ABSTRACT
This chapter gives a clear and constructive approach to reading and analysing a screenplay – from intuitive to analytical – and offers ways to prepare our reading notes and give/receive feedback. We will see how to establish a dialogue, a flow of ideas and impressions with the writer that will serve the text – the future film – rather than hinder it. The dialogue between writer and reader should go beyond the implicit and explicit demands of those for whom we read (TV channels, peer committees, funding institutions) and target specifically what the story is about and what is at stake.
We will argue that even with a receptive reading of the screenplay, the way reading notes are communicated to the author can either encourage an original exploration of the narrative, thus leading to the creation of a singular cinematographic form, or have such dire consequences as the termination of the project. Sadly this deprives spectators of seeing a potentially original film simply because the reading notes were poorly formulated, disorganized or miscommunicated at the various stages of readings and rewritings.
