GITS: The Twitter Conversations — Script Readers (Part 3)

So late the other night, I was just about to head off to my nightly 20 minutes of sleep when I decided to check Twitter one last time. Big mistake… that turned into a bit of brilliance.

The mistake was I saw that @BittrScrptReadr [The Bitter Script Reader] and @nate_winslow [Nate Winslow] were having a conversation about some scripts they had been covering. Of course, I butted in with a snarky question, then suddenly the whole thing changed into this terrific conversation in which another person who reads and covers scripts @amandapendo [Amanda Pendolino] joined in, and off we went for about an hour. As it turns out, hundreds of people tracked the exchange, so I asked Future Super Producer Nate Winslow if he could create a transcript? Of course, he figured out a way to do it. So I thought I’d serialize it with commentary this week.

BSR [Bitter Script Reader]
GITS [Me]
NW [Nate Winslow]
AP [Amanda Pendolino]

Here is Part 3 of GITS: The Twitter Conversations — Script Readers:

GITS: What’s ur biggest pet peeve re scripts u read / wish writers would get their shit together on?

NW: That their script isn’t a MOVIE. Instead, it’s a short. Or a play. Or a novel. Or a sketch.

NW: If you’re writing a screenplay, you better be damn sure it’s a MOVIE before you type FADE IN.

BSR: Concept — have one. Also, pacing. Too many slow and cluttered reads.

AP: such a tough Q. mostly I get annoyed when people fail to have a clear concept

GITS: Ok, let’s parse that out. You are saying you read scripts where there is no obvious concept?

AP: all the time! I have to fill in a blank that says “logline” and I don’t know what to put!

AP: sometimes it’s like.. “guys sit around and talk about their lives?”

NW: Yeah. If it’s impossible to summarize, you’ve got a huge problem. Good litmus test for concept

GITS: Holy crap! Writers knock out 100+ pages with NO DISCERNABLE CONCEPT? What gives, writers?

BSR: *Nods head in agreement*

AP: or the opposite, where it’s so complicated, muddled and often futuristic that I’m confused

BSR: I call those “And This Happens” scripts. Because it’s a lot of stuff, but no clear direction

AP: I think it’s bc we don’t always start w concept. we start w theme, character, or a funny joke

NW: Please please please make sure the effort you’re expending is going to be worth something.

GITS: So do you like high concepts?

BSR: I’m a sucker for high concept, when it’s done right. I’m a shameless whore for those

NW: Doesn’t necessarily have to be high concept in the LIAR LIAR sense of the term.

NW: Just has to be definable. I have to be able to pick it out in Act1 and tell my boss abt it.

AP: I personally think “high-concept” is overrated. Some amazing 80s & 90s movies aren’t h.c.

AP: but it has to have CONFLICT and TURNS and be compelling

Once again insight from Hollywood’s front lines:

* Evidently there are scripts that make their way to professional readers which do not have an apparent story concept. In all honesty, I can’t even begin to wrap my head around that idea because it’s utterly foreign to how I think. If I don’t have a solid story concept, I would no more write a screenplay than punch myself in the face. But stepping back from the shock of this observation, there is a huge takeaway that slots right into our discussion about “The Quest”: the singular importance of working with a strong story concept.

* “If it’s impossible to summarize, you’ve got a huge problem. Good litmus test for concept.” That reminds me of a Screenwriting 101 quote from writer-director Harold Ramis:

“For me, a screenplay starts with something I can tell other people in five minutes. If you’re pitching a movie and it takes longer than five minutes, there’s something wrong. That economy seems to have really worked for me. The more detail I include in my pitch, the more other people’s and my own eyes start to glaze over.”

That is an excellent way to know if you have a story that is ready to write: Can you summarize it in 5 minutes? If you can’t, you still have some work to do to focus and find its structure and soul.

Movies aren’t all concept, but if there’s nothing else you take away from this conversation or the series on “The Quest,” it’s that you absolutely must spend a significant amount of time and energy working on and developing strong story concepts, and once you have them, work with them so that you end up with strong, coherent story that’s actually about something.

For Part 1 of the conversation, go here.

For Part 2, go here.

Tomorrow more insight from these Hollywood threshold guardians.

Good news! Based upon feedback I received from readers who enthusiastically wanted another Twitter conversation with these fine folks, I asked Bitter, Amanda and Nate — and they agreed. So I will find a time some evening when they’re free and we will schedule something so that you may participate in a live Tweet chat to ask any questions you might have about the script coverage process.

Some background info:

The Bitter Script Reader has spent many years — “perhaps too many,” he says — working in development and as a reader at production companies and agencies. For over three years, he’s blogged regularly about the missteps he’s seen writers both young and professional make, and implored his audience to avoid those same writing pitfalls. You can find him at his blog and check out his videos on his newly-launched YouTube Channel.

After working for a motion picture literary agent at a major talent agency, Amanda Pendolino went on to become a professional script reader for a few different production companies. She is also developing some feature comedies, in addition to an original sitcom.

Nate Winslow moved to Los Angeles last year and spent the majority of his time reading scripts and writing coverage for a production company and an A-list director. He’s currently working for Franklin Leonard at The Black List, Scott Myers at this blog you’re reading, and two production companies.

UPDATE: An excellent observation by Diogo in comments about the importance of a story have a strong center concept and being about something:

I couldn’t agree more. However it kicks off (character, a song, a joke) you have to know what you’re writing about. Writing is one of our most human devices to try to apprehend and comprehend the world we live in (nature, society, politics, relationships, everything). It’s a translation of events and situations into a whole new semiotic system, the story. It’s building meaning. Through story, we get a little bit closer to the meaning of whatever we’re trying to look at through the telescope (or microscope, by the way). If we don’t know what we’re looking for, then how can we hope to invite anyone to travel with us along the path ? It’s not absolute scientific knowledge, it’s emotional experience. Without a concept, how can we go anywhere? As a writer, I am absolutely frightened of irrelevance.

It’s a shame that some cinematographies have misunderstood movements like the French New Wave and thus you can find screenwriting teachers encouraging students to write “poetic” scripts — about “life”, about “everything”, talking with utter disregard for “concept” or “theme” or anything that makes story work overall. That’s part of what makes them such amateur cinematographies.

“A translation of events… into a story.” And you are the translator. You are not a neutral observer, rather you are an active participant, engaged in a relationship with the story, its universe, its characters. Even to the point of the attitude you take toward the style you use with scene description, the choices you make with how you approach scenes, pacing and all the rest that contributes to what I call narrative voice, all that is a reflection of you as the writer. And the writer must come from a specific point of reference with a specific attitude and viewpoint toward the story.

Story is not simply a recitation of events. It is, as Diogo points out, an “emotional experience.”

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