Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1530856
37 W I N T E R Q 4 I S S U E F E A T U R E internships and wrote freelance coverage for several agencies before meeting some- one from the story department at Sony, where she now works as a story analyst herself. "The strikes had a huge impact on us. With so few writers sending in scripts, a lot of submissions moved to books, graphic novels, and web cartoons. I was reading as many of those as scripts, if not more, because there's been such an emphasis on IP [lately]," explained Truong. A l e g re R o d r i q u e z , a v e te ra n s to r y a n a l y s t a t Un i ve rs a l P i c t u re s, e c h o e d that sentiment. "It used to be that story analysts read m o s t l y s c re e n p l a y s a n d s p e c s — t h a t was 80% of the job. But now, because the marketplace has changed in [recent] years, books are 65 % of what I'm reading because we're trying to find the next hot thing, and books are speculative IP." Rodriquez grew up in Central California before attending Brown University where she studied American Civics. After college, she worked as an intern and as an assistant at Columbia Pictures where she got an up- close look at the development process, and her passion for film only grew. She then spent six years working as a story analyst, doing freelance coverage for major production companies such as GK Films and FilmDistrict, before taking a brief hiatus to write for a TV show. After the strike, she returned to the field, only to find that it had changed a bit. "There have been a few mergers that have shrunk story departments and put people out of work, so the business has been contracting," explained Rodriquez. That means there are fewer opportunities for studios to support original material. Truong agreed that it's been a pretty bad time for specs, and the marketplace has be- come more derivative as a result. "There's a little bit of fatigue around the big super- hero franchises, but one drives the other. So the more derivative it gets, the bigger the appetite becomes for something fresh and original, and then you get 'Everything Everywhere All at Once,'" said Truong, who would love to see the spec market rebound. "We have to go back to looking at spec scripts," Truong insisted, though she was frank in admitting that "so few people are reading specs right now that getting a short [made] is almost better." "We're not in a spec market right now," said Guild board member Holly Sklar, who was initially hired as a story analyst by Dis- ney but has spent the past 23 years working for Warner Bros. "Part of the reason is that IP is some- thing execs want to develop from, and books have a built-in audience. They've always been a robust part of what comes through the story department," but clearly there's more emphasis on books these days. Rodriquez says that all of the studios have a book scout in New York, and each compiles an up-to-date list of manuscripts for studio execs to consider. The execs will look at the list, read each logline [a brief description up to several lines long], and identify which manuscripts seem to be good candidates for adaptation. The studio story analysts will cover those. "'It Ends With Us' is a perfect example. That was out there as a manuscript and sev- eral people made bids for it, but they went with this company, Wayfarer. Then the book popped, so that gamble paid off [for everyone] in so many ways," she explained. "There's a story analyst at CBS Studios whose whole job is to read books and cover them for potential series development, but WB's story department does not, at the moment, read for Max, which has shifted away from original movies. We read for WB Pictures, New Line, and Warner Bros. Pic- tures Animation. That said, with a lot of the stuff we read, we may indicate to the execs, 'This may be better served as a short-term streaming series, or a long-term, ongoing show.' It doesn't mean they'll develop it that way, but we have to be aware of what's on streaming and the differences between those things." As far as AI is concerned, Rodriquez said, "We're scratching our heads because we don't know where it's gonna go." Ro- driguez represents story analysts on Local 700's Emerging TechnologyCommittee. Truong admitted she's "a little worried" about AI, "but I think the threat of it is… not necessarily overblown… but it can't do what a human analyst does. AI is trained on what's been done before, but it can't recognize material as being novel or inno- vative. It's always looking for a shortcut. It's certainly a [concern], especially for readers who aren't in the union yet. A lot of compa- nies are trying to experiment with AI, so it could make things hard for those [readers who are trying to break in], but I think AI's capabilities are still limited." Sklar said, "Most of these [online] ser- vices using AI as story analysts trying to get money from aspiring writers, but they can't tell you if the writing is any good. They can tell you about the prompts from screen- writing books and if your script reflects the standard cookie-cutter approach, but AI can't respond the way an audience member can. AI can't love a writer, or hate a writer, or identify with a protagonist. It can't care about or root for characters in a movie. It can't get emotionally involved, but we can and that's why we're still better suited for the job. The tech is going to get better, but I don't see it being a replacement, and I don't think it can spot originality or judge the distinctiveness of a writer's voice." P a u l B l ys ka l , w h o h a s b e e n a s to r y analyst for 14 years and currently works for Netflix, agreed that it's something to be worried about, albeit more in the long term than right now. "There's been a lot of hype about AI, but it is moving faster than anyone 'We've adopted Silicon Valley's "move fast and break things" view.'