Reading Screenplays Read online

  2.SCRIPT REPORT WRITING

  WHAT KIND OF REPORT ARE YOU WRITING?

  As a reader you will generally be required to write reports with one of two very different objectives in mind:

  Either

  to evaluate the project for a development executive, producer or a commission that provides funding for script development

  Or

  to offer a constructive and helpful critique of the project for the writer and possibly also the team that is developing the script

  In the former case, what is required will vary from company to company but it will generally be short and to the point: a synopsis, some comments on the strengths and weaknesses of the project, a recommendation for further action (pass, second read, etc). This type of report is often referred to as ‘coverage’ and allows the company executive to make an informed decision quickly about whether to pursue the project.

  If, however, you are writing a report for the writer with the intention of helping them to develop their project, then you will need to write in more detail and in a way that is less critical and more analytical. This is the type of report that this book is geared towards. The reason for this is a wholehearted desire to promote the creation of script reports that offer considered and quality analysis. And once you have mastered the art of writing a report directly for the writer, any form of script analysis, regardless of its purpose, will be within your reach.

  The way we encourage you to think about the script will provide you with a framework within which to structure your subjective responses, and to turn what is initially ‘just a feeling’ into a proper analysis of what is or isn’t working. Inevitably, this will make you a more discerning reader, more confident about your own judgement, and therefore more useful to potential employers. We aim to banish the banter that characterises pub talk about films; everyone thinks they are an expert on scripts because they have seen so many films. You, on the other hand, will enjoy learning that it is an artistic and technical process that you can analyse with an expert voice.

  If you are hoping to progress to work in development (or if that is where you are now and you are looking to hone your skills) this analytical approach will also lay the foundations for a constructive way of working more closely with a writer to develop their script. On the whole, script reports don’t offer too many suggestions on how to improve a script; this is always a delicate area, best left for situations where you have direct contact with the writer so that suggestions can be delivered as part of a dialogue. For the purposes of the script report, a good analysis will give sufficient food for thought and enough guidance to help a writer reach certain useful conclusions on their own.

  EQUIPPING YOURSELF TO READ

  Script reading demands skills and knowledge: the skills bit is what we aim to dispense with this book; the knowledge is something you need to acquire through your own efforts. It is imperative that you familiarise yourself with the UK and international film industries and have a broad knowledge of cinema in general, past and present. It is crucial to love both reading and writing – you will be doing plenty of both. It helps to have a strong interest in the written word and to seek excellence in your own writing. Connection to all current cultural events is a real plus, as many films are drawn from contemporary culture: theatre, books, music and real–life events.

  An empathy for a writer’s intentions is one of the key skills you will bring to your work. Script reading is not in itself a proper career as it is badly paid and often sporadic work. But scripts are the blueprint of every film and the broader your understanding of how they work, the more useful you will be in any aspect of film production.

  SETTLING DOWN TO READ

  Here are some tips to help you get the job done effectively and efficiently:

  Read the script at one uninterrupted sitting. This will help you to ‘run the movie in your head’.

  However tempting, make sure that you don’t just read the dialogue. Read at a pace that enables you to form a visual image of the action in your mind. This means don’t ignore scene headings, and read the scene directions. If you don’t know where the characters are, it’s hard to imagine the action.

  Write your report soon after reading the script – clearly, the longer you leave it, the less sharp your observations will become.

  Don’t try to write your report as you go but do keep notes, with page numbers, while you are reading. This will help you to quote specific examples to support the observations you make in your report. Don’t forget to note successful and enjoyable parts of the script too. A writer is more likely to take on board your criticism if praise is also offered where it is due.

  Disregard inconsequential details – typos, misspellings, grammatical errors and incorrect format – unless these make the story unintelligible or unless the script is terribly bad in more important ways. In these cases mention the technical errors in your report to add weight to the overall comment.

  WRITING YOUR REPORT

  Unfortunately there isn’t a standard report adopted by the entire film industry, though the categories we use in our reports are fairly universal. After all, the building blocks of each script don’t tend to vary. The key thing is to recognise the need to communicate concisely, with confidence and with concern for the writer’s objectives.

  Maintain an objective tone – stick to the third person (i.e. avoid ‘I’ and don’t address the writer as ‘you’). You may refer to the writer as ‘the writer’, but it is best to try to stick to referring to things that happen in the script.

  Write in the present tense – the script you are reporting on is a work in progress and the present tense keeps the process alive. This is very important. Do not use the past tense in the synopsis either unless you are reporting information from the past, revealed through flashback or dialogue.

  Be specific – generalisations are not helpful to the writer and they weaken your credibility. Support all points that you make with one or two examples from the script.

  Refine your communication skills – this means thinking carefully through what you want to say and writing down your concise, conclusive comments. Do not use the page to argue out your ideas for yourself – this isn’t an essay, but it is nevertheless the presentation of your considered viewpoint.

  This book provides questions to prompt your thinking in each area of the report, but be careful to ensure that your report doesn’t read as a list of answers.

  Develop your own writing skills – a good report should also be a good read, elegantly written and without spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Make sure you spell place names and characters correctly or your credibility will be diminished.

  Reference to other films can help to clarify a point but not if they are obscure – the object of the exercise is to help the writer, not to show off your own film–buffery! Do bear in mind, though, that if you read a script that is remarkably similar to a film you have seen, however obscure the film, please do mention it. This is vital information for a filmmaker that you can pass on.

  It is not your job to offer concrete or specific changes to be made to the next draft; only the writer can decide what actually must be done to improve their story. However, in exceptional circumstances it can be appropriate to offer broad suggestions; this should only ever be done in a way that encourages the writer by demonstrating enthusiasm for their story.

  Remember that witticism and sarcasm, though sometimes hard to resist, are inappropriate!

  3.THE SCRIPT REPORT

  The best way to organise the analytical thinking that goes into a good script report is under these headings:

  Synopsis

  Premise

  Structure

  Character

  Dialogue

  Visual grammar

  Pace

  Conclusion

  The following subsections take each of these elements of screenwriting and discuss in detail how to write the most useful report on each aspect.

  Bef
ore we get started properly, it is worth stating that whenever the Script Factory gathers a panel of producers or distributors to talk to new screenwriters you can absolutely guarantee that one of the very first questions will be, ‘What kind of scripts are you looking for?’ I suspect that, quite often, the writer who is asking is hoping to become privy to some secret industry agenda that they can go away and fulfil – films with 25–year–old female protagonists, or low–budget horror set on a Scottish island – but, without exception, the answer is always, ‘We are looking for a good story.’

  This answer may seem disingenuous to the new writer hoping for something more concrete, but the truth is that we all have the ability to recognise a good story. Since earliest childhood we have heard them, read them, created them, and told and retold them.

  We enjoy stories for their capacity to enthral and entertain us but we also recognise the essential function of story is to help us make sense of our lives. Life as lived is a continuous series of random and unpredictable incidents over which we may only achieve a very tenuous and partial control. So, unlike the ever–evolving experience of life, stories have a very stabilising integrity. They contain a finite sequence of events that we expect to be meaningful. The stories that we consider to be good are the ones that have a sense of purpose, a reason to be told.

  The most important point to remember is to be confident that you know a good story when you read one and, equally, that you know what is wrong; this book is designed to help you process your instinctive response to screenplays so that you become quick and confident in your reporting and developing.

  SYNOPSIS

  The most useful reports start with a brief, three–paragraph synopsis of the story of the script: a paragraph to set up the story, one to describe what then happens, and the third to reveal how it ends. This approach corresponds to the three–act structure discussed later; but, in writing a synopsis, your task is to extract the central idea of the screenplay and test whether it can be presented as a simple and consistent story, with a logical beginning, middle and end.

  If the screenplay can be faithfully retold in this way it usually indicates that the foundations of a solid story are in place. The story might not be strong enough to sustain a feature film or interesting enough to warrant one, but these issues are addressed later in the report.

  If it is a struggle to write a synopsis that meets basic story expectations then this is probably an indication of serious problems in the concept and construction of the narrative. The process of negotiating through the story to write the synopsis should help with the assessment that informs the later sections of the report.

  Essentially, the purpose of the synopsis is to convey back to the writer the main story spine. Most writers find it very hard to reduce their own screenplays to a brief synopsis. This is because screenplays are incredibly textured documents and to ask a writer to simplify months of work into half a page of prose is daunting; it can be difficult to know where to start. A brief synopsis at the beginning of the report says: this is the main story and everything in the screenplay is going to be assessed in the light of telling this story well.

  It is hard to write synopses, but it’s a discipline that is important at the beginning of any development process because it pins down what the main story idea is and becomes the benchmark for all development.

  The information in a three–paragraph synopsis roughly breaks down as follows:

  1st Paragraph

  Where the story is set

  When the story is set

  Whose story it is (whether a single protagonist or a group of characters)

  The character’s situation at the beginning of the film and what happens to disrupt their life and/or change their plans

  2nd Paragraph

  What the character then wants or needs to do

  What stands in their way or makes it difficult

  Why it becomes more urgent

  3rd Paragraph

  How the character achieves his/her goal or what happens to ultimately stop them

  What has changed about the character and/or their situation at the end of the film

  The intention is always to show the story in its best light and to remember that it’s a work in progress – so always write the synopsis and, indeed, the entire report in the present tense.

  For example: Juno

  Juno is 16, at high school in Minnesota and unexpectedly pregnant by Bleeker, after their first time, on a chair. Having confirmed this state of affairs Juno arranges an abortion but is unable to go through with it and decides instead to have the baby and give it to a childless couple who desperately want one. Juno locates the perfect couple, Mark and Vanessa, in the Penny Saver small ads and decides that these are the people that can offer the baby a perfect family. He’s cool. She’s nice, and clearly wants nothing more than the baby.

  Juno’s condition raises a few eyebrows around the school as the ‘Cautionary Whale’ but her family are supportive of her decision and all is going well – but Juno likes hanging out with Mark and Mark is getting too fond of Juno and the boundaries begin to blur. Juno turns up at the house one day to discover that her Mark and Vanessa aren’t so perfect. They are splitting up. Distraught and eight and a half months pregnant, Juno drives away in crisis.

  ‘I’m in if you’re in,’ Juno writes to Vanessa and, a couple of weeks later, as Vanessa holds her son, it may not be perfect, but it will be okay. Juno is held by Bleeker and assured by her dad that she will be back in the maternity ward on her own terms one day and, a bit wiser to the fact that life is messy, she gets back to being a teenager, officially in love with Bleeker.

  It is important that the reader earns their right to assess the script by demonstrating that the script has been read carefully, with serious effort being made to understand what the writer is trying to do. A well–written synopsis will assure the writer that the reader is on their side and respects what they are trying to achieve. By well written I mean that there is clearly conveyed cause and effect between the story events and not a list of events punctuated with ‘this happens, then this happens, then this happens’. This style of synopsis should ensure the writer will be much more responsive to the comments and criticisms that may then be made in the body of the report.

  It is important to invest emotion into each event, so, for example, instead of writing, ‘John goes to see his dad who tells him that his brother was involved in a shady deal,’ it’s better to write, ‘Desperate for information, John visits his dad who confirms his worse fears…’

  The synopsis is not the time or place to offer criticism so it’s inappropriate to write sentences such as, ‘And then, by an unbelievable coincidence…’

  Writing the synopsis isn’t something a reader should labour over. The script should only need to be read once if it has been read with proper attention and the synopsis will flow better if it is written from memory. Think about it in terms of how it might be retold verbally.

  That said, it is important that details such as names and places are accurate. Getting these kinds of facts and details wrong makes it easy for the writer to think that the script hasn’t been read very carefully and will undermine the hard work that has gone into the report.

  Summary

  Start with date and place, particularly if the story is set in the past, e.g. Chicago, 1955.

  Try to write from memory as much as possible, but check for accuracy of details (names, places).

  Use each paragraph to set up the story, describe the action and reveal how the story concludes: three paragraphs in total should be enough.

  If a whole secondary story line can be left out without creating confusion in the main storyline, leave it out in the synopsis. If a small subplot has importance, introduce it into the synopsis at the relevant time, otherwise it can be hard to refer to it later in the synopsis without extensive explanation.

  Present the script in its best light; the way to do this is convey the drama and the emotion wher
e it is present and don’t just list events in order of their happening.

  If the script is illogical or nonsensical, iron it out sufficiently in your synopsis so it can be used as a basis for the commentary. The problems will be discussed later on in the report.

  Remember the synopsis is not the place to start the commentary. Be matter of fact about the script’s plot and don’t try to covertly include your criticism in your use of language when summarising. Save this for later.

  The synopsis should be up to a page in length.

  Cameron McCracken

  Managing Director, Pathe UK

  Selected executive producer credits: Iron Lady, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, The Queen

  I do use script readers, and the specific skill I require is the ability to spot the strength of an idea, even if the script itself is poorly realised.

  When I am reading a script the most important consideration for me to take it forward is always the strength of the concept. If the writing is good, I will pursue with the original writer. If the writing is weak, I would wish to bring on another writer better skilled in the identified area of weakness (whatever that may be e.g. humour, dialogue, action).

  The only reason for passing on a project is that the concept has insufficient appeal. Some scripts are wonderfully written but it is impossible to see them ever being made because the subject matter would never find an audience (or at least not an audience commensurate with the likely budget). And sometimes, though the concept is great, after many drafts and many writers, you may simply have to put a project to one side, accepting that you haven’t managed to develop a script that will satisfy an audience.