Script Coverage Template and Example (Word, PDF)

Logline

When her estranged father is lost at sea, a disgraced coast guard pilot returns home to run his failing lobster boat and finds the town has been running drugs through his traps.

Synopsis

MAE CORRIGAN (34), grounded after a rescue that went wrong, comes home to Port Ellery for the funeral of her father, TOM, whose boat came back empty. She plans to sell the boat and leave.

The buyer, harbor master DEL ROWE (50s), is too eager. Hauling the last of Tom’s traps, Mae finds sealed packages in one. Tom was not just fishing.

Mae turns to her childhood friend, now sheriff, LUIS ORTA (35), and learns Luis owes Del. She keeps the boat and starts hauling the traps herself, mapping the route.

The midpoint storm forces Mae to fly again, borrowing a rescue helicopter to pull Del’s nephew from the water. He tells her Tom tried to quit and was sunk for it.

Mae sets a trap of her own, ships a decoy load, and records Del taking it. Luis chooses her side. Del is arrested at the dock, and Mae decides to stay and keep the boat.

Comments

A strong, specific world and a lead with a real wound. The opening rescue earns Mae’s guilt and pays off well in the storm at the midpoint, the best sequence in the script.

The second act sags around pages 45 to 60, when Mae maps the route through repeated hauling scenes that cover the same ground. Cutting two of them would tighten the middle.

Del is a familiar small town villain. Giving him a reason the audience half agrees with would make the ending land harder. Luis turns too quickly in the third act and needs a scene that costs him something.

Dialogue is lean and regional without leaning on accent. The ending is earned but tidy; a last image of what Mae gave up would help.