Another Get Repped Now Has Come To An End

Where are we in the process? What have we learned?

The answer to the first question: we are deluged. Hundreds of script submissions are still waiting to be covered. If you haven’t gotten your analysis yet (and that’s most of you), rest assured, we’re on it. We’ll be reading through the summer.

Once every screenplay and pilot has been analyzed and we have our roster of considers, we will send those scripts to our manager panel along with our recommendations – likely mid to late September. This gives folks time to do a polish draft; as well, September is the time when the industry is back from vacation and (in theory) ready to read. We also send all the scripts out at the same time. If a manager expresses interest in a script, we let all the others know so as to whip the hype.

This year we had an unusually high number of pilots; a sizeable amount of which fell into the “premise pilot” (aka “pilotitis”) trap: setup of the world and the characters but without telling a story or serving as a blueprint for what the series is going to be moving forward. Check out our article on premise pilots and how to avoid them right here.

Romantic Comedies have clearly made a comeback. It’s important to remember that this is a well-established genre, and certain expectations have to be met (while still coming up with a fresh spin and unique angle on everything). Check out our blog post with tips on how to craft the perfect rom-com right here.

We’ve also sometimes noticed a tendency towards generic choices. Remember, your visuals and your voice depend on specificity. Learn more here.

We also got several questions about scoring and what those scores actually mean. You can find a primer on PASS, CONSIDER, RECOMMEND and anything in between right here.

One more thought. A few folks have come back to us in frustration. Those “passes” can get pretty old, especially when one has been working on the same script for many drafts, and it just never seems to advance. We’re all writers here, too – we get it. We’ve been there.

Best advice might be to set that project aside for awhile and start something new. Not only will that recharge the creative batteries, but that new project will benefit from being written by a more advanced writer than the one who started that other project three years ago. As writers, we’re constantly learning and evolving, and those choices we made then may not be the same choices we’d make today. 

All of us are better writers today than we were yesterday. 

Hopefully!

Thanks to everyone who has submitted. Let’s go get ’em!