Pay That Man His Money
Why you shouldn't pay for coverage services.
I want to start this post off by saying the Franklin Leonard and the blcklst.com team do a lot for emerging writers, the industry, and just overall the championing of screenwriters in a way that most of the industry doesn’t. Case in point:
I really do think that he’s an overall force for good in the industry, and the majority of the criticisms lobbed at the blcklst.com are unfounded — almost every day there are a slew of posts on r/screenwriting or twitter about bad reviewers giving shoddy, rush jobs. But the truth is, >90% of the scripts being submitted are just bad, and writers are not using the service properly.
I constantly see writers submit works in progress, hoping that their ‘visionary idea’ garners them a 10 and their career takes off overnight. But to place well in any contest or review site, your script needs to be as polished or as tight (or more) as something that’s ready to be put into production.
To summarize: Franklin good. Your script? Probably not.
Having said all that, I have a bone to pick. Today on r/screenwriting there was a pretty trash post about Franklin. It’s since been removed by the mods for being so trash, but it essentially slandered Franklin and the blcklst.com for treating their employees and readers so poorly. It was baseless and dumb, but incredibly Franklin Leonard chimed in anyways:
I thought it was a good response, but I wanted to do some deeper digging:
In the link he provided it says readers are paid $40/script. As someone who reads and writes up notes for a lot of scripts, AT BEST, I’m getting that done in 3 hours. Maybe, if you skim and don’t give a fuck, you get it done in 2.
In LA, the minimum wage is $15/hr. That means a reader can only spend 2 hours and 40 minutes on a script before working at McDonalds makes more sense.
Let’s assume a read takes 3 hours. Then, is the expectation that readers should be providing “undeniable high quality” analysis on below minimum wage pay? Along with the strictness of standards on readers, "we sever ties. I make no apologies for that." are we really okay with how he treats maybe the most fundamental part of his business? And can we really expect quality work from poverty-wage workers under the constant threat of firing?
But here’s where things get really fucked up. the blcklst.com probably pays independent contractor readers more than any other service or contest.
Blue Cat pays their readers $15/script.
The Austin Film Festival notoriously pays zero (you get a festival badge I believe).
Big question mark on the Nicholl.
Here’s the takeaway: Don’t use any of these sites.
You, the writer, are shelling out hundreds of dollars to get notes and coverage, but the person reading your script is clearly incentivized to either A: Finish as fast as possible to try and make minimum wage, or B: Simply finish as many scripts as possible to get your reward.
I think all this is going to lead to an even longer post, but I’m not a journalist so it might take me a while, so I’ll leave you with this:
SCRIPTNOTES NOTES:
Last week was the 500th episode of Scriptnotes, which is crazy. As someone who has listened to every episode at least once, all I can say is that it is single greatest resource for a new writer. However, last week’s episode was mostly a fan service to themselves, so here’s something a little more crafty to satisfy your need for knowledge.
Bryan Edward Hill writes for a lot of great shows and comics, and his insights here are pretty fantastic. He talks a lot about patience and persistence, and personally I found it very inspirational. Here's the podcast version if that's more your jam.
TRIPLE TREATS:
Shit you guys, I’m starting to run out of cool shit. Send in things you find that I can share or else this blog is going to just turn into my random musings and nobody wants that. But for now, check out this nice little check list to kind of run through as your developing your characters.
Here’s a little thread by Zack Stentz on picking locations:
In his classic “Writing A Scene” John August talks about the same concept, and I think it’s worth thinking about. How can you complicate a sequence, simply by placing the protagonist in a more tricky environment? It leads to some more interesting ideas: How can I make things as hard as possible for my hero? It will almost always result in a more cathartic feeling for the auidence. Don’t give your heroes easy wins and we’ll cheer when they come out on top.
I’ve talked a bit about how day jobs are necessary for writers, but that’s a lot easier said than done. Here's an interesting opprotunity for a paid intership at the Warner development department. If you’re a student and trying to figure out what your next step is, maybe its this!