Etiquette Introduction

When you register for a Sherwood Oaks course for the first time, you may be asked to participate in a phone conference that will describe in detail what is expected from students – and what the students can expect in return. The information below is an overview of our etiquette guidelines for students.

Sherwood Oaks conducts courses similar to how film professionals conduct business, in a round-table style discussion. Because the top level industry guests that we invite are used to this way of doing things, this puts them at ease and allows everyone to get the most out of their class time.

It also gives YOU, the student, valuable experience with this manner of conducting business. Since this class meeting format may not be familiar to everyone, it can be easy to forget at times that we are in both a class and a professional environment. Please keep the following guidelines in mind during your time at Sherwood Oaks’ events and courses.

“Sharing the Table”

• Loglines: Please remember that because we are committed to giving each and every student equal time, each student is allowed a maximum of 2 minutes to share ONE logline, whether it is during a round-table or brief one-on-one discussion with a speaker.
• Breakout Sessions/Discussions: Round-table discussions are designed for everyone to listen, learn, and network, and we here at Sherwood Oaks work very hard to ensure that each and every student enjoys this experience in equal measure. Therefore, it is extremely important that no one student dominate or otherwise behave inappropriately (including inappropriate language) in a breakout session/discussion. In addition to helping the students, this also prevents any annoyance to the speakers. It benefits no one to risk such annoyance, since the speaker will be less likely to read the offending person’s material. Also, the speaker may be reluctant to return to Sherwood Oaks, greatly impacting both our reputation and the offending student’s.

Respect Our Guests & Each Other!

• Privacy: Never ask for a speaker’s email address because often times they are overwhelmed with email and cannot keep up. Asking for this information puts the speaker on the spot, thereby creating an awkward situation for him/her that may cause them to not return to Sherwood Oaks. Most importantly, it is our experience that when a speaker voluntarily provides his or her email address to a student, a future relationship can and often does flourish outside of the classroom.
• Almost all speaker information is available through the Hollywood Creative Directory.
• Do not follow a speaker out the door unless you feel that you have a personal, human connection or a specific, unique genre that the speaker has expressed interest in. For example, if you speak French and the speaker speaks French, this is a strong personal connection. Another example is if the speaker says that they are looking for Vietnam War material and you wrote a screenplay about this, then you can hand your contact information to him or her. This personal connection may happen once or twice during a 2 day seminar with 12+ speakers here at Sherwood.
  
• Please limit conversations to less than two minutes. Please remember your time is valuable and so is each speaker’s time. By valuing their time as you value your own, you demonstrate yourself to be a professional who is in fact worthy of their time!
• Never push your material onto a speaker.

Important: Due to the potentially severe impact of inappropriate behavior, whether in the form of disrespect to a guest or a fellow student, Sherwood Oaks reserves the right to remove the offending person from class immediately – without a refund. In addition, Sherwood Oaks cannot police every table during a Breakout Session, so if you feel that a student is dominating a discussion or annoying a speaker, please inform an event coordinator or Sherwood Oaks staff member and it will be handled.

Advice If You Have No Agent or Representation

• Never mention this to a producer.
• It is wise to have your material copyrighted in Washington DC before submitting to a producer and have an entertainment lawyer send it.
• You can send material to a producer without representation, but you must do it with permission such as that received by attending a Sherwood Oaks event.
• All producers are taught to say “no” and deny unsolicited material.
• Feel free to discuss submitting material without representation with the Sherwood Oaks director or co-director to gain more insight.

After the Class

• No student is ever allowed to send a script to any guest unless the guest requests it. Never send unsolicited material especially not a full script.
• No student is ever allowed to call any speaker (executive, development person, agent, manager, director or producer) unless they initiate the call to you
• The proper protocol is to send a written thank you note to the guest after the class.
• Approximately a month after the class, a student may write (not call) to see if their synopsis (one page summary of their script) was covered but no pressure.
• If you send an unsolicited script to a Sherwood Oaks guest then you will be placed on academic probation and not allowed to attend any courses.

Remember: Patience and pleasantness is rewarded in Hollywood.