Film Courage: What's the difference between a script analyst,
a script consultant and a script doctor?
Cody Smart, Writer/Script Doctor/Teacher: I love that question because it always comes up
and people tend to get confused with the three but I always say it goes in stages. Script
analyst you graduate to script consultant and then you graduate to script doctor. The script
analyst will be the way you would start in the business if this is what you want to do you want
to work in development or something like that well maybe even before that you would be an intern or
something just like reading scripts providing coverage a lot of times unpaid for different
agencies or things like that and that's when you start polishing and honing your skills reading
but after that you would start maybe hopefully getting paid to read those scripts and that's what
would make you a script analyst that's the way I got started in the business I started
interning and then I got promoted to script analysts and I would just read hundreds of
scripts a year and provide like simple coverage to producers or agents whoever you're working
for because obviously they can't read all of the scripts that come to their desk right so
you would read their scripts then give like overall notes whether this is working or not
what could be improved if there's the seed of an idea there because sometimes you're
also looking for that and then they might hire another writer to improve the script
so you're trying to look for different things like that depending on who you're working for
and then once you've been working on it for a while and then you realize oh I'm actually
good at this like I can give notes and I can start working maybe in that path then you could graduate
to script consultant as I would call it and then you'd start giving more in-depth notes so for
example I like to call it like in death notes more than just script analysis at that stage
when you're a script consultant because you're not just giving like the overall notes you're
not just analyzing if a script is working or not maybe here and there but you're going deeper so
I always say that you should provide development notes and Page notes which are equally important
to me development notes is where you're analyzing all aspects of the script right like the structure
the dialogue the characters how the arcs are working the turning points everything and then
page notes are equally important because they're things that you're noticing literally on the
page and you start marking down maybe something that doesn't track or something that contradicts
something that you said or something that you missed or a character that just happens to appear
and it wasn't set up or something like that so those two things kind of complement each other
and the script consultant depending on who they're working for right sometimes they're working for a
producer or sometimes they're working directly with the writer they would provide those notes
and then the writer would implement the notes hopefully in the script if the library if they
agree with them or something obviously it's never just like apply that exact no note I always give
suggestions as I call it because I think that it's the node behind the node a lot of times and
I'm never trying to tell my story when I give notes like that it's the way to elevate The
Writer's story and I'd like impose my thoughts and then after you've been working as a script
consultant for a while then I say you graduate to scriptdoctor which is a step further there
where you also implement the notes that you're suggesting and it goes a little further than that
because you work with the writer or the producer whoever is hiring you to do it to find the best
way to continue telling that story and remaining true to the essence of what the story is and
elevating maybe sometimes it's just one area maybe it's a dialogue pass or maybe is the protagonist
Arc that is just not clear enough or something like that so you're working on polishing that
but I always say that for example I provide the notes like the development notes the page notes
but then I like to have a one-on-one conversation with whoever I'm working so we can agree on a
course of action because again I don't like to say like oh this is my story now and I'm gonna tell it
a certain way I like to stay true to the story the person is trying to tell so I like to find
point where we come together before I even touched the script and start making those changes that I
suggested before because obviously it's their story right it's not like I'm being hired as a
writer which is the difference from a script doctor I'm not getting that writing credit
right a script doctor comes in and they don't do a full rewrite that just gives
you that that writing credit you kind of remain anonymous right as a ghost writer so you need
to be talking to your client and analyzing what they want and that's what you're trying to tell
and so for a first-time writer who's new at this has never hired an editor for a book or
anything what should they be looking for a script doctor consultant and anything in in the notes of
who they are maybe for new writers I like that question well it's always hard I feel because
writers are looking out there and there's a million Services right you're starting to
Google like oh who could read my script and you find so so many resources out there and a lot
of writers obviously first start with their peers which is it's good it's with hopefully
other writers not just your friend who doesn't really know how to read your script but you start
getting notes like that but once you're serious about it you've written a couple of drafts and
you really want to take it to the next level I say that a script consultant is what you want
and I always like to say that I prefer people go to script consultant with a name and not
just sending it to to maybe a service that just sends your script to an anonymous person in the
sense that who's reading it they have credits they have a background they have the experience
obviously sometimes in contests you get the free feedback and that's great but if you're really
paying just for the feedback I think that you want to know that the person who's reading it
it's someone with credentials and not maybe just the intern that's interning for the contest I'm
not diminishing the notes that they can give they can be great notes but obviously you also
get what you pay for so if you're going with a script consultant I like to look for a name I
myself when I write I also send my work out there I work mostly these days as a script consultant
or doctor but when I do some writing I do like to send it out because you're always too close
obviously to your own material to see and getting those notes is always incredibly beneficial.