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EntertainmentIndustry.name
There’s a dirty dark secret perpetuated about Hollywood: nobody reads. This is simultaneously true and untrue. On the one hand, everybody reads. All the time. Probably more so than any other industry save publishing. On the other hand, the entertainment industry is inundated with ubiquitous material seemingly coming from every conceivable source — chauffeurs, bodyguards, private trainers, cousins of hairdressers’ gardeners’ dog walkers, strangers sliding scripts under bathroom stalls to stars or directors. Filters have to be put in place to get any of the forward-moving work accomplished otherwise we’d all be buried under mountains of never ending script piles. Thus, a system of “readers” was established to cull through the masses of scripts that overwhelm Hollywood everyday.
Virtually every script submitted to a company or agency is covered by a reader. Readers represent the first line of defense studios, production companies and agencies have against unsolicited screenplays as well as professional submissions.
There are several different kinds of readers that make up these troops. The top of the totem pole are the union readers, called Story Analysts. Most of the major studios use these two hundred or so salaried members of the studio readers union, who read two scripts a day, five days a week, averaging out at about $24 - $37 an hour. New union readers are only allowed in when there are more scripts than readers and even then, they must be nominated for admittance.
Most production companies use freelance readers and pay them $50 a script, give or take rush fees.
Agencies are notorious for filtering through their mountains of scripts by using entry-level readers who are typically inexperienced interns working for free — either straight out of college or perhaps un- or underemployed actors or writers looking to break in to paid freelance gigs. Often, receptionists, assistants or the infamous bastion of mailroom agent trainees read on the side after their long hours to impress their bosses. Some readers are even paid on commission and only receive compensation when they’ve handed over a home run.
If a script makes it past this first line of defense and gets sent on to a studio — you guessed it — it gets read and covered again. This time, typically, by a studio story analyst before a studio executive will even flip open the cover. Unless the script has heat and is shopped prudently, whereby Executives might read it the moment it hits their desks, but it is usually the reader who decides whether or not a script gets moved up the ladder.
There’s a great book out called 500 Ways to Beat the Hollywood Reader by Jennifer Lerch who was a reader for more than a decade, including eight years with the William Morris Agency. She simply started tracking all the things that drove her and her industry peers crazy and came up with suggestions and solutions. It’s an insightful and illuminating read that will improve your odds of success at making it through the reader gauntlet.
Many bitter and disgruntled writers will tell you that readers are hacks that couldn’t make it as screenwriters themselves and vindictively position themselves to kill the dreams of other writers. That they’re uneducated idiots, unworthy judges cloaked in anonymity. Hopefully this section has disabused you of that misconception. Readers are your adversaries — not your enemies. Their JOB is to FIND great material. When they open up a script, they truly are rooting for you, they want the script to be awesome — it makes their job a joy.
Yes, easily ninety percent of submitted scripts get rejected (volunteer to read for a screenplay contest and you’ll quickly see why). And that doesn’t even include the thousands that couldn’t get past the gate. But a decade-long career as a reader can be marked by that one script that made them laugh out loud or cry — that one career they helped to launch — it’s indeed one of the proudest moments of a reader’s career — one they are vying to offer you.
Recommended reading: I Liked It, I Didn’t Love It by Rona Edwards and Monika Skerbis.
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