A disgruntled employee of Snapchat tells the rise of her former Stanford classmate, Evan Spiegel - creator of Snap Chat.
Written by Elissa Karasik.
This script came in at the top of the 2018 blacklist.
It was a very interesting and fun read.
THE STORY...
Interestingly, this story is narrated and told by one of the least prominent of the characters. Imagine if Social Network was told by a random employee that wasn't very close to Mark or any of the other co-founders...
It seems like a bold and risky move but there is rhyme and reason for the choice.
Lilly is employee number 33 at Snap-Chat. The story opens at the NYSE where Snap Chat has a public valuation of $33 billion. Making Micheal Evans worth $3.3 billion.
Lilly is the only one here that's not happy about the immense success of Snap Chat. She's that kid at the birthday party that just has to cry no matter how much fun everyone is having.
But maybe she's right to be upset. As we're going to find out, if it wasn't for her genius idea Snap Chat wouldn't have become worth half of what it did.
Here we're left with a cliff hanger of sorts... the question becomes - what did Lilly do that was soooo genius to save Snap Chat and help make it worth so much money?
Read on to find out...
After the ubiquitous 'hook' that is required of all good films - we jump back in time to Stanford University in 2011. Here we meet Evans and Lilly studying hard, trying to come up with the next big app.
Michael comes from a serious money background... his parents are wealthy, but not Michael Jackson level wealthy, no, this poor chap has to put up with driving $75k cars, instead of $200k cars. It's tough for some, you know, the things the sub-mega-rich have to put up with can be really hard sometimes.
Michael is all front, he's not a good coder like Zuckerberg, in fact, he's the opposite of Zuckerberg in every way. He's the cool guy, the party maker, he's one that runs the coolest frat house on campus throwing all the wildest parties.
But it's not enough for him. Like all good megalomaniacs, he wants to rule the world by creating the coolest app that everyone uses...
There's a lot of infighting between Lilly and Evans at school. Evans doesn't put any effort in while Lilly works her butt off. And as we all know already... it's Evans who becomes incredibly successful.
There's a certain irony to that.
In a way, Evans is a lot like Steve Jobs. Someone who has ideas and uses other people's skills to bring them to life.
There becomes the age-old debate of creation... is it the architect that's deserved of the praise for envisioning the building or is it the workers who actually did the hard work and laid the bricks who deserve the credit?
Just to clarify, the bricks are lines of code in this screamingly obvious metaphor.
The building is the App.
The story moves forward as you would expect it too.
Evans isn't doing well at school until he has this holy-shit idea about a photo app that deletes the photos after ten seconds.
Why is that so cool? It means there is no permanent record. In an age of the permanent record that is a unique and powerful thing.
At first, he's ridiculed because that's what happens when anyone comes along with a new great idea. Our minds are set to make fun of those who break the norm.
Evans goes off with his coding team to live with his dad for the summer.
Here we find the ubiquitous failing relationship between father and son.
Evan's father becomes the first investor in Snap Chat.
There is also the infighting between Evans and his original team. Some doing more work than the others.
Everything plays out just the way you would expect it too.
The app launches - under the less cool name of - Picaboo - only to crash and not do well at all.
Finally, a meeting with Evans' Stanford professor tells Evans that he's targeting the wrong age group. Instead of targeting young adults - target tweens.
BOOM!
The app takes off.
Goes viral.
They expand, expand, expand, they get angel investors, everything is going super duper... then, of course, there has to be a spanner in the works otherwise the story would be too easy.
Evans doesn't want to use the traditional method of direct or pop-up advertising that FaceBook et al use.
He doesn't want to data-mine users info either. So the next question becomes - how the hell do you monetize the app????
This is where Lilly really comes into the story.
Lilly comes up with a way to maintain the integrity of the app AND make a shit-tonne of cash.
What's her great idea??? I won't ruin it for you, even though you already know.
This script was a great fun read, but there was a sense of familiarity to it.
I think there are two saving graces to it.
the first being that it's told from Lilly's POV. Sort of. It starts with Lilly, and she becomes our narrator all the way through.
By doing this it gave the whole Millionaire to Billionaire (as appose to rags to riches) story a fresher take.
Also, the witty writing style added a spice to the reading that added to the story.
One thing I've noticed recently is the importance of tone.
yesterday's script was written with as much fun and joy as Schindler's list - but that worked really well for that script as it was a piece about the horrors of WW2.
This script had a lot of dark humor and sarcasm throughout, but it worked as this story is about a millionaire creating an App and becoming a billionaire.
So I liked the read.... but does that mean I think this script would make money?
In short - if executed well then I believe yes.
This film could be shot for less than $20m. If you really wanted to you could shoot this film using the Blum House business model of $5m.
You don't need name actors to carry this film. The CONCEPT here is the pull.
Everyone knows the iconic snap chat ghost chilla.
Snap Chat currently has 210 million daily active users.
If you shot this film for $5m - then you're pretty much guaranteed to make money. Get some TV level famous actors to play the leads and you're set.
I imagine this film wouldn't have the same impact that Social Network had - but you're sure to make at least $50m off a script and story like this.
This script is set in the present-day, which makes shooting very easy. Yesterday's script was set in WW2 Germany. That makes shooting that script incredibly expensive.
You need to keep in mind that this is what producers think about when reading scripts.
Good producers don't ask themselves if they enjoyed the script.
They ask themselves, can I make money out of this script? If the answer to that is overwhelming yes, then odds are the script will get made.
Think your concept through. Think - will my story make money? How likely is it that my script will make money?
Things that make a movie more expensive to make are...
1) Period.
2) Special effects.
3) A story that would require a BIG NAME actor to get people to go and watch it.
If you can write a story that is high concept and doesn't use any of these then you're script is already in a good spot.
Another thing that came to mind as I read was that this story -- like Jobs, Like Social Network -- all have unlikeable heroes.
Jobs, Zuckerberg and Evans are all pretty much assholes.
Now, normally that would scream script death.
But here - it works.
Why? - Simple - humans love success. We love to see success.
Imagine if Snap Chat had failed and withered into nothing. Where would that leave this script? Nowhere.
No one wants to see a story about an asshole who doesn't succeed. It's almost as though humans forgive people's personality defects so long as they become incredibly successful and wealthy.
This script gets an overall 7/10.
It's well written, would very likely make money, could be shot on a relatively low budget and has an inbuilt market.
If you can get a hold of the script, it's well worth the read.
THE TAKEAWAY:
#1 - crate high concept - no special effects, no period and a story that doesn't need a big name actor to carry it and odds are your script will get good reads and ultimately get made.
#2 - The asshole hero - viewers will forgive a hero their personality defects if they are incredibly successful. This makes for an interesting kind of anti-hero.
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