30 Scripts in 30 Days: Part 2

So, if you read Part 1, you know why I'm here, and you're probably wondering why the delay. Why would I break up the post and retain such pertinent details like the scripts I read? The only explanation for this is that I'm lazy. Writing several small posts rather than one big post is a more manageable undertaking.

The single most significant piece of advice I can give someone before diving into a challenge like 30 Scripts in 30 Days is to plan out what you're going to read ahead of time. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to read, and I figured I would read 10 Feature Films, 10 TV Shows, and 10 Peer Scripts. I did keep reasonably close to this format, but there were a couple of things that I didn't take into account. First, SOME SCRIPTS ARE TOO DAMN LONG. 

As a writer, I tend to split the page with an equal amount of dialog to action lines, but some scripts are only action or only dialogue. This technique is fine so long as I can follow along and have a clear sense of what the characters are doing within a scene. For example, Craig Mazin's 'Chernobyl' does a great job of moving the story forward while having little to no dialog throughout most of the story. At the same time, Alena Smith's 'Dickinson' sucks the reader into the world through its unique use of anachronistic dialog.

Whatever you're writing, know who your audience is, have a sense of how comparable scripts are written, and most importantly, keep the story moving! I started my 30-day challenge at a breakneck speed. I had several cross-country flights and managed to read 2 - 3 scripts per flight. So naturally, I wanted to choose pieces that had a similar tone to my current works in progress, but I was open to reading scripts that come highly recommended.

And without further ado, below are the first 10-scripts of my 30-day challenge.
​(I'll try to include links to any script that I'm allowed to share)

1. The Expanse (pilot) – written by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby

--  “The Expanse” was awesome! It’s tense, comedic, action packed, and dense with brilliant character and world descriptions. I’m seriously going to mine this for pacing, tone, and character introductions.

2. Mare of Easttown (pilot) – written by Brad Ingelsby

--  This is a pilot that largely consists of character building. Establishing Easttown as one of America’s many small towns where dreams go to die. They do a great job of establishing all the important characters in and around Mare’s life, but if I were to take one thing away from this, it would be how to build a 60-page mystery without revealing a single clue. This episode isn’t about Mare saving the day, so much as it is about a town where a lot of shitty stuff happens, and what will it take to break people out of their molds.

3. The Handmaids Tale (pilot) – written by Ilene Chaiken

--  I was actually surprised by how short this script was for all the world building they have to do and for the dramatic tone (only 49 pages). Another show I haven’t seen, but the script is fast paced, tense, and FULL of Flashbacks. It’s a bit disorienting with how quickly they throw you into each new flashback, sometimes without returning to the main story, but it’s an interesting choice to focus on so much of the protags past rather than devolving more of this dystopian world.

4. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (pilot) – written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

--  In an effort to bring my “spirits” up Sabrina was a fun change of pace! Empowering, driven and very proactive, Sabrina is constantly driving her story and the lives of those around her by asking why all of the time, and choosing to do something when she doesn’t get the answers she’s expecting

5. Euphoria (pilot) – written by Sam Levinson

--  It was an absolute trip (pun intended). Like pretty much the whole story is a depressing peek into the lives of a handful of high schoolers, but they present it in a way that’s unexpectedly optimistic. It’s violent, drug fueled, and hyper sexual, but it doesn’t feel like shock value so much as it appears in a hyperbolic way. Their lives are in a place where each moment feels white hot, but with so much happening it almost feels normal and expected.

6. The Boys (pilot) – written by Eric Kripke

--  My biggest take away from the boys was it’s narrative voice was incredibly conversational as if the audience was supposed to be in the Writers Room. I really like the show, but I don’t think all of the asides (“really, who the hell is this guy”) added to the story or the read, and as much as I wanted to like them, the felt more distracting than anything else. The story pacing is told in a way that is constantly jumping from character to character rather than following one person for multiple scenes. But they do a great job of showing the gritty behind the scenes of superheroes

7. Chernobyl (pilot) – written by Craig Mazin

--  I've fallen a bit behind on my reads, but going to do my damndest to catch up! Chernobyl is an awesome read and probably one of the more uniquely told stories that i've come across lately. I think my biggest takeaway is that the majority of the script is written as action, and as @AnnaK pointed out, it feels like it is being told by a feature writer giving direction to the art and design teams. There is so much detail in this story that I feel most would be told that it is slowing their story down. However, Chernobyl conveys a great sense of urgency and emotion. The writer ends almost every scene on an emotional note, which carries the reader forward anxious to know what's next.

8. Jessica Jones (pilot) – written by Melissa Rosenberg

--  If you watched the show a few years back, then you'll know this is a darker show with a complex protagonist who comes off as cold, erratic, and volatile. What I like about the pilot is that as the story progresses, which each clue she discovers, her armor cracks little by little and you learn that her emotional barriers are there to protect her and those closest to her. I chose this as a character study to read women characters who don't fall into prototypical roles, and Jessica Jones is anything but.

9. Adversaries (pilot) - written by Sean Finnegan, David Daitch, and Katie Stone

--  Action packed TV Drama - Naval fighter story in the vein of Top Gun, but this time it's focused on command. The shift is to a female commander's first 36 hours on the job and she's responsible for evaluating her students for real life warfare. I had certain expectations for where this was going to go and I was surprised when it didn't. It really kept things grounded on her life in the office and at home with a couple of fun Dogfights thrown in to keep the heart racing.

10. American Infamy – written by Takeo Hori

--  This script was an incredible read and I'm so excited that it placed as a Nicholls finalist. The writer does a great job of following a Japanese-American family during the trials of WW2 internment, and constantly asking what it takes to be accepted as an American. The script is heart wrenching, frustrating, and ultimately thought provoking. At a time when discrimination is ever present it's also incredibly relevant. 

And that is 10 scripts down! I know I'm writing all of this after the fact, but where is the sense of danger if I were to release it all at once?? So I'm going to take a pause, refill my coffee and get back to rewriting this script.

​Stay tuned for PART 3 which should be dropping any...day...now.