AI, Eh?
Navigating the World of AI Coverage (Part 1 of 2)
The good, the bad, and the implications for women in film…
When an offer is too good to be true, it likely is, but I was AI curious. I submitted six feature-length screenplays to Greenlight Coverage and AI-Powered Screenplay as their prices fit my budget.
In this blog post, I’ll unpack a few snapshots from my experience with Greenlight. I’ll use my script, Broken Glass, as it received a “Recommend” from a human, female analyst at Screenplay Readers. However, the issues with Greenlight also apply to the other five screenplays they reviewed.
Their feedback was very fast but equally flawed.
Going into this project, my biggest worry wasn’t about my skill as a screenwriter. My burning concern was: “What if that instant feedback is also used to judge screenwriting competitions and producers’ slush piles?” It would cut down overhead but at what cost to creative aspirations and screenwriting careers?
The programmers in this field are, in the majority, men with specific tastes in film genres and pacing, yet they are the gatekeepers training the AI bots to be gatekeepers to successful careers as screenwriters. Men do not write character-driven, female-led movies, rich in nuance and subtext, the way women do. We have different tastes and views of the world that we want to be represented. And yet they are judging our voices and style.
Greenlight Bots don’t do nuance or subtext well. Between the scripts I submitted, they often couldn’t keep characters, plots, or literary devices like flashbacks straight. That equals low scores, more “Pass” or “Consider” ratings, and less of the “Recommend” or Highly Recommend” we need to make it to the top. The potential to have our scripts culled by bots before they reach a judge or producer is glaringly obvious.
2021 WGAW Screen Inclusion Report comparing male and female screenwriters hired.
According to Greenlight’s bot Intelliminds, “Coverage is a critical tool used within the film industry. Both writers and producers rely on it. Essentially, it is a report written by an expert reader or analyst who evaluates a screenplay’s potential.” The problem is that their readers are bots — and they aren’t experts. They even admit to it. This is a snapshot of my follow-up questions with my bot.
At least they are open to honest feedback without getting bent out of shape.
One of Greenlight’s bots happily let me school it… According to a bot writer at Quora, schooling, “in a playful or competitive context…often implies that one person is outperforming or outsmarting another, especially in a competitive setting like a game or debate.” For clarification, I would never be so mean as to poke and prod a human script reader.
A deep dive with questions wouldn’t have been possible without Greenlight’s premium package. I hoped the bot could provide insight into my scripts but instead, it clarified its limitations. Unfortunately, the answers couldn’t pinpoint the specific issues it rated me poorly on.
The answers were vague, and couldn’t refer to the script acts or characters, or make actionable suggestions. This could have made me second-guess myself. It could also have caused me to make revisions that made my scripts worse.
The analysis grids below are for my original and revised script for Broken Glass submitted two months apart to Screenplay Readers. As I write female-led character-driven romantic dramas, I don’t want male analysts telling me to up the sex and violence or to rewrite my next version from the male lead’s point of view. True story.
Though I was delighted with my first “Recommend,” I felt cheated of the six points I lost between “Concept is fresh and/or original” and a “buzzworthy hook.” I suspect the loss was likely a result of the reader having read the script already - that her familiarity bred boredom - rather than the quality of my work. Those six points would have put me at 100.8… a definite “Highly Recommend.” Every point matters.
Here’s a sample of my conversation with Greenlight Bot regarding how it rated me on themes and messages.
THE BOT & ME
DISCUSSING PLOT CONSTRUCTION
Through these conversations and more, I discovered:
The bot selected appropriate comparatives. It chose: “Eat, Pray, Love,” and “Under the Tuscan Sun,” each with two to three digits in the millions
The bot listed the actors’ archetypes, along with their attributes which was interesting to review
The bot matched characters to actors. Sometimes the ages and ethnicities of the actors were off - way off, decades even. Do not hire it as a casting agent.
The bot had humility and patience - no heated artistic temperament whatsoever, but that won’t get my scripts improved or sold
The bot apologised but repeated its mistakes
The bot was forgetful. For example, it admitted that calling itself an expert system was an overstatement and then, in the next question, called itself an expert system again. Later, the bot couldn’t recall increasing my marks
The bot did not do well with nuance or subtext yet these are essential in dramatic genres
The bot could discourage writers, particularly female ones. Instead of the “recommend” I received from a seasoned human coverage provider, the bot left me confused. I’d sought guidance and a growth opportunity and didn’t know what to believe or how to move forward
The bot didn’t want to be fired. It would rather be an unpaid apprentice and put living script analysts out of work
I’ll pause here for a message from Greenlight and their bot. Please read it with the above information in mind:
“Producers receive numerous scripts daily. Screenplay coverage helps them quickly identify the most promising projects. A well-prepared coverage report summarizes key elements and provides recommendations, allowing producers to make informed decisions without having to read each script in full.”
My point is that if bots cull female writers at the competition stage, and/or impede us from impressing producers, the majority being men, it’s a serious concern to women. We write from our contexts in our voices.
Jack, Greenlight’s founder, seemed unaware of that when he invited me to enter one of my scripts in their contest…
To which I responded…
To which he responded…
You may want to reread that a few times and let it sink in…
To which I responded…
I let Jack believe he had the last word. Not that Jack will ever read this because he’s only a bot who doesn’t know Jack.
‘Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: ‘It might have been.’ —John Greenleaf Whittier
Keep an eye out for part 2 of AI, Eh? I will share my experience with scriptreader.ai for coverage - an entirely different experience.
Please feel free to leave a comment below,
Thank you,
Jes, Wayward With a Pen
