Now that this reader period has come to an end, I have made a list of the most common clichés, overdone and stale storylines and major mistakes that I’ve run across this year, issues that would have had me pulling my hair out in frustration if I wasn’t already bald. http://ow.ly/BIJDs
Screenwriting : COMMON CLICHES, STALE STORYLINES AND MAJOR MISTAKES, OH, MY!: Another year of reading is now over by Howard Casner
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Howard would you help me with my new screen play about script readers? I read a few scripts on Zoetrope, I downloaded scripts off several sights and read already produced scripts. However I think that script writers are at odds in this equation. Script writers are trying to tell a story with whatever knowledge they have about structure, subtext and dialog. As a reader I felt more secure and judgmental to anyone's material but mine. And I don't want to make a long post here but I would like to tell you my story about screenplay readers. I laughed for an hour while it played out in my head. Interested?
This is the kind of stuff script writers need to hear. Now why this thread won't get 200 posts I don't know. Maybe we need to get George on here? But I am interested in the frustrations of professional readers. I don't know if you saw my post about script readers but I think there is a story behind the great conflict of being a writer vs a reader. I am not disagreeing with any of your ideas. You must wonder what goes through a writer's mind when he/she submits a script to another person.
"An opening in which someone is being chased, especially, though not exclusively, through the woods." - this made me laugh out loud! I feel like I must have read a thousand screenplays with that opening :)
Thanks for all the replies. I appreciate the good words and support. Though, yes, most screenplays have been and will always be mediocre to bad, I do feel I'm reading fewer and fewer of those who take chances and really go somewhere and achieve something and reveal a personal vision of the author (as opposed to ten years ago). I think we are in a need of a renaissance or a new wave. The best movies in the world right now are coming from South Korea and Romania (and maybe next the Ukraine); we need to up our game. So spread the world and keep encouraging writers to surprise not just the readers, but more importantly, themselves. I still read some fine screenplays, but I do feel the mediocre ones are just mounting up.