Thirty-Two. Thats how old I am. It seems so long ago that I was hitting twenty one, going out with Quentin for drinks and hitting the clubs hard. Now look at me. I'm starting to grey, my groove is slowing down, back hurts. I am starting to feel my age....
NOT!!!!
Age is a blessing. I have learned so much in my thirty-two years of life; a good percent of it related to writing. I am fortunate enough to be thirty-two, when so many have not made it that far. My birthday wasn't as good as what I would have preferred, but i've had way worse ones. Those that love me baked me cakes, and even threw in a few surprises. A better birthday then I've seen in a while.
Now onto business. I'e talked to my contact and he clued me into the way the "script coverage process works. His information was very informative. and i'm taking the time to share it with you.
"script coverage at a major studio can take 3-4 months"
Three to four months. WOW!
"There are dozens of scripts ahead of yours, and each has to be covered and analyized by our story reader."then the head of the story dept.
This is very important to know. It's always good to know that your material has been received and that there are others in front of you. You are not the only one who is submitting. At the major studios there could be hundreds. It's a part of the process when you are submitting naked (naked meaning without representation.)
"If it gets good evaluatiuon, it gets reccomended upwards to our Head of Development."
If your story is well written and they see potential then it is passed on to those who have a lot more say so in the process. You want this.
"He in turn, sends it to the VP Development Director , who, in turn brings it to me or one of my two partners. Someone will get back to you with either a pass or good news.
A pass obviously means they passed on it for one or various reasons. This could be anything from they don't go for your particular story, or there were some flaws in the screenplay; anything from formatting to any one of the infinite reasons. Usually a coverage sheet will accompany this.
Good News obviously means they liked your story. That is obviously a no-brainer. You really want the good news.
Even if you get a pass don't take it personal. Most likely they don't know you personally to pass on your story. Try and find out why they passed on it. Fix it if you can or submit it somewhere else. Just as two people don't like the same story. The same thing applies to studios...or even on the individual level. One reader might like sci-fi, another may hate sci-fi. Any company worth its salt will try to send your screenplay to the appropriate reader (i.e. a sci-fi screenplay to a reader who is more partial to sci-fi) but all companies don't have a huge office full of readers for various genres. All you can do is hope for the best, and try to take the rejection as a stepping stone.
It's been said that if you haven't been rejected then you really haven't tried hard enough. Never forget that.
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