Film Courage: What makes 99 of screenplays unreadable?
Jim Agnew, Screenwriter: I think it might be the story.
It depends.
Probably every one is there's a different problem with them but they all have problems
because I've seen a lot of these but what you need to think about too is the reader
they don't think about who's reading it and the person reading it if they're professional
has a stack of scripts you know sky-high in their office so you need to understand like
if you don't grab the person the first two three pages you know and you hear this all
the time but sometimes you even need to like have something happen that might not happen
like that in the film like you know is there a scene you know on page 23 that's super exciting
okay why not put that two or three pages of our section of it at the very beginning and
then create a flashback or do something so that the it's exciting and really reads like
a professional script at the very beginning and that's the other thing it has to read
like a professional script which means the dialogue has to be well executed it has to
move it has to have beats you don't want to get bogged down in minutia you don't want
to you know do exposition you have to show don't tell but the thing is it's not hard
to get copies of screenplays nowadays because the internet has everything so there's a movie
like your movie see how they did it you know but you have to really grab people right away
it has to be you know professional all the way through but if it's not professional first
five pages they're just gonna you know be like what is this you know and you're asking
someone you know to take an hour two hours out of their life to read your script so it
better be perfect you know and you better really do your work or else you're wasting
people's time is that when a script consultant might be helpful because let's suppose everyone
you know is going to just tell you it's great and they've never met written a movie before
yeah a script consultant could be helpful there's some things you just intuitively either
are going to figure out or you're not but you know you can you can get a script consultant
to take you maybe to the next level or show you things you're doing wrong like I said
my view on that is is they're good as long as you don't spend a lot of money because
I've had people come to me asking me to fix a script or saying hey can you do this I spent
fifty thousand dollars on this script I paid somebody to go to write it and they're like
somebody's never written a script so you have to be very careful that you don't you know
lose your ass financially so but you know it could help you know there's so many classes
out there there's so many things but I just always go back to watch movies they're there
they show you how to do it it's already been done for you you know and just figure out
how your story fits into that formula and just kind of like find those beats but that's
why I think why 99 of scripts are just they're not ready and they're not at a professional
level you know if you get there it takes a lot of work to get it there and do you think
that people gave up too soon on some of those unreadable scripts or that there's just no
way to sort of it's just lipstick on a pig you can't really fix it yeah probably probably
both but I think a lot of it's just not doing the work you know you just it's not some magic
thing you know I think people have this you know you know they envision you know smoking
cigarettes writing in the middle of the night you know like it's glamorous it's not glamorous
it's like if you really want to get good at the people who make a living in it are people
who just you know stick to it you know grind it out rewrite it rewrite it rewrite the other
day I found there was a project I found like let's clean out my computer I found like 40
drafts of the script you know it's like that's a lot of drafts so you know and that's what
you have to do is really grind it and work on it and make sure you know you get the professional
level and like I said you can find all these scripts online you know if it's anything that's
similar you can find it if you you know you want to do a movie about a guy in a food truck
you know John Favreau did (Chef movie) watch that you know you know by the way he's one
of the best that like beats in a film watch his films they all have the same rhythm and
the same beats it's there yeah I love Chef that was great yeah so you saved each draft
of that screenplay you did it for you you had 40 drafts and you saved each one this
is you know just date them now because there's so many on so many things so yeah what's the
purpose of saving each draft of a revision just to kind of keep track you know I mean
probably not really anything you know that has to do with screenwriting just that's my
process it's just easier to kind of like you know I also back everything up on email and
things like that and another backup but but you know you never know when you need it or
go back to something that like you took out so I sometimes get a little crazy to start
cutting stuff out too I can I can like just chop chop chop and then sometimes I chop too
much so I'll be like oh wait that was good what was that one scene where the guy couldn't
aim the gun because he was shaking I cut that out so I'll go back to older version and find
it just cut and paste it back in what really irritates you about reading other screenplays
what irritates me is just when people haven't done got it to where it should be at a level
of reading you know where they send you something and they go oh don't read that wait I got
this one or I changed that or you or do you read it you talk to them they're like oh I
changed that it's like well that means you know there was that famous Josh Olson article
[Deadline - 2009] which you can find online about reading people's scripts which you know
it's like if it's not ready to be read don't send it to me because it's like like josh
had mentioned it's like asking somebody come over to your house and paint for two hours
you know you're taking up two hours of somebody's time you know so don't give it to them to
read until it's like perfect and there you know and if you want my notes and I give you
some notes don't be defensive about it either that's the most irritating thing it's like
don't say I want I want your opinion and then you give somebody opinion or you say you need
to fix this okay great thanks and they're they have an attitude about it it's like you
know why'd you have me read it just tell you it's great is it okay to question why you
gave a certain note is that yeah oh yeah definitely definitely yeah oh yeah of course and and
you know what do I know as much as I know I don't know anything so it's like you know
sometimes my notes might not even be valid it's just this is what I think you know but
sometimes people don't even want to hear that they just want they just want you to tell
them it's great did you ever catch that in yourself and really work on that it sounds
like you're okay with with negative feedback it gets easier you know so I mean it all kind
of depends on who it comes from too it's like you know I mean if if somebody reads a script
of mine that's like never written a script and they were like I don't like this and that
I mean probably my knee jerk reaction like what do you know but if it's a producer somebody
who I respect and who's done a lot of work then I listen to him but it does get easier
to take the negative feedback and like like I said before it's about interpreting notes
too sometimes people can't explain why they don't like something and you have to figure
that out would you say that 99 of what Hollywood makes is garbage no there's some garbage but
no I think I think most films I mean most films get started with very good intentions
and look I've made a few movies that I'm not happy with either but the process is not a
singular process you have to deal with producers actors you know money guys distributors like
even the Nic Cage movie that I wrote it wasn't called rage the distributor called it Rage
you know it's like really Rage okay nobody's gonna make fun of Rage in the Cage you know
but I had no control over that so it you lose so much control in the process that you know
it takes a very very strong director like somebody like Quentin Tarantino who can say
no to everybody and filter out the bad that comes along you know that's you know you're
making you're doing art by committee so that's why sometimes things they have great intentions
maybe it was a great script maybe the actor was amazing but things got messed up along
the way because there's so many people's hands on the editor you know the composer the director
there's the screenwriter the producer who shows up on set and wants to put a motorcycle
chase in the middle of the movie that makes no sense and then you find out later it's
because he can get a free BMW motorcycle if we put him in the movie things like that happen
so you know that's why sometimes movies don't work out but I think most screenwriters and
directors almost all of them have the intention to make a great movies just things get in
the way or lack of money or resources so if someone's at a certain level then there's
so much more creative control because they can basically say no to people you need that
like one per that's why score says you can make but you need a strong director or writer
director who can like no one's going to question that because then it at least keeps everything
focused there's very few of those people you know but like I think Paul Thomas Anderson
I don't think any producers are going to show up or money guys and tell them what to do
you know so it's or Quentin Tarantino or Christopher Nolan that's why they can make really great
films because the white noise that's going on around them they can just stop you know
or just ignore it or people just scared even you know mess with them because people want
to get their ideas into film too you'll have you know money guys who you've never even
met who gave some money on a film show up and like give an idea and then other ones
are great and actually have good ideas so you know there's just so many people that
are involved in a film that it's hard sometimes to keep it focused so I think that's the problem
with things that sometimes because there's a lot of moves on Netflix you know look like
they had good intentions and like I said I've i've worked on a few that like start off over
here and ended up over there you know it happens.
Question For The Viewers: What percentage of the screenplays you read would you say
are unreadable?