Guido Segal, Screenwriter, Journalist, Film Critic, Instructor: That script I
remember reading it and I got very emotional about it and
that's really hard to do. It's really hard to get an emotional reaction from a script.
Film Courage: When you worked at these production companies interning, out of
the hundred screenplays, how many were awful?
Guido: I’d say about more than 90 percent are awful or no I mean I'd say more than
90 percent are bad. Maybe 40 percent are awful because you’ve got to get people credit.
Really bad scripts don't necessarily make it up the ladder because you’ve got assistants
and their job is, they're gatekeepers precisely. So what scripts are bad it
doesn't necessarily mean they're badly written, it means that they're conventional full of clichés,
maybe they stick to genre and they don't transcend it in any way. Lazy in terms of ideas but
that doesn't mean they're not potentially commercial products. I don't think that
people in charge of choosing don't have any taste or can't discern what I think is that
they're trying to find something that sells and if you check Netflix 10 most watched shows or
they're not necessarily good again I’m not trying to be the judge of what's good or bad I mean
I try to be entertained but also stimulated and I want to think and I want to feel
some people just need come back from work they hate what they do and they want to watch something
that takes their mind off it and it works sure and there are some networks that cater to that
and they have very predictable stories and outcomes and and people feel safe in watching
that that's what they want it is it is a business and and I think most of the people involved in in
show business are very smart I'm I don't think execs are like bureaucrats I think they're some
of them went to Harvard and Yale and whatever and they're really educated and smart it's just
it's a business so most of the shows big networks are gonna put up are probably easy to digest sure
I get it it's not what I watch but then again I don't represent the larger population
that's a good point so the ones that were really awful probably wouldn't have made it that far
in the process but you say 40 ish maybe were bad so then 60 were great or then there was a
gray area where some were not horrible no the percentage of great scripts is really small
so great let's say good let's say I'm generalizing let's say
between eight to ten percent of the scripts are actually good great maybe two percent okay one
percent wow it's really hard to find a great script it's really hard to write a great script
that's why cern I don't know Shonda Rhimes did Grey's Anatomy it's what it's the 14th
15th season of course then eventually she came up with other shows but she's been work she was
working on that show for many years and that was one great script that got it all started
it's really hard to replicate success some people the Simpsons right yeah sure they did Futurama and
some other attempts but the sims are the Simpsons so it's really really hard to write a great script
it's really hard to to find the people willing to take risks to produce it and
get it made queen's gambit big success what last year it took 10 years to get that made
I remember meeting the the guy who wrote Dallas Buyers
Club [screenwriters Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack] that movie took 20 years to get made
I'm not saying that's okay and I'm not saying that's the standard I'm saying you got to be ready
to know that things take a long time unless unless you want to go out there and make a really small
movie self-financed or through crowdfunding or something like that which isn't easy either
and a lot of people do it and hope that it clicks and I can I can think of the examples
where that helped what's it called A Woman [Girl] Walks Home At Night Alone yeah alone at night so
she was at ucla before I was in I remember the director's name lily [Ana Lily Amirpour] Iranian
so she went out there and made that movie and it got an audience and she has a career and
good for her yeah or Lily yes so a few examples like that but even back in the day
Sundance was like the way in and now Sundance is so commercial and so oversaturated
that if you make a movie by yourself I don't even know if you can find a spot there yeah it's
probably become a much different ballgame and then some of those movies then play other festivals and
it's kind of like all the same movies going to these festivals and it's yeah I'm I don't even
want to get into the whole sure we don't have to because as as a former film critic I know
that world very well and I have opinions about festivals but yeah we can stay away I get it no I
look I think that writing a good script takes a couple of not even months I'd say a year or
maybe two of rewrites maybe know what you want to say and then you can get it done in six months
I don't know would you read every one of those screenplays from start to finish
when I when I had to read them yeah when you're working as an intern at these products yes yes I
well first of all I had to because when you do coverage
coverage basically exists so the people above you don't have to read those scripts unless
they have to so what you're doing is you're summarizing you have to give them a log line
a synopsis maybe a short synopsis and then a longer one of the story of the whole story
and then say the pros and cons and and and choose if you're passing or considering or recommending
and of course everyone's really scared to recommend because then your taste and your
job is on the line right so you got to be re most of the times you'll say pass
and this because you really want to make sure if you recommend something it's that good
I as an intern I did take chances though and there were no consequences
but it it would happen that they would come to me and say okay
so tell me more what did you see in it I want to hear you so you got to have an opinion
and by the way this is really helpful as a writer it is but if if you want to be an exec someday or
a producer you better have opinions and you better be able to express them in an articulate way
as a writer not so much I did it I did it to learn mostly and get experience
so you were working with producers would they also then read the script from back to front or front
if you can if you suggest they consider it or even if you recommend it maybe not
themselves their assistants will I don't know necessarily but you're basically saving them time
but if you waste their time you won't be there much longer because if they have to read and
hate it and this is it's part of the business sure what if your tastes are just edgier and
you like something that's more of an art film and they're looking for a feel-good relationship
story well I would say is if you're entering a company do your research on their mandate
so if they do horror and you're and and they get for any number of reasons a romantic story with
no horror whatsoever because you never know maybe maybe the the son of someone they know wrote the
script and sent it I don't you never know how that works it's not for them it's not their mandate
unless you can ask them like hey I got the script that's really weird it's not really
your mandate do you want me to go on with it and they'll say yes please read it anyway
I see so you're going to check if something is not sort of in their wheelhouse you'll check with them
you should be yeah so Blumhouse right that's horror everyone knows that so if you have
a thriller with spies it might be a great script it's probably not and and by the way
Blumhouse doesn't spend more than three to five million per movie so you got to do your homework
they're not the right company for it maybe it's a great script and you tell them hey by the way
this is not your mandate but it's a great script okay we'll send it over to our friends somewhere
else and they owe us a favor I don't know but it makes you look good to know what their mandate is
sure sure but if you're recommending stuff that's just then they're going to sit you down and
why are you setting us up it didn't happen to me I'm just imagining
sure you got to know what your role is as well and as an intern you don't have a lot of power
how many of the screenplays that you read went on to be films less than 10 probably
some of them this is the thing some of them I knew were already gonna get made some of them you knew
you knew they were going around town so it's not like only the production company had that script
and you could tell I remember there was a script about the Kelly Gang in Australia
that movie was obviously ready to get shot it was so well I don't even know what they
they made me read it maybe because they wanted to invest
in it but it didn't feel like someone sent that inspect that was ready to go
I'm trying to remember there were amazing scripts I read that didn't get made and I'm surprised
oh which script I read and I haven't seen the movie yet the one with Michael Keaton worth
that just came out recently about the Sept 11th lawyer I read that script oh yes that was great so
I read that script in 2016. we just watched that and they just got right it got made 2020 I think
right yeah that was so between four to five years that's not that bad actually but it takes a while
so you said there were a few that were excellent that didn't get made
yeah I'm i'm trying to remember I remember an amazing script about Anne Frank and
the woman in New Work who got the book published for the first time in the 40s I think
or maybe early 50s so how the the manuscript was discarded at first and this this junior editor
woman who she wanted to become an editor the woman who discovered the book and said hey wait a minute
this is actually relevant that script I remember reading it and I got very emotional about it and
that's really hard to do it's really hard to get an emotional reaction from a script
if you can make people laugh with a script that's a lot if you can make people teary-eyed wow
that's very unique I remember that script very well because I was at work I was just I was
about to break into tears and I'm in an office I shouldn't I shouldn't be crying in public
they're going to ask me if something's wrong at home oh no it's the script it's just so good
no I have tons of respect for that writer and it was never made not that I know off but
sometimes it takes 10 years hopefully it gets made.