John August

QandA

Are jokes public domain?

QandA, Rights and Copyright

What’s the proper protocol in terms of writing a joke into
your script? I frequently hear jokes in movies that I’ve heard from friends
before the movie
came out. Is it public domain and it needs no clearance or should it still
be researched just in case it has roots from a standup comic’s copyrighted
routine?

–Anup

Stand-up comics write their material, and written material is subject to copyright.
But at a certain point, some jokes circulate out in the popular culture enough
that I would argue they’re essentially public domain. But then again, I’m not
a jury, so don’t take my advice as gospel.

If you can’t find a source for a joke, and you’ve heard it enough times and
enough different ways that you feel it’s graduated to cultural meme status,
you can probably get away with putting it in your script. Then the only question
becomes, if you’ve heard it so many times, is it still original enough to be
worthy of your script? Nothing is less funny than a joke that’s been played
out.

To google google

QandA, Treatments

I saw your
answer about "treatments" and did a search, as suggested, for "James
Cameron treatment," on Google. The first two results were links to a SPIDERMAN
treatment. The third: a link to the IMDB page where you suggested searching
for "James Cameron treatment." Stupid, but amusing.

–Patrick A. Bowman

I’m waiting for the day a Google search refers back to itself.

Specs, treatments, and pitches

QandA, Treatments

What’s the difference: spec script, treatment, pitch and
outline?

–Fabio Bueno

These terms deal with different forms or stages of a screenwriter’s work.
A "spec script" is a completed screenplay, probably about 120 pages
long, that a writer wrote on his own. That’s the "spec" part, meaning
that no one paid the writer in advance to write it, just like a house built
on spec doesn’t have a buyer until it’s finished. Most writers’ first screenplays would be considered specs, because it’s rare for someone to hire a writer without
reading his or her work first.

"Treatment" and "outline" mean different things to different
people, and one writer’s treatment might be another’s outline. Regardless,
treatments and outlines map out a movie story, often as a precursor to writing
the full screenplay. An outline might be one page or might be ten; a treatment
could be three pages or could be thirty. James Cameron is known for writing "scriptments" that
are 70 pages or more. Ultimately, the length is less important than the function:
hopefully, an outline or treatment will help a writer spot problems early on,
so that the finished script will be better. Treatments are usually written
in paragraph rather than screenplay form, but there are no hard and fast rules.
Outlines are often more rudimentary, with just sluglines to refer to sequences.

A "pitch" is the oral presentation of a movie idea, where screenwriters
explain to studio executives that their movie is "Ghostbusters meets Titanic." God
knows why screenwriters – who spend most of their days typing in dark rooms
– are supposed to be able to suddenly become eloquent and impassioned hucksters,
but such are the weird realities of Hollywood. Ideally, a pitch should feel
like how you describe a really good movie to a friend who hasn’t seen it yet.
Casual but excited. Truthfully, I usually write every word I’m going to say
ahead of time, then internalize it so it feels like I’m ad-libbing.
There might be situations when you give a "written pitch," but truthfully,
that document would probably be an outline or treatment.

I’ve been on panels dedicated to the topic of pitching, and I’ve come to the
conclusion that it’s not a skill that can really be taught. It’s like stand-up
comedy. You have to learn through practice in front of actual human beings.

Story first, then characters

QandA, Story and Plot

I often find myself writing
half of a screenplay, and then throwing it on the scrapheap because my characters
have totally lost their direction. How do I build on my characters to help
me, by taking the story in their own direction?

–Colin

In your case, I would urge you to really figure out the end of your story
before you begin writing. Otherwise, it’s very easy to keep writing scene after
scene and end up with interesting characters in a mess of a story.

One trap that many beginning writers encounter – especially those who’ve read
some of the more notorious screenwriting books – is taking the truism "character-driven
story" too literally. Yes, the most successful and engaging movies are
those where the characters seem to be in control of their own destiny, where
every turn of the plot seems to derive from an element of their personality.

But it’s naïve to think that all a writer has to do is come up with amazing
characters and watch them go to work. The truth is, great characters are useless
unless we see them doing interesting things – and coming up with those things
is the screenwriter’s job. Don’t start writing until you know both who your
characters are and what they’ll be doing.