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Phases of Script Development |
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Second DraftWhen work is complete on the Second Draft Phase (including the polish), ideally a producer has a draft that’s shopable to investors. The Second Draft should go a long way to fulfilling the potential of the project. The characters should be developed and nuanced, the plot and structure should be creating compelling rising action, the concept should be played out fully, the story telling should be as active and visual as possible, and the theme should be satisfying and clear.
Investors, agents or potential cast should be able to see the full potential of the finished film. Which is not to say they won’t have notes, hence:
Additional DraftsDevelopment work on additional drafts is financed through a few different streams. At the HG Fund, the program that finances development on drafts beyond the second draft is called “Senior Project”. At Telefilm, financing for this work can be obtained through the Packaging Phase or through the Greenlight program. At this stage, feedback on the script from the director, (if not involved previously), investors or potential cast may be integrated into the script.
This is also the time to work out final script problems, ensuring that the script is screenworthy. Depending on the genre you’re working in and the audience you’re targeting, “screenworthy” means very different things. Each film makes a promise to deliver something to an audience – whether it’s laughs, action or romance. A screenworthy film is a film that delivers on this promise in a fresh way, competitive with other projects targeting the same audience.
Keep In Mind:
- Not every writer works this way. Some writers skip outlines and go straight to first draft, not knowing what they really want until they have written a draft and taken a look at what they’ve done. Then they build from there. This is a perfectly valid way to work. The detailed phases are the acceptable standards for the Writer’s Guild, Telefilm and HG Fund.
- The director plays a different role in each process. In some cases, the writer and the director are the same person, so the director’s vision is integrated throughout the process. In other cases, the director is brought on toward the end, and his or her feedback on the script will be incorporated during the later phases of development. The process is different each time, but the fact never changes that the director’s vision is central, and every development process needs to result in a script that the director wants to direct.
- The process is not always this clean. Is a second draft always shopable? Well, not necessarily, no. Is the first draft always a precise rendering of the outline and treatment? Again, no. Sometimes ideas are discovered or questioned in the writing process that change earlier plans. The best idea always wins, at any stage.
- Polish 'til you drop. Every document you send out for development financing should be highly polished before you lick the stamp (or press the “send” button). No typos. No formatting errors.
- Your outline/treatment/script is also a sales document. Investors sometimes read scripts between phone calls, during meetings, and other times when they may be interrupted. Protect yourself by recognizing the script is a sales document and needs to be clear and reader-friendly. If your script isn’t clearly making the points it needs to make, you can’t count on the reader to infer what’s not on the page.
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