Script Analysis — Worth it?

and what’s the right price for them?

In many occasions, be it via email, via Facebook groups or on Twitter, Instagram and events organized by Filmarket Hub, we hear complaints about how expensive script analysis services are. But what a lot of people don’t understand is why one must pay so much so that someone reads a 90 or 100-page script and gives some advice on it. Doesn’t seem like a complicated job, no?

This is something that can be heard in all lines of work in which you have to pay money for an intangible and difficult to quantify service. In the case of script reading and analysis, as there is no guarantee that that service will get us our script sold, when the project doesn’t go through, some might think that its wasted money, and will curse the poor reader or whoever is on hand (or whatever is the service we have paid for).

Well, today I hope I will be able to throw out the window all those myths and shed some light into why an in-depth script analysis costs what it costs.

An average and reasonably priced, report will have a 5-page script analysis. In this report, you get a pretty detailed account of what works and doesn’t work with your script, suggestions of what ways to improve it, a summary chart divided into the different categories where structure, narrative, character development, dialogue and so on are evaluated. This is a good deal, considering that an industry script analysis can go from 250€ to over a 1000€. Yes, you have read correctly.

Is it pricey?

A good and complete script analysis can mark the difference between getting your script noticed by an industry professional or not. It seems an exaggeration, considering there are many more factors into play that will make a script sold. But, we can say that a script analysis, not only validates its quality (or lack thereof), but gives detailed, practical advice and constructive criticism, and it will mark the difference between getting a mediocre script into shape or leaving it in a drawer getting filled with dust.

An exhaustive script analysis means reading a manuscript, analyzing it, scrutinizing each of its parts, studying what works and what doesn’t. Why something that isn’t working doesn’t work and in what way it can be turned around to make it fit with the story, and so on. It isn’t only about giving good advice to improve your script; it is about the know-how that the person who’s reading is putting at your disposition. That has a value; few people reach to have a level of knowledge about scriptwriting and narrative, as well as understanding about what will be liked in the industry and what won’t stand out. All of this, plus the time needed to extract such a potent analysis, explains the high price to pay for such a service.

If all of this reasoning hasn’t convinced you yet, look at it this way: getting a validated script analyst (or script doctor) to do that work on your script means an invaluable help; understand it as getting a glimpse into the centre of the film industry and its workings, obtaining an insight normally not accessible to someone alien to this line of work.

So, try not having so many doubts about the value of a service if you haven’t given it a try yet, do it now!

What you need to understand before hiring a script analysis service:

- When do you need to hire it:

Script analysis is useful to those projects, which are developed enough to start thinking of showing them to producers, investors and sales agents. In other words, you have been working on it for a good amount of time and you feel that external, objective opinion will help it get better and ready to see the light of day. It will also be useful to establish where is your project at, compared to other scripts in the same genre. However, if you are in an initial phase of writing, it is best to show it to family, friends, and acquaintances; they will surely point out things that you wouldn’t have seen before.

- What to expect from the script analysis:

The script analysis report will give you, not only advice about how to improve your script, but visibility and validation from an industry professional and a higher chance of getting noticed by a producer, who won’t read any script that doesn’t have a script analysis report and comes with a recommendation from the reader. Plus, it will give you a pretty good idea of the potential of the project on a market level, be it national, European or worldwide.

Here is a link on Filmarket Hub’s script reading services:

https://www.filmarkethub.com/script-analysis

I hope this post has helped you decide to keep on working on that project you put on stand by and give it another try; and what better way to do so but receiving the opinion and viewpoint of an expert who will give the best advice for your script?

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