ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

10 years, 1 month ago - Peter Spencer

I love that 'M' implies a reader earning the kingly sum of £15k a year for wading through hundreds of crappy scripts is somehow outrageous. How dare they? I expect 'M' makes it a point to always work for free. Sigh. I'm done!

10 years, 1 month ago - Lee 'Wozy' Warren

Peter Spencer is very right in what he says. You may be alone while you write, but once you're ready for the re-write, then it tends to become a team effort. I have a process. I have strategies that I use when working on a script. And a reader is just one of a number of elements in my process/strategy. You have to find yours, or listen to how others do it, try it yourself and keep what works for you. There is no one shoe that fits all.

It is a very rare talent that can pick up the pen and write a script, sell it and become famous without the help of others. Personally I have never met anyone who has down that, but you hear stories....

Good luck.

Wozy

10 years, 1 month ago - Azeem Khan

Please send me the script.
hotdirectorazeem@gmail.com
Best,
Abdul Azeem Khan

10 years, 1 month ago - Peter Spencer

Why don't you just hire professional readers?

10 years, 1 month ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Peter, on reading Marlom's post again, I don't think he's being at all down on readers having to wage through so many scripts for so little. It's a tough job.

10 years, 1 month ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Take Wozy up on his generous offer! A proper 'reading' of a script (ie where you start to think about storylines and characters and what works and what doesn't and how to solve it and what scenes are expensive and which cheap... Etc even before wiring feedback) is never under 4 hours work for me!

10 years, 1 month ago - Peter Spencer

Hah! I have to laugh.... because when you send your script to an agent they give it to a reader to see if it's worth the agent's time, when you send it to a production company it goes to a reader first... Say your agent has a chance to get your script close to Spielberg guess what? It goes to a reader first. If you send it to BBC Writers room it goes to a reader.... You enter it for the Red Planet Prize? They hire the very readers you are being scornful about. Is there a pattern here? I also laugh when I see screenwriters - who hope to get paid - don't want to pay for anything. Every script I write - I hire someone to tear it down for me so I can see what works and what doesn't. So I can make it better. That's part of my process. You all will all have your processes and good luck to you. I don't know Wozzy. But I do know that readers - good ones - read thousands of scripts and they see the same basic errors writers make in stories over and over again. So they are a quick way to discover what's wrong with your script.

10 years, 1 month ago - Gary O'Dwyer

I know it's a big ask as everyone is so busy so thank you all for your responses. I suppose in not employing a reader as a first step I'm thinking that i may discover potential collaborators from amongst you the shooting people community. I will be in touch.

10 years, 1 month ago - Ryan Laccohee

Hi,

You could try sending it to my friend Emily Corcoran. Don't forget to mention me!

http://www.corkfilms.co.uk

10 years, 1 month ago - Marlom Tander

My point, clearly poorly made, is that readers are great, but go to specific ones that you have assessed as relevant to you. And pay them properly for their time. And if you're doing it seriously enough to listen to the comments you don't like, (and these are the only ones that offer you the chance to improve your script), you do want multiple opinions, because if they raise the same issues, you need to pay attention.

Would I send a script of mine to someone I trusted because they had the right background? Yes. Would I send it to some budget service that will punt it out to some random reader who clearly has limited time. No.

10 years, 1 month ago - Brendan O'Neill

Dom Carver is a good self employed reader who has given me good notes in the past. Still time to catch his 1/2 price June offer!

www.thescriptwriter.co.uk

10 years, 1 month ago - Marlom Tander

Professional readers. Hmmm. To read a feature script carefully, think about it, pin point the problems at line level and write it up really is a days work. Half a day if you're a genius.

A lot of the reading services charge rates that imply that either your script get's no more than a very rushed assessment, or that the readers are working for peanuts and can't get better paid work.

Say a service wants 80 to read a script, and the service keeps 20 and pays the reader 60. If the reader invests a day in your script and reads a script every weekday, they are on 15K a year.

If it's an individual person with a track record and they want 120-150, they keep it all, and I'll give that for them it's about 5 hours work. That's a reader I'd pay. But even then I'd want to find 3-4 of them because what matters would be "do several readers raise the same issues".

So, take up Wozy's offer :-)

10 years, 1 month ago - Chris Bairstow

Send it to a reader / producer who is experienced in the genre of script you have written. As an expert in that particular genre they will have far more relevant feedback on what will work and how to push the genre further.

All scripts are genre based, even a "non genre "script is a genre.

10 years, 1 month ago - Ben Rider

I've done some script reading and notation before. Happy to help. Tend to just charge about £50 for a feature. PM if of interest. Currently shooting third feature, so might take a day or two to respond... But will have it done by the end of the week. B

10 years, 1 month ago - Lee 'Wozy' Warren

PM me - happy to take a look.

Wozy