AI, eh? (Part 2)

Navigating the World of AI Coverage

Created by Midjourney. Prompt: “screenwriting robot — ar 16:9”

The mind-boggling scriptreader.ai experience was well worth the low admission fee.

I signed up for scriptwriter.ai’s 10 Script for $70 option and ran all six of my scripts through the system. I made a few edits here and there based on the comments that resonated and bypassed the ones that weren’t a good fit. Then I ran four of them through a second time. By the end of the process, they all earned a coveted “Recommend.” I gave it - and myself - a thumbs up for that, too, and another to them for their price point. You can’t beat it in on value for money. You can even get your first three scenes analyzed for free to test it out.

When your script analysis is ready, take their tour, particularly if you haven’t used their service before. You’ll discover all the bells and whistles without getting lost. There are so many of them it can otherwise be confusing! Whether it’s your first script or your tenth, you’ll discover ways to improve your work. It may even inspire you to write another. It reminded me that, as good as I thought my scripts were, I could still do better. Another thumbs up for that!

Make sure to play their screenwriting game, SceneProv_. It’s fun and educational.

At some point, you’ll want to take a trip into their script vault. Part of your analysis will include how you rate against some of these titles. You can even read the scripts…

Check out my grades…

Goodbye For Now is right up there with Casablanca!

And this longer screenshot is for my script Broken Glass…

With ratings like this, why aren’t producers knocking down my door?

Screenwriting isn’t for the faint of heart. We keep writing to pad our portfolios in hopes one gets noticed and brings the other ones along for the ride. And we keep writing because we can’t hold our ideas or passion for writing back. It would cripple our creativity and our souls.

Now back to the bots. As with Greenlight, many of the bot’s comments were generic or could be misleading due to AI errors. Yes, they do make mistakes, including typos. Scripreader.ai’s bot had difficulty tracking the more complex and nuanced storylines, particularly when they involved flashbacks or subtext. No matter how clear the slug lines, how clarifying the dialogue, or how tight the descriptions were, the bot couldn’t keep up with the time shifts between past and present in my script Goodbye for Now despite giving it a “Recommend.”

It also couldn’t keep track of Nora, the protagonist, who was first seen as a fay five-year-old who could see ghosts, then as a rebellious, Goth teen drawing coffin ships, then as a grieving woman in love and facing peril. The bot even suggested that her love interest was her half-brother. It spun that tale from the mention of DNA testing her mother had wanted her to get. Quite a leap! Because of the scenes with the younger versions of Nora, the bot mislabeled the target audience, calling it a coming-of-age story suited to adolescents - despite the sexual content. That cost it a thumbs up.

Still, its confusion made me stop long enough to ponder how to bot-proof these areas for film festival competitions and production companies who may use bots as judges. It was an incentive to dig deeper into the lower score and appreciate its praise. The bot seemed to like my writing style - or styles… Nora Ephron popped up 5 out of 6 times. I was ecstatic!

Pitch decks for each of these screenplays are on this website. They’re full of lovely visuals and information that will make you want to see them get made into movies so you can have a watch party. At least that’s my hope.

Keep in mind that AI coverage is only one of the tools to hone your script. What money you save by using scriptreader.ai, you can put towards working with a mentor, signing up for a class, hosting a screenwriters’ group, or getting coverage from a human with connections in the industry.

To earn a higher ranking from me, and I hope I speak for other women in film, the bots would need to be trained with gender equity in mind, with proportional numbers of scripts in the vault written by women. If bots are to join the ranks of gatekeepers of our success, they need to represent us, too. Perhaps there would be fewer errors in their analyses and we’d have a better chance at breaking the glass ceiling. We want our voices heard and our stories told on screen in numbers commensurate with the general public.

Vive la différence!

It is the only way we will be able to close the gap and let our art shine.

“May our stories be found and our voices discovered.” —Wayward With a Pen

P.S.

I’d hoped to add a third blog post to this series, using Script Intelligence, a new AI script analysis company, but their pricing was prohibitive. A fair comparison would require running all six scripts through it. I did get a sample of their feedback on the first seven pages of Float My Boat and was fairly satisfied.

I communicated with them, offering suggestions for the website which was, to me at least, underwhelming. I also asked for information on gender equity within the company and the scripts their AI was trained with. They thanked me for my feedback but were otherwise not forthcoming.

I left them this parting note: “Without getting a response regarding the gender equity of your programmers, I can only give Script Intelligence a rating of "Consider with revisions" for my blog. 

You can check out their offering at scriptintelligence.com

Here’s a screenshot from their website on their pricing.