sound familiar? It will. You're thinking that you better do this one little thing for this guy so that he'll stay motivated to do that big thing for you, but the reality is that if he was capable of doing such a wonderful thing for you, he would be capable of doing that other little thing for himself. If he's going to hook you up with a great job where he works, surely he's able to fill his own gas tank. If he can't afford gas or food, how good can a job be where he works?
Finally, don't even think you're going to get that mattress for free, no matter what the guy on the radio says.
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