Why Reading the Script Is Fun-damental

It astounds me how many people in this industry treat reading like a chore, and how many needless mistakes are made in the production process because people don’t read their scripts

When I was six-years-old, my first-grade classmates and I were herded carefully down the block to the county library, where a man dressed in a lion costume implored us remember that “Reading Is Fun!” 

These three words seemed very important, I remember, because he repeated them over and over and over again.  

I’m still not sure why he felt this information would disseminate easier coming from the inside of a lion costume, but he also did remind us to keep our noises in the library down to a “Dull Roar” … so there’s that. 

Not to toot my six-year-old horn, but I didn’t need anyone to tell me that reading is fun. 

I’ve always been a reader — it’s in my blood. 

Even today, when most of my reading consists of production documents, emails and unproduced screenplays, I enjoy reading more than just about any other activity. 

That's why it continuously astounds me how many people in this industry treat reading like a chore, and how many needless mistakes are made in the production process because people don’t read their scripts.

Let’s take a step back. 

First off, I should say that my job at Scenechronize revolves around visiting a ton of production offices. I’ve been to production offices all over this fair city, from big ones to small ones, feature ones and television ones. 

I’m also a 20-something transplant who just graduated from the USC film program, which means that even if I never visited a single production office in my life I would know all about them from the stories my PA friends are always telling me. 

And if there’s one constant in all I’ve seen and heard when it comes to production offices, it is this: each one is the single craziest place in the world to work.

I know that seems logically impossible, but somehow it’s true. 

It’s true because everyone who works in a production office believes they are working in the craziest place in the world, which in turn actually makes it the craziest place in the world. 

One of the real perks of my job is getting to view the craziness from front and center without having actually to be in the splash zone myself. 

Over time, without even trying, I’ve compiled a robust database of all the little crises and catastrophes that make life at the production office so interesting. That’s what this blog is all about.

Which brings us back to reading. 

When you see as many production office problems as I do, you start to pick up on some patterns. The one folly that is endemic to all production offices, no matter what size or type of production, is the lack of script-reading. 

To anyone who has worked in the industry long enough, this is not news. Much like owning a Mercedes or a house in the hills, not having to read scripts anymore is a sort of status symbol. 

It’s a way of saying you are so powerful, so important, that there is no way you’d have time for such frivolity.

Of course, in an industry where imitation and flattery go hand-in-hand, such practices seem to have a way of trickling down.  That is how you end up with such inexplicable production office mishaps.  

Take the story of the casting director on a major television show who decided she didn’t have to read the script because the APOC had given her a cast list. 

What she didn’t realize, and the APOC neglected to tell her, was that the cast list applied only to speaking roles. As it turned out, there was an important non-speaking role that was supposed to shoot on the first day of production on the next episode. 

When did the casting director realize her mistake? Talking to the AD on the day before production. 

In another example, the veteran PAs on a network show thought they could print sides without reading the script. 

They manually printed and distributed all the sides to the entire cast and crew before someone clued them into the fact that they had accidentally printed last week’s sides. 

Not only did they neglect to read the scripts, they were clearly out of touch with even the most basic plot points of their production. How else could such a mistake have happened?

I could come up with more examples, but frankly they’re all pretty much the same. 

The point is — working in a production office is really hard. It’s one of the most stressful jobs a person can take on that doesn’t involve nuclear waste or weaponry. 

I have a tremendous respect for production office workers and a healthy fascination for how they do their jobs. That’s why it pains me to see such unnecessary mistakes. 

Look, I understand not everyone loves reading. Some of you might have actually had non-imaginary friends in elementary school. I get it. But it’s never too late to rebuild your relationship with the written word. 

Would a carpenter build a house without looking at the blueprint? Would a chef try to make a new dish without even considering the recipe?  Please, production office workers, do yourselves and everyone else a favor — read the script. 

Even if you disagree with my lion-headed friend’s message that “reading is fun," I can at least assure you of one thing: It will save your ass.

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