John August

Film Industry

When is it okay to write for free?

Film Industry, QandA, Rights and Copyright

questionmarkI’m a relatively new screenwriter, also working as a PA and doing script coverage. I’m loving it but it’s not helping me on actually getting my writing out there at all. While the coverage is helping me grow as a writer it’s not helping me get a foot in the door, so to speak.

This has left me looking around for any writing gig I can land to help get my name out there, but I’m quite unsure as to if I should even approach an unpaid writing position. Not that I’m not willing to put the work in but I just don’t want to get screwed over.

Am I right to be wary of these types of positions? I just don’t know how to get my work out there.

— Tim
Toronto

Any work you’re not getting paid for should be yours and yours alone. That’s why aspiring screenwriters write spec scripts. That’s what you should focus on writing.

Still, there may be situations in which it makes sense to write a script for someone else without getting paid. You become friends with a promising-but-broke young director who asks you to write her screenplay. You might say yes. And while it would be smart to have some kind of contract at the outset delimiting rights and responsibilities, it will ultimately come down to trust.

As the writer, you own copyright until you don’t — either by signing a contract transferring copyright, or by entering an agreement to make it a work-for-hire. Yet in many of these situations, someone is coming to you with a property, an idea, or some pre-existing material that makes ownership much less clear-cut.

So again, you’re ultimately going to decide based on how much you trust your collaborators.

You may find writing gigs that are more work than simple coverage but less than a whole screenplay. Say a scrappy young producer asks you to write three webisodes for him, unpaid. Run the cost-benefit analysis in your head. Would you get enough out of the experience to make it worth the hours you spent? If so, do it.

But my first advice remains my final advice: most of what you write should be for yourself or people who can pay you in money, not experience.

The One-Month Manager

Film Industry, Producers, Psych 101, QandA

questionmarkWhat’s a reasonable amount of time to give your manager to read a draft of your script? It sometimes takes mine up to a month.

It seems long to me and I have been losing faith in his desire to get me work or sell my scripts. I’ve been with him for two years now and got a lot of meetings with the first script we went out with, but in the last year and a half nothing. At first he was very hands on and now it seems he has pushed me to the very bottom of his to do list.

I’ve stayed in touch with some of the producers I’ve taken meeting with and was wondering if it’s crossing a line to ask them to help me get a new manager or an agent?

— Mike
Hollywood

Don’t worry about firing your manager. He’s already fired you, but doesn’t have the guts to tell you.

Substitute “manager” for “agent” and follow my advice on [How to leave an agent](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2010/how-to-leave-an-agent). You could have the Big Talk with him, but in the end I strongly suspect you’ll need to move on.

If you’ve kept up relationships with those producers you’ve met, it’s absolutely fair to ask their input on a new manager and/or agent. But it’s going to be really awkward if your only contact was the meet-and-greet months ago. They need to be colleagues, not contacts.

Ask yourself whether you’ve done everything you could to make your screenwriting career happen. As I put it before:

> The biggest change shouldn’t be who is representing you, but how you’re representing yourself. As you take meetings, make them understand that you will work your ass off to land assignments, then work five times harder to deliver. Say it and mean it.

I wouldn’t bother firing your manager until you have something new and shiny with which to attract attention.

**UPDATE:**

Reader James points out I never really answered the question of how long is too long to wait.

If you hand your manager a script on a Monday or Tuesday, you should expect to hear back by Friday — or get a call/email saying that he’ll read it over the weekend. A script delivered on Wednesday or later will probably be weekend reading as well.

He should get back to you by the Monday afternoon with word that he’s read it, or an explanation if he hasn’t. If you haven’t heard back, take the initiative and call/email.

How many times can a meeting get pushed?

Film Industry, Producers, Psych 101, QandA

questionmarkMeetings get pushed all the time. General meetings aside, how many pushes merits cause for concern regarding interest in you/your idea?

— Matt

Things in Hollywood are never rescheduled. They’re “pushed.” ((Pushed is always “pushed back.” The reciprocal idea of “pulling up” is less common, but you do hear it in terms of release dates.))

AGENT

You heard about ANDERSONVILLE? They’re pushing to April in order to get Brad Pitt.

Anything with a date attached can get pushed. That includes meetings. Yesterday, I finally sat down for a meet-and-greet lunch that had been pushed six times. That’s not a record for me, but it’s close. The lunch wasn’t a particular priority for either the executive or me, which is why both of us felt okay letting it slide.

Meetings get pushed for many reasons, most of them benign. Executives get sick. Unrelated projects go into crisis mode. Particularly with a general meeting, you just have to roll with it.

If your meeting on a specific project keeps gets pushed back, that can signal waning interest. The second time it’s pushed, you should expect an apologetic phone call from the second-highest person who was supposed to be in the room. If that phone call doesn’t come, you can commence worrying.

If you have an agent or manager, it’s her job to investigate. Otherwise, sack up and call. Invent a reason why it’s very important that the new date stick.

Meetings sometimes get cancelled without setting a new date. For me, that starts a 24-hour clock. If a full day has passed and there’s not a new date on the calendar, I will assume the worst.

How to write on the spine of a script

Film Industry

Back in my ramen days as a young screenwriter, I used to marvel at colleagues’ script libraries, shelves of brass-bradded screenplays generally organized by writer. They were a status symbol. “Oh, you haven’t read POINT BREAK?” they would ask, finger hovering by the title. “You know James Cameron did a rewrite.”

Screenplays were a physical *thing* to be borrowed and traded and photocopied. Moving from one apartment to another — young Los Angelenos generally relocate annually — meant hauling file boxes of scripts. Reading meant heavy lifting.

Now, of course, in the age of iPads and .pdfs, printed scripts are much less important. A shelf full of old screenplays feels quaint, bordering on out-of-touch, much like boasting about one’s CD collection.

I’ll gladly take convenience over nostalgia.

Still, there are times you do need a printed script. For example, production drafts are increasingly only distributed on paper, in order to reduce the chance of leaking on the internet. Or you may have so many hand-written notes in a script that it’s important to retain the physical draft.

Based on some printed scripts I’ve seen recently, a related skill may be on verge of being lost forever: writing neatly on the spine of a script.

Here’s a quick tutorial.

1. Remove any brads or binder clips.
2. Hold the script by the top and bottom.
3. Slam it hard on its left edge. Do it twice or three times if you need to let out some steam. You want every page to be absolutely flush.
4. Put the script near the edge of the table.
5. Pushing down with your non-writing hand to keep the pages pressed firmly together, write the title on the edge with a Sharpie. Include date or draft if applicable.
6. Restore brads or clips.

YES:

proper spine writing

NO:

bad spine writing

If you’re pretty sure a script will go from your hands to the recycling bin, don’t bother labeling it. Any script that is going to be stacked, shelved or filed should be labelled on its spine.

Screenplays are now often printed two-sided, which means they’re half as thick as they used to be. That’s okay. Same technique still works — just write smaller.