Originally posted by ScreenRider
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the black list is and has always been about comparing each writer against and industry standard. as if you were submitting directly to a production house or studio.
the reader reviews. like any you'd receive in a prodco of studio are subjective.
you are being judged on how ready your script is, in the opinion of the reader, to be produced, not win a contest. there are working writers with reps whose scripts are on the site.
and the reality is, whether writers like to admit it or not, only a very small percentage (1 -5%) are ready for representation and ready, or good enough to produce.
The Black List website isn't there to make a writer's career. it's there to connect a writer with a film maker to make a movie.
Mr.Malcolm's List, as some of you may recall, was released as a film in February 2019. that was the first screenplay that received huge attention from the black list. the writer won the first blind deal with Warner Bros. and she's been a working screenwriter ever since. take note, she was a novelist to start.
the other one that writers get wrong is Ron Howard and Brian Glazer's Imagine Impact. amateur writers have this misguided assumption that it's designed for amateurs to break into the industry. it's a contest at the professional level.
what they fail to comprehend is that they are trying to develop projects that have commercial appeal, are written at the professional level already, and concepts that they feel the industry is looking for.
it's not like Project Greenlight where a screenwriter WINS a chance to have their film produced. Imagine Impact is looking for the best ideas. and when amateur writers don't make the cut, they point to the winners and say, "they won because they're already in the industry." and the answer is yes, because they are producing material that based on Ron Howard and Brian Glazer's opinion about what the industry wants. it's a new development paradigm.
i'm sure the people who win the spots deserve it. and i hope, as i do for all writers, that they are one step closer.
you ever hear that adage, if you want your bosses job, you have to show that you can already do your bosses job. well, like it or not... there's truth in it.
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