Most probably. Occasionally a screenplay will get noticed through a writer's independent marketing campaign, but the variety of filters between the writer and the money makes the most successful birth control method look like a screen door. Agents have relationships, they know what studios are buying, what producers are favored at what studios, what those studios are paying as well as other terms they are giving, and whether a script warrants an auction. The agent acts a filter for the producers and studios, staking their reputations on forwarding the scripts with the best writing or best commercial potential. An agent knows that his or her access to potential buyers will be adversely affected by consistently submitting amateurish material. There are plenty of independent producers, who work outside of the system and prefer not to have these filters in place, because they are looking for risky material (and, okay, inexpensive writers) that agents usually avoid. Sure agents take their ten percent, but even if you could have sold your screenplay yourself, the agent would have earned his or her fee by getting you better terms.
After you've rewritten to your satisfaction, and before you submit it to potential buyers. You want to send the best draft you can write to the agent. It isn't the agent's job to guide you through a rewrite. They are looking for scripts that are camera-ready, or as close to as possible, because that is what producers/studios pay the big money for. Even though stories of development hell are true, studios do not intentionally get into a project with endless rewrites.
You want to look for an agent before you attempt to find a buyer yourself because an agent may not represent you if your script has already made the rounds. If an agent asks and you tell them "But I only sent it to four places--Paramount, Disney, Universal, and Columbia" the agent may decide it's not worth the uphill battle to counteract unfavorable coverage that may exist in the files of the studios' story departments (see screenplay analysis).
Don't be misled--it isn't easy. The Writers' Guild of America has a list of signatory agents that can be had for a nominal fee and a SASE, or through their web site, but that still leaves you without knowing which agents are established and most respected by the buyers you want to reach. Do research. It may mean subscribing to certain networking chat groups, calling the Writers' Guild agency department to find out who represents your favorite screenwriters. Lone Eagle publishes a Writers Credit Directory which generally indicates the agent for each writer, then you can check a copy of the Hollywood Agents Directory to locate the agent. The reference desk at AMPAS' Margaret Herrick library can also provide addresses and phone numbers (310) 247-3020. K. Callan wrote a book called The Script is Finished. Now what Do I Do? which quotes agents and gives you an idea what certain agents are like and how they like to be approached. It's important that your agent represent working writers. Those agents often have to tell studios "sorry XXX isn't available until next year...but I do have this other writer you might have a look at".
Not necessarily. Bigger agencies like CAA and William Morris often have the benefit of a large stable of stars with which to package a script. They also may arguably have a better mechanism to track available writing assignments at studios, as well as the clout to promote newer writers. However, unless you're a finalist in the Nicholls Fellowships, first time writers may find it difficult to crack the major agency, and once there, may find personal service lacking. Larger agencies will often entice writers from smaller boutique agencies after the smaller agency has brought the writer along. Smaller boutique agencies are generally known for taking more risks with unknown writers. If you are ever in the position to make a choice between big or small, you're doing well and either is likely to have its advantages.
Call their office to find out, or check the Writers' Guild signatory list mentioned previously. If they say they say they don't accept submissions from writers not known to them by recommendation, then start with a query letter. The party line is to weed out people, but it doesn't hurt to try, and a well written query letter may pique the agency enough to get you a request for your script.
A talented writer who will provide a flow of material and who is easy to work with. Sounds basic, but if you approach an agent with unrealistic expectations regarding directing your screenplay, or earning a seven figure purchase price at auction, then the agent may put you in the life-is-too-short category before your script is ever read. If you indicate in a query letter that you'll never to set foot in Los Angeles because the smog gives you a rash, or that you've only written the one screenplay and vow never to bother the agent again if he/she will only sell this one, then the agent will again consider you too much work to represent.
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