Insight for today

[threemonkeys]

I have been reading a TV pilot script for a friend today. The idea is to give feedback so she can refine it for possible sale. I was really quite surprised how hard this was. Maybe it is because I am not used to reading scripts but I found that it takes a lot more concentration to visualise what is going on than in a novel. Possibly it is just because I'm doing the critical analysis thing.

And the payoff? The hope that someday, one of these scripts will get picked up and I will be able to say "I knew the author before she made it big" and "I read that when it was still an early concept". Ah dreams.

Comments

[lobelet.livejournal.com]

I always find that the best way is to read the whole script once, very fast just to get a general idea of the plot and character. Then I go through it slowly a second time concentrating on things that do or don't work and I annotate the script as I go. By things that do/don't work I mean contradictions, silliness, characters acting out of character, that sort of thing. Then I read it a third time looking for awkwardness of both setting and language. Then I make comments about the structure ("too complicated", "too many flashbacks" -- that kind of thing). Finally I comment on the thing as a whole -- this last tends to be more emotional than logical.

By then I'm sick of it and I hate every word!!

It's very, very hard work. And the only conclusion I have come to is that I'm an absolutely perfect negative critic. Everything I like has always been rejected out of hand by the TV people. Everything I've hated has been looked on very favourably.

Obviously the TV people hate cleverness and originality!