Member-only story
I’m going to open by doing the unthinkable. I’m going to defend Franklin Leonard. Let me state that I am not a fan of Franklin, nor a champion of his Black List. However, he is not the soul reason for it’s popularity — we are.
Franklin never put a gun to writer’s heads. I remember when the Black List launched around 5/6 years ago and the uproar it caused. I recall a great deal of scepticism along with applause. The ScriptNotes podcast at the time welcomed Franklin to appear and make his case. He was active and open on DoneDealPro. His message was pretty clear; if you like it and it works, use it. If you don’t like and it doesn’t work, no hard feelings.
Personally, I was sold on the concept. I thought it was brilliant. I was barely a year into screenwriting and threw my first drafts at it. My experience was dreadful and led to one of the darkest nights of my screenwriting experience. Not because I got rejected, but because of the complete opposite. I was picked up, dropped, picked up again, and thrown out the window. It was a utter mind fuck of nearly making it combined with getting sucker punched just before the finish line, all while gambling what little money I had on another roll of the dice.
I feel the Black List website is bit like a casino. It’s polished and it’s glamorous, but at it’s core it feels cynical in its operation. However, I also appreciate that, the more desperate a screenwriter is, the more risks they‘ll take, and the more emotion they’ll feel…
