Screenplay Readers Terms of Service
By ordering service from Screenplay Readers and/or submitting your materials to Screenplay Readers, you agree to the following terms:
You understand that Screenplay Readers holds absolutely no claim to your work whatsoever.
Your submission of materials permits us to read and critique your work, but in no way gives us any claim of ownership or claim of rights of any kind to any of your ideas, characters, stories, themes, et cetera. Nor will we or any of our employees or assigns distribute, in any way, your information or your work to any third parties.
You agree that you might not agree with our critique of your work.
If you are in any way averse to receiving critical feedback – feedback which you might disagree with – we respectfully request that you do not use our service, as our service provides critical feedback.
You understand and agree that you’re not entitled to a refund or redo for any of our services.
This includes, but is not limited to, reasons such as:
a) You disagree with our readers’ opinions or our edits or proofreading.
b) You feel that our reader(s) focused on things you’d rather they’d not have focused on. You understand when ordering our service that you do not dictate what our readers choose to critique or not critique about your work.
c) You feel our reader made comments that you feel are inaccurate. Our readers will never know your script as well as you do, but just because something is clear to you does not mean it is objectively clear on the written page.
d) You feel our reader’s notes don’t align with a previous reader’s notes from the same order or a previous service we provided. Our readers don’t read previous readers’ coverages of your script.
e) The coverage or notes we provide you contain any minor typographical or grammatical errors. Our team is held to exacting standards, but we’re also human.
You agree when you order our service that you’re not the arbiter of what’s clear or not clear in your submitted work.
We read every word of every line of every page. But that doesn’t mean you’ve communicated your point clearly. What you might think is 100% clear on your script page, in reality might not be clear at all to someone reading your script for the first time.
You agree when you order our service that we reserve the right to critique or not critique any particular aspect of your work.
Our screenplay readers are given leeway to write as much or as little about each aspect of your script as they like, so some aspects or details of your script may be commented upon less, or even ignored, at the expense of focusing on others.
You understand that our scores, recommendations, and critiques will vary.
Providing analysis that varies from other analysis you’ve received or will receive does not in any way invalidate the service we provide you.
You understand that our turnaround time can vary, and is not guaranteed.
Any turnaround time we provide is an estimate. If, for some reason, we don’t provide your service within the turnaround time estimate, that does not invalidate the service rendered, nor the time and costs we’ve incurred in performing that service. Please add our Rush Service to your order if you need your coverage back by a specific date/time.
You agree that we are not responsible for you sending in your work and that you must do so within 60 days of ordering.
We are under no obligation to keep reminding you to send in your materials after you order. If you pay for service, we will honor the rate you paid for 60 days to send in your work for us to perform service. After 60 days, if our prices have increased, your service may be subject to an additional rate. We cannot provide refunds for services that are paid for and go unused for longer than 60 days.
You understand that your PayPal or credit card statement will read SCREENPLAYREADERS or SCREENPLAY or similar.
Please make sure you recognize the charge on your statement when it appears. If you dispute a charge on your statement because you don’t recognize it, or for any other reason, and our account is deducted that amount, you agree to pay that amount back plus any fees we’ve incurred from our merchant bank.
You understand that we cannot swap scripts once we’ve already started.
As you might imagine, it ends up being a lot more work for your reader(s) that they don’t get paid for.
You agree not to contact our personnel outside of Screenplay Readers.
We reserve the right to refuse business with anyone who attempts to reach out to any of our teammates via non-Screenplay Readers channels. If you need to contact one of your readers, contact us at support@screenplayreaders.com
You agree that you will be held criminally and/or civilly liable for any fraudulent chargebacks.
Chargebacks will be vigorously pursued by our attorney via any and all criminal and civil remedies available to us within the maximum extent of federal, state, and local law. Please familiarize yourself with what constitutes federal wire fraud and its associated jail time and fines (18 U.S.C. 1343) before considering charging back on our service.
You agree that any merchant fees are not refundable under any circumstance.
Our merchant gateways charge us a small fee for every transaction our customers make. These fees are not refundable under any circumstance.
You understand that acceptance of these terms is legally binding.
By accepting these terms, you are joining into a binding, legal contract that is valid and enforceable within a court of law.
Limitation of Liability
You expressly understand and agree that Screenplay Readers and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, employees, agents, partners, and licensors shall not be liable to you for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or exemplary damages, including, but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data, or other intangible losses (regardless of whether Screenplay Readers has been advised of the possibility of such damages), resulting from:
(i) The use or the inability to use the Screenplay Readers service;
(ii) The cost of the procurement of substitute goods and services resulting from any goods, data, information or services purchased or obtained or messages receives or transactions entered into through or from the Screenplay Readers service; or
(iii) Any other matter(s) relating to the Screenplay Readers service.
Miscellaneous Terms
The terms of the User Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between you and Screenplay Readers and governs your use of the Screenplay Readers service. Furthermore, the terms of the User Agreement and the relationship between you and Screenplay Readers shall be governed by the laws of the State of California without regard to its conflict of law provisions. You and Screenplay Readers agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within the county of Los Angeles, California. The failure of Screenplay Readers to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of the Agreement is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties’ intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Agreement remain in full force and effect. You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use of the Screenplay Readers service or the Agreement must be filed within 3 months after such claim or cause of action arose or you will be barred from raising such a claim(s).
Screenplay Readers’ Page Count Specifications
How we determine your script’s page count
Please make sure your script adheres to the following film industry standards before selecting what service to order, as we must charge more for scripts over 120 pages and must reject service to customers who misrepresent their script’s actual page count.
12-point Courier-based font required (Courier Prime, Courier New, Final Draft Courier, etc.)
Each page must have minimum 1.5″ left margin and 1″ margins on top, right, and bottom and max 3.5″ wide dialogue blocks
Maximum 54 total lines per page, including text lines and blank white space lines between text lines
If you’re not sure, email your script to us before you order at support@screenplayreaders.com
Or just add our Oversized Script Fee to your cart, in addition to whatever service you order so our readers can be paid appropriately for your page count.
Q: What do you mean by blank white line space?
A: Blank white line space is the space between your page’s elements. “INT. POLICE STATION – DAY” is the scene header element. The next line is a blank white space line, then your action/description element comes next: “The police sit at their desks.” This is a total of 3 lines.
Q: Why does Screenplay Readers charge extra for scripts even just 1 page over the 120 page limit?
A: We only work with whip-smart, experienced film industry script analysts, who demand, rightfully so, that we respect their time and energy. And that means we have to set a hard ceiling for page count.
Q: But my screenplay is only 1 page over the 120 page limit. Can you make an exception?
A: No. Our customers are important to us, but the caliber of our script readers is what makes us the best in the industry. If we make an exception for you, we have to ask one of our readers to do more work for the same amount of pay. (Even if it’s just one extra page.) By drawing that firm line at 120 pages, we retain the trust of our readers, and therefore the caliber of the readers who want to work with us.
Finally, please don’t use your software’s “Cheat Pages” function, or dabble with the margins, line spacing, or font size in order to get your script under 120 pages. Some ways you can get your script under 120 pages include: paring down your long description or action text, having your characters say the same thing with fewer words, and/or eliminating unnecessary scenes wherever you can.