The Screenwriting Glossary
The industry runs on jargon. Here's every term your coverage scorecard uses, in plain English.
Budget Tier
The production cost class a script belongs to — micro, low, mid, or studio scale — determined by what's on the page: locations, cast size, period, VFX.
Full definitionComps (Comparable Films)
Produced films used as reference points to communicate a script's tone, audience, and commercial potential — 'this meets that' shorthand with financial teeth.
Full definitionFinder's Fee
Compensation paid to the party who introduces a project to the producer or financier who ultimately moves it forward — paid by the buyer side, never by the writer.
Full definitionGreen Light
The formal decision to finance and produce a film — the moment a project moves from development into pre-production.
Full definitionLogline
A one-to-two sentence summary of a screenplay containing protagonist, goal, obstacle, and stakes — the sentence that decides whether anyone reads page one.
Full definitionPitch Deck
A short visual document — usually 8–12 pages — that sells a script's tone, world, characters, market case, and budget before anyone commits to reading 110 pages.
Full definitionScript Coverage
The internal report a professional reader writes about a submitted screenplay — logline, synopsis, comments, and a pass/consider/recommend verdict.
Full definitionTable Read
A seated, out-loud reading of a script by actors or peers — the fastest way to hear where dialogue dies, pacing sags, and jokes land or don't.
Full definition