The New Black List

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  • #31
    Re: The New Black List

    Originally posted by CColoredClown View Post
    Just signed up for the $25 service and am giving it a shot. There's already been about 3,000 uploads for scripts, so it's pretty freakin' popular at the moment.

    Edit: 3,778 uploaded as of 2:30 PM PST.
    That's $94,450 . . . not bad for a day's work!!!

    In all seriousness though, very curious what the turnaround time is for a review by a BL reader? I imagine there will be in excess of 10,000 scripts uploaded by the end of the month . . . . that seems like a very big pile to get through.

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    • #32
      Re: The New Black List

      Bitter Script Reader has an excellent overview that provides far more details than the Black List folks have themselves provided:

      Why every aspiring writer should be excited about Black List 3.0

      http://thebitterscriptreader.blogspo...uld-be_15.html

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      • #33
        Re: The New Black List

        Originally posted by RobWriter View Post
        That's $94,450 . . . not bad for a day's work!!!
        I'm sure I read somewhere that refers to the total number of scripts in the BlackList database - not just those posted today by 'aspiring screenwriters', or whatever they're calling us now to avoid using the word 'amateur.'

        I think it's an interesting development, but people are praising it for costing the same as one contest, which it does... for the first month.

        But leave a couple of scripts up there for a few months, and you'll soon have no money left for all those "number one secret tip to being a professional screenwriter" videos you were going to buy yourself for Christmas.

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        • #34
          Re: The New Black List

          Originally posted by karlosd View Post
          I think it's an interesting development, but people are praising it for costing the same as one contest, which it does... for the first month.
          Yep, so how many months is "ideal" for you to leave it up so it actually gets a shot if, in fact, it is a viable project for a sale? If you were only going to leave it up one month, that may be worth it -- but months and months...?

          And JoJo -- I agree. Wow!!

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          • #35
            Re: The New Black List

            I'm confused. I saw a posting on Lockhart's Inside Pitch Facebook group. It says this has nothing to do with the Black List that comes out once it a year.
            Advice from writer, Kelly Sue DeConnick. "Try this: if you can replace your female character with a sexy lamp and the story still basically works, maybe you need another draft.-

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            • #36
              Re: The New Black List

              Originally posted by lordmanji View Post
              This sounds really cool. Very well could become a major center for finding good screenplays, and allows the writers to be more selective (which will put everyone on their game). Have a few questions:

              Regarding readers: will it be possible to "request a reader or type of reader (say for genre)"?

              And how many readers would it take before industry players are notified?

              How are shady producers separated from legitimate smaller producers?
              Scripts are routed to readers based on their genre preferences. A reader who likes Romantic Comedy, for example, would not be forced to read and evaluate a Science Fiction movie, and vice versa. Makes sense no?

              Our industry professional membership can be made aware of a script with as few as one read, if the script gets a sterling evaluation. Simply put, the industry professionals express their preference about what they want to hear about. Some may want to hear about big budget comedies that are well reviewed. Others may want micro-budget horror. They're made aware of all good scripts based on their preference, but for obvious reasons, multiple good evaluations are better than one. More evaluations are particularly valuable in that they enable us to better make targeted individual recommendations using our recommendations algorithm.

              Our industry professional membership is curated. We've done our best to prevent "shady producers" from joining altogether, and if we get notice that members of our site are behaving in a way inconsistent with the Black List's values, they will be expelled from our membership.

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              • #37
                Re: The New Black List

                Originally posted by Manchester View Post
                Franklin, certainly there is a big rush today, but about timing - How long do you expect it to take to get the $50 notes/review/rec?

                Here's why I ask. It seems that one has to pay the $25 monthly fee to be listed in order to pay the $50 to be reviewed. As I understand it, you only make a review available to others if the writer agrees.

                So let's say I've written the world's greatest-ever script, and yet... your reviewer finds it to be not-so-much. In that case, I might want to take it down from your site and reconsider if maybe my self-assessment wasn't quite right. I'm wondering how long that time-arc might be. Thanks.
                A good question.

                The timeline on our reviews will likely be ever changing depending the demand for them.

                Yes, a writer must pay the $25 fee to have their script listed. And an additional $50 to have it read by one of our readers.

                Also true that it is entirely the writer's choice as to whether that evaluation is made public on the site.

                In the case you mentioned, you're absolutely right, you may want to take it down immediately after receiving the response, and if you think that it is not likely generate traffic to your script, you should. One thing not mentioned in any of the media coverage of our announcement today is that all writers will be able to track, in real time, the volume of traffic to their script. Views of their script page, # of downloads, # of ratings from industry professionals, etc., which I think, will be a good guide for people as to whether there's value in keeping their script on the site.

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                • #38
                  Re: The New Black List

                  Originally posted by joe9alt View Post
                  $25 a month PLUS $50 for a read?

                  Why not just query the people on the producers' list for free?

                  Well, one good thing that comes out of this is at least I won't have to be annoyed about not making the black list any more!
                  You're welcome to query the people on the producers' list for free.

                  Consider it another way though: imagine you've written a brilliant script. You pay $75 for a month's hosting and a single read from our readers. If it's reviewed incredibly well, word of your brilliant script is immediately communicated to now over 1200 film industry professionals ranging from agency assistants to multiple studio presidents of production (including Greg Silverman at Warner Brothers and Hannah Minghella at Sony who are on our board of advisors) and A list talent and directors.

                  It's not as cheap as writing 1200 query e-mails, but the upside is considerably higher, if your script is strong.

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                  • #39
                    Re: The New Black List

                    Okay, so now you're saying it's best to get more evaluations, at $50.00 a pop, in order to get read. Or at least keep trying until you get a good one? But one might not be enough? Yikes. This IS getting expensive.
                    "The Hollywood film business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." Hunter S Thompson

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                    • #40
                      Re: The New Black List

                      Originally posted by joe9alt View Post
                      $25 a month PLUS $50 for a read?

                      Why not just query the people on the producers' list for free?

                      Well, one good thing that comes out of this is at least I won't have to be annoyed about not making the black list any more!
                      Lastly, the annual Black List will be created using the same process it has for the last seven years, namely surveying some 500 executives that make up the studio system executive corps (typically ~60% respond.)

                      This represents an extension of tools to serve the mission of helping moviemakers find great scripts to make and great scripts to find moviemakers to make them.

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                      • #41
                        Re: The New Black List

                        Originally posted by JeffLowell View Post
                        More reading fees.

                        There's a reason the WGA bans agencies from charging them, and it's not because they're a wickedly good idea for writers.
                        Jeff, first, let me start by saying that I really admire your work, both as a screenwriter and as an educator and advocate for and of screenwriters here and elsewhere. I fully understand that there are legitimate questions and concerns about this venture, as I think there should be. It's why I will continue to be as transparent as possible about what we're doing, why we're doing it, how we're doing it, and why we're doing it in the way that we are. It's why I went to each of the Guilds in advance of launch to begin a dialogue and incorporate their concerns into our model and maintain and ongoing conversation with them. Moreover, I suspect we'll have some announcement in the near future that will assuage some of your concerns.

                        I would, honored, frankly, if you wanted to host a moderated conversation here where I could address your and anyone else's concerns. In the meantime, I will begin answering frequently asked questions on the Black List blog (and people can start asking them via the comments here: http://blog.blcklst.com/2012/10/ques...list-ask-away/ or here: http://gointothestory.blcklst.com/20...enwriters.html, but that is admittedly a bit ad hoc, and I'd like make myself available to the Done Deal Pro community specifically and who better to moderate than you, someone well respected and with a healthy skepticism of this endeavor.

                        As for your question, unlike agencies - and many of the different, more disreputable services that try to accomplish on a smaller scale what we will - we do not take a commission on any of the business generated by this platform. We take no finder's fee. And we are not asking for or demanding an option or producer's credit on material discovered via this platform.
                        Last edited by Done Deal Pro; 10-15-2012, 03:09 PM. Reason: Fixed a link.

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                        • #42
                          Re: The New Black List

                          Originally posted by cshel View Post
                          Okay, so now you're saying it's best to get more evaluations, at $50.00 a pop, in order to get read. Or at least keep trying until you get a good one? But one might not be enough? Yikes. This IS getting expensive.
                          This is a really important question--can you pay for more than one read in the hopes of boosting a script's rating? And if so, is there a limit to how many reads you can purchase?

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                          • #43
                            Re: The New Black List

                            The fee is a good way to make sure only serious people send their material.

                            What we need to see is an example of the coverage provided!

                            I don't want to pay 50 bucks just for a guy to read the first few pages and say it's not worth it because he'd rather watch the LA Lakers game.

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                            • #44
                              Re: The New Black List

                              Originally posted by cshel View Post
                              I'm confused. Isn't it still going to be the same pro Black List as before?

                              It sounds like this is just a separate service for amateurs that wouldn't have anything to do with the original Black List. Unless in some rare instance it led to a great script getting discovered that then went on to get on the Black List.

                              Is it a bad thing because they are taking advantage of new writers by charging them? Or are you saying it would diminish the importance of being on the Black List in some way?
                              There will still be the annual Black List created in the same way that it has over the last seven years.

                              This is meant to be a separate but related service that is able to identify great scripts from outside Hollywood and provide a system whereby those scripts can be shared with as many people as possible inside Hollywood.

                              Yes, there is a fee associated with this service. We encourage you to compare it with services that are offering far less and charging much more.

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                              • #45
                                Re: The New Black List

                                Couple of critical questions:

                                1. There should be some ballpark indication of the current turn-around times for an evaluation. If it takes a month to get one (not saying it does), then essentially your first month's fee would be wasted.

                                2. How does the system handle multiple evaluations? Does it average the scores or is each evaluation independent?

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