That Sam Bailey script is awful talkative...

Finally, I got some critical feedback on the new draft of Sam Bailey!

Correctly, they pointed out that I've committed one of the cardinal sins of screenwriting. My script is almost all dialogue. Any reasonable agency reader would dump it in the recycle bin. Seeing all that conversation is a red flag. No question.

Actors do things. Film allows us to watch them. Movies are not about words.

At the same time, convincing, challenging, questioning and supporting each other is the fastest and simplest way I can see for these particular characters to reach their objectives. As far as I can tell, the dialogue in Sam Bailey is never anything other than action. We're not watching these characters talk. We're watching them build relationships and solve mysteries.

Funny enough, this script is way too intimate, too quiet, to work on stage. Viewers need to be close to these conversations to pick up the action, because it is subtle. Watching this movie is about being in on things - a secret, and a relationship. Making the action too big, and thus making the budget too big, would make it a different movie.

Then again, dialogue as action is not something everyone can pull off! When it comes time to shoot, it'll be more professional for me to take that risk with the best script I can muster than try and make a three million dollar movie for 200k.

That three-million dollar version is a film where people chase each other down, instead of convincing each other to stay. Both are actions. While the three million dollar version might run less risk of being terrible and boring, it certainly will never be as great.