What's with the joke of everyone asking Riverman if he is a lawyer? I don't get it. Can someone explain? thanks.

Tyler D,

Riverman was kind enough to offer to read Kevin B's famous two-time award winning script. Kevin B. accepted the offer, and when Riverman posted in the thread saying that it was bad Kevin offered no rebuttal other than simply asking "Are you a lawyer?". I'm pretty sure it's hidden somewhere in the now locked monsterthread that Kevin B. started to promote his script.

Edit: Here it is: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...postcount=2599

really? didnt u want to be a lit manager or agent longterm?

I started out thinking that was what I wanted but I ended up in the talent department. I read basically every studio movie being made and most of the not obviously terrible indies, but there is really no reason to read specs in talent.

ah k..after u left BS i thought u were still on the lit path based on that exp...didnt realize u switched up to talent (way worse odds imo).
hopefully u didnt have to do a tour on a female agents desk

u going to stay in ohio for good? u ever consider going back n doing management/development?

New agents can expense about $1k/mo, senior agents/partners can get away with pretty much anything. Some agents do tons of dinners and set visits and stuff, others almost never do them. The company spends a fortune on travel for senior agents because they always go first class, always book late and always change their flights/dates/etc. I know of one mid-level agent, not even a partner, who booked a $25k plane ticket. And the board members often fly private, which is ridiculously expensive of course.

Oh man, that thing about the accountants made me laugh. I've worked on god awful lifetime movies that had like 4 accountants for the duration of the entire project and multiple weeks before and after and they were still completely ****ing swamped and forced to work overtime/6th days like mad. I can't even imagine what it's like at a studio.

To be a successful agent do you really need to have an eye for a great script? How easy is it to notice the scripts that will become great movies? How many do the artists read? Are there many examples of artists spurring lucrative jobs for something less lucrative but more interesting? Does the agent usually back it, knowing it could potentially lead to better jobs in the future?

He's an absolutely unbelievable agent. If you can get him to actually engage, there is no limit to what he can do for your career. Take Mark Wahlberg. He's a talented enough guy, but look at his career path. From Marky Mark underwear ads to legit A-lister. Beyond that, he's made him an absolutely unreal amount of money as a TV producer. Ari's background is in TV and he's probably the best TV agent ever, having made some serious **** you money.

Personality-wise, the Entourage character isn't that far off. Very charismatic, but a total spazz who is going full speed like 18 hours a day.

As an aisde, he's now reached a place Mike Ovitz found himself back in the day: having conquered traditional agenting, he's bored. Ovitz left for Disney; Ari is trying to get out in front of emerging distribution platforms to expand the company's revenue sources beyond commissioning and packaging. He spends more time on venture capital-type stuff than working for clients these days.

Depends on what you want to do, but there are very successful agents who don't have particularly good taste in my opinion. There is so much groupthink in the business, seasoned agents will read a Steve Zaillian script and swear up and down it's brilliant where had the same script been written by a nobody they would have thrown it away after 10 pages.

The art vs. commerce tradeoff does exist and the general rule is 'one for me, one for them,' meaning one money job for each artistically challenging / interesting job. Good agents, at least in talent, almost never push actors to take money jobs in bad movies. They kill careers and the client will remember the agent pushing them to do it.

Thanks for replying.

I read an article on Ari once that said something to the effect of "Now that Rahm is chief of staff, Ari has even more power".

Did Ari's family connection matter at all?

Sorry if I'm cluttering up the thread with this stuff, but I'm really interested in the subject.

Were people in Hollywood impressed by the fact that you worked at WME? Would it be like working for Google or Facebook in the tech industry?

Any racism in the agent business?

Riverman,

Great thread. Thanks for doing this.

I don't think any of us want to see you burn any bridges. Still, we're all hungry for some dirt. Perhaps if you slightly changed details and used code names? I'd be happy just hearing some ridiculous stories I knew were true, even if I didn't know exactly who was involved.

Best script u read while u were there?

Worst that got made into a movie?

You get offered a job on a unknown high profile desk at either CAA or WME...do you choose the deathstar or would you stick with WME?

How many nights a week were you doing drinks in your last year - 4...5?

Any particular reason you switched to talent?

why did lea michele suck? im kind of in love with her lol

i have a lot more questions but its late and i didnt get a chance to read through the thread really to see if other people asked my questions

im confused why we're being slow rolled on these stories. as soon as he mentioned the names he should've told them or given cliffs. this thread would benefit greatly from it. if the stories are confidential then just say so but dont call out people and not explain.

Sick thread Riverman.

wrt it being so superficial in the industry, does it go to the extent as to where you aren't getting hired as an assistent if you are ugly/fat/nerd/etc type? Is it a surround the beautiful people with beautiful people mentality or do these guys not really care to that extent?

maybe because he's smart enough to not trainwreck his entire career, to titillate a bunch of leeches.
In an industry where vanity is placed on a higher pedestal than OOT, do you really think their assistants won't have scoured the net for name references? Your whines for details belong in 4L.

umm he's already given the assessment? he called clients whiny, needy, crazy, etc. why would the details change the game?

And he has been slowly releasing details, hence my post. Your premise is just wrong.

awesome thread. couple questions.

does everyone start in the mail room or do some start as low level assistants/other positions? and how long does it take to get from mail room to like junior agent? it sounds like everything below junior agent is pretty terrible.

what originally attracted you to the job so much? seems like a **** ton of b*tch work for years on end before having a chance at a respectable job, and even then you say most people are miserable.

how hard is it to reach junior agent and above? like do 1 in 100 mail room people reach junior agent or more/less?

To my knowledge his family connections didn't have much if any influence on his work as an agent. He is very active in politics however, and represents several TV news people.

Eh, I did much, much less socializing than my peers because they are all single people looking to party, hook up and generally have fun, and I'm a boring old married dude with a kid.

Within the industry it's definitely seen as a good gig, but also as a stepping stone for most. You don't realize it as the days get crazy, but you are accumulating a ton of information and contacts that are very valuable going forward.

you want NAMES, that is the difference. I'm sure you'll say he used BF and AJ already, not really A list talent.

what are you talking about? he already named names. go read the thread and then come back when you have a clue.