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.