Yes. Almost. At a minimum, they are utterly clogged. Every agency, every producer and every studio exec gets scripts by the truckload. The city hires a literal army of readers to read the mountains of material flowing in.
And most of it stinks….
That’s right. More than 90% of it is written so poorly it is barely readable at all, let alone able to be made into a movie. The way into Hollywood is so jammed with crud, the industry is forced to spend millions each year just to sort through it. Hollywood is constantly on the verge of drowning in submissions. The only way to stay afloat is to erect as many obstacles as possible – as many barriers as the industry can dream up – to keep new screenplays away. It’s no wonder that no one here gets excited when an unknown writer from Iowa tries to submit a script. Everyone already knows it probably stinks. It’s probably a waste of paper, a crime against nature, two hours of an underpaid reader’s life she’d rather have back.
SO WHY BOTHER TRYING TO GET IN?
Because of that little word “probably.” Underneath it all, Hollywood is desperate for the new voice, the unknown writer who brings something fresh to the table, the new undiscovered talent. It is a great part of what keeps the industry going. Careers and fortunes are made on discovering and exploiting talent – and writers are talent. That’s why Hollywood spends millions searching for it. The industry needs it. And nobody knows where the next one will come from. They have no choice.
They must keep reading.
Their careers and fortunes depend on it.
But don’t tell anybody. Let them think the gates of Hollywood are closed. It’s less competition for the rest. Okay?
So so true – they feel closed 24/7 but you are right – new material makes the world go around. I spent 2mo as a script reader in my early thirties and 2mo is all I could take – there are a lot of bad scripts out there.
After a mo I became numb from reading bad screenplays and moved on, but it was a monster big learning experience about what to do and what not to do.