Do your friends ever read your screenplays?

john threat

john threat

Carbonite Member
How do you get feedback on your screenplays?

Friends?
Family?
Online communities?
Business partners?

I don't have any of those things, oh except Internet at a cafe. I have a friend or two, but they aren't in film usually so they never read it fully. I get that, no hard feelings.

So how do you get feedback? Pay a script service? Beg friends? Leave it laying on a cafe table and watch from a corner if someone reads it?
 
I've gotten some great feedback from so-called peer-to-peer review sites like zoetrope.com. And also some frustratingly useless drivel, but the good stuff made it well worth it to me. What you do is sign up, read and review four other scripts (features and shorts are handled separately), then you're permitted to upload a script of your own, which you will likely receive four or more reviews of (although no exact number is guaranteed, and it could be only a couple). I think it's a very useful system, especially for someone who is as 'critic-deprived' as you say you are.

For myself, yes, also friends and family, as well as a few trusted/experienced ones, one in particular, who I know will tell me the truth about how she feels about it, no matter how pleasant or unpleasant it may be for me to hear it. And she's very, very smart in her analyses, so value her input particularly highly.
 
People ask what are the benefits of going to a film school, or living in Los Angeles, and one of them is that you will have friends in the film industry you can trust that will give a knowledgeable, honest critique of your work. I have several people I give scripts to, of differing tastes, whose opinions I respect. Even so, it's still difficult to get them to read stuff in a timely manner. I have one script that's been out to a couple friends for a month now. They warned me they were busy though. Still, I make it a point to take no longer than a week to get back when someone asks for a script read, as I know how excruciating waiting for feedback can be...One bit of advice, don't give it to your spouse or girl/boyfriend if you value that relationship. They won't give you an honest opinion anyway, and if they do, well, egos can be fragile.
 
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john threat said:
How do you get feedback on your screenplays?

Friends?
Family?
Online communities?
Business partners?
Click to expand...

The last time I let a 'friend' review my work, she gave me such a scathing review, that I had to marry her in revenge...

It is far better to get reviews from perfect strangers, learned in the 'arts' or not, than get a review from friends, or especially, 'family'...

That way if you mutually have 'creative differences' you can go your separate ways...
 
In Los Angeles, though people are very nice, I've found most will try and take advantage of your talents. The last 'friend' I made was preparing to film his first feature off of a script he managed to fanagle his roommate into writing. He knew I had gone to school for Theatre, Computer Animation, and Motion Picture Production and had taken six different playwriting/screenwriting courses as a result, and that I went on to become a professional reader. So he comes over with this thing and asks me to read it and give him notes that he can pass back to his screenwriter so that he'll seem like he knows what he's talking about. Kinda crappy, but OK, I'll help a 'friend' out. He puts me on a &%$#ing three day schedule to get back to him. WTF?! So, I then ask him about his visual strategy and explain to him that shots and camera movements aren't arbitrary. His mind blown, he asks me to devise a visual strategy from the script so he can take it to his cinematographer and not look like an idiot. Suffice to say I don't talk to him anymore. The screenplay was awful, BTW. Most screenplays I've read from friends and strangers in this town are awful. It's frustrating at times; just when you think you've read the worst thing ever, something that blows the rest away in terms of awfulness falls in your lap.

So yeah, call me jaded, but I tend not to read scripts from friends anymore.
 
I refuse to read scripts period without some kind of monetary compensation for almost exactly the same reasons.
 
vcassel said:
BTW. Most screenplays I've read from friends and strangers in this town are awful. It's frustrating at times; just when you think you've read the worst thing ever, something that blows the rest away in terms of awfulness falls in your lap.

So yeah, call me jaded, but I tend not to read scripts from friends anymore.
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I've been responding to a few 'craigslist' ads for unpaid camerawork, to boost my level of activity, and several that I've asked to see the script, have resulted in me saying 'thanks but this is something I don't want to work on', whether they liked my meager moving picture short films or not... The last one was about 40-50 pages of almost all 'dialog' and mostly in a moving car... when I mentioned this, the response was, 'I'm thinking about adding more to fill out to 90 pages'...

I really am coming to the conclusion that I just need to film my own scripts, for 'better or worse'... but at least I won't have anyone else to blame...
 
"Reviews" from friends certainly need to be taken with a huge grain of salt, but they can be useful. In Stephen King's book "On Writing" he mentions the idea of having one primary 'trusted personal reader' which in his case happens to be his wife Tabitha, who is also a very accomplished writer. I like this idea - someone who will (presumably) tell you the truth, is highly knowledgeable and is *responsible* (versus casual/reckless) in their expression of it. The woman I mentioned in an earlier post is someone who I hope turns out to be this for me. She's already read two scripts of mine; the first of which she basically tore to shreds, which frankly took a while for me to get over. Once I did though, which happened in large part because I realized she was pretty much right about everything, I showed her another. In the intervening time I'd gone back to the drawing board in terms of my approach, consumed many servings of humble pie, read more, thought more, re-analyzed my past efforts etc. When I showed her a new script she was highly impressed, and commented that I'd "come a long way". Only one opinion there of course (although some other knowledgeable folks commented very favorably), but nonetheless...whew...

I should mention that she's a successful (though currently semi-retired) actress who has been intimately involved in story/script development on many of the projects she's participated in.

She's now read a rough treatment of my latest effort and is ready to weigh in on it as soon as we can make time. Keeping my fingers crossed : )

Point being that if you can find a highly trusted primary reader, you can get a lot of value from that. Along with all the rest...
 
Oh and lest I forget (if it's not too obvious, particularly to some), IMHO, quality writing (story/script) is basically *the ball game*. The sine-qua-non of filmmaking. If you've got it, you have something. If you don't...you don't...
 
Ted Spencer said:
I should mention that she's a successful (though currently semi-retired) actress who has been intimately involved in story/script development on many of the projects she's participated in.

She's now read a rough treatment of my latest effort and is ready to weigh in on it as soon as we can make time. Keeping my fingers crossed : )

Point being that if you can find a highly trusted primary reader, you can get a lot of value from that. Along with all the rest...
Click to expand...

There was Alma Reville... and Wiki has this to say about her:
....
Cinema was the couple’s passion. A talented editor, Alma worked on British films with directors like Berthold Viertel and Maurice Elvey, though her main focus was her husband’s work. She was particularly good at revising dialogue and spotting inconsistencies in his plots.
......

Who was her husband? Alfred Hitchcock...
 
Shucks fellas. I don't have a wife or s girlfriend!

Do I need need one of those to become a director or screenwriter?
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
I really am coming to the conclusion that I just need to film my own scripts, for 'better or worse'... but at least I won't have anyone else to blame...
Click to expand...

Writing really is the hardest part. Or, to connect this to another thread, you could try storyboarding your ideas first to discover your story. It was compulsory for me to read The Illusion of Life in college (Computer Animation), and I remember reading that that's the route Disney started to take during The Golden Age. I actually have stacks of Canson Comic Book Layout Pages that I sketch interesting imaginings and dialogue out on.
 
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