Schedule: Breaking into Script Reading with Lucy V Hay
When: Sat 3rd – Sun 4th February 2018
Where: Ealing Studios, Ealing W5 5EP
How much: £139
SATURDAY 8.45am REGISTRATION
Collect your pass and meet other delegates... The adventure begins!
9.00am What is “good” writing? Concept Vs Craft. Selling Vs Selling Out.
Exercises on movies and TV shows we’ve seen, but we feel had problems. What was good about them? What needed work? Why?
11.00am (30 mins)
Coffee and Networking
11.30am Craft and economics of screenwriting in-depth
- What are the main problems of spec screenplays?
- How does reader experience levels affect feedback?
- What is the difference between craft and concept?
- Craft issues – character and structure, versus dialogue, scene description, etc ... What’s most important?
- How much does good concept count?
- What is effective feedback?
- How do we avoid giving bad feedback?
1.00pm (60 mins)
Lunch and Networking
2.00pm How to get work as a script reader
Why YOU are your own greatest resource, in an environment where script reading jobs are rarely advertised. How to create contacts, relationships and what you can earn.
4.00pm (30 mins)
Coffee and Networking
4.30pm Reading for a living... The key steps
- Who uses script readers?
- USPs - How to specialise and why it’s so important
- How to identify strong concepts
- What producers want – understanding remits
- The difference between sample scripts and saleable ones
- Business models and budgets
- How collaboration is key
6.00pm Close and homework
Read the short script provided and consider what’s working in the current draft, versus what still needs work. Why? Make a few quick notes for discussion tomorrow.
9.00am SUNDAY - An in-depth look at the script report
We will break down what is in the script report and WHY, plus apply it to various stories, characters etc. we feel have had issues. We will also look at why CHARACTER and STORY are the most important things in any spec screenplay.
11.00am (30 mins)
Coffee and Networking
11.30am Your first report
- Discussion and group work of the short film we read last night
- Loglines and the “3 Cs – clarity, character, conflict”
- What characters WANT and WHY
- Is “good” characterisation about CHANGE? Why/Why not?
- The differences between PASS, CONSIDER and RECOMMEND
- What about secondary characters?
- Ensemble casts?
- How to avoid character clichés
1.00pm (60 mins)
Lunch and Networking
2.00pm Screenplays are STRUCTURE
Back to concept and why this is the key in terms of getting sprung out the spec pile. All about identifying strong concepts, no matter the genre or tone of the story. Why script readers MUST understand how structure works if they’re to diagnose genuine issues with screenplays.
4.00pm (30 mins)
Coffee and Networking
4.30pm What, how and why you should find and champion in scripts and writers
- The 7 Basic Plots
- Identifying strong concepts
- What “genre busting” means
- Understanding how genre convention works
- Genre vs. Drama: how the industry uses these terms and why
- Cross genre and sub genres
- Why tone matters
- The First Ten Pages vs. Page Number ONE
- All About nonlinearity
