“How I Got My Script on the Black List Without Reps”

A first-person account by screenwriter Jason Hellerman on how his script Himbo made it on the 2022 Black List.

I have known Jason Hellerman since 2013 when I interviewed him about a script he wrote called Shovel Buddies. The script not only was voted onto the 2013 Black List, it was produced as a movie and released in 2016.

Jason breaks into the business, script on the Black List, movie gets made … so he’s got it made, right?

Well…

Jason recently posted a first-person piece at No Film School about his journey in Hollywood which as of this Monday included another script he wrote making the 2022 Black List. How he got there … it’s quite a story. Here is an extended excerpt from the article.

The Black List can open doors for writers in Hollywood.

Every year, right before Hollywood breaks for the winter holidays, the annual Black List is announced. The list is an annual tradition amongst Hollywood executives. They all vote on their favorite spec scripts of the year and then compile those votes into an annual list. This list gets passed around and becomes every assistant’s reading list over the holiday. A reminder from The Black List: “The Black List is not a ‘best of’ list. It is, at best, a ‘most liked’ list.”

Previous scripts on the Black List include Slumdog Millionaire, Argo, The King’s Speech, Promising Young Woman, and Spotlight. Over a dozen screenwriting Oscars have been given out to previous Black List screenplays.

When I was an assistant, I dreamed of making it on the Black List, and I made it a reality in 2013. At that time, I put my screenplay on the Black List website. It got rated very highly, and eventually, I got an agent and a manager. From there, they sent my screenplay, Shovel Buddies, around to different production companies.

This was all in October 2013, so when voting began in November, the screenplay was fresh in their minds. At the time, it was a coup for me.

It was the beginning of a long journey away from being an assistant and then writing full-time.

But the story didn’t end there. And I didn’t ride off into the sunset with a wave of success pushing me ahead.

In fact, in some of these tweener years, things got heavy.

How did I get here?

Making the Black List changed my career, but it didn’t get me paid right away. I quit my assistant job, but I didn’t have a steady income. I wasn’t able to devote my entire life to making my boss’ calendar fall in line, but I also needed to find a way to make money. I did odd jobs for anyone who asked.

The truth is, I wouldn’t see a paid writing gig until November 2014. With real money not coming until June 2015. In the meantime, I did anything I could for money.

Hilariously, a director I had a general with paid me to housesit, and an actor he was friends with once paid me like $1,000 to change all the lightbulbs in his house for him before he came back from vacation. I think he did it because he was generous, not because he was a lunatic. But either way, my rent was secured.

I was working to just make my bills while I waited for the checks to come in. I naively thought a list would change everything. And while it had made me and my script popular, I still had a lot of work to do.

The biggest regret I had at the time was that when I got on the Black List, there was still a lot I had to learn about Hollywood. I figured out most of those lessons the hard way over the years. I showed people drafts too early, wasted too much time on cattle-call pitches, and I had a string of bad luck as well.

You should read the rest of the article because Jason not only tracks his journey to the 2022 Black List and how the script got there without management or agency representation … he also shares some key insights about the business he learned along the way.

In an email exchange this week, Jason reminded me about a conversation at a Black List event in 2013. He even tweeted about it yesterday:

It’s funny how a comment can inspire someone. I’ve probably got a dozen things people in the film and TV business have told me that stuck with me as guiding principles over the decades.

Ten years ago, Jason and I were having a casual conversation on the rooftop bar of a hotel where the Black List event was being held. Something I said stuck with Jason. He took it and I’m sure other advice, and combined that with persistence and diligence to write a bunch of scripts. When he finished Himbo, a script he really believed in, he summoned up his initiative to reach out to every Hollywood connection he had.

And that’s how Himbo ended up on the 2022 Black List.

Jason’s story is an object lesson for every writer whose goal is to not only break into the business, but build a career.

You can read the rest of Jason’s saga at No Film School.

You can read my 2013 interview with Jason here.