![]() If you consider that one should read at a clip of roughly a page-per-minute, the difference between 90 pages and 120 pages is 30 minutes of work which, for a busy executive who is stretched even thinner than I am, is a ton. The under 100-page count not only tells me that the writer heavily considered the economy of words on the page it also makes for a more forgiving read. Plus, I had read that writer before, and therefore knew that not-enough-story is not likely his problem. But it could also mean that the writer simply didn’t have a ton of story, and barely managed to stretch it to 96 pages, although I usually find that those sorts of troubled scripts wrap up just under 90 pages. Which could mean one of two things: The writer wrote economically, with a strong focus on story and character. With that in mind, what were those markers that indicated to me that this screenplay came from someone who understood professional standards, despite the fact that the writer, for the record, was just starting out?Ī feature script, it came in at a lean 96 pages. They spoke about having a USC professor who taught them that, when executed right, a screenplay should be read (for the most part) vertically – up-down instead of left-to-right – and look like an Indian blanket with lots of white space, lots of indents. OJ SIMPSON, THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE). LARRY FLYNT, BIG EYES, MAN ON THE MOON, THE PEOPLE VS. I once had the pleasure of interviewing Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (THE PEOPLE VS. Me being me, a bit later as I was chopping up broccoli, I got to thinking: What exactly did I mean by that? What impressed me enough optically to make me think that the material on hand looked like a professional-enough screenplay, implying that the read ahead won’t be a rough one? With that in mind, I decided to break it down: ![]() “Well, at least it looks like a screenplay.” And when I put it down and headed for the kitchen, I thought to myself: So I did just that, flipping through pages quickly on the iPad. As the clock was ticking down to the oven beeping at me and calling me to the kitchen, I decided to do what I often do when I have just a couple of minutes: Take a quick gander at the screenplay, and see what I’m in for. Everyone has to eat, right? But I had just enough time to download the screenplay I was going to read that night onto my iPad (it’s an old model, you have to be patient with it). In a few minutes, I would have to get up and make dinner for the family. You always want more, rather than less.Įmail responses got written and sent, written and sent. All, for the record, great problems to have for anyone who’s self-employed. ![]() I had a bunch of emails that I still needed to answer, and, just as importantly, a screenplay I needed to read that night for a meeting the next day. I had just finished 9 client meetings back-to-back. ![]()
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