So you’re writing a script. Knowing who you are writing for before you begin writing could make the difference for you between success and failure in Hollywood.
So who is your audience?
As a screenwriter, you might think your audience is the people who go to the movie theater, buy a ticket, and plop down in the seat to watch your movie, right?
While this audience is important and is worth your focus, the movie-going audience is not your audience as a writer. At least not yet…
Understandably, most writer spend years in Hollywood before discovering that as a writer in Hollywood, your audience is not the people sitting in the movie theater. And its not the Producers and Development Executives, although they are an important piece of the puzzle.
As you probably know– Producers and Development Executives don’t read most of the scripts they are sent.
In fact, some of the busiest producers may not even read the scripts of the films they are producing until they are greenlit for production!
You might be asking yourself… how does that happen?
The answer is– the producers pay other people to read the scripts for them. Hence, the moniker, “readers” or story analysts.
JOB OF THE STORY ANALYST
A story analyst is the person whose job it is to pick up your script, read it from cover to cover, and to determine and communicate what movie would come from your script by writing a document called coverage.
Generally speaking, story analysts act as if they are the eyes (and minds) of the producers and execs.
Therefore, as you can quickly see, as a writer, you are more writing for a story analyst… someone who is going to read your script.
And here’s the thing– story analysts are really, really busy. Generally speaking, they get underpaid and overworked.
That means– they are going to be reading your script, really, really fast. (We can’t emphasize that enough.)
So, the trick is… how do you write a script that a busy and often grumpy story analyst will understand, and enjoy?
There is no EASY answer to the dilemma for writing for overworked story analysts… but there is a SIMPLE answer…
Get professional development support that from a TEAM of story development professionals (Producer, Executives AND Story Analysts), to help your script make its way up the Hollywood chain and into the hearts and minds of moviegoers around the world.
And since story analysts are under such immense time pressure, they tend to read scripts in certain ways.
HOW THE THINK HOLLYWOOD MODEL WILL BENEFIT YOU
At Think Hollywood, we utilize our story analysts’ perspective to anticipate how your project will be received in the marketplace — to see where the story analyst gets confused or misinterprets your intention.
When you get ELITE COVERAGE at Think Hollywood, you are getting a safe, “internal test” (we do NOT share the coverage with a soul) to get a sense of how your script in its current version will be received in the marketplace.
Once coverage is created by the Think Hollywood Story Analyst, your Story Development Executive will pour through the coverage, looking for any areas that might be confusing or not clear in the coverage. The exec will have a conversation with the analyst, asking clarifying questions from the coverage and the read. The analyst will revise the coverage to make it more clear, and the development exec will create a list of additional development opportunities to be shared with the writer.
So there you have it– since a major part of your job is writing for the reader, we have designed Think Hollywood to help you develop your script so it is a fun and easy experience for the reader, which will help empower you to make your movie or TV show reach a final audience.
