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This lecture will give you industry information and tips that will make your script a more professional and salable product. Whether you are applying for funding, entering a competition or sending off writing samples, this lecture will help your script jump the first hurdle.

Tutor:	James Barlett	Venue:	St. George's chruch, Bloomsbury way, London WC1A 2HR
Date:	TBC	Duration:	1 Evening
Time:	6:30pm - 9:00pm	Price:	£40.00 inc VAT

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In Hollywood, thousands of scripts land on the desks of producers, agents, actors and studio executives every day – how can you make sure that yours makes it past the first hurdle? This hurdle is actually a person - a script reader - and he or she can be many things: a stressed assistant, a summer intern, or - if you’re lucky - someone who has spent years analyzing scripts and can recognize talent and potential when they see it.

A script reader is the first gatekeeper for your script, and since coverage is often kept on file and on databases that agencies and studios share, a “pass” in one place can mean that your script might not even get read at other places either.

This workshop with experienced story analyst/editor James Bartlett will talk about the business of script reading, the differences between the US and UK film industries, and the ways to break into the US market.

Most importantly it will discuss the “Unlucky/Lucky 13” common but deadly mistakes that screenwriters make - and are instant killers for a reader. Learn to avoid these 13 mistakes through discussion of simple-to-fix problems such as formatting and presentation to transitions and evoking emotion, as well as a number of others.

As examples James will highlight the mistakes he has found in scripts.

Some are embarrassing, some show a lack of knowledge about screenwriting, some are simply amateur, and some are even very funny. All of these mistakes readers out of the story or were not visual for the audience. These are the mistakes a writer doesn’t want to do.

The class also includes discussion of story ideas by the class participants themselves in a “Hollywood style” pitch session.

Every writer has spent weeks, months and years working on their script.
Now it’s finally ready to go out into the world.

This lecture will give you the “Unlucky/Lucky 13” mistakes to make sure that it doesn’t fall at the first hurdle

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Screenwriters, novelists, playwrights, storytellers and their producers.

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James Bartlett is a writer and journalist living in Los Angeles. He is also a story analyst for the Sundance Institute, National Geographic Films, New Regency, UCLA and the Academy of Motion Pictures’ Nicholl Screenwriting Awards, the US consultant for Euroscript, and a reader for several regional funders in the UK and Ireland.

He began his career working in film production and music licensing and moved to Belfast in 1999, where he received funding on two feature projects and worked for ARISTA Development. In Los Angeles he co-edited and wrote the nationally-distributed FLM Magazine for Landmark Theatres, and is currently the voice behind “Only In America” for JackFM radio in Oxfordshire and a contributor to BBC Radio Ulster.

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"We have just left the Apollo at midnight and only because we were asked to as they were closing. James was utterly fantastic. 6.30-9 wasn t long enough. 6.30 until midnight wasn t long enough. The man is full of information that we writers need to know."
Star Kennedy

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Hi James
I just wanted to say thank you for, and how much I enjoyed, your seminar at the Apollo last night. Hugely informative and useful, and I was especially delighted that you were happy to a) overrun and b) answer all our questions (I was the gobby brunette towards the front!).
Cheers again (and Raindance: thank you for putting it on!).
Andrea Mann