I wanted to give my 2 cents about the blacklist. Not from the scriptwriter pov, but from the producer Side.
First of, what a great idea. Thanks to the search engine, the ratings, it's fairly easy to find scripts that suit your needs. The evals are great, as they give you plenty of additional info about the scripts.
All in all, it works well in the way that it connects writers to producers/managers. The issue I have with it, and which I think is connected to the bigger picture, is regarding the scripts' quality. While I was writing scripts I knew about it. Now from the producing side I see it constantly. Writing a great script is really hard.
From my experience, scripts which received 7/8, even 9 aren't "there" yet. Rushed 1st act, logical issues, uncooked characters. I read around 70 scripts from the blacklist (from that 7 to 9 range), I didn't pick any of them. The evals were always write about what was missing -the weakness/strength part is always spot on.
From my pov, here's what I saw:
-Scripts that follow a trend: bisexuality, transgender, etc... for the sake of following the trend.
-Scripts that seemed like they were written by a robot who read Save the cat.
-Scripts who started off nicely, but jump the shark as soon as they hit the midpoint.
All in all, my biggest concern is a lack of voice. Most writer I read write bland movies. Nothing personal, no individual take. I don't mean to be a Wes Anderson or a Tarantino, but at the very least to be themselves.
So the blacklist is really helpful, especially that sweet search engine, and the evaluations. The problem, which is linked to the bigger picture, is the lack of great scripts. I get it now, when my manager used to tell me producers fight over great scripts. It's a rarity.
First of, what a great idea. Thanks to the search engine, the ratings, it's fairly easy to find scripts that suit your needs. The evals are great, as they give you plenty of additional info about the scripts.
All in all, it works well in the way that it connects writers to producers/managers. The issue I have with it, and which I think is connected to the bigger picture, is regarding the scripts' quality. While I was writing scripts I knew about it. Now from the producing side I see it constantly. Writing a great script is really hard.
From my experience, scripts which received 7/8, even 9 aren't "there" yet. Rushed 1st act, logical issues, uncooked characters. I read around 70 scripts from the blacklist (from that 7 to 9 range), I didn't pick any of them. The evals were always write about what was missing -the weakness/strength part is always spot on.
From my pov, here's what I saw:
-Scripts that follow a trend: bisexuality, transgender, etc... for the sake of following the trend.
-Scripts that seemed like they were written by a robot who read Save the cat.
-Scripts who started off nicely, but jump the shark as soon as they hit the midpoint.
All in all, my biggest concern is a lack of voice. Most writer I read write bland movies. Nothing personal, no individual take. I don't mean to be a Wes Anderson or a Tarantino, but at the very least to be themselves.
So the blacklist is really helpful, especially that sweet search engine, and the evaluations. The problem, which is linked to the bigger picture, is the lack of great scripts. I get it now, when my manager used to tell me producers fight over great scripts. It's a rarity.
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