Script Study

A writer, who acknowledged their formatting was wrong, asked for my analysis of their script. As formatting is such an important element in screenwriting, let’s see how far into this script we get…

(It seemed the writer started each new scene on a brand new page. If that’s their process when dealing with rewrites, fine, but still, even if the blank spaces were edited out, 277-pages is a hellava long script. That's an early indication of overwriting, but let's see if that's really the case.)

And here are my thoughts:

Overall, it's hard to give the plot a fair chance as the over-description and lacklustre prose gets in the way. That doesn't mean that the writer should abandon their efforts - far from it - it simply means more rewrites, finessing the description to be more enjoyable, and paying more attention to what we can see on screen. It's a very early draft, so there were always going to be plenty of flaws.

If you’d like Instagram line notes on your script, send it in PDF form to scriptreaderscheatsheet@gmail.com. There’s no guarantee that your script will be used, as I only pick ones with something worth talking about, and by sending your script in, you’re giving express permission for excerpts to be posted publicly. The writer's name will be kept private unless stated otherwise by the writer themselves.