Screenwriting : All I Wanted for Christmas was an Accurate Stage 32 Script Synopsis. by Bill Brock

Try a free trial of RivetAI - pop your script in and select 'coverage'. It'll give you an accurate synopsis for free, as well as a budget breakdown and shooting schedule. You can't download on the free trial, but you can screenshot... Also, it'll give you AI generated coverage. It's hilariously generic, but also, because it isn't misreading, it's better than some of the coverage that you might pay for. I have no desire to hurt the good Mr. Botto's business, but everyone in the script-mentoring sector needs to ensure the quality of the services.

It's a roll of the dice half the time Bill Brock. Some read bits here and there and base scores and notes on assumptions, not a reading experience.

As for asking for advice from AI (aka a computer), that's up to you. To me, AI will never, ever be able to replace, replicate, resemble, or respond like anything close to the human condition and feeding your creations to an AI for a synopsis or feedback is not the one-way street it is promoted as. Write on!

Synopses are an imperfect science. What a writer believes the story to be is not always interpreted that way as a reader. And what a writer believes to be the most important bits and pieces are not always what comes off the page that way. Sure, it's annoying when little details get mixed up, but writing a synopses of someone else's work can be an unrefined process, as a reader may derive meaning from different aspects of your story than as a writer you intended. Source: written hundreds of synopses for other writer's scripts over the years. My little secret for writing good synopses though is after I watch a movie I like, I'll go read the synopsis on Wikipedia and once you read hundreds of those, it becomes kind of second nature what needs to be in a synopses and what doesn't, and how to tell your story in such a "formal" sort of tone.

How much was the additional fee? Ask for refund.

I’ve had situations (not with Stage 32) where reader misunderstands emotional beats, succinct plot points & even adds how they imagine story SHOULD go but I’ve never received any obvious location mix ups. Your report feedback sounds like the material was fed through A.I. I prefer face to face meetings. Bitter frustration often follows unwittingly sharing my intellect with BOT SPEAK.

READER: the character's fear of heights should be used to test them

IN SCRIPT: the character falls into the mouth of an open mineshaft, but lands on a narrow ledge – with the clock ticking, they must then crawl up crumbling log to get out, or leave their partner and child in danger

IN SCRIPT: the character must leap off a cliff to escape a river of fire

ME: assumes the reader has barely skimmed the script and so most, if not all, of their analysis is useless

That reader quote is generic AI twaddle. Lots of yada-yada about AI but at this time it is wholly incapable of truly grasping nuance in story.

Seen similar and far worse gaffes in other AI-generated reads.

There are reasons writers become readers and they aren't usually good. Go look at who's judging for competitions, who's providing coverage, who's offering consultation. Few of them are walking the walk.

Ambiguous bios are huge a red flag too. Having "worked for production companies" could mean sweeping the floors. I know of a writer who had a "my films" section on her website where she'd added herself as a consultant on a bunch of shorts. I know of a girl working in a church kitchen who takes pitches as a producer. I know of a consultant boasting they have IMDb credits but doesn't share a link to their page. Why? Because they are two credits for short films they've made themselves.

If you want a synopsis made, try AI. It's something it's really good at doing, especially to a specific word count.

AI AI AI -I tried it out. I sent a paragragh that had EVERYTHING needed to write a 23000 word full feature. Worst writing and concepts I have ever seen. Then I sent one of my full features and asked for loglines, treatments, and a synopsis.

Not as bad, but it got SO MANY things wrong. And the so-called different AIs came up with almost the same things! AI can draw, create music (usually bland), but writing is QUIRKY. Good writing is very eccentric, delightfully so.

"If you're gonna shoot, shoot. Don't talk"

The problem goes beyond shady so-called "experts" who may use AI... Consider this, I know of a writer who wrote a script that went from her manager to an agent at Paradigm who sent it straight to her powerful friend at CAA where it was presented to the agents of many of the top male stars in town, a script that was ultimately acquired by a major production company. Prior to this - and very importantly without a re-write or even a polish - that same script was entered in the Nicholl, Page, Austin and three other top contests and it failed to make the quarterfinals in any one of them. True story. I assure you. How is that possible? Quarterfinals scripts are numbered in the hundreds for most of these contests, and, frankly, in general terms the average quarterfinal scripts is not anywhere near the level of quality needed to attract an industry pro. Chalking up this incident to the "subjective nature of script evaluations" misses the point. Great scripts—such as the one this woman wrote—exhibit a certain level of craft that obvious from page one. It was one of the reasons that her script shot like a rocket to the very top of the Hollywood mountain. If that's so, then why do you think it couldn't get past all six preliminary readers in the contest in which it was entered? I'd be interested to know your thoughts.

Contests are for horses, not violinists-my violin teacher. It's all SUBJECTIVE.

Hi Bill Brock - thanks for posting - I am the Writer Consultant for Stage 32 - I want to jump in here and let you know I appreciate you bringing these discrepancies to our attention. We work hard to put on the best readers with at least 5+ years of experience on our contests. And if someone falls short we want to know. Rest assured this will be addressed with the reader in question and we'll make sure it doesn't happen again. In the meantime, feel free to reach out to me at success@stage32.com so that I can offer additional thoughts on how to remedy this for you

Matthew Kelcourse Thank you, Matt, for your stellar info. I'm not a fan of AI. Definitely need to learn more about it. THIS synopsis was certainly an eye-opener!

Pat Alexander Thanks, Pat, for sharing your expertise with me. Agreed, it is a science. My concern is that when you're promised a 2 page synopsis, one hopes SEVEN mistakes aren't made within those TWO pages. I ordered the synopsis from a professional reader, so I wouldn't have to write one. Well (deep sigh), Here I am, REVISING the service that I paid for.

Debbie Croysdale Thanks, Debbie, for sharing your concerns. Learned a new phrase, BOT SPEAK, thanks to you. I agree with sticking with HUMAN producers in the future. I had two script reads and phone calls with producers last month, and both went extremely well because they clearly had read the work. How did I know? They didn't hem. haw, or hesitate when I asked them my first question:

"What was your favorite and least favorite scenes?" That question is filled with so much truth serum.

Robert Bruinewoud You nailed it, Rob. Thanks for your invaluable insight and your script example. Looks great! Best of luck with it! : )

E Langley Thanks, E, for sharing your similar experience. When I was nominated last year at the Beverly Hills International Film Festival, I had asked a reader what the official entry count was at that time. He couldn't give me an accurate number due to all the AI ENTRIES that got thrown out of the competition!!!

CJ Walley Thanks, CJ, for sharing your astute commentary. I always look forward to your Real World View. Thanks for the red flags:

"I have an important position at Paramount."

--- "Really? In what capacity?"

"Floor Sweeping Technician."

Jon Shallit Thanks, Johnny, for sharing your little experiment. From this day forward, I'm sharing my work with living, breathing HUMANS.

John Royan Thanks, Johnny, for your stellar contribution. You had me at "Powerful friend at CAA." My God, your story sounds like its OWN screenplay! Hop to it! Crank out 90 pages by midnight tonight! Completely SHOCKED to learn it couldn't crack the quarterfinals. : (

I wish I had an answer to your question. I've had similar experiences, but in the opposite direction. How is it possible for me to have 3 nominated scripts at the Beverly Hills International Film Festival in the last 5 years ( 2019, 2021, and 2024), yet the same scripts fail to place in smaller competitions?

It's like that old Tootsie Roll pop commercial from the 1970s--

"How many licks?"

--- "The World may never know."

Jason Mirch Thank you very much, Jason, for looking into this matter. Your actions will certainly renew my faith in the Stage 32 system. "Operation: Squeaky Wheel" is off and running!

Dan MaxXx Good question, Dan. It was a Black Friday discount of 20% for the script read. I opted for the Synopsis, Nutshell ("Birdman" meets "Scream") and logline for an additional $49 at the same discount. Total: $106.56

That sucks, Bill.

I've been doing experiments with interactive AI for coverage. One system rated a script low but left out a significant character because their name is unusual, let's say 'Bread.' Asked AI to scan the script for the character Bread and the AI insisted it was not in the script. I insisted there was and AI finally found it. The coverage changed radically.

It's the same with all the AI systems tested. They just cannot parse a story.

Have noted first passes on different scripts are nearly the exact same score. If "that seems low" is input, the rating climbs.

I've created my own script coverage reader using AI and use it as a quality control tool to identify story structure and dialog problems. I did see it hallucinate for certain scripts that didn't fit three-act structure or had plot holes. In general, it provides valid insight. Unlike a human reader, it can be questioned about its findings in a chat. Prompts can be adjusted to learn and avoid such mistakes in the future.

If you would like to share your script, I can run it on my coverage reader (free) and see if it hallucinates. My email is dwright10251@gmail.com.

David, I'd be interested to see the coverage your AI program gives for the screenplays of popular films with markedly different writing styles. Say Pulp Fiction, A Man for All Seasons, No Country for Old Men and Alien for example.

Though it can cost more, there are far more readers and firms that do offer answers or chats to post-coverage questions than do not. That argument holds very little water.

How do we know where the dividing line is between too complex and not complex. Should a writer craft a story to satisfy AI's shortcomings. It's plot holes that should be flagged as an issue, not to cause a trip up.

If ever there was a reason not to use AI, those espoused are it in a nutshell.

In experiments with prompt-driven AI, poor writing, typos, incorrect English usage and punctuation has never been flagged. Everything else is generic. A human knows CHARACTER (O.S.) is the same as CHARACTER. AI does not.

I'm going to blow some commenter's minds here.

It's actually possible to edit a text document.

Yes, I appreciate some of you are having to breathe into a paper bag right now. Strap in.

You can take what's called a "draft" and open that in what's called a "word processor" and use your own writing skills to make changes, improvements, and corrections.

Honestly, it's possible. Google it.

So, you're not actually stuck with what AI has generated in seconds, and you won't be arrested for polishing it either.

It's almost as if you can use it as a tool to make yourself more efficient and creative. I dunno. Maybe it's just me who has discovered this. Perhaps the way forward isn't simply calling everything we don't like AI generated while desperately trying to make everything about it black and white.

The gauntlet has been thrown down John Royan - That would be quite an entertaining experiment. Only problem is the AI would search all databases worldwide from which to plagiarize bits and pieces, so how could you tell where the coverage truly came from? AI won't share that information, and it has already demonstrated its ability to lie, steal and avert shut down commands. Still... what a great experiment it would be!

Wow! The lid's really been blown off the industry now. Be still my heart.

It's how hacks craft scripts with flat uninteresting plots and characters, robotic dialogue. And how equally awful films make their way to screens.

Google that.

John Royan, regarding the writer who sold a script that failed to advance in competitions, this isn't unusual at all. The Venn diagram for competition winners and working writers barely even touches. The industry has an economy to consider, the competition world doesn't. The competition world has a grading system, the industry doesn't. That's before we even get into how bent both worlds actually are behind the scenes and the ultimate caveat of subjectivity.

Besides, have you actually heard the average competition reader talk about writing? Would you have much faith in them identifying a script worthy of producing? Would you pay them for their opinion? Would you even trust them not to have a bias?

I was approached to be an AFF reader a couple of years back. Still trying to shower that off me.

CJ Walley WOW! CJ! MIND BLOWN! I... Me.... The Creator.... I can actually edit my own text? (Enter Bill Shatner voice for next statement) "I.... AM... my own... AI !!!"

This is fascinating. I must go lie down and process this exciting rebirth, wearing my adjustable night shades while downing a pint of Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey.

Anyway, Thanks for the morning laughs, man. Once again, you've solved the case. : )

E Langley Nailed it again, E!! So THAT'S the reason I LOVE attending the theater to enjoy quality films, YET I live 2 miles from a 16-screen multiplex and wouldn't watch a single one of them FOR FREE.

CJ Walley HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA! CJ!!!!!! Still laughing as I type this. This line absolutely KILLED:

"I was approached to be an AFF reader a couple of years back. Still trying to shower that off me."

Hey, seems ppl are not realising the big picture. A customer paid for a synopsis and it feels like it was done with AI software, instead of a human reader. Thats serious.

Dan MaxXx That was my thought ... an AI analysis would get that shit messed up. I got feedback from outside of this and got a note that the script changes from one main location to another inexplicably; it was a video rental store to a grocery market.

It was one scene ( a meet cute) but somehow the person assumed that the entire film now takes place in a new location... or it's AI not being able to figure that out.

Human readers make mistakes all the time. I once had a Black List reader keep commenting on a futuristic weapon I had in a script. It was one made in the 1930s.

I feel like anybody who sees something they don't like now defaults to assuming it's AI.

That said, I can absolutely see someone selling feedback/consultation/evaluations etc and just sticking the stuff into the likes of ChatGPT to turn profit. It's their reputation at the end of the day. A bit like known industry members handing stuff off to their assistants.

How's THIS for irony? I'm waiting for the original James Cameron screenplay, THE TERMINATOR (1984), to be remade with a script created by AI. Yep, in countless Hollywood offices, the Machines take over the Humans.

CJ Walley Wow! Eye-opening. Just plain sad. File that one under "Everyone's got a mortgage to pay."

Bill Brock, more fool you. The Terminator was clearly originally written by time travelling AI which convinced Jim Cameron that he'd had a fever dream.

Back on the top of AI and various models trying to analyse screenplays, it's worth considering the following:

1) If they keep getting things wrong, you might have to accept that it's you that's messed up. It might be your writing which is unclear, and if a robot can't decipher it, there's a chance most humans can't either.

2) AI models are typically trained on publicly available data. That means it will try to apply conventions that exist within it. AI that's trained on a Facebook screenwriting group is going to think like a Facebook screenwriting group (which is more terrifying concept than any T-800 Terminator). If I stick my scripts into analysis software, it will pretty much always break them down into three acts - despite the fact they're all written in five.

CJ Walley HAHAHAHAHA! Dammit! You’re right. It wasn’t Cameron at all.

CJ Walley Trust me, it’s not the writing. Simple story to follow, even for a machine. Murderous rampage in four iconic Hollywood locations. Additional guidance provided by the AWESOME COVERAGE of fellow Stage 32 member and proprietor of THE WRITER’S BUDDY consulting service, the GREAT John Mezes!

GO JOHNNY!!! : )

OMG! 1983 Rick Springfield was right!!!!!

Space Alien playing the saxophone?

Definite AI.

https://youtu.be/yo0uTu2uLtI?feature=shared

It's impossible to be objective about AI when you're on the "board" of a firm that charges to provide awful, generic and inaccurate AI-generated coverage. An agenda casts a jaundiced eye.

Generally, the writing of those decrying notes and competitions is due to bad writing that's been categorized as such. That leaves smoke and mirrors as a wheedle into the industry.

Bill Brock, sorry, I didn't want to imply there's anything with your writing in particular. It's just that we've got people claiming every piece of writing they've put into every model of AI they can try is coming up with issues. That has to be a huge red flag and perhaps not one that lies with the robots. It can be innocent mistakes that generate big problems too. I have made the mistake of misspelling a character's name differently in scripts before, and not realised the auto-complete has switched to that version. That slight discrepancy could be enough for something like AI to think it's a different character.

CJ Walley No worries, CJ. I know myself well enough to recognize that if my writing totally sucked, I would’ve ditched this screenwriting game years ago. Competition wins, placements, and a few producer script requests keep me moving forward. My goal for ‘25 is to continue to invest in pitches and Producer script reads + phone calls. I was a part-time professional actor for 25 years (a nice, lucrative side hustle to my teaching career) so I understand the nature of this business.

Happy New Year, man!!!

The more I know about AI, the less I want to know about AI.

Bill Brock, keep leaning into what works for you, brother. Happy new year to you too.