Sooner or later you will send your script out for consideration to producers, agents, contests etc. It is important to understand how some readers perform their first round of elimination. This is often not based on how well your script is written, let alone how great the story is.
Let’s open with some fun. A clip from Steve Martin and Frank Oz’ Bowfinger. (password: “storydept”)
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Greenlit in the blink of an eye
Obviously producers don’t usually assess scripts the way Robert Downey Jr. does here. It is not realistic, but it touches at some of the criteria producers do apply and I’ll explain this in the next pages. Why not have another look at the clip and consider how exactly Renfro judges the screenplay.
Here’s what he does:
- He looks at the title on the cover page
- He starts reading the first page “It starts nice.”
- He flicks through the entire script. “All this, right.” (my favorite bit)
- He skips to the last page for the final line of dialogue. .
Readers and producers have to make snap decisions, simply because they are literally flooded with scripts. Ironically, snap decisions are very often the right ones (*).