For studios & production companies
Writers send scripts to Gatehouse, through the official page on your website. We lock each one and check a short summary against a private list of what you’re already making. Anything too close never reaches you. Every step is written down.
SALT LINES
Written by
Mara Ellison
Draft 2
March 2026
Received
By Gatehouse for
Northlight Pictures
03 Mar 2026 · 14:03
Record of receipt
Locked. Only the writer has the password.
How it works, in one picture
A writer sends a script
Through the official page on your website.
We lock it
Only the writer has the password. Not us, not you.
We compare a short summary with your project list
Privately, on our own servers.
Too close to something you’re making?
You never see it. Nobody is told why.
Not close?
You can read the summary. The script only if the writer unlocks it.
For your studio
Most studios turn unsolicited scripts away because taking them in is a risk. Gatehouse takes them in for you.
What you get
What it asks of you
That’s all. The studio pays for the service; writers pay nothing.
Your plans stay private
To keep scripts that are too close to your projects away from your team, we need a short line for each project you’re developing. No scripts, no decks. Rather not write it down? We’ll call once a month and keep the list for you.
A project list, in fullConfidential
That’s enough. Anything too close to a line here is held back before your team sees a word.
Not another submissions platform
Gatehouse isn’t a submissions service. It’s a way of receiving scripts that was designed, step by step, around the claims studios fear.
A submissions platform
Gatehouse
What it’s for
Platform: Getting writers read
Gatehouse: Keeping the studio clear of claims
Who it’s built around
Platform: The writer
Gatehouse: The studio’s legal position — with fair treatment for writers
What your team receives
Platform: The pile
Gatehouse: Nothing, unless a summary is clear of your projects and you choose to read it
Your plans
Platform: Not their concern
Gatehouse: A confidential project list, kept in your own private space, never shown to anyone
The script
Platform: Stored, browsable, often scored
Gatehouse: Locked with the writer’s password. We can’t read it
The record
Platform: An upload log, if that
Gatehouse: Built around the questions a claimant’s lawyer would ask
The difference
Ordinary email
A script lands in someone’s inbox. It gets forwarded, saved, forgotten. Years later, nobody is sure who saw which version.
Fwd: Fwd: script submission
9 Jun
Assistant, Development → Head of Development
SALT_LINES_final_v3 (2).pdf
Fwd: script submission
8 Jun
Head of Development → Creative Exec; Producer
script submission
3 Jun
mara.ellison@… → info@northlight…
Three years later: who read it?
With Gatehouse
The script is locked the moment it arrives. A short summary is compared with your project list. Every step is written down.
3 Jun · 14:02
Writer agreed to Northlight’s terms
3 Jun · 14:03
Draft 2 received; locked with the writer’s password
3 Jun · 14:10
Summary compared with your project list — clear
—
Not shared with anyone at Northlight
Three years later: it’s all on file.
The record
For every script: who sent it, which version, when it arrived, and who at the studio saw anything — and when. Written down at the time, not pieced together after a lawyer’s letter arrives.
Gatehouse · Record
Salt Lines
Mara Ellison
Identity checked · over 18 · owns the work · release signed
Draft 2 · 104 pages
Exact file kept, locked; new drafts recorded separately
3 March 2026, 14:03
Terms signed at 14:02 — copy on file
Summary only · 2 people
Pictures team · 12 March, 11:48 · writer-approved version
NotedScript: never unlocked
Writer’s receipt
Salt Lines
No score. No ranking. Nothing shared without your yes.
Fair to writers
Writers will use it because it’s your official channel. They’ll trust it because nothing scores or rejects them, nobody can read their script without their password, and they approve what you see.
No. Submission services exist to get writers read, and there are plenty of them. Gatehouse exists to keep your studio clear of claims. Every part of it — the project list, the writer-approved summary, the locked script, the record — was designed around the claims studios fear.
Nobody. It’s kept in your own private space, separate from every other studio, and used only for the comparison. Everyone at Gatehouse works under NDA.
No. Each script is read once, by our own model, to write the summary. After that it’s locked with the writer’s password, and we have no way in.
No — nothing can. But it makes life as difficult as possible for a contingency lawyer. They’re paid only if a case wins or settles, so they look for proof the studio saw the script, an unwritten deal, and a messy record. Gatehouse is designed to leave them none of the three.
Gatehouse handles the receiving and the record keeping. Your team decides whether anything is worth reading.