Could Cyberspace Kill the Hollywood Reader

To the countless unproduced spec script writers, they are a scourge. To studio execs, independent producers, agents and managers, they are an indispensable necessity.

The Hollywood script reader. The first -- and sometimes most formidable -- obstacle between your masterpiece and that highly-desired greenlight.

Ranging from unpaid interns to tremendously-skilled professionals, the script coverage they collectively dispense spans from the wonderfully insightful to the competent (yet maddeningly subjective) to the "what fucking planet did this asshole come from?"

Now, granted, a lot of times Hollywood readers have the same hostile reaction to writers. I've heard claimed that as much as 95% of all spec scripts are a shameful waste of brain cells and forests. Which is why the script readers are needed. Producers and agents simply can't wade through the mountains of crap to get to the few gems floating about the spec market. They aren't grizzled old 49ers, after all. They're well-manicured, for one thing. And they're forever swamped with more important tasks than reading bad screenplays, for another.

So they need script coverage.

But the problem for writers is what I mentioned before. The best case scenario for a great script submitted for consideration is that the reader, whether a professional or an intern, insightfully grasps what the writer intended and is also stirred by it. This is a rare alignment of fortunes, indeed, and, in fact, many a great screenplay have gone unrecommended based on that maddening subjectivity thing. Not to mention those space alien readers whose often infuriating notes are just too painful to harp on. May they suffer paper cuts to their eyeballs.

Also, because so many jobs rely upon the success of a script that is (often reluctantly) turned into a movie, the readers are set up as gatekeepers with the instructions to never let anything through that could damage anybody's career. The result is a lot of second-guessing and a hesitancy to recommend any script at all. Ever.

"There are barbarians at the gate. Keep them and their shitty dialogue out of our fortress."

But through the magic of cyberspace, the system doesn't have to be this way. Instead of attacking Hollywood like the Mongol Horde, spec writers should band together, pair down the offerings and present the best to the Hollywood suits as sort of ambassadors of good will, if you will.

Here's how.

We create a website that is the automatic go-to for spec scripts in the same way that IMDB is the automatic go-to for movie information and youtube is the automatic go-to for random video entertainment.

I have a name for it already. SpecArena.com. Picture the Roman Colosseum but with nebbish, glasses-wearing wallflowers instead of gladiators and Diablo Cody instead of tigers.

SpecArena.com would be a spec script repository combined with a user-directed screenplay competition. To begin, spec writers submit a completed screenplay in PDF form. This simple move makes them a "Spec Arena member".

Each submitted script is read and judged by three other members (chosen randomly, but according to genre preferences) who grade it by simply picking from a set list of criteria. Each choice is assigned a score which I have indicated in parentheses.

First, "dialogue". The reader can choose:

A) Incompetent (0)
B) Competent but lackluster (1)
C) Average (3)
D) Strong, well-crafted (5)
E) Superb, lyrical (8)
F) A master of the craft (10)

The next category is "main character". The reader can choose:

A) Badly conceived and realized (0)
B) Flat, boring or stereotypical (1)
C) Average (3)
D) Strong, well-crafted (5)
E) Excellent, near classic (8)
F) Utterly fascinating and unforgettable (10)

The next category is "supporting characters". The reader can choose:

A) Flat, boring or stereotypical (0)
B) Average (2)
C) Excellent (5)

The next category is "premise". The reader can choose from:

A) Incomprehensible or highly offensive (0)
B) Trite, unoriginal (1)
C) An "okay" premise (3)
D) A good premise with plenty of originality (5)
E) Very clever and highly original (8)
F) Amazing (10)

The next category is "story telling". The reader can choose from:

A) Awful. What story? (0)
B) Flat, boring (1)
C) Sufficient, but unremarkable (3)
D) Good story-telling, showed some flair (5)
E) Excellent, writer is clearly gifted (8)
F) Mesmerizing (10)

To tally the score, the first three categories (dialogue, main character and supporting character) are added together. Then the last two categories (premise and story telling) are added. The final score comes from multiplying the two sums.

So, if a brilliant screenwriter submits a script which scores the highest possible marks in every category, the score for one reader is as follows: (10 + 10 + 5) x (10 +10) = (25 x 20) = 500. So the highest possible score a script can get after all three readers have weighed in is 1500.

In order to move into the script database and the next round of judging, a screenplay has to be better than "average". If a script scores 4 Ds (plus a B in supporting characters) the total for all three readers would be 360. We'll set the bar just slightly higher and say that all scripts with a 400 or better move into the database.

Once a script is in the database, it can be accessed by all Spec Arena members who are then given three choices with scores in parentheses:

A) Do not recommend (0)
B) Recommend (1)
C) Highly Recommend (3)

A member can only vote once per script and a running tab is then kept of the highest-rated screenplays within the database.

Members are able to increase their voting power by raising their clout-level in two ways. The first is by landing a screenplay into the database. This doubles a member's voting power so if they vote to "recommend" a script, the script gets two points. If they "highly recommend" a script, it gets six points.

Another way to increase voting power is by writing script coverage which all database entries will receive. The coverage must be satisfactory to the Spec Arena administrators. Once approved, and after a member does coverage of five separate scripts, they go up one clout level.

The maximum clout level a member can reach is "five", giving them five times the voting power of level-one members.

A producer or agent browsing the database would be able to see scripts ranked by overall score or by average score or by genre or by year added in addition to the original score the script got in preliminary judging. A producer could also access the script coverage and author information, but not the script itself. The authors would have their own "registry" on which an interested party may request a copy of the screenplay.

So that's basically it. A two-tier voting system in which the best screenplays according to the spec writing community rise to the top.

But in order for the system to work it would have to be highly participated-in by spec writers and highly utilized by studios, agencies and production companies. Doubtless, both groups would be somewhat skeptical of a new approach.

Successful spec writers may feel that the system already works for them. Keeping the barbarians out of the gates is a good thing, so why stir the pot?

To this, I ask you successful spec writers, how much of your recent income has been from assignments? Or dialogue polishes? Or some other non-spec writing? And how many unproduced specs do you have stashed in a drawer somewhere? How many of those do you love? How many do you know would make a fantastic movie if only the right hands got on it? How many years do you think will pass before that happens?

And studio execs, agents and producers have long relied on their own staffs to mine the spec market. The system has worked fine for decades, right?

Then why is it so damn hard to find a really good spec? Or good enough to reasonably bank the future of your career upon? And what if you didn't have to pay countless staff hours to filter through the stacks of garbage? What would happen to your office productivity if you could cut 70 to 80 percent of script reading time out of your time budget by having your assistants read only those scripts which the spec writer community stamps with its collective approval?

Hollywood already trolls the internet for potential spec sales. But wouldn't it be nice if there were a one-stop clearing house for all this stuff?

To the unproduced spec writer, the advantages of the Spec Arena system are obvious. It would give them some sense of control over the market. And, unlike traditional screenplay competitions where participants have little to no access to the top tier scripts, the Spec Arena idea could be an invaluable learning tool. The bottom feeders become more skilled at their craft by emulating the more successful members. The overall quality of the market rises, which is good, because the spec buyer's market is ever expanding. With quantity blooming, it'd be nice to see the quality keep pace.

There are some internet sites that have already changed how the spec market functions. Zoetrope.com (created by Francis Ford Coppola) has a script submission and user judgment system, but it is far from the clearing house that I've described. Still, it is a good model to start with. Hollywoodlitsales.com is a website filled with logline pitches which producers can (and it would seem often do) browse for material and it shows how a flourishing online community can produce actual business-world results.

Still neither of these websites do exactly what the Spec Arena aims for. But a template exits for changing the spec market system. Such a website could be advantageous for everybody.

Everybody but the Hollywood reader, that is.