Based on an idea by…
So, I’m watching “Gosford Park” and I notice that the film is “based upon an idea by Robert Altman and Bob Balaban.”
My question is: How does one get that credit? Do you have to do some actual writing for it or is it some sort of a vanity credit? (I assume it isn’t, because otherwise every producer or executive type would have a whole stack of those on their record.)
– Steffen
Nuremberg, Germany
Craig Mazin is on the screen credits committee, so he can likely answer this more thoroughly. But I can at least give you my take on it.
For feature films, the official WGA credits are “Story by” and “Screenplay by,” which can be combined to make “Written by.”1 When something is based on preexisting source material, like a book or a play, that original writer gets a “based on a novel/play by Original Writer.” 2
Your instincts are right: Producers often have ideas for movies, but rarely do they get a specific, additional credit for it. However, if they wrote those ideas down, even in prose form, they could very likely get “story” or “source material” credit.
Per the Screen Credits Manual, the requirements for these two credits are as follows:
3) Source Material
Source material is all material, other than story as hereinafter defined, upon which the story and/or screenplay is based.
This means that source material is material assigned to the writer which was previously published or exploited and upon which the writer’s work is to be based (e.g., a novel, a produced play or series of published articles), or any other material written outside of the Guild’s jurisdiction (e.g., literary material purchased from a non-professional writer). Illustrative examples of source material credits are: “From a Play by”, “From a Novel by”, “Based upon a Story by”, “From a series of articles by”, “Based upon a Screenplay by” or other appropriate wording indicating the form in which such source material is acquired. Research material is not considered source material.
4) Story
The term “story” means all writing covered by the provisions of the Minimum Basic Agreement representing a contribution “distinct from screenplay and consisting of basic narrative, idea, theme or outline indicating character development and action.”
It is appropriate to award a “Story by” credit when: 1) the story was written under employment under Guild jurisdiction; 2) the story was purchased by a signatory company from a professional writer, as defined in the Minimum Basic Agreement; or 3) when the screenplay is based upon a sequel story written under the Guild’s jurisdiction. If the story is based upon source material of a story nature, see “screen story” below.
When you see a credit like “based on an idea by,” that’s clearly a “source material” type of credit. In the case of Gosford Park, it may have been the strange way Robert Altman shoots. Apparently, rather than a complete screenplay, they had a framework upon which his actors improvised, with screenwriter Julian Fellowes on set to help shape the scenes.
Regardless of the specific situation, I’m not a fan of the “based on an idea by” credit, and would like to see it stay rare. It over-emphasizes the vague conception of a movie, at the expense of the distinctions provided by characters, narrative, theme and action (that is, story).
For example, “a movie about the Civil War” is an idea. Gone With The Wind is a story. For them to have rough equivalence is absurd.
- There is also a very rare “Adaptation by” credit, which is only given in specific, complicated situations. ↩
- Where it gets weird is when a movie is based on an earlier movie’s screenplay, such as a remake of a foreign film. There is ongoing discussion in the Guild about how to best handle this. ↩
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March 11th, 2009 at 10:38 am
Kind of like how comedian Steve Martin got a STORY BY credit for ‘Traitor’, which basis is a far cry from his usual work.
March 11th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Another example: “Sudden Death” – the Die Hard in a Hockey Stadium action movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme – had story by Karen Elise Baldwin, the wife of Howard Baldwin, then owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins who played in that stadium. The screenplay was by Gene Quintano (although while checking my facts I learned that Randy Feldman did the first, more comic pass – in fact he wrote the best scene, the fight with the penguin).
“The Longest Yard” had a similar producer story credit, making for a complicated situation for the remake no doubt.
But, yeah, it is rare. I guess a lot of producers have the initial idea for their movie – “Chariots of Fire” was David Puttnam’s idea – but, short of maybe writing full treatment or outline, that’s a far cry from writing the story.
March 11th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Off-Topic:
John, in the spirit of “random-advice week,” why don’t you consider adding a plug-in to your WordPress blog that allows users like us to nestle comments 2 or 3 levels deep? This would render the @Sid and @Nancy follow-up comments–often way below the original–obsolete; it would also allow more control for us and a more linear way to read discussions that organically evolve from your original blog post. I’ve seen plug-ins that allow users to go 10-deep, though after 3 it starts looking like a bird’s nest. Maybe start with 2. Here’s an example of how it works. No, I don’t work for WordPress:
http://markfranek.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/what-ive-learned-about-education/#comments
March 11th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
The “Adaptation by” credit is rare today, but it seemed to be pretty common in the 30s, enough so that in the first few years of the Oscars it was actually a category separate from story and screenplay. John, would you (or anyone else) know what an “Adaptor” actually did?
March 11th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
It’s interesting that Gosford Park is the example here considering that Julian Fellowes won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for his work on the movie.
March 11th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
This is an interesting one for me, as I’m trying to figure out the best way to prize an idea away from a friend, who vaguely thinks he might have a go at writing a screenplay one day (he won’t). He told me his idea, a rambling, not entirely convincing idea, but the twist at the end was brilliant. I took that and made a whole new movie out of it, and now I just have to persuade him to let go of it.
How much is that kind of thing worth? Any guidelines or guesstimates as to how much a “based upon an idea by” credit might earn someone?
Of course the likelihood is that it’ll all come to nought, but I’m particularly keen on this project (vs. a whole slew of other things in the pipeline) because I think it is commercially very strong.
March 11th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
I always assumed that the “story by” label insinuated that the person came up with the general story, while the “screenplay by” is the person who literally typed it out. Like, ‘a movie about the civil war’ doesn’t get you a Gone with the Wind credit, but coming up with the O’Haras and the plantation and the plot in general would. Does it work that way? Or does that make too much sense for the WGA? ;)
March 12th, 2009 at 1:20 am
I don’t know about American “Adaptators” but in France it used to be a pretty common credit. One screenwriter or a team writes the original script that is greenlighted, then a writer is brought in to accommodate some changes (per the director’s request or generally because there needs to be one single man/woman with a fresh mind to perform short notice polishes).
Generally speaking, the adaptator is more of a script doctor/fixer who performs a job much distinct from the one of bringing together the bulk of the story. I suspect the complicated cases John mentions are about writers fired during production.
However, adaptators are not second range screenwriters, they’re not just “script attendants” incapable of getting a story off the ground from scattered ideas. For instance, one famous screenwriter in France often got “adaptation & dialogue” credits. Sure Michel Audiard was not the consumate screenwriter but his mob slang colored dialogues made him more famous than respected craftsmen. That is just famous while the craft hardly gets exposure (and simply doesn’t require coverage in order to fulfill some marketing goals). From the end of the 50s the aging Jean Gabin requested that Audiard was hired to rewrite his dialogue, and although most of the resulting pictures are far from great, a strong dozen are much more fun to watch than any of the snooty Nouvelle Vague efforts of the time (ah the horrendous Godard intellectual lines…).
March 12th, 2009 at 2:52 am
A little off topic, but the director Colin Nutley prefers not to have the dialogs written in his screenplays – they are based on improvisations when the scene is filmed – and the whole staff of actors get credit for the dialog.
March 12th, 2009 at 4:15 am
I was quite suprised when I read Meet The Parents was a remake of a 1992 indie film, but never really thought about how they would have handled the credits till now though.
A quick check on imdb says the original writers got credited with “story by” and “1992 screenplay by”.
March 12th, 2009 at 8:53 am
@Amy:
“Story by” credit does not necessarily have anything to do with coming up with the story. Like most credit issues, it’s exceedingly complicated. For example, say you sell a spec script to a producer and it gets made into a movie, but along the way a series of other writers change it so completely that not a word of what you wrote is left. WGA rules mandate that you get “Story by” credit — even if none of your story, characters, or structure is in the finished product.
On the other hand, even if the director is almost completely responsible for shaping the story before a writer is brought on (or rewriting the script heavily before it’s filmed), WGA rules make it very difficult for him or her to receive any kind of writing credit. (I imagine this is a measure that was put in place to prevent directors from deliberately trying to steal credit away from writers.)
You also might get “Story by” credit for being the fifth writer out of twenty and working only on the script (as opposed to any kind of story outline) but making insufficient contribution to the final draft to qualify for “Screenplay by” credit.
And there are plenty of other weird rules and exceptions. Like I said, it’s complicated.