Reader Question for Franklin Leonard: How much lobbying for votes goes on for the Black List?

A question from GITS reader Joe:

How much under-the-table lobbying for votes actually goes on (e.g. agents and managers actively hustling their clients’ scripts onto the Black List).

Franklin’s response:

Very little, in truth, but let me take this time to address those concerns. I know many people — or at least a disproportionate percentage of the commenters on deadline.com — have them.
First off, there’s lobbying and then there’s lobbying.

I have exactly zero problem with an agent calling around town at the end of the year and telling someone some version of “so the Black List voting deadline is coming up, and I know you haven’t had a chance to read UNTITLED VALENTINE’S DAY HORROR COMEDY but would you mind taking a look at it before the deadline in case you like it” or “so I remember you saying that you liked UNTITLED PRESIDENTIAL BODY SWITCH COMEDY when you read it in January and I just wanted to remind you that the Black List deadline is coming up.”

Almost without fail, the people who vote on the list vote their honest opinion. It’s why they’ve been chosen to vote for the list. A reminder from a representative or a plea for a read so that a script can even be considered is entirely legitimate.

Less legitimate of course are the few representatives who call around town begging their friends to vote for their clients’ scripts whether they like them or not, and I imagine that there a few people every year who lack the courage of their conviction enough to do just that. (Anecdotally, there a few people every year who specifically don’t vote for those agents’ scripts because of that behavior.)

Might there be a script or two each year that shouldn’t have made the list that does? Might there be a script or two each year that ends up higher than it would in a perfect world?

Yes, probably.

It’s unfortunate, but I’d argue that it’s not all that important either. The annual Black List was never meant to be an absolute arbiter of taste. It was meant to be a reading list that guides you toward good material, and it remains that. Whether you individually like it is a different question, which is why it’s valuable for people working in the business to read the scripts on the list in addition to knowing which ones are there.

It’s also part of why we created the new site.

As we approach mid-November, it’s getting to be that time of year where the new annual Black List comes out. So we’ll be looking for that in December.

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