At Red-Line Editing Services, we place Screenplays into a category all its own because the manuscripts are quite different from those of other categories such as novels, short stories, and magazine articles. We offer a wide range of services to accommodate your specific needs.

Screenplay Critique

This service is similar to our other critique service, but the elements submitted to us for review are different and require a unique style of reporting the findings. Screenplays, by their very nature, have less detail in storyline and character development and rely more on ‘visual’ cues than do narrative manuscripts. Screenplay submissions also have unique ingredients, such as an Outline and Treatment instead of a Synopsis. The critique of a screenplay, like other critiques give you general advice on how to improve your work.

What the editor will analyze:

1.    The Current Title

        How catchy is it?

        How well does it convey the information in the screenplay?

        Editor’s suggestions (if any) to improve.

2.    The Current Query Letter

        How catchy is it?

        Does it intrigue?

        Does it conform to industry standards?

        Does it have the required elements?

        Editor’s suggestions (if any) to improve.

3.    The Current Outline

        How catchy is it?

        Does it intrigue?

        Does it conform to industry standards?

        Does it have the required elements?

        Editor’s suggestions (if any) to improve.

4.    The Current Treatment

        How catchy is it?

        Does it intrigue?

        Does it conform to industry standards?

        Does it have the required elements?

        Editor’s suggestions (if any) to improve.

5.    The Current Length of the Work

        Is it appropriate for the target market?

        Editor’s additional comments regarding length of this screenplay.

6.    What is the power of the opening Scene?

        Editor’s suggestions (if any) to improve.

7.    Dialogue

        Describe and comment.

        Voice

        Action/Dialogue exchange balance.

        Editor’s suggestions (if any) to improve.

 

Screenplay Coverage Services
 

Screenplay Editing Service

This service is similar to a manuscript’s full editing services, which concentrates on, Plot and Character Development, as well as red-line editing. In addition, there is a special emphasis on dialogue vs. action sequencing to ensure a smooth flowing script.
 

Outline and Treatment Editing / Ghostwriting

Two important pieces of a screenplay submission are the Outline and Treatment. Many playwrights have difficulty summarizing their screenplays into these two distinctly different documents. The Outline replaces a synopsis, and walks the reviewer from start to finish through all the major plot points and includes how the screenplay ends. The Treatment, concentrates on certain scenes and helps set the reviewer's mind as to motivation and counterpoints within the screenplay. Our Screenplay editors can assist you by editing these documents to ensure proper formatting, grammar, punctuation, and required elements all fit with industry standards. If you prefer, our Screenplay specialists can draft these documents for you as a Ghostwriter.

Adaptation Services

Adaptation services work in both directions and have their own sets of pitfalls to effectively translate from one form to the other and still maintain the overall ‘feel’ of the piece the way it was in its original form. Going from a novel to a screenplay means cutting out much of the detail to the bare bones of the story and replacing it with snippets that capture the essence, and then to add ‘visuals’ that the audience can use to imply all those things you cut from the narrative to fit within the time allowance for the screenplay (120 to 140 minutes). The opposite holds true for adaptations of screenplays into narrative format – having to fill in all those details, motivations, personality traits, and subplots, which screenplays leave to the director to fill in during filming.

With screenplays, each page represents 1-minute of finished film (when presented in Courier 12Pt font and formatted to industry standard), which simply isn’t the case with novels. With proper plot and character development, the adaptation of a full length film into a complete novel, depending on the genre, has between 100K to 120K words – double-spaced and 12Pt font (Arial or Times Roman - the two fonts acceptable to submission editors for narratives) would bring the manuscript close to 300 – 375 pages. Moreover, the presentation of action would change. Action within screenplay is written in present tense, whereas in novels submission editors prefer narration to be in past tense.

If you are interested in having us assist you with the adaptation of your manuscript please email us for a quote at Adapt@RedLineEditingServices.com and attach the document to the email.
 

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Copyright © 2007 Red-Line Editing Services
Last modified: 04/06/07