Steve On Screenwriting: Your Screenwriting IQ, Part 11

How high is your Screenwriting IQ? Take this quiz and find out how much you know about the business of screenwriting.

True or False

1. Producers have a call back list of 50 people per day.

False. Their call back list is more than 200 people per day.

2. Pitch Festivals give you 15 minutes to pitch your projects.

False. You have a strict 5 minutes.

3. Production companies generally read your material in 2 to 3 weeks time.

False. It’s around 2 to 3 months.

4. Partner pitching is permissible with 1 partner pitching one part, the other pitching the other.

That’s true.

5. Good dialogue is using full, complete sentences.

False. Good dialogue uses phrases and short sentences.

6. The easiest way to structure a screenplay is viewing a similar movie and structuring your script the same way.

True.

7. You should expect brutal criticism of your screenplay from a studio reader.

True. Rumor has it that they’re frustrated writers themselves.

8. There’s no easy way to find out who’s buying what.

False. Many screenwriting magazines and websites list what’s being sold and who is buying them.

9. The Great American PitchFest and Screenwriting Expo are the two biggest pitch festivals in the country.

True.

10. Sometimes writing about what you know makes you too close to the material to be objective.

That’s true.

Watch for Steve on Screenwriting the first Thursday of each month. Read Your Screenwriting IQ, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, and Part 10.