What to do about a horrible horrible read from an assistant?

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  • #31
    Re: What to do about a horrible horrible read from an assistant?

    Originally posted by absolutepower View Post
    The biggest problem -- and this is coming from someone who works currently as an assistant -- is that the screenwriting industry has become commercialized. Anyone can open up a Final Draft file and just... well... start. It's almost scary because the amount of submissions I receive daily is extraordinary. To be honest, I'll only look a the scripts that have a logline that I really like. In between phones, scheduling, and dealing with my four different interns whose names I can't remember, I read the first ten, some of the next five, and usually the writing is so terrible I click that little... well... x.

    This might seem scary, but in the time that I've worked for my current company (five months), I've read two decent screenplays. That's it. Stunning.
    Isn't that what Michael said to Elliot in E.T. when he was teasing him "I give you absolute power.."
    • Go and do likewise gents..

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    • #32
      Re: What to do about a horrible horrible read from an assistant?

      Originally posted by grumpywriter View Post
      Look at it this way, mixj, if you feel/know deep down in your heart that the reader was totally off, then it's a lesson in learning how to shrug things off. If you feel/know deep down that the reader was at least partially right, then it's a lesson in learning to be more objective with your own material. Either way, it's a good thing.
      I'll second that.

      Can I also say I've noticed a trend? I don't think I've seen a post yet where someone's said "I got extremely high praise from a reader! Something must be wrong! I need to get to the bottom of this!"

      So, I'd like to reverse that trend.

      I paid a coverage service for three reads. One of them praised my characters and dialogue up and down- best thing since fire, the wheel and sliced bread.* But, for the one character that was especially beloved, the reader had written the wrong name.

      It stopped me right away. I couldn't see the praise! All I could see was CARL. CARL? His name is not CARL! There is no CARL! (In my best "there are four lights" shouty monotone). Was he not memorable enough? Did I not introduce him properly?

      Instead of "gee- I thought I was really struggling with characters and dialogue, and I keep hearing that I'm nailing it**", I could only see CARL.

      When I took my pen and highlighter to the comment pages the first time (I like printing things. Sorry, trees.), I just read. I marked and highlighted nothing, except I properly marked up the incorrect name. And I felt a little better.

      I went back a bunch more times. Made notes on their notes. Added suggestions to their suggestions. Corrected their errors. I even learned from their mistakes.

      CARL still bugged me. But every time I got even a little more insight, it bugged me a little less. They got some stuff wrong, but it was up to me to get it right.


      *I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea.
      **See for yourself- https://blcklst.com/members/script/5771

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      • #33
        Re: What to do about a horrible horrible read from an assistant?

        Originally posted by mixj View Post
        The problem is the person suggested I change the genre of the script... and got the gender of my protagonist wrong, and other details wrong, revealing a very cursory, terrible reading of the script.
        Imagine writing something that you really liked, but then someone else thought that the concept would be excellent... if only it was a thriller instead of a comedy.

        It's an opinion. It has nothing to do with Star Wars, life, or maybe even your talent. I've written stuff before and then wondered if I should take out the humour and make it darker/vice versa, or lose a character completely... which would again, drastically alter the script.

        Salt, apparently, began life with the lead being male.
        I've seen the film (wasn't particularly taken by it, but that's another matter), and can't imagine Evelyn Salt as being a bloke.

        Some suggestions breath new life into projects, advance them, elevate them from the sludge pile... whereas others are plain daft (giant spiders, anyone?).

        At the end of the day, you felt offended by the notes, yet failed to realise that you were lucky to even receive them - hell, to even get a reply! 99% of the time, even when a producer has offered to read a script, we'll never hear from them again.

        Don't bitch; knuckle down, move on. Good luck.
        Cufk, Tish, Sips.

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        • #34
          Re: What to do about a horrible horrible read from an assistant?

          Originally posted by absolutepower View Post
          The biggest problem -- and this is coming from someone who works currently as an assistant -- is that the screenwriting industry has become commercialized. Anyone can open up a Final Draft file and just... well... start. It's almost scary because the amount of submissions I receive daily is extraordinary. To be honest, I'll only look a the scripts that have a logline that I really like. In between phones, scheduling, and dealing with my four different interns whose names I can't remember, I read the first ten, some of the next five, and usually the writing is so terrible I click that little... well... x.

          This might seem scary, but in the time that I've worked for my current company (five months), I've read two decent screenplays. That's it. Stunning.
          My brother in law worked as an assistant at CAA for about 3 years, he told me that in all that time he only read 1 script that was a recommend that wasn't referred --and that one became an Adam Sandler movie. But, otherwise, he said 98% were bad.

          By the way, the referred scripts didn't get a very high recommend rate either, but they were generally over the minimum quality threshold.
          Last edited by mikejc; 03-18-2013, 10:45 AM.

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