Script coverage is the film industry's book report. When a screenplay lands at a studio, agency, or production company, it goes first to a reader, who writes a standardized evaluation โ a synopsis, comments on craft, and a verdict. Executives read the coverage, not the script.
That verdict travels. A script that earns a 'Recommend' gets passed upward; a 'Pass' usually ends the road at that company. Which is why smart writers get coverage on their own terms โ before the draft is in front of anyone who can say no.
A typical report has three parts. The TOP SHEET: title, format, genre, logline, and the verdict grid โ usually premise, plot, character, dialogue, and structure, each rated. The SYNOPSIS: proof the reader absorbed the story. The COMMENTS: the part worth paying for โ where the script works, where it stalls, and why.
The verdicts are a small vocabulary: PASS (not for us โ the overwhelming majority), CONSIDER (real strengths, real reservations; often split as 'consider with reservations' or applied separately to script and writer), and RECOMMEND (rare enough that readers spend them carefully โ a reader who over-recommends stops being trusted).
Coverage before submission is a rehearsal for the real audience. You're not looking for praise โ you're looking for the note behind the notes: if three readers stumble in the same act, that act is the problem, whatever each reader called it.
Treat the synopsis as data, too. If the reader's summary of your story isn't the story you meant to tell, the draft is telling the wrong one โ that's the same stranger-test a logline gets, applied at feature length.
Professional-grade coverage from Quill in minutes โ four depth levels, from a quick verdict to a scene-by-scene Producer's Pass, plus vetted human readers in the Marketplace.
Get Greenlight coverage on your draft
