I'll reveal my true identity...

[elviro]

I'm a script reader and aspiring screenwriter.

It's a curious career, but I've been working in it for three years now. Don't think of it as a big deal, in Spain, where I live, I get more or less five scripts a month. But bit by bit, I've read and commented around 200. Around only ten ended up as a film. Big names? Gus van Sant, Eric Rohmer, Amos Gitai (for co-productions, obviously). Oooops I'm talking too much.

Just wanted to know if any of you here also reads scripts for a living.

[icerose]

Not me. I'm a stay at home mom of three kids with a passion for writing. I write across the field in Short stories, children's books, novels, scripts, and sometimes even poetry, though I tend to despise poetry.

[xhouseboy]

I'm a script reader and aspiring screenwriter.

It's a curious career, but I've been working in it for three years now. Don't think of it as a big deal, in Spain, where I live, I get more or less five scripts a month. But bit by bit, I've read and commented around 200. Around only ten ended up as a film. Big names? Gus van Sant, Eric Rohmer, Amos Gitai (for co-productions, obviously). Oooops I'm talking too much.

Just wanted to know if any of you here also reads scripts for a living.

I'm a bit confused.

In your first post you were asking about the craft of screenwriting, how-to books and the likes, and yet now in a 'reveal my true identity' heading you tell us you have read over 200 scripts. Didn't you pick anything up in your profession? How can you be so naive on this subject if you were expected to recommend these scripts?

I know several script readers, and script editors. Some do both jobs in a development capacity, the goal being to work their way up the chain. A couple of former script editors I worked with in the past are now directors. Another is now an executive producer with many hours of TV and film under his belt.

[elviro]

I'm a bit confused.

In your first post you were asking about the craft of screenwriting, how-to books and the likes, and yet now in a 'reveal my true identity' heading you tell us you have read over 200 scripts. Didn't you pick anything up in your profession? How can you be so naive on this subject if you were expected to recommend these scripts?

I know several script readers, and script editors. Some do both jobs in a development capacity, the goal being to work their way up the chain. A couple of former script editors I worked with in the past are now directors. Another is now an executive producer with many hours of TV and film under his belt.

I can't see the point of your confusion. I mean: I'm not lying. I am a reader for an european producer. I have read over 200 scripts. I've been a jury on some contests.

Of course I have learnt a lot reading these scripts. I can say that 90% of what I know I have learnt through these scripts. I'm not a developer yet, but I think I'll become one soon.

If I ask for advice, even on basic issues, is because I think I still have a lot to learn, like I suppose, you and nearly everybody. Because, as you'll know, it's not the same to have the knowledge to say what's good and what's bad -that's, in a very simple way, a reader- than to be a screenwriter.

If things were so easy, anyone who simply read the scripts of any "best films in history" list could become the new best screenwriter.

[English Dave]

I can't see the point of your confusion. I mean: I'm not lying. I am a reader for an european producer. I have read over 200 scripts. I've been a jury on some contests.

Of course I have learnt a lot reading these scripts. I can say that 90% of what I know I have learnt through these scripts. I'm not a developer yet, but I think I'll become one soon.

If I ask for advice, even on basic issues, is because I think I still have a lot to learn, like I suppose, you and nearly everybody. Because, as you'll know, it's not the same to have the knowledge to say what's good and what's bad -that's, in a very simple way, a reader- than to be a screenwriter.

If things were so easy, anyone who simply read the scripts of any "best films in history" list could become the new best screenwriter.

Nah, if you have a lot to learn what the hell are you doing masquerading as a script reader?

[dpaterso]

Ease up D, no need for bloodshed. Different industry, different criteria. Script reading and screenwriting, two different skills as you know. Posting on a writing forum to ask for help in improving one's writing seems perfectly reasonable. Being aggressively challenged, maybe not so reasonable.

If I'm out of order, do tell.

-Derek
My Web Page - sci-fi, fantasy, horror, cyborgs, AIs, dragons, vampyres. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57)
You speak good Comanche. Someone teach you?

[English Dave]

Ease up D, no need for bloodshed. Different industry, different criteria. Script reading and screenwriting, two different skills as you know. Posting on a writing forum to ask for help in improving one's writing seems perfectly reasonable. Being aggressively challenged, maybe not so reasonable.

If I'm out of order, do tell.

-Derek
My Web Page - sci-fi, fantasy, horror, cyborgs, AIs, dragons, vampyres. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57)
You speak good Comanche. Someone teach you?

Yes you are!

So called script readers are the gate keepeers of the industry. If they don't know what the hell they are talking about then.......fill in your own expletive.

[dpaterso]

Thing is, you're not the gatekeeper of the Spanish film industry. elviro has evidently found his niche there, to the satisfaction of his employers. That's been made pretty clear.

-Derek
My Web Page - sci-fi, fantasy, horror, cyborgs, AIs, dragons, vampyres. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57)
You're not going crazy, Jack. Crazy people don't think they're getting crazy. They think they're getting saner.

[clockwork]

Yes you are!

So called script readers are the gate keepeers of the industry. If they don't know what the hell they are talking about then.......fill in your own expletive.

I think the sad truth is that a great deal of readers don't know as much as we'd like them to. That's no reflection on anyone here who is a script reader but I've heard horror stories from my agent (who started as a reader) about fresh-out-of-university students who were employed as readers and were hopelessly ignorant about writing and film history.

[English Dave]

Thing is, you're not the gatekeeper of the Spanish film industry. elviro has evidently found his niche there, to the satisfaction of his employers. That's been made pretty clear.

-Derek
My Web Page - sci-fi, fantasy, horror, cyborgs, AIs, dragons, vampyres. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57)
You're not going crazy, Jack. Crazy people don't think they're getting crazy. They think they're getting saner.

Can I retreat bloodied but unbowed?

[Mike The Mover]

It's a scary thought that script readers - who are the gateway to production - are just reading without any real knowledge of scripts. What do they do? Take a pile of scripts and eane-meane-minie-moe?

[wordmonkey]

Can I retreat bloodied but unbowed?

Dude, if you support the Blunts, you do that on a regular basis!

:roll:

Sorry. Had to.

On a serious note though, I recall skimming craigslist for gigs a while back, where an established Screenwriting Contest was trawling for readers.

The qualifications required? That you'd written a script and didn't mind reading numerous scripts, for free, by a deadline.

Kinda undermined the value of that contest in my eyes and I think kinda underscores what ED is getting irked at.

[odocoileus]

I think the sad truth is that a great deal of readers don't know as much as we'd like them to. That's no reflection on anyone here who is a script reader but I've heard horror stories from my agent (who started as a reader) about fresh-out-of-university students who were employed as readers and were hopelessly ignorant about writing and film history.

True.

Submitted scripts can get their first read from interns, college kids, the personal assistant, the office secretary, the boss's girlfriend or mistress, the hairdresser. "Tell me if it's any good, I don't have time to read it."

If you want an educated, film and script literate adult to evaluate scripts, you have to pay that person decent money. It's cheaper to just hand off parts of the slushpile to whoever happens to be available.

In LA, there are unionized studio readers, and experienced independents like Scott the Reader, who are very knowledgeable about film and screenwriting, but they aren't the only ones reading scripts or doing coverage.

[icerose]

The same goes for the novel industry. Slush pile readers and gatekeepers on the first level aren't the editors. They are college kids or interns or freelancers looking for a gig. They may not know the first thing about writing a novel, but they sure are reading them and giving them a yes or no.

[veinglory]

With novels the readers represent, well, readers--the end consumers--with reasonable validity. I would wonder about scripts as the script is not the finished consumer product.

[Suzanne Stroh]

From my own experience as a reader in NY and then working as a writer in L.A., I'm not sure it's accurate to say, generally speaking, that readers are gatekeepers. The producer or the development exec with the checkbook to option is the gatekeeper. That's who you need to reach and impress, unless you know somebody working in the production company or better yet in the development office who has the boss's ear (and unfortunately usually eye). A lot of readers are interns. I mean they only paid me $25 a script in the late 1980s so that gives you a sense of the value they place on the readers' impressions.

For that reason, I just think it is so important to live and work in the town where your national film industry is based. Getting scripts read seriously is such a networking project.

[BottomlessCup]

Gus Van Sant has to go through readers?

[seanie blue]

I lived in Spain for years, doing a variety of writing and "reading" projects for "producers" in Marbella who have no idea who van Sant or Rohmer or Gitai are. Lots of Scandinavian, British and Dutch co-productions film in Spain, not just for labor costs but because there is bright light in winter. It's conceivable that Elviro has vetted scripts for co-prods of a Rohmer production; the deal might circulate through up to 100 prodcos from London to the Costa del Sol, but the money often leads to Marbella. "Sexy Beast" with Ben Kingsley had a lot of Marbella finishing money. And it is also probable that Elviro knows little about movies, their history and almost certainly their commercial worth; few script readers anywhere, Hollywood included, are interested in anything but eventually cobbling together a deal of their own. The ignorance of people within the movie industry about their own industry is legend, even in Tinseltown. Elviro even points out that he thinks he'll become a "developer" soon.

The sad fact is that people with access to money are much more important to the film industry than writers or readers are. And there is money in Marbella. Idle, rich-time silly money, lots of which needs to be laundered. A bad movie is a better way than a good bar to launder cash.

Also, should point out that script readers are unionizing, getting fired, and are generally in a terrible state in Hollywood's current atmosphere. I am exaggerating only slightly when I say that most script readers here are hoping NOT to find a script to recommend to their bosses or contacts at the production companies.

It would be interesting to know what the names are of the "ten" movies Elviro has read which resulted in green lights. And if he cannot supply the names -- which I understand -- how about the box office? And why "around" 10 movies? Most script readers talk about their credits in very finite terms: more likely to say 3.7 movies made as a result of their reads rather than guess at a number like 10. Nobody in Hollywood -- or Marbella -- would say "around" 10 movies were produced from the 200 screenplays they've read.

And 200 screenplays read in Hollywood over three years would be about ten grand in income. With the funny money in the Costa del Sol, a semi-literate person might be able to squeeze three times that much out of their "producers." That's still only ten grand a year. It's a horrible, horrible way to make a living, especially for a writer. You can go to Blockbuster to see how potentially good stories get dumbed down by committee into the tripe on the shelf; every script reader I know in Hollywood is a desperate cartoon out of Jim Thompson or B. Traven.

[scripter1]

Is that like Jack the Ripper?


:Shrug:

[Rainy Night]

So hey, how does someone get to be a script reader, I'm sans employment right now and I'd like to pick up a few extra bucks here and there. I've been doing it for free, on Zoetrope, Trigger Street, PGL etc... how does one get a paying gig as a reader?