Screenplay Critiques

I occasionally do screenplay critiques, but I charge quite a bit. I also recommend my veteran development exec friend Victoria Lucas. She charges a lot less, and she's quite good.

I want to add one more name to the mix. Tommy Gushue is a young guy who gives really excellent notes, and he charges $150 for a feature. You would not know it to look at his credits, but when I've asked him to read my own stuff, he's repeatedly put his finger on structural issues that I hadn't noticed. Someone should hire him as their development guy, but in the mean time his services on the open market. He will also put his voluminous knowledge of TV at your disposal.

So if you need script analysis, but you don't have a lot of money to spend, go see Tommy G. He can save you quite a lot of time and frustration, and help you bring your material to another level.

Time Well Wasted

Seven Terrible Early Versions of Great Movies. On the CRACKED.COM website. You are warned.

Here's a Bad Example of Coverage

This example of screenplay coverage wound up on Digg, and I have to say, it is not what professional coverage looks like.

When I was doing coverage back in the day, the only categories that got checkboxes were: CONCEPT, STORY, CHARACTERS, DIALOG, PACING, STRUCTURE & LOGIC.

These days if I were doing coverage I would probably boil that down to HOOK, STORY, CHARACTERS and DIALOG.

Note how the coverage dissects the story in detail; mostly, it seems, to show off how smart the reader is. They might be useful feedback for a rewrite, though my own personal approach to giving notes has more to do with strengthening the structure of the story -- increasing jeopardy/stakes, strengthening the obstacles/antagonist, making the hero more compelling, giving him more of a problem.

If I were commissioning coverage, all I want to know is: does this have a great hook? If it does, is the story well told & are all the elements of a great story there? Are the characters compelling and fresh? Is the dialog yummy?

I only need these categories because they relate to how much work a rewriter would need to do. If there's no hook, the project is dead. If there's a hook but the story is weak, I can conceivably bring in a writer for a page-one rewrite, but it's going to be a lot of work. (I've done enough page-one rewrites, Lord knows.) If the story is good but the characters are weak, that's a lighter rewrite. If the characters are well defined but the dialog could be punched up and the characters thereby rounded out, then that's just a polish.

The coverage on the Triggerstreet site relates to how well written the script is. Producers don't really care about that in the abstract. They need to know whether the script is worth optioning; agents need to know if they will be able to sell that puppy. A badly written script with a great hook is worth something. I've optioned those. A well written script without a hook is almost useless unless you, the producer, have direct access to bankable elements.

I'm Critiquing Scripts Again, For Now

I'm waiting on answers on a couple of projects, and that's driving me crazy. So I am temporarily opening up my script-reading service again. If you'd like my feedback on your script, outline, or even just your query letter or hook, check it out..

It's expensive, but I have never had an unsatisfied customer.

TV Writing Consultants

Y'all have been asking me for recommendations for a TV writing consultant, since Victoria Lucas only does features. I just noticed that my friend Sara Dodd is coaching and consulting for TV writers at The Story Spot. Sarah is an accomplished pro TV writer with a deep credit list. Their prices are quite reasonable for professional advice; they give a lot of it for a few hundred bucks. Compared to what Sarah gets paid as a story consultant in the business, that's a ridiculous bargain.

Oh, and they're running a sale right now. So look'em up and tell'em Alex sent ya!

Joel Haber's Script Sale

FYI, friend of the blog Joel Haber, a professional studio script reader (and blogger!), is running a 10% sale on his script analyses...

A great script analyst can take your script up quite a bit -- and if you take all the feedback very much to heart, can take your screenwriting chops up a couple of notches too. Just make sure you make clear to your analyst that you don't want to hear how wonderful and promising you are as a writer, you want the real notes. One of the key skills any good writer develops is the ability to really hear criticism. Good writers get depressed over negative coverage too, but they listen, absorb, and after moping a bit, get cracking on the rewrite.

Don't hire an analyst with the hope that they're going to sell your script for you. That's not their job. Their job is to tell you what needs fixing. But it is probably true that if your script is really commercial, any serious script reader -- one hooked into showbiz -- will know a few places to send it.

Victoria Lucas: A Script Analyst I Can Recommend

I used to critique scripts for a fee, but ever since I got too busy, I've been sending people to my friend Victoria Lucas. She's a development exec I worked with back in my indie production days.

Now she's hanging out her shingle on the Internet.

Victoria is one of the extremely rare development people who can tell you what's broken in your script. Most readers will give you notes like "I wanna like the main character more" or "the scene on page 60 drags." She will tell you, "your main character needs a more compelling opportunity, problem or goal so that we'll care about him," or "you haven't properly set up the stakes on page 23, so your scene on page 60 drags."

Victoria is currently grossly undercharging for her services ($185 for 3-4 pages of notes and a telephone call, $350 for longer notes and more follow-up), so take advantage of her before she wises up and charges what she's worth.