Two Kinds of Reading

[Hal Berlin]

There are, in my experience, two ways development execs read scripts.

The first way, the usual way, the 95% of the time way, the script feels like a chore, a horrible chore. You have a hard time figuring out who is who. You wince at the bad jokes. You try to skim. Maybe, if you're tired and naughty, you skip 10 pages. Maybe you just can't read it at all, and make up the coverage. Now, sometimes a script read like this will get passed upwards. Maybe it has a good premise. Maybe there's a juicy role. But most of the time, this script is going to get turned into scrap paper.

The second way is very rare. And when it happens, the script gets passed upwards. No matter what. Because this script makes you turn the page. It may be trashy, it may be nuanced: but you are flipping the pages. You can follow the action clearly. You know the characters. You're shocked. Stunned. Laughing. Crying. And before you know it, you're done. It reminds you of why you're working for shit for near-illiterate monkeys (producers) Because of this story.

It is your job to give the reader this kind of experience. There are other ways around him or her. This is the only surefire one. So before you start your next script, stop and ask yourself: would this story make me want to flip through the pages like a coke addict in withdrawal. If the answer is yes - the honest answer - proceed. If not, stop. Rethink the idea. Then ask yourself again. Repeat until the answer is yes.

[Seth Mead]

Hal, I think truer words have never been spoken. I just discovered this online community last night and wasted no time in registering. Your words of wisdom ring loud and clear, for myself and others like me who share the same general outlook on the craft of writing for movies and why we do it. But unfortunately, like any other art form, there are those out there who are pursuing this endeavor for all the wrong reasons; money, fame, sex, narcissism, whatever relentlessly drives their pursuits other than the artistry of it.

Music and its surrounding industry is no different, with some bands still trying to make it for the sake of spreading an original artistic thought that might mean something to somebody somewhere during a time of personal searching or even a purely escapist release. But then there are those other bands; the ones that are nothing more that the sum total of the projected image, more concerned with the color coordination of their faux-aged military coats and jumpsuits than the quality of their music.

In writing, there are those of us who realize the power of film, the potential impact of the medium and its ability to entertain and inform people, sometimes even move their subconscious into transformative ways, giving them building blocks of mythological perspective to help them put their own lives and struggles into a greater and timeless context. Connecting their individual feelings of isolation and pain with a universal sense of sameness and ultimately making all of us not feel so alone when we’re sitting in the dark having a shared experience with strangers and loved ones around us.

I’m sure that as execs plow through countless piles of garbage and see a vastly higher percentage of the meaningless drivel than quality original work, it becomes easy to grow jaded. But once in a while, when somebody actually has something to say, all the insincere assholes who have insistently pounded on studio doors full of false confidence have already burnt that bridge before we’ve ever arrived. But somebody better take a chance on something original sooner than later, because I swear to god, if Transformers 7 comes out and grosses a billion dollars in its opening weekend that starts on a Monday, the Earth might just fold in itself and blink out of existence in an act of sentient protest.