Reddit AMA: Franklin Leonard
It was something like 5 years ago when Franklin Leonard first reached out to me about the blog. Via numerous emails and phone calls, several things became clear. First, Franklin is smart as hell. Second, he loves movies, but perhaps even more, he has a passion for all things screenwriting and especially screenwriters. Even in those early conversations, I could tell Franklin and the Black List had the potential to build on what was fast becoming the most important brand associated with screenwriting in Hollywood into a truly transformational and cutting edge movement.
Which is precisely what Franklin and crew has done… and one big reason why I am proud to be partnered with them as the official screenwriting blog of the Black List.
Recently Franklin did an AMA on Reddit. It’s amazing that as busy as he is, Franklin consistently makes himself available to dialogue with aspiring screenwriters. This Reddit exchange is particularly informative, so here are a few excerpts from that conversation:
How many 1) signings to agents and managers and 2) sales do you think have come as a direct result of connections made by submitting to blcklst.com?
This is information that contests love to disseminate, and I think a comparison to blcklst.com’s numbers would be helpful to a lot of writers.
Franklin: Honestly we’ve lost track of both 1 and 2 because it’s become so much the norm in the industry that folks no longer bother to inform us when it happens.
Suffice it to say that our numbers are strong enough that I don’t really worry about comparisons to the contests. Not sure any contests, Nicholl included, have four produced scripts to their credit in the last 2.5 years.
I’m confused a little now. Isn’t Nightingale (2014) the first script to be produced from the website?
Franklin: It is. And since then ZINZANA, EDDIE THE EAGLE, and SHOVEL BUDDIES have been produced as well.
Did the director of ZINZANA,Majid Al Ansari, submit to the website as well?
Franklin: No. The screenwriters, Ruckus and Lane Skye, did. Their script RATTLE THE CAGE was found there by Image Nation Abu Dhabi, who optioned the script, translated into Arabic and made the film. You can read more about it here: http://blog.blcklst.com/2015/07/the-black-list-interview-ruckus-and-lane-skye/
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Anyone? tell me difference between blklst & Black List
Franklin: The annual Black List and the Black List website are not the same thing.
The former is a survey of every executive at a major film financier or producer about their favorite unproduced scripts of the previous year.
The latter is a two sided marketplace wherein writers can make their scripts available to thousands of working industry professionals ranging from agency assistants all the way up to studio presidents, producers, and working actors and directors.
There have been ten scripts to date that have been discovered on the Black List website and ended up on the annual list, including last year’s #1 script, Kristina Lauren Anderson’s CATHERINE THE GREAT.
Hi Franklin. I’m a young college graduate that’s been working as a production assistant in NYC for the last year. I’m interested in writing, but the more I work the more impossible it seems to make a living off of writing professionally. That being said a site like blacklist seems like a great opportunity to explore for someone like me, but I want to ask you personally what kind of obstacles had to be overcome to gain attention in the industry before you made the site? What did you see that inspired you to make submitting and reading scripts easier for everyone and do you still see some of those issues in the industry today?
Bonus question: Are there any scripts you enjoy coming back to and reading again?
Franklin: Short answer:
Prior to the existence of the Black List there were essentially three ways to get your script to Hollywood:
- Know someone in the business and give them your script.
- Submit to the Nicholl, hope you were in the top 30 and that you received some incoming phone calls.
- Move to Los Angeles and network yourself to death until you could do #1.
That reality was a problem for me. The Nicholl is a once a year proposition, and subjectivity means that a script that could attract notice from one reader may get bounced in the first round. And #1 and #3 are limited, for the most part, to folks from very specific backgrounds that have exactly zero to do with whether or not they’re a great writer or not.
I wanted to create a venue whereby if a writer had the goods — no matter where they lived or what their circumstance was — they could have the opportunity to have a career as a screenwriter. I think we’ve done that.
Can’t think of a script that I read frequently for pleasure. There are so many scripts, books, etc. that I need/want to read, for myriad reasons, it’s not really an option even if there was one.
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If you feel you have the tools as a screenwriter do you recommend going to school or jumping straight into the industry? Are films set in war less likely to be produced due to the high production cost?
Franklin: Different strokes for different folks, and I’m sure folks who have screenwriting degrees and found success in the film industry can speak to that degree’s value far better than I can.
That said, my recommendation is to study something that you’re deeply interested in OTHER THAN screenwriting if you do make the decision to pursue a post secondary education. If your response to this is “but movies are all that I care about,” then okay, get an English degree and read the canon. Get a degree in Folklore and Mythology and learn everything you possibly can about the stories that have undergirded storytelling for millenia.
There are two reasons for my recommendation against pursuing a screenwriting degree:
- The most important elements of being a good screenwriter are insight into the human experience and being a good storyteller.
- These are things you can pick up in many other degree programs, some of which may be even more valuable in that regard than a screenwriting program.
- Having another degree will make it easier to get a job after college before you break as a screenwriter.
- There are myriad valuable free resources online that can help you learn the craft. Among them (and one I highly recommend) is Go Into the Story (http://gointothestory.blcklst.com)
It’s a great AMA, not only for the information Franklin conveys, but also you really get a sense of how passionate he is about what we do as screenwriters.
Which leads me to wonder: Who knows where and what the Black List might become in 5 years time and beyond… and how that could change things for screenwriters in Hollywood…
To read the entire Reddit AMA, go here.