Hollywood Confessional

Confessions of a Hollywood Gatekeeper

• Season 3 • Episode 12

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Why do some screenplays get green lit, while others never see the light of day?

Join us this week for some behind-the-scenes intel from a studio script reader, a self-described "first gatekeeper" who's been part of the process of getting stories from page to screen for over two decades.

"One of the first things you learn as a reader is, even on the worst script, you have to say something nice. And that is partly so the execs can get on the phone and have your coverage in their hands and be like, 'We really like the character of, uh... "Joe," but unfortunately we already have something similar in development.'"

We discuss the method behind the apparent Hollywood madness of what gets made, including how some scripts improve through the development process, while others end up getting... ugh... "noted to death."

"I've seen stuff in development where it was like, there was something special about this script, and you killed it."

Listen in to hear stories of how films you've definitely heard of made it from the reader's desk to the screen... including one that almost didn't. And hear how our confessor stumbled onto this hard-to-find career path... and discovered, against all odds, that it was actually their dream job.

Have you had experience as a Hollywood script reader? Confess! Send us a DM @fessuphollywood or leave us a comment. We'd love to hear from you!

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Hollywood Confessional is a Ninth Way Media production, produced by Meagan Daine and J.R. Zamora-Thal.

Sound Effects and Music provided by Zapsplat and Pixabay.

Keywords: filmmaking podcast, film podcast, screenwriting podcast, entertainment podcast, Hollywood, filmmaking, writerslife, actorslife, setlife

Speaker 1:

In nomine Cinema e TV, Espiritu Streaming Amen.

Speaker 2:

Hello, hello, Hollywood faithful, Welcome back to another episode of the Hollywood Confessional. I'm your favorite podcast priest Megan Day.

Speaker 1:

And I'm your other favorite, jr Zamora-Thal, and this is the podcast where we have industry professionals share their deep, dark Hollywood secrets anonymously, of course.

Speaker 2:

And this episode is the one that I think so many of us have been waiting for. This is the confessions of a gatekeeper also known as, in this particular case, a script reader keeper also known as, in this particular case, a script reader and JR. Last week, you talked a little bit about your notorious experience as a reader, for, but you basically only talked about how it ended, so I was really curious what was it like before then?

Speaker 1:

Well, it came at a time back when I was still an engineer. I was working a full-time job, you know, nine to six, and I was lucky enough to be able to fit an internship, an in-person internship, where I would go once a week during that time because I was ready to transition into film, I was ready to get out of engineering, and so I was looking for a way to do more because I really, you know, wanted to get all my ducks in a row before I was going to make this switch. So the producer that I was interning with was really nice and set me up with a remote internship as a script reader, which allowed me to read scripts on my own time, and it's an incredible opportunity to just read what else is out there, because it helps you grow as a writer. So so much.

Speaker 2:

Wow, that's a lot, though you were working full-time as an engineer and then also working part-time as a essentially a volunteer script reader.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and as an intern for uh, for this company, that it was a great experience and you know I was working two internships in a job. But that's kind of the dream, right? You do what you got to do in order to get where you want to go.

Speaker 2:

Is that the dream?

Speaker 1:

Listen when you're an engineer looking on the outside, any internship is a dream.

Speaker 2:

All right. Well, you know, there's so many different interesting ways in right, and so this week, from our confessor, we have someone who took the studio route as a reader. So most of the reader jobs that I'm aware of Are not paid.

Speaker 1:

I was certainly not.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, like yours. You know you're working for a management company or whatever interning. I had one of those as well, but like this person who we're going to be hearing from this week, they got in on the studio route and then they had a very interesting journey that ends with something I totally did not expect, so you ready to hear about that?

Speaker 1:

Let's step into the confessional booth.

Speaker 3:

Forgive me, Father, for I am a Hollywood script reader.

Speaker 1:

And I love my job. Wow, you are seriously blessed.

Speaker 2:

Either that or you have got some major penance coming.

Speaker 3:

Well, essentially what a script reader, also known as a story analyst does is write coverage. So we're the first gatekeeper, I guess you'd call it. I read a script and then I cover it, which basically means writing a book report like you did in elementary school. I write like one and a half to a two-page synopsis and then like three quarters of a page of comments and then I turn it into the agency or the studio.

Speaker 3:

Coverage is mostly a tool for executives, but they get a ton of submissions, as you can imagine, and because they're busy executing all day, they can't read everything that comes in. So a reader is part of a process of weaning out, like I can't say yes to something but I can say no, and sort of winnow down the number of scripts an exec has to take home to read over the weekend. One of the first things you learn as a reader is, even on the worst script you have to say something nice, and that is partly so. The execs can get on the phone and have your coverage in their hands and be like we really like the character of Joe, but unfortunately we already have something similar in development.

Speaker 2:

I am very worried about how many times I've gotten that exact feedback.

Speaker 3:

Well. So I didn't set out to be a reader when I first moved to LA. Like anybody else, I guess I wanted to be a writer director. But I was looking for a job and I had a friend that I was working on a no budget indie movie with who was a reader for, and he was like I'm getting too much work, they're looking for somebody else to do it. You know what coverage is right? I had no idea what coverage was and this was like 25 years ago and resources just weren't available like they are now. But my friend showed me an example and explained what he did and I was like what? You read scripts and they pay you. So I got in touch with a guy. He had me do sample coverage. It took me all day to do it. I had no idea what I was doing, but I guess it was good enough because he hired me and my first gig was reading for a producer who had a deal with. Most of what I read was terrible. Oh no, I used to say it was 99% shit. Now it's like 90% shit. So I'm moving up in the world.

Speaker 3:

In the beginning I wasn't getting enough work. I was always hustling, trying to juggle as many different companies as I could to cobble together a living. At one point I got a job reading from the slush pile Unwrapped writers who were looking for an agent basically any crackpot that could get their mailing address. That stuff was like just bottom of the barrel the worst spiral bindings, weird fonts, 400 page fantasies, illustrations and magic marker. It was like have you even seen a movie? Like I don't know what this is, but it is not a movie. It was also kind of a shit job because it only paid 35 bucks a script which, even if you can crank one out in three hours, I guess some people could do it in two. I could never do it in two. Like. I knew people who would be like, yeah, I cover four scripts a day.

Speaker 1:

Oh geez, Four scripts a day.

Speaker 3:

I'm like you're out of your fucking mind. I can't do that. I do two and my brain shuts off. Plus, back then you had to pick up and drop off the scripts. It was like drive from my place in to in Beverly Hills to pick up scripts at like 6 30 PM. So you're driving in rush hour both ways, driving across town, dropping off coverage that I had printed out. I would even make copies for the different executives that were going to read it. So like, go in with my coverage, make copies, collate, staple, drop it off, pick up scripts.

Speaker 3:

This was Monday, wednesday, friday, without fail Is different than a lot of places. They don't want people walking in off the street. So I had a photo ID badge and I guess I felt like dress for the job you want. So I would wear like khakis and a button down shirt, not really dressing up, but I wanted to look presentable. But there was one time on a Friday I was on my way home from the beach and so I'm like wearing a tank top and flip flops or whatever. I just kind of like roll in there like looking like a bum and they were so much nicer to me, what it was crazy People who had never talked to me, talked to me and I think it's because they were like oh, that guy's got to be a director. Any guy who would walk in here looking like that must be somebody.

Speaker 1:

Ah, LA, don't dress for the job you want. Dress like the trust fund is full and the margaritas are empty.

Speaker 2:

I want to dress like that. I want to dress like that.

Speaker 3:

Well, I eventually got fired from that job. Usually they don't fire you your phone just stops ringing. But for whatever reason they took the time to fire me and I wasn't indignant about it or anything. But I did ask why and she was like I didn't think your coverage was inspired. No fucking way. I'm like are you fucking getting me inspired? I'm reading the worst of the worst People who have no fucking clue what they're doing, like you try getting inspired from that. So that was shitty.

Speaker 3:

But I worked for a ton of different companies. I basically never said no to anything, I never took a vacation, I always took work with me and I soon found ways to make more money. Like, for instance, you get your regular fee for coverage and that's like a two-day turnaround. So you get the script on like Monday afternoon or evening and then it would be due Wednesday end of day. But for the high priority stuff like, say, there was something that everybody had eyes on, a spec with a bidding war or something with so-and-so attached that would be overnight. It would be due at 9 am or 10 am, depending on when they started their workday. By then they were messengering me the scripts.

Speaker 3:

There were times when I'd be like where is this fucking guy? It's 10, 11. I gotta get going on this thing. But you get it to them next day and do a good job and you get more money. I always said yes to an overnight, no matter what, and I did that for a lot of years and my fee went up every. Every time I went to a new company and they asked me what my fee was, I'd like bump it up, like you know, 10, 20 bucks. So you know it was like 35 bucks, then it was 50 for a while, then it became 60. And towards the end it was like 95, 105. That's pretty much the max. I would be very surprised if it was anything above that now, because it did not keep up with the price of the cost of inflation.

Speaker 2:

So if freelance readers are making the max doing two scripts a day, say six days a week, that's how much.

Speaker 1:

Oof, that's about 50 grand a year.

Speaker 2:

As independent contractors before taxes. How low can I go?

Speaker 3:

Well, at a certain point I started getting referrals. I worked for for a long time. Little by little, not only did my fee go up, but the quality of work improved. That's how I know I'm moving up in the world. I've definitely read some really really good stuff.

Speaker 1:

What makes something really really good?

Speaker 3:

There's a Tolstoy quote, something about all happy families being happy in the same way and all unhappy families being different. All bad scripts are bad in the same way and all the good ones are different. I do these sort of check boxes excellent, good, fair or poor. I hardly ever give out an excellent and I try not to give out a poor. I only give out a poor if I'm like personally offended by something, if I feel like they have their heart in the right place, okay, it's just a pass. 90% of what I read is a pass. Top 10 percentile is consider. Top 1 percentile is a recommend.

Speaker 3:

Logline is the most important, because a logline is the concept right and the concept is the one thing you can't fix. A good concept that's badly executed can be fixed. It goes through rewrites. You also get a sense of like.

Speaker 3:

Is this a movie that people want to see? Can I imagine a poster? What's the poster? What's the tagline on the poster? As opposed to the logline? Is it something that we haven't seen before? You know there's that sort of cliche Give me the same but different. Some cigar-chomping studio mogul said that.

Speaker 3:

Does this seem like a successful movie of the past? But not exactly like that movie Some new twist, some new angle. Beyond that, I'm looking at structure. It doesn't have to like follow Blake Snyder's beat sheet, but there are certain truisms. Like we need an inciting incident ideally within the first 15 pages. Like we need an inciting incident ideally within the first 15 pages. Are the stakes being raised throughout the story? Is there a dramatic climax? Is there a satisfying ending? I figured out early on that when you're getting paid by the script, it's in your best interest to finish quickly. So if I'm just flipping pages like I can't wait to get to the end of this thing, that's going to be a pass. But if it's like, huh, I'm actually reading this script and I'm enjoying it. I'm engaged and involved and I want to know what happens next. That's how I know it's going to be a consider or a very rare recommend.

Speaker 2:

Can you tell us about some of the ones that have gotten that extra special recommend?

Speaker 3:

There's a few that I've read like that that just knock my socks off, like when I read Get Out, I felt that way. I was like, okay, I know who Jordan Peele is, I'm expecting this to be a comedy, a horror comedy, like scary movie, and it is not that. And I was like this is amazing. That's one that just totally took me by surprise. I still think it's one of the best of this century. It's weird Sometimes scripts change pretty radically during development. Like you know, get Out originally had a totally different ending, but I still loved the first draft, even though I think the ending they chose is better. A lot of times, as a story analyst, I'm reading an early draft, the ones we have in development. I read one, two, three, four or five drafts and sometimes they get better, sometimes they don't. It's a fucking miracle when a movie comes out good. There's many points on the timeline where it can all go to shit. But I've seen stuff in development where it was like there was something special about this script and you killed it.

Speaker 2:

Oh no, that's terrible.

Speaker 1:

How does that happen?

Speaker 3:

Like I said, it's weird. You try to fix one thing, start yanking on this one thread and it's like the Weezer sweater song the whole thing just unravels. Yeah, sometimes I try to make things more conventional, try to make the character more likable or relatable, and really good writers can understand a note and incorporate it in an elegant fashion. But not everybody can do that and a lot of times you feel like they're just tacking on some scene or just trying to make it. You know we need a bigger third act and the whole thing falls apart. Sometimes those get made, but a lot of times they don't, because the first draft was flawed but now you've noted it to death. It's like I kind of liked it before, but now I don't Pretty sure.

Speaker 2:

I've gotten that feedback before.

Speaker 3:

Anyway, eventually I guess I did start making a name for myself as a reader. You're mostly dealing with assistants and sometimes the assistants move up to become executives and they remember you. So one day, after years and years of freelancing, I got a call and I knew the person who called me. But he was like so-and-so referred you and I was like racking my brain. I had no idea. I was like oh yeah, mike, great guy, you know what am I going to say. But I'm glad I took that job because it was for, and I freelanced for them for a number of years and then they became a signatory, which got me into the story analyst union.

Speaker 1:

I did not even know. There was a story analyst union.

Speaker 3:

Getting into the union was something that I'd wanted to do for a long time. It's really just the legacy studios that actually have story departments left over from like the old days. Those legacy companies have a long standing contract that they only work with union readers and it's sort of like a catch 22. If you know anything about unions, there's open shops and closed shops. This was very much a closed shop, so there's very few ways that you could get into the union. In order to join, you had to have 30 days working for a union company. A signatory is what they call it, but you can't get your 30 days unless you're hired by a signatory. So when I was freelancing for and they decided they wanted to become a signatory, that's how I got it. I survived a number of Hunger Games style layoffs, I got my 30 days and now I'm no longer a freelancer, I'm an employee in the union. I have a 40 hour guaranteed week, I get weekends off which is amazing and I am actually putting money towards a pension.

Speaker 2:

This is entirely unheard of in this industry. This is entirely unheard of in this industry.

Speaker 3:

So can I hold on to this job until I retire? You know I prefer if they didn't know how old I am. They know how old I am. But you know it's a very ageist industry. It's like that Dazed and Confused line. I keep getting older and the assistants stay the same age. The funny thing is, when I started writing coverage I never thought it was going to be permanent. I have literally said I can't imagine doing this when I'm 50, but now I'm bleep and I'm doing it and I'm actually in a really good place because I have a union job. It's a great gig, you know. After hustling for so long, it just feels like a relief. I think it's my dream job.

Speaker 1:

Amen to finding your dream job or letting your dream job find you.

Speaker 2:

I take back what I said about penance reluctantly. Go create in peace.

Speaker 3:

Wow, I had no idea that was a job, and if that's a union job, I want this job.

Speaker 1:

That's incredible.

Speaker 2:

Oh my God, I know right, and listeners. By the way, this is Anna Karini. She is our wonderful performer on this episode. Hello, that was so fun, yeah, and it's really crazy, right, and it makes me think, like even just recording the episode now, after having done the interview, I'm hearing different things, right, and the thing that struck me the most was like the fact that Once you have a union job and like, you have that sense of stability and like, and it's all tied into the like, the legacy studios and that system of story development that they used to have I feel like you can do so much better than people who are just freelancing or, like JR was talking about in the intro, like interning, as you're working a full-time job to pay your bills as an engineer and then you're just like cramming reading into the cracks, like I mean, this is a really critical part of story development and that's how movies get made Right, and I feel like part of the reason that a lot of times, things get to the screen and they're not as good as we kind of hope that they would be.

Speaker 2:

I mean, the the confessor gets into that. A lot times things get to the screen and they're not as good as we kind of hope that they would be. I mean, the confessor gets into that a lot, but I think it's probably because people are scrambling to be able to pay their bills a lot of times and they're not able to. I mean, this goes for execs too.

Speaker 2:

They don't have the time to be able to really dig into a story.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's a really great point.

Speaker 1:

To speak to that too. I mean, I was an intern reading scripts. Giving these notes. That's a union job. This confessor had so much more experience than I did as a 20 something intern, and so the notes that you're getting from the confessor are going to be far and away better than anything I was giving at that time.

Speaker 2:

Same here. You know, when I was first, I was somewhere in my 20 and trying to like become a writer and that's just one of the things that sort of feels like, oh, maybe you know, maybe I could learn and also get a foothold in Hollywood by being a reader and I did some of the like unpaid reader jobs. Remember the first one I got? I mean, I did not go to film school and, um JR, as we were discussing right before we recorded this, I was not allowed to watch anything that was more than a PG when I was growing up in school, right.

Speaker 1:

I still don't know how you got here.

Speaker 2:

Dude, it was a long journey, but I but I remember I had to fill out this application and they were like, what are some of your favorite movies? And I was like, um, I really love the princess, yeah, it was all that kind of stuff, Right, and I was like I really don't think this is what they're looking for. But they had me do a sample and I guess the sample was good enough, but I knew nothing, Right, and that's what you're going to get. I mean, hopefully not that bad. But if you're not paying for labor, whereas if you are, you know, like creating a pipeline and making this a career, a sustainable career, then you're going to get somebody that you know has, at this point, this confessor has what like 25 years of experience, maybe more, that's amazing.

Speaker 3:

I am blown away by this being a full-time union job and that this person got to read get out. Are you kidding me?

Speaker 2:

yeah, that's so cool you imagine having that script come across and like I mean, how fun for this person when they find the ones like that yeah and um, and we have been given permission to say that this person is anonymous, but they are on social media, um, as the hollywood and they if you are interested in reading more about the sorts of like the scripts that they have had the chance to read and help with development on it's at H wood S C R P T R E A D R. Write it down or something or just look up Hollywood Script Reader, but anyways, they post a lot of really interesting stories, including about a script that they passed on that went on to win many Oscars.

Speaker 1:

This is one of my favorite stories.

Speaker 2:

So definitely worth checking out their account and following them for that. Thank you so much for performing that story for us, Anna, and for joining us on the outro.

Speaker 3:

Thanks for having me. This was so fun.

Speaker 2:

And listeners. Thank you so much for joining us. We've been talking a lot. It's funny. The confessor also talked about like being fired by being ghosted, so that's been a subject of conversation lately. Next time we have a story of people who are let go not fired but laid off and what it's like to be the last person standing but until then, if you have any confessions of your own and you'd like to reach out, you can find us on instagram and x at fessa paul, join us and until then, go create in peace.

Speaker 1:

The Hollywood Confessional is produced by Megan Dane and JR Zamorathal. Our cast for this episode, Anna Karini. Special effects provided by ZapSplat and Pixabay. Hollywood Confessional is a Ninth Way Media production. Follow us on socials at FessUpHollywood. Thanks for watching.