Jeff Snyder
Hollywood’s unsung gatekeepers are story analysts, many of whom are Local 700 members. But as the industry undergoes rapid change, and a worrying slowdown in work, the role of these essential workers – whose eyes are often the first in the industry to see scripts, books, graphic novels and more – is being tested , like never before.
As priorities shift to intellectual property (IP) under the pressure of artificial intelligence, and rapidly evolving, technology-influenced development processes, story analysts find their jobs both constantly changing and at risk. What hasn’t changed is their critical ability to flag material that has the potential to be good entertainment and to summarize that appeal (or lack thereof) in the commentary of their coverage.
“Everyone thinks they are the gatekeepers of the industry, but story analysts are the first audience members who see the script,” said Helen Truong, a film school graduate who interned multiple times and worked on Writing freelance stories for multiple agencies before meeting the people in the stories. She now works as a story analyst in the Sony division.
“The strike had a huge impact on us. Since there were so few writers submitting scripts, a lot of the submissions moved to books, graphic novels, and webcomics. I read as much of those as scripts, if not more, because people were so Pay attention to IP [lately]”, explains Truong.
Universal Pictures senior story analyst Alegre Rodriquez echoed that sentiment.
“In the past, story analysts mainly read scripts and specs—that’s 80 percent of the job. But now, because the market has changed
For years, books accounted for 65% of what I read because we were trying to find the next big thing, and books were speculative IP.
Rodriquez grew up in central California and attended Brown University to study American citizenship. After college, she worked as an intern and assistant at Columbia Pictures, where she observed the development process up close and her passion for film grew.
She then spent six years as a story analyst, doing freelance reporting for major production companies such as GK Films and FilmDistrict, before taking a brief hiatus from writing scripts for television. After this hit, she returned to the court, only to find that something had changed.
“There have been several mergers that have shrunk story departments and put people out of work, so the business has been shrinking,” Rodriquez explained. That means there are fewer opportunities for studios to support original material.
Truong agreed that it’s a pretty bad time for specs, so the market has become more derivative. “There’s a bit of fatigue with the big superhero franchises, but one drives the other. So the more spin-offs it has, the more interest there is in something fresh and original, and then you get ‘everything at once,’ ’” Truong said he hopes to see the speculative market rebound.
“We have to go back and look at the spec script,” Truong insists, but she candidly admits that “few people read specs these days, so a brief explanation is needed.” [made] Almost better.
“We’re not in the spec market right now,” said Guild board member Holly Sklar, who was originally hired by Disney as a story analyst but has spent the past 23 years at Warner Bros.
“Part of it is that executives want to grow from intellectual property, and books have a built-in audience. They’ve always been an important part of the story department,” but there’s clearly a greater emphasis on books now.
“We adopted Silicon Valley’s ‘move fast and break things’ perspective.”
Rodriquez said all studios have a book scout in New York, and each studio compiles an up-to-date list of manuscripts for studio executives to consider. Executives will look at the list, reading each log line [a brief description up to several lines long]and determine which manuscripts seem suitable for adaptation. Studio story analysts will report on these.
“The End of Us is a perfect example. It was a manuscript and several people bid on it, but they chose this company, Wayfarer. And then the book took off, so the gamble paid off [for everyone] In many ways,” she explained.
“CBS Studios has a story analyst whose entire job is to read books and provide coverage for potential series development, but Warner Bros.’ story department is not currently reading for Max because Max is no longer It’s an original movie. We read about Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, and Warner Bros. Animation. That said, based on a lot of what we read, we probably said to the executives, “This is it.” Might be better suited as a short-term streaming series, or a long-term ongoing show. “That doesn’t mean they’re going to develop it that way, but we have to understand what’s on streaming and the differences between that content.
When it comes to artificial intelligence, “We’re scratching our heads because we don’t know where it’s going to go,” said Rodriguez, who represents Story Analysts on Local 700’s Emerging Technologies Council.
Truong admits she’s “a little concerned” about AI, “but I think the threat…is not necessarily exaggerated…but it can’t do what human analysts do. AI is trained to do what it’s done before, But it doesn’t recognize whether the material is new or innovative. It’s always looking for shortcuts. This is certainly one. [concern]especially for readers who haven’t joined the alliance yet. Many companies are experimenting with artificial intelligence, so this can make things difficult [readers who are trying to break in]but I think the capabilities of artificial intelligence are still limited.
“Most of them,” Sklar said [online] Services that use artificial intelligence as story analysts try to make money from aspiring writers, but they can’t tell you whether your writing is good or not. They can tell you tips from screenwriting books and whether your script reflects a standard cookie-cutter approach, but artificial intelligence can’t react the same way an audience can. Artificial intelligence cannot love a writer, hate a writer, or identify with a protagonist. It fails to care about or support the characters in the movie. It can’t be emotionally involved, but we can, which is why we’re still better suited for the job. Technology will get better, but I don’t think it’s a replacement, and I don’t think it can detect originality or judge the uniqueness of a writer’s voice.
Paul Blyskal, who has been a story analyst for 14 years and currently works at Netflix, agrees that it’s something to worry about, although it’s more of a concern in the long run than it is now. “There’s a lot of hype about artificial intelligence, but it’s developing faster than anyone thought,” he admits.
Artificial intelligence isn’t Silicon Valley’s only concern, as Hollywood’s new tech overlords have changed the entire way businesses are valued and run.
Today’s studios are in dire need of a kit with creative accessories.
“Even producers who have deals, they’ll have some great stuff, and our executives will say, ‘Come back to us when you get the package,'” Rodriquez said.
“That impacts the work we’re doing. If a studio is looking for a clean slate and something without attachments, we’ll still do a verified analysis, but if you do have those attachments and you have one that hasn’t been done before Having been a TV director on any feature, and having two non-A-list actors, now you think more about the scenario, whereas before, it was just based on the script.
“Instead of saying, ‘We’ve had 100-plus years to prove that what we’re doing works,’ we took the Silicon Valley philosophy of ‘move fast and break things,’ and we let them break a lot of things,” Roderick said. Si said.
Blyskal noted that the number of story notes he was responsible for decreased after moving from the theater studio to Netflix. Netflix movies have shorter development windows because they can be produced much faster than traditional studio theatrical stories.
At Netflix, he can also consider more niche content. “If you’re in the film industry, if you want to make big money in theaters, you have to think about a global audience. But now, things can become more niche because if you work for a streamer, they can put on a show for anybody — —You just have to bring us something that’s targeted at a specific audience. Bryce Carr also points out that, oddly enough, the larger the target audience, the wider the range of voices and topics.
Truong, meanwhile, said working for Sony is unique because it’s the only legacy studio without a dedicated streamer, meaning it can sell content to the highest bidder.
“We’re always looking at, ‘Can this be transferred to another streamer?'” she explains.
“I think the bigger our ship gets, the harder it is to navigate,” Rodriquez said, referring to the streaming services studios have been forced to launch to compete with Netflix.
“I remember I was at Sony during the hack, and the studio was really in trouble after the hack. [former studio chief] Amy [Pascal] left. But look at them now – they’re no longer burdened with streaming, they can get a distribution deal with Netflix, so they’re more nimble, and they have enough existing assets that everything will be fine.
Speaking of existing properties, one thing many industry observers are wondering is why studios aren’t doing anything about the mountains of scripts they’ve already paid millions of dollars for. If the script was enough to pique the interest of Tom Cruise in 2004 but was never produced, why can’t the same script pique the attention of Ryan Gosling now?
“Sometimes you have talented executives [look] But that could be difficult due to limited time and resources, and Hollywood’s longstanding obsession with “something new,” Bleiskar said.
Story analysts typically read and write reports on one script each day, although they may read a second script and then start writing the report the next day. Of course, there are also “getaways” – scripts that were never produced despite strong recommendations, or that ended up being produced elsewhere.
“I love a movie called The Offing, which features Helena Bonham Carter and tells a very unique story between her character and a teenage boy. friendship.
Among the plays Truong has read recently and loved, Megan Park’s My Old Ass stands out. “It’s been a while since I’ve read a script like this, so I’m excited for its release.”
One of the older plays Rodriquez championed was Noga Punueli’s “High Society,” which was selected for the 2020 blacklist. The script follows a progressive woman trapped in a conservative small town in Texas who starts microdosing everyone with marijuana so they can all get along.
“Billy Ray based ‘The Thin Man’ on the case where Nick and Nora Charles first met. Who knows how that happened? But I loved that script, and Frank Darabont Darabont’s screenplay “Stitch in Time,” a fish-out-of-water story set in contemporary times.
Sklar offers advice to young writers: “Write what you love.”
“I don’t believe in following trends,” she said, “so don’t chase the market. That’s never a good idea. We’re just looking for great stories with emotional investment, and we’re looking for originality. What made Barbie so successful One reason is that it has its own point of view.
She also revealed her biggest pet peeve: when writers describe a character by referring to an actor, such as “Think Jeff Goldblum” or “Think Ryan Reynolds, but younger.”
“This is lazy writing,” she said.
Briskal’s advice to young writers is simple: “Read more scripts,” adding, “We can tell when a writer isn’t reading because the format isn’t right.”
Jeff Sneider is a veteran entertainment reporter who writes newsletters
Insnyder.
