Coverage or cover up?

[Nala1]

I have this friend, well he became a friend after I paid him to look over my 2 scripts. He's a former WGA board member, published author on scriptwriting and in general a well respected type. One of my scripts he "enjoyed immensely." The other he said would be good in case anyone asks to see something else. He told me, "You're a scriptwiter and don't let anyone tell you, you aren't. Now what you need to do is go out there and find a team that shares your vision to produce it (the immensely enjoyed script). It's like you have a lost tribe out there somewhere that you need to find. Don't let anyone make you change the work to something you don't want, rather find those who share your vision. And don't, by any means let it stop you when the doors slam and the nay sayers protest, coz there's gonna be a lot of that."

Hmm, go out and find your lost tribe. Just how do I do that? So went around seeking the net for answers and came upon a review for a script coverage outfit. This little service has had some success in linking writers to producers. I'll try that. Surely they will enjoy the script immensely as well! Ah, my ticket to representation and beyond. How cool!

The coverage came back with all but one of the check boxes in the lowest rank on the grid. It was a grim and humorless litany of pathetic sighs and head shaking. Finger wagging.

But as well something quite curious; the reader hadn't even understood the basic premise, huh? It's stated and restated, with visuals and everything. When the villain against a backdrop of huge video screens depicting atrocities tells the hero he intends to siphon the human genetic code in order to create a master race of super men to populate the galaxy, you wouldn't expect a reader to say, "You fail to explain in a satisfactory way, why this is a bad thing." Or words to that effect. Huh? Somehow I don't think the average viewer or even studio exec would need to be told that introducing things like genocide to an extraterrestrial community that doesn't even have war, let alone any lethal weapons is bad thing.

The reader's synopsis is a boring list of events that obfuscate the drama in such a way that anyone reading it would agree there's nothing compelling in the story. The synopsis even diffuses a key high-speed Road Warrior-esque in space chase scene set piece by saying something that absolutely did not happen; the chasers changed their mind and turned around it said. Why the lie? What on earth?

There were many other instances or weirdness where the questions raised by the reader were things that the characters ask and answer themselves and other similar incoherencies.

I should point out that the reader truly offered some really good suggestions peppered here and there. Things I was eager to fix. I love doing rewrites. It's where a big chunk of the magic happens. Plus I get to spend some time with my characters, my little imaginary friends. But these fixes took only a day at most.

So my questions to those who may wish to respond are, is this reader approach common? Should I complain? It's a small world out there and it could all back fire on me. I could quickly find myself on some black list. Coverage is not like a normal service where you have a customer service rep to go to. Complaining can get you into trouble. Should I let sleeping dogs lie and just take this as one of those many door slams I'm going to encounter? It's all so curious. My premise is I think quite unique and never been done before. At least not that I am aware. This reader has been around for a long time and has relations with producers. Could the obfuscation be a means through which the reader can pass on the premise to a favorite producer? Or am I just being paranoid? The script is registered both with the WGA and with the U.S. Copyright office.

[WriteKnight]

Stop being paranoid. Take rejection in stride. Incorporate good notes.

Start writing another script.

"What else you got?" Has to have an answer.

[Nala1]

@writeknight. Yeah that sounds good, thanks. My post answered the "what else you got" question however-- I've got one of those.

[ComicBent]

You asked, so I will answer.

You are being paranoid.

Sometimes I read scripts for writers and charge for it. Mostly, though, I have done it for free. I have found that the wilder a script is in some grandiose way (e.g., chasing across the galaxy), the less willing the writer is to accept criticism.

Sometimes a script just does not work.

As for the guy whom you paid - the one who raved about how good your script is - he had his opinion. Whether he was entirely honest with you, I do not know.

Just keep working and have faith in yourself.

[nmstevens]

Originally Posted by Nala1

I have this friend, well he became a friend after I paid him to look over my 2 scripts. He's a former WGA board member, published author on scriptwriting and in general a well respected type. One of my scripts he "enjoyed immensely." The other he said would be good in case anyone asks to see something else. He told me, "You're a scriptwiter and don't let anyone tell you, you aren't. Now what you need to do is go out there and find a team that shares your vision to produce it (the immensely enjoyed script). It's like you have a lost tribe out there somewhere that you need to find. Don't let anyone make you change the work to something you don't want, rather find those who share your vision. And don't, by any means let it stop you when the doors slam and the nay sayers protest, coz there's gonna be a lot of that."

Hmm, go out and find your lost tribe. Just how do I do that? So went around seeking the net for answers and came upon a review for a script coverage outfit. This little service has had some success in linking writers to producers. I'll try that. Surely they will enjoy the script immensely as well! Ah, my ticket to representation and beyond. How cool!

The coverage came back with all but one of the check boxes in the lowest rank on the grid. It was a grim and humorless litany of pathetic sighs and head shaking. Finger wagging.

But as well something quite curious; the reader hadn't even understood the basic premise, huh? It's stated and restated, with visuals and everything. When the villain against a backdrop of huge video screens depicting atrocities tells the hero he intends to siphon the human genetic code in order to create a master race of super men to populate the galaxy, you wouldn't expect a reader to say, "You fail to explain in a satisfactory way, why this is a bad thing." Or words to that effect. Huh? Somehow I don't think the average viewer or even studio exec would need to be told that introducing things like genocide to an extraterrestrial community that doesn't even have war, let alone any lethal weapons is bad thing.

The reader's synopsis is a boring list of events that obfuscate the drama in such a way that anyone reading it would agree there's nothing compelling in the story. The synopsis even diffuses a key high-speed Road Warrior-esque in space chase scene set piece by saying something that absolutely did not happen; the chasers changed their mind and turned around it said. Why the lie? What on earth?

There were many other instances or weirdness where the questions raised by the reader were things that the characters ask and answer themselves and other similar incoherencies.

I should point out that the reader truly offered some really good suggestions peppered here and there. Things I was eager to fix. I love doing rewrites. It's where a big chunk of the magic happens. Plus I get to spend some time with my characters, my little imaginary friends. But these fixes took only a day at most.

So my questions to those who may wish to respond are, is this reader approach common? Should I complain? It's a small world out there and it could all back fire on me. I could quickly find myself on some black list. Coverage is not like a normal service where you have a customer service rep to go to. Complaining can get you into trouble. Should I let sleeping dogs lie and just take this as one of those many door slams I'm going to encounter? It's all so curious. My premise is I think quite unique and never been done before. At least not that I am aware. This reader has been around for a long time and has relations with producers. Could the obfuscation be a means through which the reader can pass on the premise to a favorite producer? Or am I just being paranoid? The script is registered both with the WGA and with the U.S. Copyright office.

Okay. A few things. In my time, I've been a reader, I supervised readers and I've had my scripts read and have read the coverage -- gotten really good coverage and really bad coverage on the identical script.

Is this some paranoid thing where they're passing on the script and secretly doing this, that, or the other? No.

What's happening is this. Readers, even in my time, were shockingly underpaid. I doubt that it's improved since then. And they get paid by the script.

And there's a funny little thing that, when you work as a reader, you soon discover.

When you pass on a script, it's almost a gilt-edged guarantee that nobody above you in the chain-of-command, will ever read the script.

So -- it isn't at all unusual for the average reader, at some point, to connect these two facts:

1) The more scripts I read, the more money I make.

2) If I pass on a script, nobody above me will ever really know how carefully or even *if* I ever actually read the script in question.

Now, you have to realize that most coverage is never meant to be seen outside of the production house or the agency. Certainly the writer never sees it and is thus never in a position to mention that the coverage may be seriously at odds with the actual script.

But unless someone at the company actually reads the script and compares the two -- they'd never know.

And when the script is a pass, it virtually never gets read and no one will ever be the wiser.

So what happens? What happens is that a reader will probably read the first act (and ninety-plus percent of the time, it's going to be a pass) -- get the premise down -- skim most of the middle, and then read the end, to get the ending. And then slam through the coverage as fast as humanly possible, get the premise down, fumble through the middle, get the ending down, churn out some easy comments (and they usually are easy because with most scripts that are passes, it's easy to come up with a bunch of stuff that's wrong with them.

And then -- it's on to the next. Because with what you get paid, if you don't churn 'em out, you're going to starve.

Now, how do I know this? Because on more than one occasion, when I worked as a story editor, we had situations where readers would submit coverage, call it a "pass" but my boss, for whatever reason, would read the logline and he'd decide -- you know, I kind of like that idea

And of course, that didn't mean that *he* would read. That means that I'd get to read it.

And once I read it, I'd go back and look at the coverage and realize that half or two thirds of the coverage had just been completely-the-fuck made up.

So I would have to call whoever did the coverage and say, "Hey, man, don't do this. You really actually need to read this stuff because every so often, somebody here is going to read it, and then you're going to get nailed. So don't do it."

When I was working as a writer, I've submitted screenplays and (mistake on their part) companies have sent me the coverage and, as in your case, it was incredibly obvious that the reader had done exactly the same thing -- he'd just scanned the script and slammed out the coverage without really reading it.

So this sort of thing is incredibly common.

But the fact is, later on, when I was working freelance and I did coverage to help pay the bills -- guess what? I did the same thing. You'd get a script, you'd know within ten pages -- this is a total absolute pass -- there is no way in the world this thing would sell even to line the bottom of a bird cage. I got more important things to do with my life than wade through 120 page of this crap.

So I would do exactly the same thing. I'd read enough of the beginning to figure out the premise, skim the middle part, read the ending and write the coverage as fast as possible, write the notes in broad strokes and it's on to the next one.

Because the point is, from the perspective of the reader -- I'm writing to help the company find viable projects, I'm not writing in order to help the writer improve his work.

So if it's a pass and there's nothing there, from my perspective, of any value to the company, the rest is of nominal value. My old boss literally never even read the coverage. All he was interested in was the cover sheet with the logline and those boxes with the check marks on it.

If the logline wasn't interesting to him -- forget about it. If it was, he'd have the script read internally. That's it.

One line. What's the script about? Interesting. Not interesting. Next.

Readers develop an incredibly blase' approach to material - they have to plow through dozens upon dozens of scripts a week. They are generally given very specific guidelines as to what sort of material their company is looking to develop and when they come across something that they recognize as "not an X sort of project" -- with "X" being the sort of movie that their company is interested in making, they just want to get through it and move on.

Now, I don't know how this particular company that you submitted to is set up.

There are obviously some companies that do coverage aimed specifically at screenwriters. But that was never what coverage was about, and using it in this way is really fundamentally at odds with what coverage was originally intended to accomplish, even when it's done correctly.

And that always came down to the same mandate -- find us projects to acquire, to develop, to produce.

And presuming that that's what this company you're talking about is all about, then there may very well be two different agendas at work.

The first is the obvious agenda of the reader simply doing the coverage -- and the not-very-good, perfunctory way in which he did it.

The other, unspoken agenda is between the reader and the company and it has to do with the chances of achieving that writer-producer relationship that they may be offering to potential writers.

And I have to assume that they've done this in the past with certain writers and certain projects. And based on their track record, on their contacts, on the kinds of projects and the level of financing, they no doubt have a sense of the sorts of projects and the sorts of producers they've have success with in the past and will therefor have success with in the future.

And in the same way that we gave that sort of information to our readers -- what we were looking for and what we weren't -- it's very likely that they've conveyed that information to their readers.

So if you've written a two-hundred million dollar blockbuster, chances are they're not going to be in a position to do anything with that. Or a small historical art film.

Or who knows? But certainly, they have some parameters that are going to determine which projects they'll be interested in taking on and which they won't.

The notes and the coverage and the comments are almost an after-the-fact issue.

In the end, they're going to take on the projects that they feel they can make work, that they feel they can find a partner for.

Believe me, when I was working as a story editor, I never simply took the word of any coverage. If I read the logline and it interested me, I'd read the coverage, and even if the coverage or the comments weren't good or it was a pass, I'd still open up the script and read a few pages.

And in the end, that's where the script passed or failed. Either those few pages made me want to read more or it didn't.

And it was a rare event that a script that got passed on made me want to read more.

But sometimes it did.

Ultimately, a pass someplace is just that. It's a pass at that place. It just means that you move on to some other place.

Bad coverage someplace just means that -- it just means some reader gave you bad coverage.

You just have to move on. If you believe in the project, then you need to find other people who do and move on from there.

Oh, and by the way, not to be a hard-ass, but that phrase that you used, "-- intends to siphon the human genetic code in order to create a master race of super men to populate the galaxy" -- I have to tell you that that was a little clear to me too.

I say this not having any idea how it was developed in your script, but I just don't know what it means to "siphon" the human genetic code. Does one die when one has one's genetic code siphoned? Is it copying? Do you melt, dissolve? Evaporate? That is, if they just take a sample of our genetic code and go off with it to make their super soldiers, I suppose that might be bad for other people who in turn get "de-populated" but -- what happens to us?

I mean -- does this master race turn around and start by de-populating earth?

Again, I don't know how it's presented in the screenplay, but just in your short description -- it really wasn't completely clear.

NMS

[Nala1]

@NMS Wow! Thanks! I'm guessing all you've noted isn't news to coverage outfits. Have they tried raising their fees to better pay their readers, so they can do their jobs without the added pressure?

Yes "siphoning" apparently isn't working. I'd chosen that because it seemed somehow more dastardly than simply "drawing DNA samples," which is harmless to the donor. The villain says, "They won't know what hit them." But now that seems unclear as well. Does it mean they won't even notice samples are being taken (intended), or does it mean they won't know why all of a sudden they've taken ill (unintended).

I'm considering adding a short montage that shows a series of examples-- a coffee mug is placed on a table after the drinker has finished taking a sip. A tentacle zaps the spot on the mug where the drinker's lips had been, etc.

But then you get into a whole other series of questions a reader could ask. How does the tentacle know where to strike? How do we know it's taking DNA?

A script is not a self-sufficient thing. Otherwise why not just publish the script? I'm always asking myself what do I need to say vs. what will the director and actors bring to the project. It's a balancing act. What can I do to minimize my words so the director and actors can have something to do? Sometimes I fall too much on the minimal side and need to watch for that. Will a director chose to drill down visually to the chromosomal level and show a tentacle lifting a DNA strand? I leave it to the director to decide how to "explain" visually. 'But have I given the director and actors enough to go on?' is always my question.

[nmstevens]

Originally Posted by Nala1

@NMS Wow! Thanks! I'm guessing all you've noted isn't news to coverage outfits. Have they tried raising their fees to better pay their readers, so they can do their jobs without the added pressure?

Yes "siphoning" apparently isn't working. I'd chosen that because it seemed somehow more dastardly than simply "drawing DNA samples," which is harmless to the donor. The villain says, "They won't know what hit them." But now that seems unclear as well. Does it mean they won't even notice samples are being taken (intended), or does it mean they won't know why all of a sudden they've taken ill (unintended).

I'm considering adding a short montage that shows a series of examples-- a coffee mug is placed on a table after the drinker has finished taking a sip. A tentacle zaps the spot on the mug where the drinker's lips had been, etc.

But then you get into a whole other series of questions a reader could ask. How does the tentacle know where to strike? How do we know it's taking DNA?

A script is not a self-sufficient thing. Otherwise why not just publish the script? I'm always asking myself what do I need to say vs. what will the director and actors bring to the project. It's a balancing act. What can I do to minimize my words so the director and actors can have something to do? Sometimes I fall too much on the minimal side and need to watch for that. Will a director chose to drill down visually to the chromosomal level and show a tentacle lifting a DNA strand? I leave it to the director to decide how to "explain" visually. 'But have I given the director and actors enough to go on?' is always my question.

Well, this may fall more in the category of a script critique so I won't belabor it -- but as a general and fundamental principle for all screenwriters:

It's never the business of the director or the actors to effectively tell the story -- that is, to clearly communicate what the hell is happening.

That's your job.

If space aliens are coming to earth and stealing human DNA to make a race of super soldiers -- then "that's what's happening."

It's not up to the director to figure out how to convey that. That's your job. Whether a weird light appears over sleeping people and you zoom in and show micro-machines harvesting DNA and teleporting up to their super-ships and being fed into their super-soldier cloning machines or whatever the hell you want to do -- that's your business.

The point is -- it *is* your business, because unless you effectively convey what the hell is going on in your story, the reader is going to be confused and the the screenplay won't ever get to a director and it won't ever get to the screen.

NMS

[Nala1]

@NMS I get it. Taking a brief dip into script analysis for a minute, coz it goes to my original posting concerning what looked like purposeful obfuscation. Not having the time to do the job the way the reader would like, isn't quite in the same category as eliding all the dramatic elements as a way to justify a pass, is it? Or are they related?

I don't want to belabor things too much either, just a little.

The script's premise is this: Some 25,000 years ago, Earth was been cut off from interstellar visits by a consensus decree posed by galactic leaders external to Earth. The prohibition continues to this day. We on Earth are in the dark about all of this, we wonder why there have been no visits by aliens. An extraterrestrial explains why using Fermi's Paradox to illustrate. "With the galaxy being so old, even with slower than light speed travel, there should have been many alien visits by now. Well, there have been, we just stopped coming."

Human species has been deemed "far too brutal to be unleashed upon the the rest of the galaxy." We are the monsters, we are the forbidden planet. It's set up as a paradise/hell metaphor. The characters even speak of the comparison in those terms. "This (meaning everywhere outside Earth) is a paradise compared with Earth, yet there is always a little trouble in any paradise."

In a nutshell, when an Earth girl finds her way to the outside worlds, the villain, hailing from one of these outside worlds, recognizes he has a vessel into which he can inseminate the seed of her male counterpart and create a master race, now bringing hell to paradise. "Now that you've had the foresight," the villain says, "to bring Melody (the Earth girl) to me, I can use her for my experiments." The heroes' central task is to prevent this from happening.

None of this is mentioned in the coverage.

Do I really need to show all the details of how this happens, or do we get it?

I still don't get why a reader would eliminate this from all discussion, both in the synopsis and in the notes? These are key story points.

[Miss Plum]

Originally Posted by Nala1

>snip<

I still don't get why a reader would eliminate this from all discussion, both in the synopsis and in the notes? These are key story points.

Nala, without having read the script, I see it as all backstory. The story -- as I understand it -- is the hero's attempt to save the rest of the universe from the earthlings. (That right there could be problematic, since the stakes have nothing to do with me, everything to do with a bunch of planets I'll never visit.)

[dennis7490]

Get your script to talent, if you can. I just had a script optioned by a company that gave it horrible coverage. Luckily, the talent read it before the reader got his/her immature hands on it. Other people pay a producer big bucks to take it to an agency and to all intents of purposes pay for great coverage. I mean PAY, like 50k. it goes to the producer, and they leverage the coverage via contacts.
Go to the talent. Readers are usually young, underpaid, worked to death, and unless you wrote something that they are particularly interested in, and didn't have a really s**tty day, and their boss didn't give them 89 scripts to look at over their unpaid weekend, then you have a shot.
Go to the talent! Cannot emphasize that enough. I got great coverage at FOX for a very good script. Nothing ever happened with that script. The script I got horrible coverage on will most likely get made into a movie...because it really is a good script, albeit not for 22 year olds with no concept of mortality. And I got it to two directors and they both wanted to make it. I chose the director. He got talent attached. End of story.
Do not, I repeat for emphasis, do not complain! If you want to survive in Hollywood, then develop a thick skin, and write, write, write. Very, very, very few writers, directors, and actors make it in Hollywood SOLELY on contacts and favors. Eventually they have to produce. The ones that make it CAN produce. And they can take it on the chin big time. Thank the reader for their profound notes and MOVE ON.

[Nala1]

@dennis. That sounds great! Thank you! I think that's exactly what my friend from WGA was getting at when he told me to go out and find my lost tribe-- find people who share my vision. I don't know any talent. How do I start? I have 2 friends who study at Playhouse West, that could be a way to start. One of them has read at least part of the script-- based on what she read, she's planning to take it there. So maybe things are in movement. In the mean time, is there anything I can be doing? Yes, no more complaints! Move on.

[Nala1]

@Miss Plum. The story is told almost entirely from the Earth girls' POV. She is us. It's all basically a metaphor for how we view our home planet. Some take the good things, others focus on the bad. All the ET's have what could be called, "human" attributes. They have relationship issues, worry about relatives, parenting issues, problems with parents not understanding them, etc. Melody gets to see how others view her home. At the end, she turns the tables and shows the mirror (not to mix metaphors or anything) to the ET's. Sci-fi is just a way to talk about us from a different perspective, from a kind of world view place, a place we may forget about. It takes us outside ourselves for a look back, I guess.

[dennis7490]

Hi,
Just got back on. To answer your question. Get involved with actors, directors, writers, everyone you can. You do not know where it will lead. Get involved with the community of artists. These are all people who are struggling just like you. Some are good people, some are not. Doesn't matter. get involved. and most importantly keep writing. I've written about 25-30 screenplays. More than half of them are "filed" away, never to see the light of day again. but it doesn't matter. Get your arsenal together. They want a comedy, you have a comedy. They want a drama. You have a drama. Action? Sure, here you go. And don't let them get you down!!! You will eventually find out who your friends are. But you need to let that world know that you produce, produce, produce, and there is nothing that any of them can say that will ever stop you. One day they will get out of your way and you will have arrived.

[Nala1]

@Dennis. Thanks again. You and my friend seem to be saying similar things. He told me to get involved too. So that confirms it. I'm a little more interested in having as much to do with the production as possible. As a producer-- not an interfering one, possibly to have the power to say no or yes to certain things, but primarily as a an additional voice. For instance I'm not sure I'd want the power to select a director, but I would very much like to be part of the process of casting. This piece is an actor driven thing. My WGA friend made a Thelma & Louise comparisson (I would have never presumed!), where the casting was so crucial to its success. It's a fairly product integrated thing where Earth products play roles almost literally at times. So there's at least a potential for massive tie-ins that could get out of hand and gratuitous if not handled right. I would like to a voice in that process. Some other stuff-- making sure the DI person is brought in at the same time as the cinematographer & production designer, so they are all collaborating and happy. Making sure they actually hire a cinematographer! They actually do that sometimes. Other stuff as well. It's a pipe dream at this point, but why not dream and try to make it happen?

[dennis7490]

I hate to say this, but having been produced in prime time TV, cable and film I have a tiny bit of experience.

If someone is truly interested in your script, and is willing to put up option money, then just get out of the way. Please, do this for yourself. I've watched too many writers, including myself think they had a say in these matters, and truthfully, they don't. Producers and directors ask your opinion, but for the most part, especially when your are starting out, they don't give s**t. They want you to feel important, but what they would prefer is that you hand in the final draft and drop dead of a heart attack once the contract is signed.
Get out of your own way and focus on writing. Getting a movie made today is monumental. You are asking people you don't know to invest hundreds of thousands or millions for 100 pages of your thoughts. If somebody really likes it and is wiling to put up what we call "good faith" money, then say think you and go about your life. When they ask for rewrites, give it to them. Do not shoot yourself in the foot at the starting gate.

[Nala1]

@dennis. Cool. I can imagine getting marginalized really fast. But may depend too on who my lost tribe turns out to be. In general though I agree, one can always hope for special circumstances. So I have this script and another one reworking Sleeping Beauty as a family drama spanning parallel worlds. I was thinking next about doing either a straight up comedy with 2 guys (for a change I like writing for female characters), and maybe a drama about a monster who becomes a person (Beauty and the Beast, I guess). After that ? Don't know.

[dennis7490]

FYI In the theater you do have power. Playwrights have the power to hire or fire directors, actors, etc. But with scripts, you pretty much have to get out of the way. Getting involved with a theater groups and honing your dialogue skills, hearing it being read, etc. is a good way to spread your wings. And at least you see your stuff performed. Movies are a long, long, long shot.

[Nala1]

Originally Posted by dennis7490

Movies are a long, long, long shot.

Yes, it's almost as if scriptwriters are all these little moles trying to make mountains. It's all been really fun, from the moment I decided to start. Funny that when you think yer done, someone comes along, like my reader and now it comes back to life in your head. It's truly a collaborative art, even at this stage.

After Irene Mayer Selsnick's dad (otherwise known as Louis B. Mayer) offered the job of unit production head to her husband (otherwise known as David O. Selsnick), the alcoholic, philandering gambling addict (otherwise known for producing Gone With The Wind) began his work by sending most everything already in post back for reshoots. When the complaints came in, he silenced them all with this, "A movie gets made in the reshoots." That's how I think of rewrites; the script is written in the rewrites. This is where a lot of the magic happens. Really fun!

Actor readings. Yes, that's the next step. I'm hoping my friends at Playhouse West can set up something there. At least maybe get a reading going informally. I mentioned asking acting students to do readings to my WGA friend, but he wasn't so convinced that would be the way to go. He felt this piece only gets better with really good actors. There are apparently things in it that only the top of their game folks are going to see and be able to do. Hmm.

I still think just getting the piece out there in ether is the first step.

[dennis7490]

I wouldn't do actor readings without a director. Actor's can bungle things up pretty badly at the first go, unless they're exceptional actors. If your script is done, and you feel it can go out, then find a director (there are a lot of them around) hopefully a good one, because there are a zillion bad ones, and have him get actors together to do an informal reading. If it's a lot of action and not a lot of dialogue, then the reading might be pointless. But if it's dialogue heavy, then the reading can be worthwhile.

[Nala1]

@dennis. More great advise! Thanks!

[Nala1]

Okay, now a common sense question, but some clarification would be helpful. My friend who goes to playhouse west is talking about putting out a casting/director call for this script. She wants me to create a character breakdown, etc. So do I at this point list all aspects of character, e.g. One of the protagonists is a shapely Asian female. It has something to do with who she is. Some of the characters are little people. Do I list all of this for a reading or is that something you ask for later on? Is there a known protocol for this? I ask because say you start doing readings. A piece may get more attention if those elements are listed from the outset rather than have them show up later. On the other hand just getting a reading may start to get a little unwieldy.

[Nala1]

Say I submit a casting call with Now Casting. Should I set up an LLC first so that there's some mechanism in place should funding come in to pay the actors to do the reading? Won't they expect SAG/AFTRA pay to do the reading? Is there a special rate for reading calls? Director's rate?

[Nala1]

I think also the reader was thinking more in terms of the project being a big budget/major studio enterprise. Although that may be likely, I don't imagine a big studio would want to do a space adventure with 2 girls. The majors are about boys, coz that's where most of the the audience is. Even from the guy perspective, seeing cute girls in mini skirts traipsing about the galaxy in a muscle car isn't going to inspire a major to sign up. Fun to see for a guy, but not something they are going to identify with. Girls are trained from birth it seems to see things from others perspectives, so they don't have a problem in identifying with some guy's dilemma. Guys can't really go there-- unless you do it in a way that tricks them into feeling the girl's perspective. Hitchcock was a master of suspense, they say, but to do that you have to be a master of movie viewer psychology. He could get an audience of guys to laugh at themselves through the woman's POV, all done simply with camera placement, e.g. Mr. & Mrs. Smith. With 2 girls in the script, it's a little harder to pull off. So I put some male attributes into the lead. She's tough, sarcastic, etc. But it would be, I think a nightmare project for a major.

This is more of a big budget indie. It has some tools within in it to help with the financials. One of the protagonists is basically a walking store front, several vendors actually. But that's only part of it. A creative financial team could pull it off. And somebody/s could end up with a boat load/s of cash depending on how it's marketed. It's something new, not yer average product placement or even product integration. Definitely not a new model for movie making in general, just something to help an indie get the film made.

Also the costs of the technology surrounding making a movie are dropping really fast these days, even for special effects.

[Nala1]

Originally Posted by dennis7490

But if it's dialogue heavy, then the reading can be worthwhile.

Well, Dennis, I did as you suggested and held a table reading. We got Stef Dawson http://vimeo.com/5106146 reading for the lead and Alison Lees-Taylor http://www.alisonleestaylor.com/images/shwreel.mpg
and some other great talent. They said it was ready to go. The consensus after the reading was to now find a director who "gets it." So thanks. It was a great experience.