DECODING STORIES
SCRIPTWRITING SERVICES TO ASSIST scriptwriters along the creative process
About
DECODING STORIES regards scriptwriting as an art form and so we distance ourselves from the somehow rigid pre-established rules that govern most of the industry in favour of a personalised approach with each scriptwriter and their natural writing style, as well as with the needs of their unique story.
Besides, we’re one of the first script consultancies to offer an analysis on the ideological perspective of the story as part of the creative process.
Decoding Stories was founded in 2011 and since then we’ve been reading scripts from many different parts of the world. These years of experience have helped us define who we are, a consultancy that develops a close relationship with the writer, placing special attention to the theme of the story, as well as to the values it communicates beyond its surface.
SCRIPT ANALYSIS
Our services include feedback in the form of:
Written report
Video call
Face-to-face meeting when possible
We are happy to adjust our services to meet the needs of every project. For new (or not-so-new) scriptwriters, we can schedule follow-ups, so that the scriptwriter can feel accompanied throughout your writing journey.
We assist with a range of script formats, including:
Feature length scripts
TV Series episodes
TV Series Bibles
Documentaries
Scriptments
Treatments
Synopsis
Our approach:
In the interactive communication that video calls and meetings allow, we take the time to get to know the scriptwriter in order to understand their background and creative process. Our consulting focuses on asking the right questions about the story without proposing any rules. Instead, we look closely at the character’s development coherence and we make sure that all the mechanisms available to build and create complexity in the theme are used. We also make sure that the conclusion of the story delivers the intentioned perspective on the theme by the author.
Our script consultants are:
BLANCA ESCODA AGUSTÍ
Blanca, who’s also the founder of Decoding Stories, studied at the Script Factory with Lucy Scher and has attended several seminars, among them the acclaimed "Story" and "Genre" by Robert Mckee as well as Linda Seger's workshop on Script Consulting. She works as a Feature Film Writing teacher and Script Reader for Cineuropa and has worked for Filmarket Hub for many years. She has worked for Creative Europe in the TV Series Lab Hamburg as a mentor for various groups. She’s been Jury in different European Film Festivals like The European Independent Film Festival, L’Alternativa, Terror Molins de Rei and Festival de Cinema de Girona, besides consultant in the Film Development Regional Agency of Valencia. She has also been a speaker for Film Festivals organised by the UE in Jamaica and Venezuela, as well as in the New York Independent Film Festival. She collaborated in the book Stand-Out Shorts (Russell Evans, Focal Press, 2001). She graduated with a First Class Honours from Contemporary Media Practice at University of Westminster (UK).
Miguel Machalski
Miguel has worked as a consultant in several script programs supported by Creative Europe like Sources2, Torino Feature LAB, EAVE, LIM, MAIA, NIPKOW and for Binger Lab in Amsterdam. He has also been a script consultant for such prestigious films like Billy Elliot (Stephen Daldry), Million-Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood), Saraband (Ingmar Bergman), Mar Adentro (Alejandro Amenábar), Femme Fatale (Brian de Palma), Spider (David Cronenberg), The Interpreter (Sydney Pollack), The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (Terry Gilliam), Tabú/Gohatto (Nagisa Oshima), Tango (Carlos Saura), The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (Terry Gilliam) and The Golden Bowl (James Ivory). Miguel has published three books on scriptwriting.
SOCIAL DEPICTIONS CONSULTANCY
At Decoding Stories we value the impact storytelling has in society and thus we believe that it’s important that scriptwriters have control over the ideas that their stories emit.
While we are not here to tell any writer what ideology to have or communicate, we do think that the work of analysing the script from this perspective is important, so that the scriptwriters can understand the values that they are communicating and decide in a conscious way if they feel comfortable with them.
This is why we've designed a brand-new scriptwriting service: one that analyses how ethnicity, gender, sexuality, social class, age, functional diversity and mental health are portrayed in the script, in order to give the scriptwriter a chance to calibrate it, if they deem it necessary after the feedback.
At Decoding Stories we consider this an increasingly important service in the Film Industry, not as a way to restrain writers within "political correctness" but to help films connect with contemporary audiences, which have an increasing sensibility to any inequality portrait on screen.
This work is always carried out by an expert on social identities and how these are portrayed in culture.
TRANSLATIONS
Our primary translation service covers translating Spanish scripts into English, however we can accommodate other languages.
contact
blanca@decodingstories.com
We would be more than happy to discuss with you the needs you have for your project. Please drop us a line to discuss any of the services described above, or if you require a quotation, or just to say hi! We look forward to hearing from you.
We are mainly based in Barcelona but we have a couple of consultants in the UK and in the USA.