You Wrote It, But Who Reads It?

If there is one absolute in Hollywood, it is that NOBODY READS. That fact alone creates quite a conundrum for the screenwriter. Nobody reads?

The truth is that when a new spec screenplay comes into an agency or production company, its first stop is definitely not straight to a producer’s or agent’s desk. A director certainly won’t read it. And actors, forget about it. But there has to be somebody who reads it, right? 

Readers read. And who are readers? They are the secretaries, the assistants, the interns. They are the undervalued and underpaid (and sometimes unpaid) life-line of Hollywood. The first thing a reader does is flip to the last page. More than 120 pages, it goes right in the trash. Wrong form, in the trash. Not enough white space, trash. Too many block pages or ‘I’ pages, you got it: trash.

And now, assuming the script has made it this far, the reader reads. So what’s the moral? Do it right; NEVER give the reader an excuse NOT TO read.