John August

QandA

Writer on-set

Film Industry, QandA

If you sell a screenplay and it goes into production, is
there any way to get on-set to watch your movie being filmed, even if it
has been re-written?

–Matt

One of the issues that came up in the latest negotiation between the Writers
Guild and the studios was whether screenwriters should have guaranteed access
to the set. Surprisingly, the biggest opponent to the idea was the Directors
Guild, perhaps concerned that having writers on the set might diminish the
director’s power and control.

In the end, allowing writers to visit the set was added to a new list of "preferred
practices." It’s a compromise, but certainly a step in the right direction.

Even without the latest ruling, in my experience the level of the writer’s
involvement during production has everything to do with his relationship with
the director and producers. On GO, I was there for every frame shot. On CHARLIE’S
ANGELS, I trekked down to the soundstages occasionally. MINORITY REPORT, just
once. (And that was mostly just to see the sets, which were the most elaborate
things I’ve ever seen.)

What few writers understand before visting a set is just how boring they are.
Shooting a movie is like running through mud, and if you don’t have a job on
the set, it gets old incredibly fast. For my money, a writer’s time is better
spent in the editing room, helping to find the best movie in the footage that
was shot. You don’t get to hobnob with big stars, but you’re more likely to
actually improve the movie.

Writer control

Producers, QandA

When working on a big budget remake, does the writer have complete control
over how the characters behave and talk? It must be difficult to shape the
main characters when people all around you have their own personal ideas about
them.

–RBC

Once the script has left the writer’s hands, he never has complete control
over anything. That’s the first and possibly the most frustrating truth about
screenwriting.

In order to be filmed, your perfect vision has to be mucked up by directors,
actors, editors and cinematographers, each of whom will change it to greater
and lesser degrees. The hope is that each step of the way, they’ll make it
better. Surprisingly, sometimes they do.

Your question is about remakes, where there’s a general familiarity with the
characters and the concept, and your instincts are right. Since everyone involved
on the project knows the underlying material, they all have strong opinions
about how to proceed.

The writer’s job, in this case, is to try to capture as much as possible of
what’s beloved about the original, and yet still make a movie that can stand
on its own.

In the case of CHARLIE’S ANGELS, the producers and I had long talks about
the tone and characters, independent of the plot. Rather than mocking the original
series, we wanted the movie to be a giant hug around it. We wanted the angels
to be super-competent on the job, and approachably dorky in their off-time.
Despite all the action, this would be fundamentally a comedy, and cool people
just aren’t funny.

All of this seems pretty obvious watching the final movie, but getting everyone
to agree to this approach was easily half of my job. It would have been easier
to make a straight-out spoof (like SCARY MOVIE), or a full-on action movie
(like James Bond), but I don’t think either would have been as successful.

More copyrights and changes

Dead Projects, QandA, Rights and Copyright

How important is it to have your screenplay registered through the US copyright
office? And if you do get it registered, what happens if you add more scenes
later on?

–Ben Goldblatt

Officially, yes, you should copyright your screenplay (with the little "c" symbol,
name and date) on the title page, and then send it in to the U.S. office, a
procedure you can probably find on-line. And if you make major revisions, you
should probably re-register the whole thing.
Unofficially, nobody does this. Sometimes you’ll see the copyright symbol
on a script, but most of the time you won’t. And none of my writer friends
regularly send in their work to be "officially" copyrighted.

Although it’s not really the same thing, most writers I know do register their
scripts with the Writer’s Guild in Los Angeles, a painless procedure
that can occasionally help if your idea is blatantly stolen. But the truth
is that "someone might steal my idea" is more often the fear of an
aspiring writer who’s never put pen to paper than of a working screenwriter.

I’m ragging on it, but sometimes copyright becomes very important. For instance,
when a script is sold, what the studio is really buying is the copyright. (Or
the right to copyright.) I’m currently adapting BARBARELLA, a project to which
four different studios were claiming copyright. It’s taken the legal teams
more than a year to sort out who really owns what, since two of the original
French comic books were already made into a movie.

The process of determining copyright is called "clearing the chain of
title," and it’s often used as the answer to "Why haven’t they paid
me my money yet?"

Spoofs in your script

QandA, Rights and Copyright

I have a question about copyright. I just finished writing
a comedy script which I would like to get made, but in the script I have involved
some slight spoofs
of other films and a few references. What I would like to know is does this
infringe on the copyright? The references and spoofs are indirect and only
take up parts of the film, but I don’t want to make a film then find out I’m
being sued
by everyone. Please help.

–Bunmi

Usually, I’d write up a lengthy explanation of copyright law as I understand
it, which although hopefully entertaining would probably be grossly inaccurate.

So I’ll just give my opinion instead.
You can’t go through life afraid of being sued. If your script is funny, and
part of the reason is because of references and spoofs of other movies, then
you obviously don’t want to remove them. So don’t. I guarantee, no one is going
to sue you just for typing them in your script.

If someone buys your script and makes it, maybe the copyright owners of the
original movies will sue, but I seriously doubt it. There’s a long tradition
of movies parodying each other, and it would be hard to prove any actual damage
or wrongdoing.

Besides, at that point, it’s not your problem. Any lawsuit is going to be
directed at the big rich studio, not the measly underpaid writer. There would
probably even be language in your contract with the studio protecting you just
in case.

So while I can’t say that you’re absolutely, 100 percent safe, I can assure
you that your time is better spent writing funny scenes than worrying about
lawsuits.