Readers and Coverage

What do readers look for when they read your script and give it coverage? A book, The Savvy Screenwriter by Susan Kouguell, addresses this question. Kouguell gives an insider's look at the process of covering scripts.

Kouguell makes the following points:

Screenplay Analysts

The growth of interest in screenwriting has created a new profession, that of the professional screenplay analyst. Should you use one?

This is a hard question to answer in general. First, make sure you understand what a screenplay analyst may and may not be able to do for you.

A good screenplay analyst should be able to:

But don't expect a screenplay analyst to:

Analysts will not change your story concept - and producers say it is the concept they primarily buy when purchasing a spec script. So analysts may improve your writing while at the same time not helping your position in the marketplace. No one has yet figured out how to "teach" good movie concepts!

What does all this cost? Again, it varies. Expect to pay anywhere from several hundred dollars up for an evaluation of your script by an analyst.

Obviously there are analysts who are good at what they do and those who are not so good at what they do. There also are people taking advantage of the great interest in screenwriting; yes, there are sharks in the waters of Hollywood.

So if you are considering an analyst, I suggest:

If this sounds like I'm a wee bit skeptical about analysts, I am. As a screenwriting teacher myself, I know what I can and can't do for a student, and what upsets me is that too many analysts are claiming something that I believe is impossible. Yes, the good ones can improve your screenplay but they cannot assure your success or necessarily make your chore any easier in the long run. I would suggest using an analyst only as a last resort.

Staging a Reading of Your Screenplay

Rewriting is a process. You'll be rewriting once, twice, three times - as many times, as many drafts, as it takes.

Soon, though, you can help yourself considerably by putting the script in the hands of actors. If you don't know any actors, advertise for some. Most newspapers in towns with a community theater have a "call board" section. Also check out the theater department at your local college. If your town has neither, then draft some of your friends and tell them, "Now you are actors."

By now you should have heard your script at least once - when you read it aloud yourself. Now you want to hear it in other voices, in a variety of voices.

It's amazing what you can learn about your script this way. My play Who Forgives? received a staged reading on three successive nights at a new play festival, and I used three different casts, trebling the value of the experience for me. It was an invaluable experience.

Readings of screenplays can be informal and formal. Do it informally first, with a group of actors and/or friends in someone's living room.

But then consider biting the bullet and doing a staged reading in front of an audience. This is a good way to test how your script works for the kind of strangers you are asking to pay money to see your movie.

Peter Rasmussen of Australia has some excellent suggestions for putting Films on Stage. Follow his advice.

After you've rewritten your script so many times that you think you can't improve it any more, it's time to take a breather. I suggest letting it sit for a week or several. Begin another screenplay. Try to get some distance from it before you look at it fresh - and decide whether or not to market it and/or to enter it in contests.

In the meantime, you can continue with your screenplay studies by picking up some "tricks of the trade."

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MODULE 9: SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting

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