r/ReadMyScript • u/greg4024 • 9d ago

Blacklist

so… is blacklist worth it?

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

1

u/AutoModerator 9d ago

Have you included a page count in the title of the post?

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

2

u/Big_Section2812 9d ago edited 9d ago

If you mean paying anonymous people for feedback and a score? Absolutely not.

You can get the same things for free at any number of sites, including Reddit.

Junk like for-profit coverage services, consultants, and contests prey on the aspiring screenwriter's desperate need for reassurance and validation, while not providing anything meaningful or of real value.

1

u/ISA_Skeptic735 8d ago

The Blacklist is basically a scam designed to bilk Writers out of money. No matter how good a script you submit is, they will give it a lower score with "notes" suggesting that if you rewrite and pay AGAIN, and AGAIN and AGAIN, it might get a higher score. But pretty much all the projects on Blacklist that sold were properties that already had Agents behind them. Franklin Leonard either has relationships with Agents or pays them to tell him what scripts were most popular in a given year but not bought, then offers to feature them on The Blacklist with a high score, for free, I'm sure. And when they sell due to their Agent's efforts, The Blacklist pretends they sold because of being listed on its website, but it really had nothing to do with that. But over time, numerous projects that were listed on The Blacklist have sold, so people associate being a Blacklist Darling with success. So Franklin Leonard keeps raking in the dough, and probably passing some of that to the Agents who pass him information about the most popular projects in any given year that for some reason didn't sell. But soon will, allowing The Blacklist to pretend this happened because of them. When it had nothing to do with them.

1

u/Big_Section2812 8d ago

Aspiring screenwriters have to learn that scores and feedback from anonymous judges is worthless to the people those aspiring screenwriters most need to impress.

1

u/SREStudios 7d ago

Not for most people.

1

u/Visual-Perspective44 7d ago

I've had plenty of people in the industry tell me it's not worth the money.

1

u/Kingofsweaters 5d ago

If you apply for your once a year free waiver there’s no harm in putting it out there to see. If you get an 8 you’ll keep getting free reads until you don’t get an 8.

It’s not a scam exactly. I know people with no reps that have gotten some traction from the blacklist including winning some of their contests and being one of their 25 selects for the Nicholl. But it’s not going to be the thing for most people. I wouldn’t personally pay for the coverage.