Scher - Reading screenplays: how to analyse and evaluate film scripts

Script readers are crucial to the film industry, often responsible for determining whether a script is even looked at by a producer or development executive. Yet those accountable for reading scripts are often on the first rung of the industry ladder and, even when they are already working in the film world, may have had little or no training for the task. This book is based upon knowledge acquired during the years of teaching the Script Factory Reader Training Course both in the UK and internationally. The course has used good produced scripts as well as a huge range of unproduced projects, very generously made available by aspiring screenwriters. Participants have ranged from heads of studios, heads of funds and screen agencies, producers, distributors, commissioners, directors, agents and screenwriters, as well as those seeking to start a career in reading and development. The intention of this book is to equip anyone who reads (or indeed writes) scripts and is required to make some judgement upon them, whatever their role and experience in the wider film industry, with the confidence and skills to write intelligent, informed script reports.

Scripts are usually first read at a very early stage of a films development. Every filmmaker will tell you that the story will continue to be rewritten dozens of times, both before and during production, and wont be completed until the final edit. The job of the reader, therefore, is not to judge a fledgling film script against acclaimed movies but rather to discern whether there is enough potential in the idea to make it worth the writers time and effort, or the producers cash, to invest in another draft that might eventually be shaped into a film.

For the past 13 years the Script Factory has been training readers to read screenplays a little more generously; not to suggest that something is good when it clearly isnt, but rather not to dismiss a good idea that may currently be let down by simplistic characterisation or a weak structure, things that could be fixed through wise development and honing of the writers craft. A skilful script reader should be able to see past such weaknesses and glimpse what the finished film could be if the writers intentions were to be successfully realised.

Alongside the chapters on the detail of the script report, including a sample report, this book incorporates an analysis of genre and how to use it in reading and development; a chapter on both writing and assessing treatments; and a final section on the job of development, both what it is and how to manage the transition from reading scripts to working with screenwriters.

Understanding how a script is assessed and developed is possibly the most valuable training that a screenwriter can access and, if you read this as a writer, the step-by-step process of analysing the material offers you the best way to obtain distance from, and objectivity about, your project to help in making the decisions that will improve it.

I joined the newly conceived Script Factory to produce the first season of screenplay readings in the autumn of 1996. Our aim was to showcase the scripts of the UKs finest screenwriters and bring them to life with exceptional actors, in front of a film-industry audience, to celebrate the craft of writing for the screen.

My work involved reading each of the scripts, at least twice, and then listening to them being delivered by actors at a tempo that enabled me to visualise the action. In this way, and entirely unexpectedly, I learned the craft of screenplay. It was an enormously privileged, and perhaps unique, start to a development career.

I only became aware that I had acquired this skill when the Script Factory project opened its doors and I began to read scripts by hopeful and enthusiastic new writers who clearly didnt know or understand the craft of screenwriting. In an effort to convey some of the knowledge that I had absorbed I wrote script reports, first on an adhoc basis to anyone who asked, and then launched the Script Report Service that still runs today. This offers any screenwriter a constructive, analytical report on their project to help them decide the development priorities for the next draft.

The success of the Script Report Service created the need for more readers than just myself. The ones available at that time wrote coverage for executives, and had a style that was personal, but often very critical and inappropriate to offer the writer. As I had paid work to offer to successful participants, in the summer of 1999 I felt confident enough to launch a Report Writing Course. I devised some exercises and processed the learning I had absorbed about story and screenwriting craft into six lecture sessions.

Over the years the report-writing course and its content has been developed and refined, improved and expanded and I am indebted to all the trainers for their invaluable contributions. And, of course, we have gained immeasurably from the many thousands of participants who have taken part and warmly and generously offered their insights, thoughts and experiences. However, my debt is greatest to my Script Factory co-director Justine Hart who brought extraordinary intellectual rigour to the material; much of the thinking and precision about how to convey it in this book are hers.