Screenwriting : The Black List. Yikes! by Brock Cravy

What is the black list? I'm brand new and keep hearing of it!

I have been Black listed from many a bars, taverns and even a TGIF LOL

Rod Burke LOL that's the kind of list I always think of, so if the black list in this context is a good thing - it was an odd choice of name. And TGIF - Lord, that has to be a good story.

It involved a lot of Beer, a waitress, 6 ft. step ladder, whipper snipper and a bottle of lube.....that's all I'm saying lol

Same. But every bar on Cedar Springs in Dallas. Lisa, if you want to be mocked for $100, upload your script to the Black List.

Brock, get in touch with BL. Those scores are exceptionally wide apart. In my specific case they reviewed the feedback and determined I did not receive a quality assessment, took off the bad score, and assigned a new reviewer at no cost to me. Again, my case may not be the same as yours.

Thanks, Paul!

When I was on BL, I would get the same - a couple of 8's followed by 2's and 3's on ALL the scripts I would get evaluated. I moved on.

Quality feedback from paid coverage has proven incredibly spotty at best. Interesting to note that the coverage received from an exec w/ Stage32 was incredibly helpful. I find that Coverfly's peer-to-peer service has been pretty good, and it's free, you just have to read someone else's stuff first.

I hate the blacklist. And its not because I got bad scores. It's because they are rude as hell and treat people like crap. Thanks, but no.

Everything is subjective, unfortunately. Other factors: differing worldviews of reader, someone who's much older or much younger can shift things (their priorities are different, stakes are different), they're depressed, they're envious of your writing lol, who knows? But if someone really thought it has merit then go with that, I say!

Hey Brock Cravy! I think that you've illustrated a good point about the BL. Because the readers are largely anonymous we don't really know their background or experience level, so how can you trust their assessment of your project? That's why always make sure there is transparency at Stage 32 so you know about your reader - and in most cases can choose your own reader.

Thanks, ya'll for the feedback and support. I'll reach out to BL and request another evaluation. Making hundreds rain for inconstancies in coverage is not a viable strategy. I have a S32 coverage pending, and Jason, I was looking into your mentoring service. I suppose if any of this was easy, filmmaking would be a high school kids first job? Steady on!

Hope things go well with getting another evaluation from the BL. I've heard they will generally do it when there is a huge disparity. Personally, I don't use BL though because it's simply too expensive for me.

Best coverage I've received to date is from S32 - just the basic service, so I got a reader bio but nothing to identify the reader - but they were pretty fair and offered some constructive and actionable feedback. I'll probably use them again, when finances permit.

1. Start ignoring services/people that cannot hook directly to a sale. These scores are designed to have to come back. What would a 10 get you? Any guarantees?

   2. Is anything they said make sense. If not ignore it.

   3. Trust yourself. Craft comes from a writer not a third persons opinion.

ScreenCraft was founded by industry execs (now Industry Arts aka "Red Ampersand").

RB already had a production company when he started Stage 32.

SpecScout is run by a former agent.

ScriptHop is part run by a former director of UTA's story department and the EP of Napoleon Dynamite (has an incredible advisory board too).

Industrial Scripts was founded by a studio development exec.

Bulletproof Screenwriting is run by a working director-producer.

Get It Made X is founded by working producers.

I find the way people worship Franklin pure cringe but there's no denying that the Black List took the amateur screenwriting world by storm and still dominates the conversation ten years later with pretty much every aspiring writer submitting their work at some point. There's also no denying that a lot of services are offered by people with no credentials or industry insight whatsoever.

My personal issue with the Black List was the way the losers were left feeling. It's a brutal and relatively costly process to take part in that used to feel like the only viable online avenue available. I know people who quit because this caused them to feel so hopeless and it should never be like that. These days though, there's so many alternatives that don't come with emotional and financial rollercoaster. Stage 32 offers professional coverage from named industry members that circulates to decision makers at no extra cost to those who get recommends, plus they just released their Top 1% list as a bonus. Coverfly is free to host on and aggregates a wealth of data to identify high-performing material. The writers engaging with these platforms seem very happy and motivated overall.

It'll be interesting to see where things are in another ten years but I think, for all the polarised views on the Black List, it will always be seen at this gold standard, wether people like that or not. As for the polarised evaluations, yep, been there, done that almost exactly ten years ago. Horrible experience that took me to a very dark place that I'll never forget and they weren't deleting the poor reviews back then either as I was a first adopter. If Amazon Studios hadn't supported me like they did, I don't know if I'd still be in the game today.

As ever, network network network and only go rolling the dice when you're cool with losing the money.

What Craig D Griffiths said: "Start ignoring services/people that cannot hook directly to a sale. These scores are designed to have to come back. What would a 10 get you? Any guarantees?"