Blog spotlight: The Bitter Script Reader

I’ve talked about the importance of script readers many times, how they are Hwood’s “threshold guardians” in the studios’ acquisition and development process. So as a screenwriter, it pays to understand how their minds operate. Fortunately, we’ve managed to feature some of them — D.C. Mar in A Script Reader Speaks and the analysis of the ICM script coverage doc The Story Behind Script Coverage. Here’s another resource, the blog The Bitter Script Reader.

Hook: “The advice and rantings of a Hollywood script reader tired of seeing screenwriters make the same mistakes, saving the world from bad writing one screenplay at a time.”

Writer: The Bitter Script Reader

Location: Los Angeles

Occupation: Professional script reader for 6 years.

Blog origins:

My inspiration for doing the blog was largely a result of seeing the same mistakes over and over again after years of script reading. I’m also a fan of bloggers “Amanda the Aspiring TV Writer,” Ken Levine, John August, and Wil Wheaton. I’d joked for a while that I should start a blog all about the horrible scripts that a script reader ends up reading, and try to use those mistakes as a way of teaching aspiring writers what to do and what not to do. But it wasn’t until I sat down and came up with about 30 blog topics fairly easily that I realized this could have some legs.

Recent post: Show, Don’t Tell:

The admonition to screenwriters to “show, don’t tell” is about as old as the first time a meddling producer says, “I have notes.” Admittedly, I give this note at least five times a week too, but what does it mean?

Usually, it means that the dialogue is spelling out something that is either self-evident, or could be shown visually. Ask yourself — which is more interesting to watch:

1) a character calmly walking into a room, taking a deep breath, then smashing his priceless Ming vase on a destructive impulse.

or…

2) a character walking into a room and snarling at his friend, “I’m madder than I’ve ever been before and I could smash my most prized possession and not even care.”

Pencils down. That was an easy one.

I emailed TBSR with some questions and he was kind enough to respond.

How did you become a script reader?

Readers interested in a long version of my story can check out this post. The short answer is that I made myself useful to the development people at the company where I used to work. Quickly they realized I had a head for this sort of work, which eventually led to them making me an official development assistant. Then, after some time working there, a friend of mine tipped me off to an agency opening, and that more or less led to me going freelance full time.

How often do you post to the blog?

I try to update the blog at least twice a week, three times if I manage to find the time. Over the past few months, the blog has also had a few week-long posts, such as when I marked the passing of ER — here — by spending a week using the pilot and other episodes as examples of good writing. I also recently ran a five-part interview with COLLEGE screenwriter Dan Callahan, which covered the entire experience of a first-time screenwriter, from writing the script, to getting an agent, to selling it, to dealing with rewrite notes, all the way to the release and future projects. The response to that was good, so I’m hoping to get even more interviews in the future.

Now some questions about being a script reader. What’s your breakdown of time you allot to reading a script?

My process in reading a script generally comes down to this:

- 1 hour to read the script
- 1 hour to write the synopsis
- 30 min to an hour to write the comments.

How many scripts do you read on average per week?

When work was booming, I was covering about 15 scripts a week. These days it’s closer to ten.

When do you know if a script is any good or not: P. 30? P. 15? P. 10? P. 5? P. 1?

Usually, I know by page 10 if the script is going to be a real dog. That’s more than enough time to identify the worst amateur writing, as well as get a sense of either a hackneyed or wretched premise. I usually haven’t rendered a solid verdict by p. 30. That’s pretty much the point of no return — if I’m not interested in the story by then, there’s very little chance anything that happens will pull me into it. More often than not, the ten to fifteen page rule is a good one for writers to heed — don’t give your readers any reason to put down the script during the first fifteen pages — that’s where most scripts are likely to lose their audience for good.

I always read the full script, but there are many times where I hit p. 30 and get a feeling of utter dread, best summed up by the feeling “Do I really need to read the rest of this?”

My rough guess at the overall “Suck percentage” is 95%. Agency submissions alone are probably about 85% suck, production company submissions might vary between 75%-80% depending on the calibur of the company in question, and at least 97% of the scripts submitted to screenplay reading companies are terrible. Now, probably a good portion of all of those could be improved with enough work and dedication — though there are many times I’ve read a script thinking either “There’s no salvaging this concept” or “This writer doesn’t have it him them to produce a good script.”

Three things screenwriters do in a script that drive you crazy?

I don’t know if I could boil all the things that bug me down to a mere top three, but at the moment its:

1) all formatting errors drive me nuts (see here for more) but not including page numbers is probably the number one cardinal sin in my book.

2) having no discernable structure — which often means the script has only one turning point, at the dead center of the script.

3) pages and pages of nothing but overwritten dialogue. (Double the wrath when it’s the dialogue is delivered by crooks/hitmen in a script that’s clearly trying to emulate Tarantino or Guy Ritchie).

Finally what’s your professional goal?

Like most script readers, I’m a writer myself. My current goal is to get repped and sell a script. (My work is mostly features, but I’ve got some TV ideas I’m working on too.) Long term, I’d love to direct and produce too.

So another great screenwriting blog to bookmark: The Bitter Script Reader.

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