A graduate of The New School in New York City, Sawyer Petrick is passionate about film and television. While an undergraduate, he received an A grade with high honors for his senior capstone screenplay, The Newsboy Racket. Sawyer Petrick also served as a writer and script consultant with Whole Picture Films, where he consulted on the feature film script “The Speech.”
Script consultants work with scripts and screenwriters to help them polish their scripts. They offer feedback and provide development notes about how the writer can improve scenes or sections of dialog. They may also provide verbal feedback, and highlight issues with the script such as continuity errors.
When searching for a script consultant, a good place to start is to focus on their qualifications. There are no industry standards for consulting, meaning anybody can work as a script consultant. To weed out the writers with little experience, look for consultants who list a range of projects they've worked on. Also, ask for a sample of the consultant’s work. Pay close attention to the logline to confirm the consultant understood the screenwriter’s intentions. Also examine the consultant’s notes, looking for examples of constructive feedback versus criticism that points out faults but provides no solutions.
