Franklin Leonard

Amazing Script Reads for Aspiring Screenwriters

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Internet advice is flung at you just about everywhere you turn, but how about just providing a few really good examples of excellent, tight, and well-structured screenwriting? That’s what I’m putting up today, a pair of really well-written scripts. I hope you enjoy them.

First is a recent 2014 Blacklist feature screenplay titled Bird Box. While the genre may not be everyone’s cup of tea, and people certainly argue over the story itself, no one I’ve spoken with disputes the quality of the writing. I highly suggest giving it a read.

Next is from TV-Land, Jon Bokenkamp’s pilot of the TV series “The Blacklist” (not to be confused with Franklin Leonard’s Blacklist). It’s a show that is impressive in both scope and pacing, with writing that is really top-notch. If you want to see why this was the best testing-rated pilot in the past 10 years at NBC then I suggest you take a gander.

I hope these inspire you. I know personally after the rush of reading these faded, I was quite motivated to get back to the keyboard and start cranking out more pages.

The Value of Good Script Coverage

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A little something I posted to Pulse covering some of the better services, as well as the full (and quite detailed) scoring criteria used by SpecScout. Perhaps you’ll find it useful.

The Value of Good Script Coverage – On Pulse

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Living the Good Death – An 8 on The Black List

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Sharing a bit of good news.

I recently posted my supernatural romantic comedy Living the Good Death to The Black List after making some revisions to it following input from the site’s paid readers. Several really astute observations were made, and after thinking about them and making some changes, I finally arrived at a draft that I felt achieved my expectations.

The result? An Industry Member just rated it an 8.

Having a busy industry member choose to read the script of their own free will and enjoy it enough to take the time to rate it really brings me joy. We know how busy people are in this industry, so it means a lot to me.

I’d venture a guess that many of you would agree that whether or not a script is ever produced, just being able to entertain a reader with a story spawned from your noggin that they truly enjoy is a really good feeling for any writer. I for one hope to ride this wave of happy feelings well into the next script I’m currently outlining. Hopefully people will find that one enjoyable as well one day.