As a co-founder of Slated, the film finance marketplace, I feel both fortunate and proud to have the team that we do. And today both those feelings were boosted a good bit, because Slated just debuted a new, industry-wide scoring system.  The two types of scores, Packaging and Credits, are intended to generate better practices when projects are packaged, or assembled for financing and production.  The system is a great example of Slated’s goal since its beginning:  Increase clarity, efficiency, and quanitification throughout the film industry.  And it’s both overdue and badly needed.

The industry tolerates and even cultivates subjectivity and black-box secrecy in many of its business decisions. In addition to preventing standardization (and with it, a better ability to analyze results), this approach also discourages the participation of potential outside investors—something the film industry can no longer afford.

Our scoring system is far from perfect (yet!), and it’s sure to generate some indignation and debate, but it’s a big step in the right direction.

Finally, we didn’t publish our algorithm, but we did offer an explanation and some tips on how to boost your score. Keep an eye out for more features coming soon..