I got a 9 on the Black List -- now what?

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  • Re: I got a 9 on the Black List -- now what?

    Originally posted by Rantanplan View Post
    And then there are those very few movies you go see because of who wrote them... I'll see anything written by Sorkin, even if the concept doesn't sound like my cup of tea. I feel that way about other writers, but most of them are also directors --Tarantino, Woody Allen, Linklater, other auteurs. Or Apatow comedies for instance. But I think that is a very, very rare realm to inhabit.
    That's why you are smarter than the average movie goer.

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    • Re: I got a 9 on the Black List -- now what?

      I think it's important to watch awesome AND horrible movies. The awesome ones beat down your ego and make you ache for such unobtainable skill... and the horrible ones make you realize you can write way better movies than that drivels--t.

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      • Re: I got a 9 on the Black List -- now what?

        make a list of 3-4 people ( not co. ) who you believe would LOVE your script. Maybe two A-list actresses who'd love to play the lead and two established directors who'd love to shoot it. Spend all of your energy/resources on getting those four to read the script. It might take 2-3 months of full time work. Forget the buzz, downloads, agents, etc. Btw, I wouldn't mention anything about the 9/10 score to them - that's just for you to believe in your material and yourself. Name actors/established directors won't care. I haven't read all of the posts, sorry if someone said this already. My 2 cents.

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        • Re: I got a 9 on the Black List -- now what?

          I got a 8 on the Blacklist site. It got me a meeting with a nice manager who wanted to hip-pocket me, but I politely declined. Then I got another review of a 9, and it got me a... ok nothing.

          I got one more (like a chump - aaaay!) and it got me a freakin 4. WTF.

          Realized that there were some deep flaws with the site, and I took the script down. To be honest, all 3 reviews - even the good ones - seemed like shaky, insecure young readers feeling their way to a late-night point.

          I knew the script was good, and I talked to Franklin in depth about ways to get the site to a place where I thought reality could meet the high potential. I haven't checked back lately but I imagine it's closer now.

          Anyway, a week after I took the script down I signed a good manager with the script, and started writing my next project. That was about 3 months ago.

          FFW a bit, and got a call yesterday from a good agency who said they loved it and want to meet. Long way to go yet, but the moral - so far - is that what mattered was a) the script, and b) the manager. Anything you do between the two is just psyching yourself up for the battle ahead, or a waste of time.

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          • Re: I got a 9 on the Black List -- now what?

            Originally posted by OCeeBee View Post
            I got a 8 on the Blacklist site. It got me a meeting with a nice manager who wanted to hip-pocket me, but I politely declined. Then I got another review of a 9, and it got me a... ok nothing.

            I got one more (like a chump - aaaay!) and it got me a freakin 4. WTF.

            Realized that there were some deep flaws with the site, and I took the script down. To be honest, all 3 reviews - even the good ones - seemed like shaky, insecure young readers feeling their way to a late-night point.

            I knew the script was good, and I talked to Franklin in depth about ways to get the site to a place where I thought reality could meet the high potential. I haven't checked back lately but I imagine it's closer now.

            Anyway, a week after I took the script down I signed a good manager with the script, and started writing my next project. That was about 3 months ago.

            FFW a bit, and got a call yesterday from a good agency who said they loved it and want to meet. Long way to go yet, but the moral - so far - is that what mattered was a) the script, and b) the manager. Anything you do between the two is just psyching yourself up for the battle ahead, or a waste of time.
            Congrats! So how'd you find the good manager? Through an email query?

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            • Re: I got a 9 on the Black List -- now what?

              Originally posted by sallain View Post
              Congrats! So how'd you find the good manager? Through an email query?
              Yes, my question, exactly.
              wry

              The rule is the first fifteen pages should enthrall me, but truth is, I'm only giving you about 3-5 pages. ~ Hollywood Script Reader

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              • Re: I got a 9 on the Black List -- now what?

                Lol.... it took me some thinking...

                Well, as best I recall it.... I queried a ton of people back in 2011 with my first script, and one of the few guys to respond with interest was this East Coast manager. Shot him the script, and he called me and said he wanted to be my manager. He was SUPER into the script, bordering on obsessed... but was based in NYC, which disappointed me somewhat. But, I agreed with him, because he instantly got all the things I was trying to accomplish with it, and he had some legit clients already.

                He had me do a few short rewrites, and as I did, I became aware of the fact I'd hired him at a time when he was both a) heading into a mental breakdown, and b) was breaking up with his lover slash co-founder of their boutique management company. He and his ex-partner/lover seemed consumed with deleting each other's email accounts, FB accounts, and trying to take each others' clients. Oh, and he would also never STFU when giving notes.

                Anyway, in parallel with all this, I had a single phone call with this manager's friend - also in NY - who was a legit manager in another business for ~10 years back in the early 90s. She'd discovered a bigtime musician, then gone into TV shingle-VPing, where she discovered two huge writer/directors. Then she retired for about ten years, prior to getting the itch again in 2011, and was just tutoring my current manager, who had sent her my script. She told me in the convo she thought I was a great writer, but that was it.

                I really bonded with this woman, and told her honestly that her friend/my manager was a real mess, and needed to get his **** together before worrying about managing film and tv clients. She agreed with me, and I fired my manager about a week later, 2 months after taking him on.

                So, flash forward to late 2012, and I had just finished my second script. It got the scores mentioned on The Blacklist website, and I started querying with it. This got me my meeting w/ the other young LA manager I mentioned.

                Around the same time, I'd also pinged the NY woman I met the previous year through my drunken former manager. She read my new script, and said she wanted to manage me right away. I told her I had to take a few days to think about it and have my meeting with the younger LA manager, and she agreed.

                Anyhoo... went through with the meeting with the young LA manager, and couldn't decide which manager to take on. I settled the question by asking myself which manager reminded me more of what I'd read of Cathryn Jaymes, and so I chose her. She's come out to LA several times recently, and despite what folks say on this forum, if a person has connections, they don't NEED to be based in LA. The reason I did is because I'm less interested in getting staffed and writing network TV stuff, and more interested in getting long, 120+ page script stubbornly pushed through to sale or production, and it takes someone willing to work harder for less (at first) to get there. They have to be way more driven by the art than a lot of the industry.

                PS - About 6 months ago (around the time I agreed to let her manage me at that), my manager's only other current client got signed by WME, and is now repped by Tarantino's agent, literally. To me, this just validates the fact that hard work STILL pays off, regardless of whether you're repped by a slick, big-name company, or one little old lady who works her ass off.
                Last edited by OCeeBee; 02-03-2014, 04:47 PM.

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                • Re: I got a 9 on the Black List -- now what?

                  Cool story, OCeeBee. Thanks for sharing.

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