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A Script Consultant
Should Be a
Screenwriter's Mentor

What Unique Screenplay Coverage Involves

Any script consultant who uses the 'universal' story paradigm and structure rules isn't going to be able to give the individual screenwriter much help in creating an original, inventive screenplay.

The Player

Tim Robbins in The Player.
Screenwriter: Michael Tonkin. Director: Robert Altman.
Avenue Pictures. Spelling Entertainment.
Brown/Addis Wechsler Pictures.

Screenplay Coverage Fees and
How To Submit Your Script

For me, the task of the script consultant is much more a question of being a mentor, to respect what the writer is trying to do with their story and guide them in ways that will transform it into a screenplay of bold originality and cinematic power.

As someone who's been a writer for a long time, I'm all too aware of the psychological and emotional struggles of trying to create something original, and my script mentoring always reflects this highly important aspect of creative guidance.

As a writer I also know how difficult it can be to expose your creative work to any kind of assessment. Your script is something you may have lived with for a long time, you may have expended a lot of blood, sweat and tears over it, and the last thing you need is some insensitive moron making an unconstructive, damaging appraisal of your precious work.

My goal is always to find potential. I would not insult a writer by pretending their work is great if it isn't. A consultant has to be honest about the writer's work. But the approach to any script has to involve a real desire to help the writer fulfil their potential and give supportive guidance.

You won't be treated as A.N.Other Screenwriter. The help I will try to give will be deep and caring advice on how to develop your talent in your own unique way.

The kind of aspects the
Script Consultant Report includes

The reports will encourage you to ask the kind questions of your screenplay that will strenghthen and deepen your understanding of what you are trying to say - and how best to say it:

Emotional Pull - The one thing your script must have - Categorically not the Sentimental Kind

Subtext - Which Needs to be Everywhere, not just in the dialogue

Character - What Really Matters

Irony - An Absolute Pre-Requisite For A Ground-Breaking Screenplay

Narrative - Every Which Way, Experimenting Till It's Right For Your Story

Visual Grammar - Making Meaning with Visuals

Sensual - Why you need to touch, smell, feel, see, and taste the script

Coping with the Nightmare of Exposition

Dialogue - However Much or How Little The Story Needs

The Power of Silence

Inhabiting Your Character Just as The Actor Will

Inhabiting the Mind, Body, Heart and soul of your Audience A supportive, honest, appraisal of your screenplay and in-depth guidance that's on-the-pulse of the new exciting screenwriters.

I'll be most concerned with addressing which elements will most benefit from developing/revising/reworking.

It's always interesting for me to know about how you see your screenwriting career going, and if this is something you'd like me to look at let me know.

Choosing Script Consultants - Beware Inflated Resumes

There are some good screenplay coverage services out there, but there are quite a few who are terrific at inflating resumes about the scripts they've sold or been 'consultants' on.

Are they feature screenplays or scripts for TV? There is a significant difference between a feature movie script and a TV series script. Writing episodes of a long-running TV series certainly requires good scriptwriting, but creating a screenplay for the big screen is something else.

The same often goes with the screenwriting gurus. One best-selling screenwriting book, which trumpets the author's extensive movie-writing credentials, is written by an author who sold two abysmal movies to Hollywood, one of which was awarded the 'worst screenplay' Raspberry Prize.



If you want to know more about me click here,
About. Me


Go to How To Submit and Fees


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