FAQs - How to get hired as a reader and the percentage of good material

Kristee sent in a few questions that pretty much qualify for an FAQ at this point:

1) What is the best company to work for as far as being able to get your foot in the door for script reading. I'm willing to take freelance, etc...

As far as I know there aren't any companies that are in the business of hiring readers who don't have any experience elsewhere. My experience is that you don't start as a reader - you work your way up to being one. I've covered my path to becoming a reader in this post. Most of the readers I know have similar stories. If you really want to be a reader, expect to start out as a PA or Development Assistant first.

2) How much does script reading pay? Could I quit my day job in other words.

Well, most readers aren't on a regular salary unless they happen to be development assistants. That means you get paid per script. These rates vary wildly among various companies. I wouldn't recommend quitting your day job for this. Companies are cutting back and the easiest person to cut is the guy who only pops into the office maybe once a week for ten minutes.

A lot of companies have started farming out work to outsiders only when absolutely necessary and have forced the assistants to do a lot more of the reading. The reason for this should be obvious - the assistants are already on salary and they aren't paid extra for these additional coverages. If you were in charge would you pay someone $300 to read five scripts, or would you rather just make someone do a little extra work for free on the weekend?

It's a really bad time to try to break into reading. The jobs aren't out there, the workload is shrinking and you're competing with guys like me who have a lot more experience. Reader jobs tend to go to people who have already made contacts in the business and guys like me are always looking for additional freelance assignments. If you don't have any contacts in the business yet, it's going to be hard to break into this end of it.

On that note, if any companies out there need new readers, call me!

3) What are the credentials you need to get into script reading?

Experience with at least one company, most likely. My post linked above probably answers this already. Basically, in order to get the job you want, sometimes you have to do it for free for a little while first.

Mr. Dearth asked another question that I get a lot in one form or another:

We hear of astronomical numbers thrown around about the spec market, the slush pile and the amount of scripts registered with WGA and/or entered into contests each year, but (knowing this is an impossible question to answer with any kind of certainty) where would you approximate the numbers actually are per year of new scripts submitted to the general market?

I couldn't even begin to hazard a guess.

And with that number, what kind of percentage would you estimate as far as scripts that are:

* Nearly ready for development
* Worth another look by someone else
* Technically sound, but not interesting enough
* Interesting but not technically sound
* Barely readable

I realize that you might only be able to go by what you've experienced, but I think it's always interesting to hear what we are up against from someone on the inside. Plus, getting a read or any kind of positive feedback can feel even more special when you realize the astronomical odds against that happening--at least momentarily.

Well, your categories are all a little to relative for me to come up with a useful answer. "Nearly ready for development" is sort of a broad topic. Something that's right in the wheelhouse of one company you read for might be completely inappropriate for another company in terms of subject matter, budget, genre, etc. Something that's totally ready for development at Handsomecharlie Films (Natalie Portman's company) might be completely wrong for Silver Films.

Part of being a good reader is knowing what sort of material the people you read for will respond to. You might find an action script that's completely ineptly written, but has a hook or a premise that is EXACTLY what your boss is looking for. If your boss also happens to dislike dramas, then the hack action script probably would stand a good chance of getting a CONSIDER over the emotional, deliberately-paced Nicholl Fellowship script about an 8 year-old boy who escapes the pain of an abusive home by trying to teach an ostrich how to fly.

Stuff like this is why you should always research the people you're targeting with your spec. And frankly, it's why some agents should be more discriminating about what they send out. There are at least a few times a week where I read a script that just based on premise alone would not be made by the people I'm reading for.

But if pressed, I'd give the same answer I gave here:

As far as "Professional submissions" (i.e. from agents, managers, other industry pros) the numbers break down like this, more or less:

Great - less than 5%
Good - maybe 20%
Mediocre - 50%
Bad - 20%
Awful - 5%

If you add slush pile submissions to this, the bad/awful percentages increase at the expense of Good/Great.

Tuesday Talkback: Working out your issues

Two questions this week:

1) Do you/have you used your writing as therapy?

and

2) by any chance did you do this a lot more on your earlier scripts than your later ones?

Compete archive of my interviews with pro writers

It seemed like a good idea to put together a post that links to all the interviews I've done with professional writers over the life of this blog. This will be updated with further links as each new interview is added.

Interview with Dan Callahan, writer of COLLEGE and DEMOTED:
Part I - The Writing Process
Part II - Getting an Agent and Selling the Script
Part III - Notes, Rewriting, Casting and SUPERBAD
Part IV - More Rewrites
Part V - Release and Reaction


Interview with Jericho and Human Target's Robert Levine:
Part I - Climbing the ladder as a writer's assistant
Part II - Working on Jericho's first season
Part III - Writing season two of Jericho
Part IV - Writing the Jericho comic book and getting an agent
Part V - Writing for Human Target


Interview with screenwriter Eric Heisserer - A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET remake:
Part I - Breaking in and writing the ELM STREET remake
Part II - Details on THE THING and FINAL DESTINATION 5

Interview with Privileged writer/"This is Your Pilot Speaking" blogger Margaux Froley:
Part I - School, internships and assistant jobs
Part II - The Warner Brothers Television Fellowship and working on the staff of Privileged
Part III - Staffing season, getting representation and spec pilots

Interview with Shrek Forever After and Date Night writer Josh Klausner:
Part I - Breaking in and SHREK
Part II - DATE NIGHT

Interview with web comedy filmmakers Chad, Matt & Rob:
Part I - Breaking out on the web
Part II - The Interactive Adventures
Part III - Producing web shorts

Interview with Amy Baack, Assistant to "V" showrunner Scott Rosenbaum

Interview with director Gregg Bishop:
Part I - Making a $15,000 film
Part II - Making DANCE OF THE DEAD

Interview with Scott Towler, writer's assistant to Michelle Nader (100 Questions, Kath & Kim)
Part I
Part II

Interview with SCREAM 4 Co-Producer Carly Feingold
Part I - The path to being Wes Craven's Creative Exec
Part II - What does a Creative Executive do and what do they look for?
Part III - Making Scream 4

Video interview with TV writer Liz Tigelaar, creator Life Unexpected.
Part 1 - Breaking in as an assistant
Part 2 - First Staff Writer Job on "American Dreams"
Part 3 - How Do I Get an Agent?
Part 4 - Selling a Pilot
Part 5 - Personal Themes in Writing
Part 6 - Genesis of "Life Unexpected"
Part 7 - First-Time Showrunner
Part 8 - Developing the second year of LUX
Part 9 - Dealing with network notes
Part 10 - Controversial LUX storylines
Part 11 - LUX lives on
Part 12 - Network overall deal, working on Once Upon a Time and Revenge
Part 13 - The Bitter Questions

Video interview with Franklin Leonard about Black List 3.0:

Video interview with screenwriter F.Scott Frazier:
Part 1 - His stats and process
Part 2 - "How do you get an agent?"
Part 3 - The Working Writer.
Part 4 - The Bitter Questions

Video interview with Franklin Leonard about The Black List:
Part 1 - The Origin of the Black List
Part 2 - Criticisms of the Black List
Part 3 - The Black List Statistics

Video interview with film and TV writer Jeffrey Lieber (Lost, Miami Medical, Necessary Roughness):
Part 1 - "How did you get an agent?"
Part 2 - First sales and going into TV
Part 3 - The early genesis of Lost
Part 4 - The process of developing a show
Part 5 - Cable TV vs. Network TV
Part 6 -  The Bitter Questions

Interview with Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, co-director of Radio Silence's DEVIL'S DUE:
Part I
Part II

An interview with Victoria Aveyard, writer of RED QUEEN and ETERNAL


Writer/director Riley Stearns and actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead on FAULTS:
Part I - Origins of the story
Part II - Complex Characters and roles for women.
Part III- Making your first movie.
Part IV - Having confidence as a storyteller.
.

Therapy scripts

I recently read a script that was written by a person who was something of a bystander to a national tragedy. Their participation in this incident, even though they were largely a spectator to the events around them, clearly traumatized the individual. It was clear from early on that this writer was using the script in an effort to work out some of their own issues. There was unfortunately a very big problem with it - it wasn't very good at all. There was no structure, the character development was all on the nose, the dialogue was overwrought and there were a lot of extraneous little subplots, that while they weren't strongly related to the national incident, I'd bet my life they were actual incidents from the writer's life.

I'm being a little extra vague here because I don't want to take the chance of the writer somehow stumbling across this page in a Google search and be re-traumatized by seeing me mock their writing here for all to see. This was one coverage write-up where I actually felt very sorry for the individual who I was passing on and hoped and prayed that they would never see my one-page write up that pointed out every single major flaw in the writing in a cold dispassionate manner.

Let me put it this way: You ever see the rare occasion on American Idol where someone auditions convinced that that are awesome - and not in a cocky "I am the shit!" way, but in an endearing way? Like maybe they've lived a hard life and they walk in with the conviction that they are going to impress the judges and walk out the next Kelly Clarkson? And then have you seen their face just crumble as Simon tells them they simply aren't that good? You know those times when even Simon doesn't have the heart to be cruel and actually tries to let them down easy? Don't you just cringe and feel bad for everyone in the room - both the one being turned down and the people who have to be the bad guy to the sweet but untalented wannabe?

Just me? Okay, maybe I'm projecting. My point is, it's sometimes hard for me to be dismissive of a script that so clearly has great emotional meaning for its writer. This writer was clearly working out some issues, and while I often joke that I'd love to recommend therapy for those writers who have violent fixations on disemboweling characters, this was a case where I wished I could recommend therapy just so this person could begin the healing process they clearly need.

But at the end of the day, my job is to say what's good and what's bad. And this was bad. Very, very bad. Unfortunately, that's not too unusual with the "Therapy scripts" I've seen.

I'm sure there are plenty of good scripts that have been inspired by a writer's bad relationships and emotional hardships. Look at Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which Jason Segel says was inspired by a bad breakup he had - and if you listen to the commentary track you get the feeling that both the writing of the script and the recording of the commentary were extended therapy sessions for him. Consider how songwriters like Alanis Morissette have built careers writing about their bad break-ups and horrible lovers. There are always great stories to be found in personal events.

But at the end of the day, even though it's a story from your life, it still has to work as a movie. There needs to be structure, and you need to be able to develop the "you" character objectively. Bad therapy scripts usually present the protagonist as the victim of a cruel and indifferent world that's against them. "Why does all this happen to me?" the character whines. Nothing is ever their fault - stuff just happens to them. They're a victim of circumstance. That sort of rage against the world might be enough fodder for a three-minute song, but the pity party gets old after ten pages.

If you need to write these stories just as a way of dealing with whatever trauma is bothering you, that's fine and good. Indulge your creativity - but think long and hard before sending that baby out in the world. Taking criticism is hard enough when the story is just something you made up - it's excruciating when those notes are taking aim at real events you lived through and the character who is acting as your avatar in the script. Basically, don't send that script out while you have an emotional attachment to it.

Another thing to be aware of - when I started reading scripts in late 2002, there were a ton of 9/11 scripts in the slush pile. Over the next few years I read a lot of stories that were set in New York on September 11th. I'm sure that happens with every national tragedy, and unfortunately, few of these scripts had a truly interesting take on the incident. Most of the time, the story was about an average Joe who was in the wrong place at the wrong time on that day and had their life imperiled five or six times. Unfortunately, most of those writers usually skimped on making their protagonist all that interesting and merely used them as a chess piece to move across the game board that was the historical events.

I often thought that those writers were missing a real emotional connection to the material - that the key to making an interesting script that wasn't a rehash of the news of the day would have been to get a writer who lived through it. Having read a script from a writer who was just on the periphery of a national tragedy, I've had to rethink that somewhat.

Therapy writing might be good for you, but such a script would not be the first one I'd send out to that Hollywood contact you have - especially if you haven't had a few dispassionate readers vet it first.

Script Frenzy starts April 1st

I know a lot of you came over here from Script Frenzy but for those who didn't be aware that you only have a few days left to sign up. The Script Frenzy Challenge is to write 100 pages in the 30 days of April, so if you've been looking for a deadline to motivate you or just need some healthy competition to get you going, this is the project for you.

Full details here.

Friday Free-For-All: Kevin Smith and Superman

I've been meaning to post this for a while. This is a clip from Kevin Smith's lecture DVD "An Evening with Kevin Smith" where he discusses his work on Superman Lives. This is the Superman project that Warners spent about ten years working on before Bryan Singer came into the picture with Superman Returns.

This is somewhat legendary for Smith's anecdotes about producer Jon Peters. Many of you have probably seen this before, but if you haven't, I won't spoil the punchline for you.

TV specs and adaptations

Today, I'm answering the first questions that were sent to me via the Facebook Fan Page. Feel free to hit me up there with more questions you'd like to see in future blog posts. Ingrid recently sent in two questions:

In order to eventually get TV comedy writing gigs, it is recommended that newbie writers knock up a few specs of currently popular shows. I notice a lot of people put their specs on blogs, websites, etc., for the world (or bored 2am Internet-trawlers) to read.

But what if the producers of the show saw the script? Would there be copyright issues? And what if they liked the script? Would they decide not to option/purchase it because it had been made public online, and therefore the plots and twist are no longer secret?

First, let me just say I don't deal with a lot of TV specs, so if someone with more experience in that world give an answer that conflicts with what I'm about to say, listen to them.

Here's the thing about writing a spec for TV - they're not intended to sell. Not in the way that feature specs are. They're just intended to be used as writing samples to show how well you can imitate the "voice" of another show. Thus, that 30 Rock spec you have about how Liz's new boyfriend also happens to be Tracy's illegitimate son (he's 60, remember?) isn't likely to be bought and produced as an episode of the show.

In fact, the producers of the show you spec'd absolutely would not read your spec script. What usually happens is that it would go to a show in a similar style and genre. Thus, your 30 Rock spec might find its way into the hands of the producers of Community or Modern Family. So the question "Would the fact the script was on the internet cause problems in selling it?" is moot.

TV specs aren't written to sell. They're written to show, "Hey! I can imitate another writer's voice and turn out something that sounds just like the sort of episode that would be done on this other show."

Two of the big reasons producers don't read specs for their own show:

1) Legal issues - if a later episode of the show contains a plot that happens to be the same as your spec, they don't want to give you grounds to sue them. Sometimes, writers steer clear of obvious stories for this very reason. I've heard the M*A*S*H writers say that this is why they never did an episode where Hawkeye had to operate on Trapper John, as every freelance writer who came in tried to pitch it, and they knew there had to be a ton of specs out there with that premise.

2) Those writers are going to be the people mostly likely to pick up on the slightest deviations from the character's voices. Honestly, do you want the people who live and breath Michael Scott to hold "your" Michael Scott up to that standard? You're better off with a producer who might not be so intimately familiar with the show you're writing that ever line sounds "off" to him.

In features, it's somewhat different. If you write Iron Man 3, there's only one person who CAN buy it - the people making the Iron Man movies. Since those tentpoles are always developed in-house, you're out of luck.

Question 2 -

Last year I read an amazing British YA novel and was inspired to adapt it. I contacted the author and her agent, and was offered a non-exclusive 6 month option (i.e. crap). I don't really want to spend thousands of dollars for a non-exclusive option, so is it possible to just g...o ahead and write the spec script without the option? I know for legal reasons it's wise to have it, but being a student screenwriter they didn't trust me with the option hence the poor terms (plus they wanted regular updates over the 6 months).

I still really want to do the adaptation, but by writing it and showing it to producers/agents, would that land me in a dire copyright fiasco?

If it was me, I wouldn't do it. Not without the option. If you're an unrepped writer and you don't have any credits to your name, I'm not surprised that they offered a non-exclusive option, especially if this novel is known enough that there's always a chance a "real" producer will come along and option it.

Say you spend three months of your life writing it without permission and then try to shop it around. Probably the first thing any agent will ask you once he sees "Based on _____" is: "Do you own the rights?" Once you say "no," they'll promptly decline. There's no upside for them - if they read it and love it, they can't do anything with the script - especially if in the intervening time someone else has snatched up the rights. And if they don't like it, you've wasted their time on a project that can't go anywhere.

Basically - there is NO upside to writing a feature script for a property to which you do not control the rights. You might as well be writing fan fiction.

I'll also handle the likely follow-up question: "Well, can my adaptation be a good writing sample?"

Not really. In fact, I'd argue that these days, there's no such thing as a writing sample - just scripts that can be sold and one's that can't. On top of that, your adaptation gives the reader/agent/whoever no indication of how good you are at developing, crafting and structuring your own stories. A lot of the heavy lifting was presumably done by the person who wrote the first novel.

So regrettably, my answer is that you're better off working on your own material and putting this idea on the back burner until you can buy the rights.

If you haven't become a fan of The Bitter Script Reader on Facebook, what are you waiting for?