The Blacklist Offers New Screenwriters A Better Spotlight

Photo Credit: Pretendagers movie

The word for today is meritocracy.

Some writers in the workshops I've attended have been working on screenplays. Getting a screenplay noticed in Hollywood is a very daunting task, but there is one private group founded by Franklin Leonard called The Blacklist. If you listened to National Public Radio this a.m., you heard this story's broadcast. The Blacklist was named in honor of the blacklisted members of the film industry during the McCarthy era. This blacklist is a very good list for screenwriters and started as an anonymous project. Leonard was reading thousands of screenplays in an exhausting effort to recommend the best of them to a film producer. Most of the scripts he read before the Blacklist were terrible, to be honest.

He said, "There has to be a better way." He said wading through scripts was like walking into a bookstore in which there are no book covers, no organization of books, and no reviews.

The Blacklist is a meritocracy, which to a new screenwriter helps level the playing field. In other words, industry professionals may read a handful of submitted scripts instead of thousands. However, the professionals who do read vote for their favorites. Your screenplay is not read by everyone, but when a screenplay receives enough votes, it floats to the top of the pile out of thousands. The result so far has been several Academy Awards for previously unknown screenwriters.

The catch is, there is a monthly fee of $30 per month per script that allows your script to be downloaded and read by industry professionals (non-professionals are not give access to your script). Someone has to pay for the web site and associated professionals. If you feel you're not quite ready for prime time, they also offer a professional EVALUATION of your script, presently at $50 per 1/2 hour pilot, and $75 for a feature-length screenplay.

The Blacklist is a legit submission industry group. There are underhanded "Hollywood" agents out there who will charge a "reading fee" your work with no intention of submitting a good script, or even reading it. Franklin Leonard took a brilliant, why-didn't-I-think-of-that idea and turned it around for the benefit of both Hollywood and screenwriters.

Plagues Have Always Been With Us

Plagues have been with us since the beginning of life on Earth. Archaeologists have uncovered a devastating plague from 5,000 years ago. Hopefully, a vaccine will be ready within the next year to end the pandemic. All historic plagues eventually do, but some have been unbelievably devastating. 

HIV/AIDS continues as a threat and has killed 25 to 35 million people. The Spanish Flu of 1918-19 killed 40 to 50 million. The Plague of Justinian in 541-542 AD killed 30 to 50 million and hastened the fall of the Roman Empire. Smallpox killed 56 million in 1520. Black Death was the giant of plagues in the mid-1300s. Bubonic Plague wiped out 200 million people and 30% to 50% of Europe. It took 200 years to recover the population lost. If they had known that it was fleas on rats that brought the plague, they might have prevented much of the catastrophe. 

Covid-19 evolved from the SARS-COV2 virus (Any claim that Covid-19 was manufactured in a lab is total nonsense. Microbiologists cannot outdo nature in evolving the structure of the virus at its current ability to infect humans). There are strange diseases in the animal world. In 1968, I picked up a lung infection in the jungles of SE Asia. I was quite sick and coughing blood, followed by hallucinations and being unconscious for three days. No doctor was able to identify the infection, but fortunately, I recovered. Some of the symptoms were not unlike SARS/Covid. I'm convinced that when the balance of nature becomes severely out of balance and civilizations mistreat their environments, nature fights back through evolving organisms.

When I watch news reports, it's almost like they are treating it like a contest. Who is number 1 in cases? America is number 1 in the world.  They count the daily totals as though they are counting telethon donations. But, unlike the Black Death, we know what can stop this virus. We know that masks, disinfectant, and staying home can prevent deaths and prevent the spread. The science wasn't sophisticated enough in the Middle Ages to understand how disease spread. What is lacking in sophistication now is common sense. When future generations look back on us, will they shake their heads and say, "They just weren't smart enough to stop the epidemic"?