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It might seem once a screenplay reaches 70 pages it's ready to be shot, but that's usually not the case. It's easy to use a simple yardstick such as length to deem a story ready to be told, but there are better ways. This screenplay should be able to elicit a particular type of favorable reaction when told to a sympathetic audience. There are so many kinds of reactions one could have to a screenplay, it will take time to get a script that gets the right ones.

The minimum reaction is one to the story's ending, but you can also get visible or verbal reactions throughout the telling.

Laugh

This is the base requirement of any comedy, but it might be the reaction your screenplay got and you didn't think it was a comedy. Laughs are good, they show people care. If your screenplay gets a lot of laughs it could be near being ready to shoot. Dramas that get lots of laughs really might be dramedies or dark comedies. A horror movie that gets laughs is not a horror movie, rather a comedy or a hybrid. You can feel confident no matter if it was on purpose or not; laughs means you are likely well on your way.

What Happens Next

The most pure reaction to a story is the desire to know what happens next. If you get that throughout the telling, you know you have a compelling script. It may not be something they say to you, but rather the widening of eyes or the leaning forward awaiting the next word. Just the fact that someone maintains eye contact with you as you tell the story means they probably want to know what happens next. Or they are just overly polite.

Silent Wow

This is usually the reaction you get at the end of a story that is not only ready to be shot, but might also be a great movie. It takes times for people to process all the things you've told them and it goes to show you did a good job if they were so engaged they are speechless. So don't be discouraged that they don't shower you with compliments, they are giving you the ultimate compliment by saying nothing. After a few minutes or days they then may begin to be able to give real feedback, but by then you will already know a lot about their experience.

Ah, How Cute

Cute is up there with laughs on the scale of human desire. People love cute stuff and they love funny stuff, hence the popularity of romantic comedies - like chocolate and peanut butter united. This reaction means they like what they are hearing and that's enough to keep them interested. We may not always be able to craft the best story, but if we keep it cute you can't go that wrong.

When you get the reactions you think the story should receive from people, then you can confidently work to translate it to the screen. It may not work out exactly like it does on paper, but if you don't get it right on paper in the first place you have even less of a chance of making a movie worth watching.