Reel Green™ Vendor Spotlight: Scriptation

Reel Green™ Vendor, Scriptation, is an Emmy® Award winning, script-reading and annotating, must-have app for productions (directors, cinematographers, producers, and writers) to go paperless on set.

With 9 different features, Scriptation can elevate your script taking notes and meetings to a new level. With the ability to transfer notes from previous revisions, it can save time from copying the same notes over and over again. Cast and crew from productions such as The Flight Attendant, Outer Banks, The Walking Dead, and Grown-ish have used Scriptation on their productions and trust it.

Depending on your team and your needs, you can get pricing for all types of productions including student films, indie features, television shows, or major motion pictures.

In the interview chair this month, is Steve Vitolo, CEO and Founder of Scriptation. He takes us on a deep dive into all things Scriptation, and why you should go paperless on your next set!

Steven Vitolo – CEO & Founder of Scriptation

1. What prompted you to create Scriptation?  

The idea of Scriptation came about when I was working on a pilot in 2013. We had this unusual production schedule where every night we were issuing a 50-page script revision to over 100 people. The next day, everyone would throw out the previous day’s scripts for the new ones, rewriting all their notes in the process. This just seemed like an enormous waste of time and paper, so we thought, “What if we could create a digital app that could transfer notes from one draft to the next?” That’s what sparked the initial idea of Scriptation.

2. What are the day-to-day operations like within your business? What do you enjoy most out of it?  

My role within the company is quite diverse. I manage both the development and product teams, and part of my responsibilities includes keeping a close eye on user feedback. This feedback not only helps us improve our services, but also shapes the direction of our development process. On the business side, I oversee finances and other operational aspects. The aspect I find most fulfilling, however, is the development side – creating new ideas, transforming them into app features, and witnessing the positive impact they have on our users and our team. It’s extremely satisfying.

3. What makes you different from other sustainable businesses?  

What makes us stand out among other sustainable businesses is our single-minded focus – eliminating paper use in the film and TV industry. It may seem like a simple idea, but the ripple effect of this singular focus is extensive. Once you remove paper from the equation, you automatically reduce reliance on other related resources. There’s less need for printers and copiers, which in turn decreases the demand for toner. Electricity usage drops because we’re no longer powering these devices. The absence of paper also means fewer metal brads are needed to hold scripts together. Plus, we cut down on the carbon emissions from trucks that used to deliver stacks of paper. While we are dedicated to going paperless, we also indirectly address several other environmental issues – and that’s something we’re proud of.

4. Why should crews consider going paperless?  

The shift to paperless isn’t just about the clear environmental impact, which is huge by our numbers, but there’s a major productivity boost too. Consider a Scriptation user who gets an early draft of a script and starts making notes. When a new draft arrives, they can move their notes over in seconds, literally. Compare that to manually copying notes, which could take upwards of hours to complete – that’s a massive boost to productivity. The time they save makes their work and production better, and it gives them the chance to have a personal life. So it’s a win-win really, for everyone, individually or on the crew. They get to be more sustainable, more efficient, do better work, and have some free time too. Major benefits all around.

5. What are the benefits of using Scriptation? What tools does it offer?  

Transferring notes is Scriptation’s biggest selling point. It feels like magic to our users. A director once told us that Scriptation saves him over five hours a week just by transferring his notes automatically. But we didn’t stop there. Based on user feedback, we’ve added other features like actor highlighting, lining tools for script supervisors, reader mode for easy reading on phones, and a script comparison feature. We recently also introduced an AI-powered analysis tool that provides a simple breakdown of changes between script versions.

6. What is a recent achievement/green win you’ve had? Something you are most proud of?  

When I was working as a script coordinator and developing Scriptation on the side, I witnessed a drastic change in the show I was on. Initially, we were printing about 110, maybe 115 copies of the script. However, during my two-year tenure, we managed to bring that number down to somewhere in the 50s. Even after I left, the show had a few more seasons to go, and I’ve heard that a bunch more people had gone digital since then. So the sheer impact we made on one single show—getting over 50 people to shift from receiving printed scripts to going digital for every script distribution—feels really significant and crucial to me. It’s something I’m proud of.

Likewise – and this is more of an achievement by our users – in 2022, Scriptation users saved over 6.7 million sheets of paper from being printed. That’s over 13,500 reams of paper, which environmentally equates to over 809 trees saved, 723,000 gallons of water saved, and 608,000 pounds of CO2 saved just by going paperless on set.

7. How do you partner with initiatives such as Reel Green™ to bring more awareness and education around your tool? 

Partnering with initiatives like Reel Green™ is key to spreading awareness about the practical and sustainability benefits that tools like Scriptation offer. By hosting webinars, offering discounts, and sharing statistics on how going digital can simultaneously enhance productivity and lessen environmental impact, we can convince more people to explore these digital options. We can also advocate together for an “opt-in to paper” policy instead of assuming paper as the default. This isn’t just a concept, but an actionable step that organizations and individuals can take to make a huge difference. It’s a fundamental part of our ‘2030 Coalition to Go Paperless’, an initiative supported by industry figures like Gloria Calderon Kellet, Rachel Bloom, and Melissa Fumero. These efforts aim to make digital solutions more attractive and accessible, propelling a much-needed shift in our industry’s practices.

8. Where can people find more information on your company and services?

If you’re interested in learning more about Scriptation, you can visit our website, scriptation.com. You’ll be able to check out all our product offerings, whether you’re an individual looking to download Scriptation or a production company wanting to leverage our tools for your show or movie. Also, if your studio is registered with Scriptation Enterprise, there’s a good chance you could access Scriptation at no cost. So, it’s definitely worth checking with your studio to see if this benefit is available to you.

And if you’re eager to get started, you can download Scriptation for free in the App Store.

There are over 30 Reel Green™ Vendors that offer a wide range of sustainable services or eco-products to help green our world. Let us know any Reel Green™ Vendors you would like to see in the spotlight next! If you are a Reel Green™ Vendor, and would like to be featured, send us an email at reelgreen@creativebc.com to set up an interview.    

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