Screenplays: Judging by Their Coverage

JUDGING
SCREENPLAYS
BY THEIR COVERAGE
An analysis of 12,000+ unproduced feature film screenplays and the scores they received,
revealing what professional script readers think makes a good screenplay.
BY
STEPHEN FOLLOWS AND JOSH COCKCROFT

WITH LIORA MICHLIN
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
SCREENCRAFT
JUDGING SCREENPLAYS BY THEIR COVERAGE
CONTENTS
Foreword .........................................................................3
TL;DR ..............................................................................5
Introduction .....................................................................6
Section A: How To Impress Script Readers........................8
What Matters Most to Script Readers ........................................................................................................................................................... 9
Genre-specific Advice ................................................................................................................................................................................... 10
Sentiment ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 17
Plot Arcs ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 19
Swearing........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 28
Number of Pages .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 29
Speech Descriptors....................................................................................................................................................................................... 30
Use of Voiceover ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 31
Section B: The Average Screenplay ................................32

Pages............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 33
Scenes ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 35
Speaking Characters .................................................................................................................................................................................... 36
Dialogue ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 37
Locations....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 38
Punctuation ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 40
Swearing........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 41
Age of Characters ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 44
Genre-skewed Words.................................................................................................................................................................................... 48
Section C: Screenwriters and The Act of Screenwriting ...60

Gender ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 61
The Working Habits of Screenwriters .......................................................................................................................................................... 63
Screenwriting Software ................................................................................................................................................................................ 65
© Stephen Follows, 2019 2

FOREWORD
A Note from the Authors
Screenwriting is a lot like ice skating. It’s harder than it first appears, it takes a lot of practice to stop constantly getting
hurt and success means spending your life on thin ice. Oh, and if you want to make a career of it, you need to impress a
small number of judges.
In the case of screenwriting, the first line of judges are script readers. They read and rate scripts on behalf of producers,
studios and competitions. Scoring well with readers will mean that your screenplay reaches the desks of the great and the
good (who are hopefully also the rich and the powerful). Score poorly and all the countless hours you put into your
screenplay will just have been “character building”.
Given how important script readers are, it’s vital that any aspiring screenwriter spends time understanding what readers
think a good script looks like. This has been our mission in this project.
Using data on over 12,000 unproduced feature film screenplays, along with the scores they received from professional
script readers, we can lift the lid on how to impress these vital conduits.
This project is not about measuring art or rating how good a story is; it’s about decoding the industry’s gatekeepers.
Rather than suggesting “this is what a good script contains,” instead we are saying “this is what readers think a good
script contains”.
In the real world, this distinction may not matter as readers are an integral part of the industry’s vetting process. But it is
important to remember that all the advice to screenwriters contained herein is in relation to the data and through the lens
of what script readers have revealed in their scores.
The most talented writers can overcome most, if not all, of these correlations. They can make the impossible possible,
spin an old tale a new way, induce real tears over imagined events and lead us to root for characters we know to be
doomed.
We have thoroughly enjoyed conducting the research and we hope you find the final report useful.
One last thing – once you’ve finished reading the report, stop procrastinating and get back to that screenplay you’re
supposed to be writing…
Stephen Follows Josh Cockcroft Liora Michlin

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to say a special thank you to John at ScreenCraft and Scot at Coverfly for making this project
possible and for being there to support us at every stage. Their unwavering focus on helping screenwriters is palpable and
helped us ensure this report was practical as well as data-driven.
We would also like to thank the wonderful, smart people who helped along the way, including Paul Thompson, Ben Aston,
Edward Dark, Chris Jones, Lucy V Hay, Jasmin Peppiatt, Monique Charlesworth and Sophie Lifschutz.
We are grateful to Laurie Clouston and Greg Dawson at Celtx and Guy Goldstein at WriterDuet for helping us identify
scripts created with their programs.
This report was funded by proceeds from our last publication, The Horror Report 1. The Horror Report was published via a
‘Pay What You Can’ model, with all the income going to support future film data research. We are very grateful to everyone
who purchased a copy and especially to the generous people who chose to give us way more than the minimum. The
report you are reading now simply would not have been possible without such contributions.
A Note from ScreenCraft

I simply want to say thank you to Stephen Follows and his talented team (Josh and Liora).
ScreenCraft was so fortunate to find such a talented team to help us analyze this
insurmountable amount of data from thousands of screenwriters and professional script
readers.
They’ve helped us discover some fascinating correlations between elements of screenplays

and how readers rate them.
And to all our screenwriters, script readers and event attendees out there – thank you all for entrusting us with your
projects.
We hope this report is both entertaining and helpful for screenwriters and filmmakers everywhere.
John Rhodes, Co-Founder, ScreenCraft
1 https://stephenfollows.com/horrorreport/

TL;DR
Look, we get it – you’re busy. You’ve got irons in fires, buns in ovens, plates spinning and other kitchen-based metaphors
which illustrate the underlying panic we all feel about underachieving in an ever more frenetic world.
But… breathe. Be calm. We’ve got you, fam. Here is a one-page summary of the project.
What We Did
We analysed 12,309 feature film screenplays which were submitted to screenplay competitions and for script reports. All
of the scripts were read by professional script readers, who gave the scripts an overall score as well as scores for other
factors, including plot, characterization and voice. We looked for connections and correlations to discover what
professional script readers think a good screenplay looks like.
What We Found
Later sections go into more detail and more topics, but below are nine tips screenwriters should take on board to help
improve their chances of impressing script readers.
1. Know thy genre. Your priorities should rest on the particular nature of your chosen genre. For example, Family
films place the highest premium on catharsis, while for Action films it’s plot.
2. Some stories work better than others. The vast majority of scripts can be summarized using just six basic
emotional plot arcs – and some perform better than others.
3. If you’re happy and you know it, redraft your script. Film is about conflict and drama and for almost all genres,
the happier the scripts were, the worse they performed. The one notable exception was comedy, where the
reverse is true.
4. Swearing is big and it is clever. There is a positive correlation between the level of swearing in a script and how
well it scored, for all but the sweariest screenplays.
5. It’s not about length, it’s what you do with it. The exact length doesn’t matter too much, so long as your script is
between 90 and 130 pages. Outside of those approximate boundaries scores drop precipitously.
6. Don’t rush your script for a competition. The closer to the deadline a script was finished, the worse it performed.
7. Use flashbacks responsibly. Scripts with more than fifteen flashbacks perform worse than those with few to no
flashbacks.
8. VO is A-OK. Some in the industry believe that frequent use of voiceover is an indicator of a bad movie, however
we found no such correlation. We suggest that any complaints on the topic should be sent to editors, rather than
writers.
9. Don’t worry if you’re underrepresented within your genre – it’s your superpower. Female writers outperform male
writers in male-dominated genres (such as Action) and the reverse is true in female-dominated genres (such as
Family).

INTRODUCTION
Our Dataset and Research
This project is a collaboration with ScreenCraft, a screenwriting consultancy and competition platform. They provided
anonymised scoring data on 12,309 feature film screenplays which had been submitted either to one of ScreenCraft’s
own script competitions or to their script review service.
The vast majority of these scripts will not have been produced into movies yet and a large number of the screenwriters
will still be at entry level, rather than professional writers. That said, within the dataset are scripts which have won awards,
been optioned by established producers and been written by writing professionals and Hollywood stars.
No matter their source or the background of the writer, all scripts were independently assessed and rated by professional
script readers. This produces a collection of scores for each script, ranging from the all-important Review Score down to
specific aspects of each script, such as plot, characterization, concept and voice.
We ran the screenplays through a series of bespoke algorithms, pulling out all manner of data from each script. This gave
us a vast array of data to add to the score given by the script readers, ranging from basic metadata (such as length,
number of scenes, and the software the script was written with) through to more complex analysis (such as the sentiment
of each line of dialogue, genre-skewed language, and how characters interact with each other).
Using this dataset, we sought out connections and correlations to discover what professional script readers think a good
screenplay looks like and how screenwriters can improve their chances of receiving a high Review Score.
An Introduction to Script Coverage

Many producers and production companies are not able to personally read each and every screenplay which is submitted
to them. They rely on script readers to filter their script mountain down to a select few projects which deserve additional
attention.
A typical script coverage will cost the producer $80 to $150 and, in return, they will receive a short report containing a
precis of the script and an opinion as to its quality.
The script reader’s verdict is typically summarised by awarding the script one of three possible verdicts: Pass, Consider or
Recommend. In addition, the report will contain scores for various aspects of the script and a breakdown of the script’s
strengths and shortcomings.

An Introduction to Script Competitions

The vast majority of screenplay competitions are open to anyone who has written a qualifying screenplay and who pays
the entry fee, typically around $30 to $80. Submitted scripts will be evaluated by script readers and in some cases a script
report is generated and sent to the writer.
The highest scoring scripts progress to later rounds, between which screenwriters may be permitted to submit updated
drafts of their shortlisted project. Eventually, a winner is announced and prizes distributed.
Given the vast number of aspiring screenwriters and the industry's reliance on ‘who you know’, script competitions offer
industry outsiders a chance to have their work recognised, celebrated and perhaps produced.

SECTION A: HOW TO
IMPRESS SCRIPT
READERS
It’s not possible to give you a secret formula which can guarantee success in screenwriting.
However, it is possible to note significant correlations between the scores readers
give screenplays and certain aspects of those scripts.
This section contains a series of recommendations for screenwriters, based on the data,
assuming one’s goal is to increase the score awarded by script readers.
What Matters Most to Script Readers ........................................................................................................................................................... 9

Genre-specific Advice ................................................................................................................................................................................... 10
Sentiment ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 17
Plot Arcs ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 19
Swearing........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 28
Number of Pages .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 29
Speech Descriptors....................................................................................................................................................................................... 30
Use of Voiceover ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 31

What Matters Most to Script Readers

As well as the overall ‘Review Score’, ScreenCraft’s script readers are asked to provide scores for a variety of specific
factors such as plot, tone and concept.
We tracked how important each of these factors are in the success of scripts through this process.
There is a longer explanation in the footnotes 2 but suffice it to say that the higher the number, the greater the level of
correlation between that factor and the script’s overall Review Score.
The greatest correlations are within the subcategories of characterization, plot and style. Among the least important
factors are formatting, originality and the script’s hook.
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It should be noted that although some factors are less important than others, all are positively correlated within the overall
Review Score and therefore no factor should be neglected.
2 We used the Pearson correlation coefficient, which provides a value between 1 and -1 to indicate how linked two sets of numbers are. A value of 1
would reveal that the two factors are perfectly positively correlated (i.e. when one of the figures rises, so too does the other). A value of -1 would show
perfect negative correlation (i.e. when one rises the other falls). Values of between 0.2 and -0.2 are not regarded as statistically significant.

Genre-specific Advice
When submitting their screenplays, writers were asked to select a principal genre for their script 3. This allows us to split
the results by these self-reported genres.
Across our dataset, Thrillers receive the highest average scores from readers, with an average of 5.4 out of 10 across our
dataset4. Comedies score the lowest, with an average of 4.7.
Average review score, by genre

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5.4
5.2
Average Review Score
5.0
4.8
4.6
4.4
4.2
Comedy Fantasy Sci-Fi Horror Family Drama Historical Action Adventure Animated Thriller
Most of the elements which are present in high-quality screenplays are universal no matter which type of film is being
written. However, the priority order of these elements can differ between genres.
3 Scripts with the genre classifications of “Other” and “Unknown” have been excluded from genre-breakdowns, as are the genres whereby there were too
few scripts to make the results meaningful, such as “Faith”, “Musical” and “Western”. These scripts are, however, included in any analysis not
specifically relating to genre.
4 As we have no independent yardstick to measure of the quality separately from the script readers’ scores, we cannot say if this is due to Thriller being
an objectively better-written genre or if this is due to a prejudice on the behalf of script readers. As discussed previously, in the real world this distinction
is irrelevant as the views of script readers are taken as fact by those commissioning reports and running competitions.

Action
The most important indicator of the final score of an Action script is what the Reader thinks of the plot. The strength of
the dialogue is not a key factor, and neither is originality or the script’s concept.
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Adventure
Voice and tone have a much bigger role to play in Adventure scripts, when compared to Action scripts. Conversely,
catharsis is less important than in almost all other genres.
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Animated
The strength of the plot and concept are key to the success of Animated scripts.
When compared with scripts of other genres, Animated scripts appear to rely more heavily on broad ideas (such as
concept and theme) rather than specific features of the writing (such as voice and structure).
The “voice” of the screenwriter is far less important in an Animated screenplay, compared to other genres. Two-thirds of
genres have voice as one of their top three factors, whereas, for Animated scripts, it’s towards the bottom of the list. A
similar observation can be made in relation to catharsis, with Animated film the least dependent on it for overall success.
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Comedy
The most important factors for Comedies are characterization and plot. Interestingly, the pace of a comedy script has a
far weaker connection to its overall score than that of any other genre. In this context, pacing refers to the speed of plot
points moving forward, rather than fast-talking characters.
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Drama
Drama scripts owe a large amount of their final score to the strength of their characterization. Interestingly, plot is far less
important than with most other genres.
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Family
Family scripts rely most on catharsis and are the least dependent on the strength of their plot of all the major genres.
Family films are also rewarded for their pacing, keeping the story moving (even though it doesn’t seem to matter what that
story is!)
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Fantasy
Fantasy scripts are driven by the quality of their plot, characterization and voice. Fantasy scripts and Action scripts have
many parallels, the principal difference being the diminished role of conflict in Fantasy scripts.
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Historical
Uniquely, historical scripts place the highest premium on tone, making it the most important factor in success with script
readers.
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Horror
Plot is not a comparatively key factor in the success of Horror scripts. The structure of a Horror script is more important
than with any other genres.
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Sci-Fi
Plot tops the Sci-Fi list with tone and characterization coming in a close second.
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Thriller
Thrillers are led by plot. However, when compared to other genres, they rate catharsis and tone higher than
characterization and voice.
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Sentiment
Our system measures the average sentiment of each script5 and provides an average value of between minus one (i.e.
entirely negative) and one (i.e. entirely positive). A value of zero would indicate that the scripts contain an equal number of
positive and negative elements.
Drama and Thriller scripts have the strongest negative connection between their average sentiment value and Review
Score 6. Dramas with a sentiment value of between 0.20 and 0.25 receive an average score of 4.68 out of 10, whereas
much more negative films (i.e. those with a sentiment value between -0.20 and -0.15) receive an average score of 5.85.
Drama Thriller
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6.0 6.0
5.8 5.8
Average review score

5.6 5.6
5.4 5.4
5.2 5.2
5.0 5.0
4.8 4.8
4.6 4.6
4.4 4.4
4.2 4.2
4.0 4.0
-0.15 -0.10 -0.05 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 -0.10 -0.05 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15
Average Sentiment Average Sentiment
Horror, Action and Sci-Fi scripts show the same pattern, although it is less pronounced with Dramas and Thrillers.
Horror Action
6.0 6.0
5.8 5.8
5.6 5.6
5.4 5.4
5.2 5.2
5.0 5.0
4.8 4.8
4.6 4.6
4.4 4.4
4.2 4.2
4.0 4.0
-0.20 -0.15 -0.10 -0.05 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 -0.10 -0.05 0.00 0.05 0.10
Average Sentiment Average Sentiment
5 Sentiment was calculated using the VADER (Valence Aware Dictionary and sEntiment Reasoner) lexicon and rules. This is a dictionary which assigns a
‘sentiment’ value to each word to indicate how positive/negative it is, validated by thousands of human checkers. The sentiment of each sentence is
calculated by summing and normalising the values of the words in at, as well as applying a number of contextual rules; e.g. adjusting the value of words
depending on qualifiers such as ‘very’ or punctuation such as ‘!’ and examining sentence structure to take into account ‘but’ and other negators.
6 The sentiment charts only show values for subsets in which there were at least 25 scripts (i.e. Drama scripts with an average sentiment value of
between -0.20 and -0.15).

Sci-Fi
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6.0
5.8
5.6

5.4
5.2
5.0
4.8
4.6
4.4
4.2
4.0
-0.10 -0.05 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15
Average Sentiment
The only genre with the opposite relationship (i.e. where positive films receive slightly higher scores than negative films)
is Comedy.
Comedy
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6.0
5.8
5.6
5.4
5.2
5.0
4.8
4.6
4.4
4.2
4.0
-0.10 -0.05 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25
Average Sentiment
The other genres did not show a clear relationship between sentiment and readers’ scores.

Plot Arcs
By tracking the sentiment of the script over the length of a script, we are able to measure the emotional journey of the
film. When things get dicey for the characters, the language becomes increasingly negative, and when things are going
well, the sentiment values will rise accordingly.
Past researchers have found that there are six commonly found plot arcs in books 7 and movies 8. We found our scripts
could be sorted into the same six arcs:
• “Riches to rags” – a continuing emotional fall. E.g. Blue Jasmine

• “Rags to riches” – a continuing emotional rise. E.g. Shawshank Redemption
• “Oedipus” – fall-rise-fall. E.g. Inglourious Basterds
• “Cinderella” – rise-fall-rise. E.g. Rushmore
• “Man in a hole” – fall-rise. E.g. Die Hard
• “Icarus” – rise-fall E.g. Se7en
Riches to Rags (fall) Rags to Riches (rise)

0.9 0.8
0.8 0.7
Average Sentiment
Average Sentiment
0.7 0.6
0.6
0.5
0.5
0.4
0.4
0.3
0.3
0.2 0.2
0.1 0.1
0.0 0.0
Begining Middle End Begining Middle End
Oedipus (fall-rise-fall) Cinderella (rise-fall-rise)

0.9 0.8
0.8 0.7
Average Sentiment
Average Sentiment
0.7 0.6
0.6
0.5
0.5
0.4
0.4
0.3
0.3
0.2 0.2
0.1 0.1
0.0 0.0
7 “Data Mining Reveals the Six Basic Emotional Arcs of Storytelling” https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601848/data-mining-reveals-the-six-basic-
emotional-arcs-of-storytelling/
8 “The Data Science Of Hollywood: Using Emotional Arcs Of Movies To Drive Business Model Innovation In Entertainment Industries”
https://arxiv.org/vc/arxiv/papers/1807/1807.02221v1.pdf

Man in a Hole (fall-rise) Icarus (rise-fall)

0.9 0.8
0.8 0.7
Average Sentiment
Average Sentiment
0.7 0.6
0.6
0.5
0.5
0.4
0.4
0.3
0.3
0.2 0.2
0.1 0.1
0.0 0.0
Naturally, individual scripts/movies have multiple emotional ups and downs. There are two reasons why we can generate
smooth graphs as shown above. Firstly, the more significant/emphatic the emotional highs and lows are, the greater their
impact on the sentiment graph. Secondly, we are averaging over a very large number of scripts.
A recent study9 measured the emotional arcs of over 6,000 produced feature films and tracked how common each of the
six plot arcs are. The most common arc found in the study was Man in a Hole, followed by Riches to Rags. However,
within our set of amateur scripts, we found Riches to Rags is the most common by a long way, with over 30% of our films
fitting that category.
Prevalence of the six common plot arcs

Our 2019 study (12,309 screenplays) 2018 Cornell study (6,174 produced movies)
35%
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30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Riches to Rags Rags to Riches Oedipus Cinderella Man in a Hole Icarus
(fall) (rise) (fall-rise-fall) (rise-fall-rise) (fall-rise) (rise-fall)
Naturally, different genres have different storytelling requirements and conventions. So it’s more revealing to take a look
at how prevalent these arcs are within different genres, and how they relate to reader scores.
9 Vecchio et al. (2018). The Data Science of Hollywood: Using Emotional Arcs of Movies to Drive Business Model Innovation in the Entertainment
Industry. https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.02221

Action
The majority of our Action scripts fell into the Riches to Rags arc (29.1%) and the least common was Icarus (9.9%).
Prevalence of the six common plot arcs - Action
Riches to Rags (fall) Oedipus (fall-rise-fall)

Man in a Hole (fall-rise)
29.1% 17.3%
16.3%
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Rags to Riches (rise) Cinderella (rise-fall-rise) Icarus (rise-fall)
12.0% 15.4% 9.9%
When we compare the mean scores of Action scripts within different arcs, we can see some significant differences 10.
Rags to Riches is associated with the greatest average review score (5.63), while the scripts within the Icarus arc had an
average score of one point less (4.63). The difference between Man in a Hole (5.45) and Icarus was on the verge of
statistically significance, so may also indicate a trend.
Review scores of common plot arcs - Action

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Icarus (rise-fall)
Cinderella (rise-fall-rise)
Oedipus (fall-rise-fall)
Rags to Riches (rise)
Riches to Rags (fall)
4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0 5.2 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.0
10 Significance was established by conducting multiple comparison T-Tests. This test compares the mean and spread of the scores to determine the
probability they represent distinct groups. We corrected for multiple comparisons by using the Bonferroni correction. Essentially, this adjusts the
threshold you accept statistical significance at to be smaller, in order to account for the fact that by running more tests you increase the chance of a
false significance.

Comedy
Within Comedy, we again found that Riches to Rags was the most common emotional arc (35.5%), while Cinderella was
the least common (10.6%).
Prevalence of the six common plot arcs - Comedy

35.5% 15.2%
13.7%
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11.6% 10.7% 13.3%
There were some small differences in review scores between different emotional arcs, however tests showed that these
were not statistically significant.
Review scores of common plot arcs - Comedy

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Icarus (rise-fall)
4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0 5.2 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.0

Drama
Riches to Rags was once again the most popular arc within this genre (32.7%), whiles Rags to Riches was the least
popular (10.7%).
Prevalence of the six common plot arcs - Drama

32.7% 15.1%
13.7%
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10.7% 14.6% 13.2%
We found some small differences in mean scores between the different arcs, and while none were statistically significant,
we found a trend on the verge of significance: Cinderella arcs seemed to do better than Riches to Rags.
Review scores of common plot arcs - Drama

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Icarus (rise-fall)
4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0 5.2 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.0

Fantasy
Riches to rags were once again the most common story arc (32.5%), while Icarus was the least common (10.9%).
Prevalence of the six common plot arcs - Fantasy

32.5% 18.2%
13.6%
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12.9% 11.9% 10.9%
We found significant differences in mean scores between different arcs. With Rags to Riches performing the worst (mean
score of 4.28), and Cinderella (5.14), Man in Hole (5.13) and Riches to Rags (4.9) performing the best.
Review scores of common plot arcs - Fantasy

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Icarus (rise-fall)
4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0 5.2 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.0

Horror
Horror had the highest proportion of stories with a continuing emotional fall (37.1%) and the lowest proportion with a
continuing emotional rise (6.9%).
Prevalence of the six common plot arcs - Horror

37.1% 14.6%
18.4%
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6.9% 13.6% 9.5%
But despite being the most common, there was a significant difference in the scores of the Riches to Rags arc (4.78)
compared to Icarus (5.18) and Oedipus (5.09) arcs.
Review scores of common plot arcs - Horror

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Icarus (rise-fall)
4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0 5.2 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.0

Sci-Fi
The most common arc in Sci-Fi is once-again the Riches to Rag arc (33.3%), and the least common is Rags to Riches
(8.2%).
Prevalence of the six common plot arcs - Sci-Fi

33.3% 17.8%
16.7%
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8.2% 13.1% 10.9%
While not statistically significant, it's noticeable that Rags to Riches (4.58) performed worse than all other categories.
Review scores of common plot arcs - Sci-Fi

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Icarus (rise-fall)
4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0 5.2 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.0

Thriller
Riches to Rags was still the most popular arc (37.9%), while Icarus was the least popular (9.9%).
Prevalence of the six common plot arcs - Thriller

37.9% 13.0%
17.5%
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11.2% 10.5% 9.9%
While not statistically significant, we did find a trend that Man in a Hole was likely to perform worse than Oedipus in this
genre.
Review scores of common plot arcs - Thriller

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Icarus (rise-fall)
4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0 5.2 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.0

Swearing
There is a mild correlation between the level of swearing and the overall score a script received.
When the scripts are grouped into five levels of swearing 11, the average score increases along with the level of profanity.
The only exception to this rule are the filthiest scripts (i.e. the 20% sweariest scripts) which were mildly less successful.
Average review score by amount of swearing

5.20
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5.15
5.10
Average Review score
5.05
5.00
4.95
4.90
4.85
4.80
4.75
4.70
No swearing Small amount Some swearing A lot Filthy
Interestingly, one of the connections we discovered is a link between the level of swearing and scores the scripts received
for “Voice”.
Average 'Voice' score by amount of swearing

6.50
StephenFollows.com
6.45
6.40
Average Voice score
6.35
6.30
6.25
6.20
6.15
6.10
6.05
6.00
No swearing Small amount Some swearing A lot Filthy
11 See a later section for details on our methodology for these classifications.

Number of Pages
There is no statistically significant correlation between the number of pages and the overall score a script received.
However, scripts at the margins (i.e. the very shortest and longest) do perform worse than the rest.
Average Review Score by number of pages

5.4
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5.2
5.0
4.8
4.6
4.4
4.2
4.0
Under 85 85-89 90-94 95-99 100-104 105-109 110-114 115-119 120-124 125-129 130 and
more
Number of Pages

Speech Descriptors
One complaint producers and directors level at screenwriters is that they overwrite the speech descriptions.
These appear below a character's name, ahead of any dialogue and are in parentheses, examples being “(loudly)”,
“(angrily)”, etc. The complaint mostly comes down to writers overreaching and telling either the director or the actors how
to do their jobs.
We found that speech descriptors are fairly common, averaging at 74.0 instances across our scripts. For the most part,
they were not correlated with the scores readers gave the scripts, except at the margins. Scripts with an unusually low
number of descriptors (below around 25) score poorly, as do the scripts with the most (above around 235).
Average Review Score by usage of speech descriptors

5.4
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5.2
5.0
4.8
4.6
4.4
4.2
4.0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
Number of speech descriptors

Use of Voiceover
An old adage of the screenwriting craft is “show – don’t tell” and this is often cited when discussing the use of voiceover.
Some contend that an over-reliance on voiceover is a sure sign of a poor script. Our script dataset is the perfect place to
test this theory and the answer to the question “Is the amount of voiceover correlated to the quality of a script?”
The answer is… no. There is almost no correlation between the scores scripts received and their reliance on voiceover 12.
While this is true for our scripts, it may still be that finished movies which rely on voiceover are below par. This could be
the result of frantic edits where editors, directors or even producers step in to “solve” issues in edits by adding extra lines
of voiceover 13.
Almost a third of all scripts didn’t feature any voiceover and across all scripts the average project featured just 12.1
instances of voiceover.
Sci-Fi scripts are the most likely to use voiceover (an average of 16.7 lines per script) with Westerns the least (7.6).
Average number of instances of voiceover, by genre

18
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Average number of instances of voiceover per script
16
14
12
10
12 The only exceptions to the finding that voiceover is not correlated with quality are the scripts which relied significantly on voiceover (i.e. over 70
instances), which do perform worse than the average script.

13 An ‘instance’ of voiceover relates to a block of dialogue. This could contain one line or many.

SECTION B: THE
AVERAGE SCREENPLAY
Analysing such a large dataset of feature film scripts also affords us

a unique opportunity to measure what screenwriters are writing.
Pages............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 33
Scenes ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 35
Speaking Characters .................................................................................................................................................................................... 36
Dialogue ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 37
Locations....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 38
Punctuation ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 40
Swearing........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 41
Age of Characters ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 44
Genre-skewed Words.................................................................................................................................................................................... 48

Pages
The median length across all of our scripts was 106 pages. However, there was a broad spectrum of lengths, with 68.5%
of screenplays running between 90 and 120 pages long.
As the chart below shows, there are spikes on round numbers; namely pages 90, 100, 110 and 120.
Length of scripts in our dataset

3.5%
StephenFollows.com
3.0%
Percentage of scripts
2.5%
2.0%
1.5%
1.0%
0.5%
0.0%
80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 140
Pages
One page of correctly-formatted film script averages out at one minute of eventual screen time, meaning that a 120-page
screenplay is likely to translate into a two-hour movie. This means we can compare our scripts to the running time of
produced movies.
Movies in cinemas are generally slightly shorter than scripts in our dataset and are far less likely to run between 110 and
120 minutes.

Running time of produced movies and scripts in our dataset

Scripts in our dataset All movies in US cinemas 1988-2017
3.5%
StephenFollows.com
3.0%
Percentage of scripts or movies
2.5%
2.0%
1.5%
1.0%
0.5%
0.0%
80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 140
Pages
Interestingly, at the longest end of the spectrum, the trend reverses. 5.8% of the movies released in US cinemas between
1988 and 2017 were over 140 minutes long, compared to just 1.4% of scripts in our dataset. Many such movies come
from established directors and producers, such as James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Spike Lee, Oliver Stone and Steven
Spielberg.
Horror scripts are the shortest, with an average page count of 98.6 while the longest were Faith scripts at 110.0 pages.
Average page count, by genre

112
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110
108
Pages (excluding title page)
106
104
102
100
98
96
94
92

Scenes
The average script has 110 scenes – just over one scene per page. Action scripts have the greatest number of scenes (an
average of 131.2 scenes) with Comedies having the fewest (just 98.5).
Average number of scenes, by genre

140
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120
100
80
Scenes
60
40
20
If we bring together the data on the number of pages and scenes, we can calculate the average length of a scene by
genre. Action scripts have the shortest scenes (an average of 0.87 pages) while Comedies have the longest (average of
1.06 pages per scene).
Average number of pages per scene, by genre

1.2
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Average scene length (in pages)
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0

Speaking Characters
Our analysis allows us to look at the number of unique characters who speak in each script, from our principal
hero/heroine right through to background characters with single perfunctory lines.
Historical scripts have the greatest number of speaking characters (an average of 45.7) and Horror scripts have the
fewest (25.8). Sadly, we were unable to track how many of those characters were still alive by the final page.
Average number of speaking characters per scene, by genre

50
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Unique characters with at least one line of dialogue
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10

Dialogue
Speaking of speaking characters, let's look at the speeches they are speaking. By breaking each script down to its core
components, we are able to track what percentage is made up of dialogue14.
Dialogue as a percentage of the whole script, by genre

44%
StephenFollows.com
% of script designated as dialogue
44%
43%
43%
42%
42%
41%
41%
40%
40%
The average line of dialogue is 21.7 words long, with Thrillers being the most verbose (an average of 27.2 words in each
line of dialogue) and Westerns being the briefest (19.4 words).
Average length of dialogue, by genre

30
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25
20
Words
15
10
Because this genre is among the least dialogue heavy but also has the longest average length of dialogue, Thrillers
feature a great deal more monologuing than other genres.
14 To calculate the dialogue percentages, we broke each script down into its component 'blocks'. A 'block' is a group of text of the same designation
(such as scene headings, action, character names or dialogue) irrespective of the number of sentences within each block.

Locations
Each scene heading starts with an indication as to whether the scene takes place inside (aka “INT” for interior), outside
(“EXT” for exterior) or a hybrid (“INT/EXT”).
Across all scripts, 60.2% of scenes are interiors, 38.9% are exteriors and 0.9% are hybrid locations.
Westerns are mostly set outside, with 64.4% of their scenes taking place in exterior locations. At the opposite end of the
scale we see 65.2% of Comedy scenes taking place indoors.
Scene settings, by genre

INT EXT INT/EXT
StephenFollows.com
100%
90%
80%
Percentage of scenes
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
A fact that must make most producers wince is that the average location only appears in 1.5 scenes.

The average script takes place in 72.2 locations, with Action and Historical scripts covering the greatest number (an
average of 82.3 and 82.1). Horror scripts have the fewest (61.1 per script).
Average number of locations, by genre

90
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80
70
60
Locations
50
40
30
20
10
58.3% of scenes take place during the day and 41.7% take place at night.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Horror scripts are much more likely to be set at night (56.5% of scenes) whereas Historical scripts
are the most nyctophobic, with only 28.9% taking place at night.
Days scenes vs Night scenes, by genre

DAY NIGHT
StephenFollows.com
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

Punctuation
The average script has 142.1 exclamation points, or an average of 1.3 per page. Five scripts feature over 1,000
exclamation points, with the highest containing 1,576!! That averages to just over 12.4 exclamation points per page.
Number of exclamation marks used in scripts in our dataset

1.2%
StephenFollows.com
1.0%
Percentage of scripts
0.8%
0.6%
0.4%
0.2%
0.0%
1 51 101 151 201 251 301 351 401 451 501 551 Over 600
Number of instances of exclamation marks
Question marks are used more sparingly. The average script contains just 9.6 question marks, or one every eleven pages.
The most egregious use of question marks was far milder than we saw with exclamation marks, with the worst offender
featuring only 156 question marks – just over one per page.

Swearing
Warning:
This section features repeated uncensored uses of s**t, f**k and c**t.
If you would rather not read such words, we suggest you skip to the next subsection.
We tracked the usage of three key swear words – ‘shit’, ‘fuck’ and ‘cunt’.
Percentage of scripts which feature certain swear words

90%
StephenFollows.com
Percentage of scripts featuring at least one useage
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Shit Fuck Cunt
Although more scripts feature one 'shit' than those with one 'fuck', when a ‘fuck’ does appear it tends to be used more
frequently than ‘shit’. Across all our scripts, ‘shit’ is used an average of 13.2 times, ‘fuck’ 23.9 times and ‘cunt’ 2.1 times.
Usage of the word 'shit' across scripts in our dataset

No uses of the word 'Shit' 5-9 'Shit's 15+ 'Shit's
29.7% 14.6% 28.0%
StephenFollows.com
1-4 'Shit's 10-14 'Shit's
17.3% 10.4%

Usage of the word 'fuck' across scripts in our dataset

No uses of the word 5-9 'Fuck's
'Fuck' 15+ 'Fuck's
7.9% 34.4%
38.1%
StephenFollows.com
1-4 'Fuck's 10-14 'Fuck's
13.3% 6.2%
Usage of the word 'cunt' across scripts in our dataset 4+ 'Cunt's

1.0%
No uses of the word
2 'Cunt's
'Cunt'
1.6%
90.9%
StephenFollows.com
1 'Cunt' 3 'Cunt's
5.6% 0.8%
Unsurprisingly, the swear words were not spread equally across all scripts. We developed a swearing score15, based on
the frequency of the three swear words we tracked. This gave 1.00 for each use of ‘shit’, 1.17 for ‘fuck’ and 8.51 for ‘cunt’.
Comedies are the sweariest, beating Action and Horror scripts by a tiny margin (Comedy scores 42.8, Action scores 42.5
and Horror scores 41.8). The genres featuring the lowest levels of swearing are Family (1.2), Animated (1.3) and Faith-
based scripts (2.8).
Levels of swearing in scripts in our dataset, by genre

45
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40
35
Swearing Score
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
15 Our weighting system calculates a single ‘Swearing Score’ for each script. We tracked the number of scripts which feature at least one mention of the
three key swear words (shit, fuck and cunt). 71.8% of scripts feature at least one ‘shit’, 61.3% feature at least one ‘fuck’ and 8.4% have at least one ‘cunt’.
This gave us a weighting of 1.00 for ‘shit’, 1.17 for ‘fuck’ and 8.51 for ‘cunt’.

Only sixteen scripts used ‘cunt’ without also using either ‘shit’ or ‘fuck’ at least once.
StephenFollows.com

Age of Characters
There are two ways a writer can express a character’s age:
• Specific, such as “28 years old”;

• Non-specific, such as “20s”, “mid-20”, “20-odd”, “20 something”, etc.
Specific Ages
The average specific age of the top five characters across all our scripts is 31.8 years old 16.
The character who speaks most often is typically a little younger (average age: 28.3) and as we move down to characters
who speak less frequently the age increases slightly. The average age of the fifth most frequently-speaking character is
35.4.
Average age of characters by number of lines of dialogue

40
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35
30
Specific character age
25
20
15
10
0
Top character 2nd character 3rd character 4th character 5th character
16This research on ages relates to the five characters who speak most frequently in scripts where the character ages are provided. If there was an age
range we took the lowest of the ages. We excluded any characters with ages over 110 as these were all magical, mythical or fantastical characters.
Ages were also excluded when they related to non-humans. Quite why the specific age of a dog is needed is unclear but this did not stop a number of
writers defining their age.

Historical and Thriller scripts have the oldest main characters, at an average of 33.9 and 33.3 years old, respectively.
Characters in Animations and Faith-based scripts have the youngest average age (24.0 and 25.5 respectively)
Average age of characters, by genre

40
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35
30
25
20
15
10
The median age is 30 years old, with 15.4% of all characters being listed as exactly 30.
Age of characters, when a specific age is provided

16%
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14%
Percentage of characters
12%
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
1
3
5
7
9
11
13
15
17
19
21
23
25
27
29
31
33
35
37
39
41
43
45
47
49
51
53
55
57
59
61
63
65
67
69
71
73
75
77
79

Almost half of all specific ages end with a zero (such as 20 years old). The second most frequent are those ending in a
five (10.1% of ages) followed by those ending in an eight (7.4%).
Final digit in the age of characters with specific ages

50%
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45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x7 x8 x9 x0
Final digit in specific character age (i.e. 5 for the age 25)
Non-specific Ages
Characters with non-specific ages follow a similar pattern to those with a defined age. 31.4% are in their 30s, 23.0% are in
their 20s and 45.6% are either younger than 20 or older than 39.
Decade of the age of characters with non-specific ages

35%
StephenFollows.com
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
20s 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s
Decade

Not only do writers favour characters in their twenties and thirties, they also provide more detail as to roughly where in the
decade they are when the script takes place.
When characters are given a non-specific age in their 20s, 15.6% are said to be in their “early 20s”, 18.1% in their “mid
20s”, 30.3% in their “late 20s” and 36.0% are given a vague age such as “20s”, “20-odd” or “20-something”. Compare this to
characters in their 50s, where vague descriptions account for 70.5% of all non-specific ages.
Age description of characters when a finite number is not given

Early Mid Late Vague (i.e. odd, something or x0's)
StephenFollows.com
100%
90%
Percentage of characters in that decade
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
20s 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s
Decade

Genre-skewed Words
The dataset offers us a unique opportunity to look at how the choice of words differs between genres. We analysed the
scripts to pull out key words 17 for each major genre.
We are presenting this data in two different ways:
• Word Clouds showing the most heavily-skewed words for each genre 18, with the size of the word reflecting their
frequency of use within that genre (i.e. the bigger the word, the more it’s used in the genre);
• Bar charts showing the average number of usages of a certain word within each genre.
Keyword
'Example'
0.50
Average 0.45
number of 0.40
instances of 0.35
keyword in
0.30
scripts of
that genre 0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.00
Script genre
17 Key words were determined using Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency. TF-IDF divides how frequent a word is in a document by how
frequently the word is used across the text to highlight relevant words.
18 The words in the Word Clouds were selected using the following criteria:
a) They appear in at least 10% of scripts within the relevant genre (removing script-specific words such as character names);
b) They don’t appear in over 5,000 scripts across the dataset (thereby excluding the most common words);
c) They are the most heavily-skewed towards the relevant genre. Skew is measured by the percentage of uses in a particular genre divided by all
usages. For example, if a word has been used 100 times across all scripts and 50 of those were in Action scripts, then this has a 50% skew
towards Action.

Action
Action scripts have a disproportionate number of words relating to the armed forces, including military, navy, armed and
explosive.
On average, there is one “explosive” something in every Action script.
'Unmarked' 'Armored' 'Explosive'

0.6 0.9 1.0
0.8 0.9
0.5 0.8
0.7
0.4 0.6 0.7
0.5 0.6
0.3 0.5
0.4 0.4
0.2 0.3 0.3
0.2 0.2
0.1
0.1 0.1
0.0 0.0 0.0
Historical
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Action
Adventure
Horror
Adventure
Comedy
Comedy
Horror
Adventure
Comedy
Horror
Thriller
Thriller
Thriller
Drama
Drama
Drama
'Forces' 'Gun' 'Shoots'

0.30 25 0.6
0.25 20 0.5
0.20 0.4
15
0.15 0.3
10
0.10 0.2
0.05 5 0.1
0.00 0 0.0
Historical
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Action
Adventure
Adventure
Comedy
Horror
Adventure
Horror
Thriller
Comedy
Horror
Thriller
Comedy
Thriller
Drama
Drama
Drama

Adventure
Adventure scripts also feature some military elements, although the general tone is far lighter and more family-friendly.
The language of Adventure scripts often evokes far-flung lands containing unknown hidden treasures.
'Amazed' 'Dazed' 'Treasure'

0.8 0.7 2.0
0.7 0.6 1.8
1.6
0.6 0.5 1.4
0.5 1.2
0.4
0.4 1.0
0.3 0.8
0.3
0.2 0.6
0.2
0.4
0.1 0.1 0.2
0.0 0.0 0.0
Historical
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Action
Adventure
Adventure
Adventure
Comedy
Horror
Horror
Thriller
Comedy
Horror
Thriller
Comedy
Thriller
Drama
Drama
Drama
'Mysterious' 'Exotic' 'Mystic'

0.7 0.30 0.30
0.6 0.25 0.25
0.5
0.20 0.20
0.4
0.15 0.15
0.3
0.10 0.10
0.2
0.1 0.05 0.05
0.0 0.00 0.00
Historical
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Action
Adventure
Adventure
Comedy
Horror
Horror
Adventure
Comedy
Horror
Thriller
Thriller
Comedy
Thriller
Drama
Drama
Drama

Animated
Many of words which heavily skew towards Animated scripts are positive, and the negative ones are gentle, such as
‘ouch’, ‘sighs’ and ‘whimpers’.
Animated films are much more likely to feature animals than other genres, with the exception of dogs and puppies which
appear most in Family scripts.
'Beetle' 'Rat' 'Bird'

0.40 4.0 9
0.35 3.5 8
0.30 3.0 7
0.25 2.5 6
5
0.20 2.0
4
0.15 1.5 3
0.10 1.0 2
0.05 0.5 1
0.00 0.0 0
Historical
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Action
Adventure
Comedy
Horror
Adventure
Thriller
Comedy
Horror
Adventure
Thriller
Comedy
Horror
Thriller
Drama
Drama
Drama
'Mouse' 'Leopard' 'Shark'

4.5 0.4 2.5
4.0 0.4
3.5 2.0
0.3
3.0 0.3
2.5 1.5
0.2
2.0 1.0
1.5 0.2
1.0 0.1
0.5
0.5 0.1
0.0 0.0 0.0
Historical
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Action
Adventure
Adventure
Comedy
Horror
Adventure
Thriller
Comedy
Horror
Thriller
Comedy
Horror
Thriller
Drama
Drama
Drama

Comedy
The word ‘funeral’ is most likely to be found in Comedies, just beating Drama and Thrillers to the top spot.
Any discussion of someone’s sexual preferences is likely to skew towards Comedy and secondarily Drama. Sci-Fi is the
third most common genres for the words ‘gay’ and ‘lesbian’ but ‘heterosexual’s third place genre is sci-fi.
In fact, almost anything even remotely sexual is likely to have a Comedy skew.
'Lesbian' 'Gay' 'Heterosexual'

0.30 1.8 0.03
1.6
0.25 0.02
1.4
0.20 1.2
1.0 0.02
0.15
0.8 0.01
0.10 0.6
0.4 0.01
0.05
0.2
0.00 0.0 0.00
Historical
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Action
Adventure
Adventure
Comedy
Horror
Horror
Adventure
Thriller
Comedy
Thriller
Comedy
Horror
Thriller
Drama
Drama
Drama
'Penis' 'Playboy' 'Sex'

0.7 0.20 3.0
0.6 0.18
0.16 2.5
0.5 0.14 2.0
0.4 0.12
0.10 1.5
0.3 0.08
0.06 1.0
0.2
0.04 0.5
0.1 0.02
0.0 0.00 0.0
Historical
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Action
Adventure
Adventure
Comedy
Horror
Comedy
Horror
Adventure
Horror
Thriller
Thriller
Comedy
Thriller
Drama
Drama
Drama

Drama
Many of the words most frequently found in Dramas are also common within Comedies. This speaks to the blurry
distinction between the two genres.
If you are searching for a quick scene to make it clear that your script is a Drama, may we suggest: “INT. Apartment. The
expressive therapist hugs the anonymous Spanish lawyer”.
'Hugs' 'Anonymous' 'Expressive'

0.18 0.40 0.06
0.16 0.35 0.05
0.14 0.30
0.12 0.25 0.04
0.10
0.20 0.03
0.08
0.06 0.15 0.02
0.04 0.10
0.05 0.01
0.02
0.00 0.00 0.00
Historical
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Action
Adventure
Comedy
Horror
Adventure
Horror
Adventure
Thriller
Comedy
Thriller
Comedy
Horror
Thriller
Drama
Drama
Drama
'Apartment' 'Therapist' 'Lawyer'

8 0.6 1.4
7 0.5 1.2
6 1.0
5 0.4
0.8
4 0.3
0.6
3 0.2
2 0.4
1 0.1 0.2
0 0.0 0.0
Historical
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Action
Adventure
Comedy
Horror
Adventure
Horror
Adventure
Horror
Thriller
Comedy
Thriller
Comedy
Thriller
Drama
Drama
Drama

Family
The word ‘ghost’ skews in favour of Horror scripts but once we start look at more than one such spectre (i.e. ‘ghosts’)
then Family scripts take over. It seems that one ghost is terrifying whereas a group of ghosts is a family.
Colloquial terms for members of a family (i.e. mom, dad, kids) are more common in Family scripts while the more formal
descriptions (i.e. mother, father, child) are more common in Historical scripts.
'Kid' 'Mom' 'Dad'

18 18 18
16 16 16
14 14 14
12 12 12
10 10 10
8 8 8
6 6 6
4 4 4
2 2 2
0 0 0
Historical
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Action
Adventure
Comedy
Horror
Adventure
Horror
Adventure
Horror
Thriller
Comedy
Thriller
Comedy
Thriller
Drama
Drama
Drama
'Child' 'Mother' 'Father'

14 14.0 18
12 12.0 16
14
10 10.0
12
8 8.0 10
6 6.0 8
6
4 4.0
4
2 2.0 2
0 0.0 0
Historical
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Action
Adventure
Comedy
Horror
Adventure
Thriller
Comedy
Horror
Adventure
Thriller
Comedy
Horror
Thriller
Drama
Drama
Drama

0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
Action Action
Adventure Adventure
Animated Animated
Fantasy
Comedy Comedy
Drama Drama
Family Family
'Spell'
Fantasy Fantasy
'Librarian'
Historical Historical
Horror Horror
Sci-Fi Sci-Fi
Thriller Thriller
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
5.0
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
Action Action
Adventure Adventure
Animated Animated
Comedy Comedy
Drama Drama
Family Family
'Cave'
'Scroll'
Fantasy Fantasy
© Stephen Follows, 2019

Horror Horror
Sci-Fi Sci-Fi
Thriller Thriller
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
5.0
Action
Action
Adventure
Adventure
Animated
Animated
Librarians are 3.5 times more likely to appear in Fantasy scripts than scripts of any other genre.
Comedy
Comedy
Drama Drama
Fantasy films leads the field in the descriptions of magic, demon, magic demons and demonic magic.
Family Family
'Magic'
Fantasy
'Demon'
Fantasy
Horror Horror
Sci-Fi Sci-Fi
Thriller Thriller
55
Historical
“The British are history” is probably a truer phrase than most Brits are comfortable with, but they can console themselves
with the equally true adage that “History is British” (deducing from the evidence of our script dataset).
The vast majority of nationalities are skewed towards Historical scripts, with the interesting exceptions of Russians (who
are much more likely to appear in Action scripts) and Australians (who have a strong sense of Adventure).
'British' 'American' 'Japanese'

6 4.5 6
4.0
5 5
3.5
4 3.0 4
2.5
3 3
2.0
2 1.5 2
1.0
1 1
0.5
0 0.0 0
Historical
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Action
Adventure
Adventure
Adventure
Comedy
Horror
Horror
Thriller
Comedy
Thriller
Comedy
Horror
Thriller
Drama
Drama
Drama
'Russian' 'German' 'Australian'

2.5 3.5 0.7
3.0 0.6
2.0
2.5 0.5
1.5 0.4
2.0
1.0 1.5 0.3
1.0 0.2
0.5
0.5 0.1
0.0 0.0 0.0
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Adventure
Adventure
Comedy
Horror
Comedy
Horror
Thriller
Thriller
Drama
Drama

Horror
Unsurprisingly, Horror scripts are dominated by words describing suffering, including screams, terrified, frantic, grabs and
horrible.
Amongst the most Horror-filled places are the upstairs of a house, an attic and the woods.
'Upstairs' 'Attic' 'Woods'

3.0 1.0 2.5
0.9
2.5 0.8 2.0
2.0 0.7
0.6 1.5
1.5 0.5
0.4 1.0
1.0 0.3
0.5 0.2 0.5
0.1
0.0 0.0 0.0
Historical
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Action
Adventure
Adventure
Comedy
Horror
Horror
Adventure
Thriller
Comedy
Thriller
Comedy
Horror
Thriller
Drama
Drama
Drama
'Creak' 'Ritualistic' 'Lunatic'

1.2 0.04 0.5
0.04 0.5
1.0 0.4
0.03
0.8 0.4
0.03 0.3
0.6 0.02 0.3
0.02 0.2
0.4 0.2
0.01
0.2 0.1
0.01 0.1
0.0 0.00 0.0
Historical
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Action
Adventure
Horror
Adventure
Comedy
Comedy
Horror
Adventure
Horror
Thriller
Thriller
Comedy
Thriller
Drama
Drama
Drama

Sci-Fi
A large number of the words which skew heavily towards Sci-Fi scripts are technological in nature, including mechanical,
holographic, electronic, electrical, technician and advanced.
Technical noises are more frequent in Sci-Fi scripts, as are lasers, atoms and computers.
'Whir' 'Beep' 'Crackle'

0.30 1.4 0.7
0.25 1.2 0.6
1.0 0.5
0.20
0.8 0.4
0.15
0.6 0.3
0.10
0.4 0.2
0.05 0.2 0.1
0.00 0.0 0.0
Historical
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Action
Adventure
Adventure
Adventure
Comedy
Horror
Comedy
Horror
Horror
Thriller
Thriller
Comedy
Thriller
Drama
Drama
Drama
'Laser' 'Atom' 'Computer'

3.0 0.40 8
2.5 0.35 7
0.30 6
2.0 0.25 5
1.5 0.20 4
1.0 0.15 3
0.10 2
0.5 0.05 1
0.0 0.00 0
Historical
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Action
Adventure
Horror
Adventure
Comedy
Comedy
Horror
Adventure
Horror
Thriller
Thriller
Comedy
Thriller
Drama
Drama
Drama

Thriller
Russians and Mexican characters most frequently appear in Action scripts but are also pretty common in Thrillers. Few
other nationalities are heavily skewed towards Thriller scripts.
Words related to Police work often skew heavily towards Thrillers. In fact, you’re more likely to find a murderer or a killer in
a Thriller than a Horror script.
'Forensic' 'Police' 'Criminal'

0.6 14 0.9
12 0.8
0.5
0.7
10
0.4 0.6
8 0.5
0.3
6 0.4
0.2 0.3
4
0.2
0.1 2 0.1
0.0 0 0.0
Historical
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Action
Adventure
Adventure
Adventure
Comedy
Horror
Horror
Horror
Thriller
Comedy
Thriller
Comedy
Thriller
Drama
Drama
Drama
'Killer' 'Murderer' 'Suspect'

3.0 0.40 1.4
2.5 0.35 1.2
0.30 1.0
2.0 0.25
0.8
1.5 0.20
0.6
1.0 0.15
0.10 0.4
0.5 0.05 0.2
0.0 0.00 0.0
Historical
Historical
Historical
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi
Family
Family
Family
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Animated
Fantasy
Action
Action
Action
Adventure
Horror
Adventure
Comedy
Comedy
Horror
Adventure
Thriller
Thriller
Comedy
Horror
Thriller
Drama
Drama
Drama

SECTION C:
SCREENWRITERS AND
THE ACT OF
SCREENWRITING
The dataset also allows us to understand some aspects of being a screenwriter.
Gender ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 61
The Working Habits of Screenwriters .......................................................................................................................................................... 63
Screenwriting Software ................................................................................................................................................................................ 65

Gender
Gender is a complicated (and sometimes contentious) issue within screenwriting. Years of under-representation of
women in the film industry is looking ever more at odds with the changing face of society and gender “norms”.
Across our dataset, 23.7% of writers are women19.
The most male-dominated genres are Action (in which 8.4% of writers were women), Sci-Fi (14.1%) and Horror (14.5%).
Women were best represented within Faith (47.2% female), Family scripts (41.5% female) and Animated (39.1%).
Gender of screenwriters, by genre

Male screenwriter Female screenwriter
StephenFollows.com
100%
90%
Percentage of scripts in that genre
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Interestingly, when we look at the score given by readers, we see an advantage to writing in a genre dominated by another
gender. Action is male-dominated but is also a genre in which female writers outperform their male counterparts by the
second-largest margin. Likewise, Family films from men received higher ratings than those from women.
19 We appreciate that gender is not always binary and that classifying gender as such is slightly reductive. Sadly, we do not have a way to account for
gender fluidity in this dataset and feel that despite this limitation, the advantages of discussing gender outweigh the disadvantages of pursuing what
appears at first glance to be such a binary approach. Gender of screenwriters was self-reported when the scripts were first submitted for coverage
and/or to the competition.

Average Review Score by gender of the screenwriter and script genre

5.6
StephenFollows.com
5.4
5.2
5.0
4.8
4.6
4.4
4.2
4.0
Comedy Sci-Fi Horror Fantasy Family Historical Animated Drama Action Adventure Thriller
The data does not reveal why this is happening. It is plausible that the writers who have to overcome bigger barriers are
more likely to be the hardest working and most tenacious – qualities which are correlated with success in screenwriting.
Women are much more likely to write scripts featuring female characters 20 in primary roles 21. The starkest differences
were with Historical, Adventure and Comedy scripts. Female characters accounted for 38.9 of primary characters in
Historical scripts penned by men, whereas they made up 74.0% of character of such scripts written by women.
Percentage of primary characters who are female by gender of the

screenwriter and script genre
80%
StephenFollows.com
% of primary characters who are female
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
20 The gender of characters was determined by comparing the first names against a database of 102,240 names and their typical gender. Unisex and
unknown names were removed, leaving just those which are known to be typically male or female.
21 Primary characters were determined via a character importance score, calculated thus: direction mentions/2 + dialogue mentions/2 + number of lines.
Characters scoring over 0.08 were classed as primary, meaning that the average script has 2.2 primary characters.

The Working Habits of Screenwriters

We were able to determine when the PDF was created by looking at the metadata of the scripts. Wednesdays and
Thursdays appear to the busiest days for screenwriters to export their work (and on the seventh day many of them
rested).
Day of the week the script was saved

18%
StephenFollows.com
16%
Percentage of scripts in our dataset
14%
12%
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
There was no discernible difference in the quality of the scripts based on which day they were exported.
41.4% of the scripts submitted to a script competition were exported as a PDF within 24 hours of the competition
submission. At the other end of the spectrum, 22.6% of scripts were created at least six months before submission.

Time between when PDF of script was created and submission to a

script competition
45%
StephenFollows.com
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
One One Two One Two Three Six One Over
day week weeks month months months months Year a year
Scripts exported just before a competition deadline are less likely to impress script readers than those saved six months
prior.
Review Score split by time between when the PDF was created and
submission to a script competition
5.3
StephenFollows.com
5.2
5.1
5.0
4.9
4.8
4.7
One One Two One Two Three Six One Over
day week weeks month months months months Year a year

Screenwriting Software
By analysing the metadata in each PDF file, we were able to determine which program was used to write the vast majority
of scripts.
Final Draft dominates the competition and was used to write 58.6% of the scripts for which we could determine the
software used 22. The next most commonly used programs were Celtx (12.1%), Movie Magic Screenwriter (8.1%),
WriterDuet (6.6%) and Fade In (3.6%). Other professional screenwriting programs made up a combined 3.3% of scripts.
8.6% of scripts were written in a non-screenwriting specific program, such as Microsoft Word, TextEdit and Notepad.
Screenwriting software used to write scripts in our dataset

60%
StephenFollows.com
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Other Fade In WriterDuet Movie Magic Non-screenwriting Celtx Final Draft
screenwriting software
software
Interestingly, there is a minor correlation between the screenwriting program used and the quality of the script. Scripts
written using Final Draft scored the highest; the poorest-performing scripts were those written on non-screenwriting
programs.
22We were able to determine the software used on over three-quarters of the scripts we studied. The charts showing market share relate only to the
scripts for which a program could be determined. It accordingly presents a larger margin for error than our other findings, extrapolated to the wider
screenwriting marketplace.

Review Score by screenwriting software used

5.4
StephenFollows.com
5.2
5.0
4.8
4.6
4.4
4.2
4.0
Non-screenwriting Celtx Other WriterDuet Movie Magic Fade In Final Draft
software screenwriting
software
Scripts written in Final Draft and Fade In perform best in script competitions.
Outcome of scripts entered into script competitions, by

screenwriting software used
Placed Didn't place
StephenFollows.com
Final Draft
Fade In
Movie Magic
WriterDuet
Other screenwriting software
Celtx
Non-screenwriting software
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Screenwriters (and script software marketers) are reminded that correlation is not causation. Programs do offer different
features and it’s possible that some such features can make writing easier, more enjoyable and help identify possible
problems with your work. However, just changing your screenwriting software choice is extremely unlikely to transform
your writing.

“Here I am paying big money to you writers and what for?

All you do is change the words”
Samuel Goldwyn
This report is dedicated to the people who spend their lives changing the words,
whether they’re paid the big bucks or not.
Published by Stephen Follows, Erroneous Wit, Somerset House, London, UK

February 2019
© Stephen Follows. All rights reserved.
If you wish to use any part, please contact [email protected]
Whilst we have done are best to ensure that the report is accurate, the information it
contains is not advice, and should not be treated as such. You must not rely on it as an
alternative to advice from an appropriately qualified professional.

Screenplays: Judging by Their Coverage

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JUDGING

STEPHEN FOLLOWS AND JOSH COCKCROFT

Section B: The Average Screenplay ................................32

Section C: Screenwriters and The Act of Screenwriting ...60

© Stephen Follows, 2019 2

Stephen Follows Josh Cockcroft Liora Michlin

© Stephen Follows, 2019 3

A Note from ScreenCraft

They’ve helped us discover some fascinating correlations between elements of screenplays

John Rhodes, Co-Founder, ScreenCraft

© Stephen Follows, 2019 4

© Stephen Follows, 2019 5

An Introduction to Script Coverage

© Stephen Follows, 2019 6

An Introduction to Script Competitions

© Stephen Follows, 2019 7

What Matters Most to Script Readers ........................................................................................................................................................... 9

© Stephen Follows, 2019 8

What Matters Most to Script Readers

© Stephen Follows, 2019 9

Average review score, by genre

© Stephen Follows, 2019 10

© Stephen Follows, 2019 11

© Stephen Follows, 2019 12

© Stephen Follows, 2019 13

© Stephen Follows, 2019 14

© Stephen Follows, 2019 15

© Stephen Follows, 2019 16

Average review score

Average review score

between -0.20 and -0.15).

© Stephen Follows, 2019 17

Average review score

© Stephen Follows, 2019 18

• “Riches to rags” – a continuing emotional fall. E.g. Blue Jasmine

Riches to Rags (fall) Rags to Riches (rise)

Oedipus (fall-rise-fall) Cinderella (rise-fall-rise)

© Stephen Follows, 2019 19

Man in a Hole (fall-rise) Icarus (rise-fall)

Prevalence of the six common plot arcs

© Stephen Follows, 2019 20

Prevalence of the six common plot arcs - Action

Riches to Rags (fall) Oedipus (fall-rise-fall)

Review scores of common plot arcs - Action

Man in a Hole (fall-rise)

Rags to Riches (rise)

Riches to Rags (fall)

© Stephen Follows, 2019 21

Prevalence of the six common plot arcs - Comedy

Riches to Rags (fall) Oedipus (fall-rise-fall)

Review scores of common plot arcs - Comedy

Man in a Hole (fall-rise)

Rags to Riches (rise)

Riches to Rags (fall)

© Stephen Follows, 2019 22

Prevalence of the six common plot arcs - Drama

Riches to Rags (fall) Oedipus (fall-rise-fall)

Review scores of common plot arcs - Drama

Man in a Hole (fall-rise)