Selling a Screenplay: Coverage
Ideally, your screenplay would find its way into the hands of a studio executive who would offer you a handsome sum and make it into a blockbuster movie. In reality, you’re lucky if your screenplay makes it into the hands of story analysts employed by studios, production companies and producers.
Story analysts read scripts and write up coverage reports that indicate whether the script is worth being read at the next level. Many agencies and screenwriting contests rely on readers and coverage as well because of the volume of submissions they receive.
Understanding “coverage” can help you improve your rate of success. Learn how to apply the same critical judgments a story analyst would make so that your characters and plot meet their needs.
The first page of any coverage report contains submission information: the name of the agent or producer who submitted the script, the name of the executive who received it, and the script’s title, author and date of submission. This section also includes essential story elements such as the time period, setting and genre.
Also on the cover page is the logline. Moviemakers are looking for originality as well as dramatic conflict and an active protagonist. Ideally, your logline tells who the character is, what his arc will be and what the main story thread is in one sentence. As you’re writing, you should be able to sum up your plot by the end of your first draft. Answer the basic questions about story and character until you can write a compelling, one-sentence logline.
Under the logline is a grid rating the different elements of a script. The major components are: premise, characterization, plotline and dialogue; they are rated as poor, fair, good or excellent. It is not the premise that carries the most weight here. A mediocre script with an inventive premise is much less likely to be recommended by a reader than a fair premise that has been expertly executed. So, be sure to focus on characters and a plot that will be rated “good” or “excellent” by a reader, not just “fair.”
To keep the synopsis to a maximum of two pages, readers will include only the essential beats from the main plot and sum up subplots in single paragraphs. Try doing this with your screenplay. If you can’t keep your synopsis to less than two pages, you might have a problem. You might have two different storylines rather than one central plot. Or, you might have extraneous material that you should eliminate. Can you start the story at a later point in time—closer to the first point of conflict?
The final page of a coverage report is for comments. Here a reader analyzes what works or does not work in a screenplay and explains why the script is or is not worth considering for development. Again, the reader probably will focus on characterization and the plot.
Spending time reading and reviewing your screenplay the way a story analyst would is well spent. Be ruthless and honest and you could just send your script past other writers trying to break in and get to the big decision makers.