John August

QandA

First rewrite

Film Industry, QandA

If you sell a script to a studio, what are your rights regarding the first re-write? Do you have to be a member of the WGA to demand this?

–Anonymous

Simply on the basis of morality, ethics and artistic vision, the original writer should always have the first crack at rewriting his script. Unfortunately, morality, ethics and artistic vision are sometimes in short supply when it comes to making movies. That’s why it’s good the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has its “creative rights” provisions, which cover situations like this. You can find a full list of them here.

If you’re not a WGA member and you sell a script to a studio, are you still covered? Almost certainly yes. The major studios have agreements with the WGA which basically state that any writer they employ has to be a WGA member — so if you’re not a member when you sell the script, you have to join right away. And it’s certainly worth it. Not only does the WGA offer screenwriters these up-front protections, but it also offers health insurance and collects residuals for writers’ work.

So are you, Paul, absolutely guaranteed the first rewrite on your spec script? No. There are at least two scenarios where this wouldn’t happen. First, you might sell your script to a company that is not a WGA-signatory. Even relatively big studios (like Miramax/Dimension) have divisions that aren’t WGA. In that case, you wouldn’t be guaranteed the WGA creative rights. A second scenario might have you waiving your right to the first rewrite as a condition of the script sale. I’ve never heard of this happening — it feels morally, ethically and artistically wrong — but it’s conceivable, so I’m sure it has happened to some writer at some point.

Finally, I like that you use the word “demand” in your question. No studio will be inclined to give you anything just because you ask politely. If having the opportunity to rewrite your script is a priority for you — and it should be — don’t accept a deal that would shut you out.

(While you’re at the WGA site, you should also check out the “Independent Film Program,” which can offer some helpful protection even for non-WGA members.)

Ph.D. on adapted screenplays

Adaptation, QandA

I intend to write a PH. D. on a theme about the connection between film and literature. As a screenwriter how do you approach a literary piece to adapt it for the big screen? Do you think an adapted script could be perceived as literary genre?

–M

To answer your second question first, I think it’s important to make sure we’re using the same terms. For me, “genre” means a group of works lumped together based on subject matter, theme or tone. Westerns, romantic comedies, and futuristic prison thrillers are all genres. I’ll use “medium,” (singular of “media”) for the various types of literary formats, such as novels, poems, screenplays and stage plays. Combine the two terms and you can begin to describe almost any literary work: “Riders of the Purple Sage” is a Western novel, while the Jean-Claude Van Damme/Dennis Rodman movie DOUBLE TEAM began as a futuristic prison thriller screenplay. Shudder.

Now that our terms are clear, is “adapted script” a literary genre? Not really. Screenplays adapted from other works have no signature subject matter, theme or tone. And as a medium, adapted scripts are not superficially distinguishable from any other screenplay.

“Adapted scripts” is just a way to group otherwise unrelated works.

That said, for purposes of your Ph.D., it’s probably a useful and interesting grouping of otherwise unrelated works. At least it’s more likely to get your thesis approved than, “A Textual Analysis of Screenplays Beginning with the Letter ‘K’.”

I’ve answered a lot of questions about the process of adaptation, so I’ll direct you to the archives for the everyday answers. But in order to help out with your thesis, I’ll try to get a little more intellectual.

Anytime you create a literary work derived from a pre-existing work, it’s a transformative process. That’s unavoidable. Unless you’re literally just copying it letter for letter, bit for bit, you are going to introduce new elements, or alter elements that were already there. Thus the novels “Sense and Sensibility” and “Bridget Jones’s Diary” are fundamentally different works, even though the latter is based on the former.

However, I would argue – and you might choose as your thesis – that the transformative process of adapting a novel into a screenplay is a hallmark of 20th century literature.

Think about it: Before the 20th century, there weren’t movies or screenplays. While books have been adapted into stage plays for hundreds of years, the phenomenon of a “literary property” to be exploited in various media is a very recent phenomenon. These days, even high-class writers have film rights in mind as they pen their novels.

Yet as intertwined as novels and films have become, it’s an awkward marriage. Books and movies simply work differently.

First and foremost is their relationship with the user. The reader of a book can re-read a chapter if she missed something, or set the book down to ponder a character’s motivation. But a movie never stops. It keeps playing along at 24 frames per second, no matter how confused the audience gets. So the screenwriter must ensure that the viewer knows exactly what she should at the right moment. What is often derided as “dumbing down” could just as easily be labeled “making sensible.”

Books and movies have a different relationship to their characters. A novelist can simply tell the reader what a character is thinking, or feeling, or what he had for breakfast. The screenwriter must find some outward way of expressing this information, generally though dialogue or action.

Finally, the novelist has many more available senses than the screenwriter. Books are filled with tastes and smells, textures and feelings that are completely banned from screenplays, which must only include things that can be seen or heard – the limits of film.

So, Lora, I hope I helped you get started on your thesis. Once your get your Ph. D., promise me you’ll use your power for good. The world doesn’t need another semiotic analysis of the androids in BLADE RUNNER. It needs champions of new and exciting literary forms.

Generating ideas

QandA, Writing Process

Do you have a method to generate your ideas?

–Anonymous

Not really. I’ve never found it particularly hard to generate ideas. Most of the time, I have far too many different things I want to write, and the challenge is deciding which ones are actually worth the investment of time and thought. So I don’t really have any methods for generating ideas. I don’t brainstorm. I don’t draw mind-maps. I only outline if I’m concerned about fitting the pieces together.

In fact, 90% of the time, I’m trying to find methods for shutting competing ideas out, so that I’ll actually get my work finished. Or get to sleep.

I’m drawing a distinction here between coming up with new ideas (“a biker movie in space”) and figuring out how to solve specific problems with a story or scene (“how should the villain capture the Millenium Harley?”). Obviously, every writer is going to have to find ways to get over these hurdles when they come up. A few techniques that often help include:

  • figuring out what the outcome needs to be, then working backwards;
  • deciding what caused the problem in the first place, and whether it can be changed or cut;
  • looking at the moment from another character’s perspective;
  • quickly writing several different solutions, then judging whether one or a combination of several best address the problem.

For all the talk of high-concept comedies or big-idea action tentpole movies, a screenwriter’s daily life is almost entirely about coming up with the “little” ideas that help get the story told.