Tao of Pauly

An e-mail from a stranger...

This is an e-mail I found in my inbox on Monday morning... a fellow contestant from Project Greenlight stumbled upon the Tao and read some of my PGL blogs. I was upset this weekend, and I am much better now, and have begun to move forward regarding Charlie's Goldfish, and this e-mail from Alex Bernstein, someone I never met before was a nudge in the right direction. He felt the need to respond, and I am grateful. So I figure I'd share it with y'all:

Pauly -

Just read your blog about PGL. (I'm probably the thousandth person to
respond to you like this. Found you in the first place, as I was trolling
the net for others doing PGL.) Don't beat yourself up for not making the
top 250. I think criteria for making the top 250 (275 actually) - is
tremendously harsh - and the chance that you can get a solid group of the
lowest common denominator reviewers is a true crapshoot. That being said -
for every utter idiot who didn't grade your scripts fairly - you probably
got at least one fair review that's worth taking into consideration upon
your next project or rewrite.

I know I got a couple decent reviews - and I got some reviews where clearly
I had an idiot that blindly marked poor, poor, poor, poor, poor, poor, poor
- in every column - irregardless of what the category was (structure,
pacing, etc. etc.). I don't know if you got similar reviews - but there are
certainly people out there who make blind marks like that. And these people
obviously have issues they have to deal with - and can ruin the contest for
everyone.

Personally, I submitted three scripts - and got reviews all over the place.
A few of them were thoughtful with very decent suggestions. But I got my
share of idiots - and they'll capsize you. Of the 12 scripts I read (and I
never got a chance to read yours, btw) - only one made it into the final
275. At least one other I read deserved to. But if you don't get four good
reviewers, it really doesn't matter.

Perhaps there should be more criteria for reviewers? A screening process?
Make everyone review "Casablanca" - (or a "Casablanca" quality script no
one's familiar with?) and people who mark "poor poor poor" - aren't
permissioned to review... I don't know if there's a good answer....

Still, you're not alone in feeling frustrated.

Good luck in the future!

Alex Bernstein