John August

QandA

Was Go written on-the-fly?

Go, QandA

While listening to Doug Liman and Steven Mirrione’s
commentary track on the GO DVD,
they went through numerous scenes that weren’t in your original screenplay,
but rather scenes they had you write in production.
I was wondering what percentage of a film would you say is original material,
and what percentage is threaded during the filming process? Have you ever had
to rewrite a scene you loved with something you felt was lesser for the purpose?

–Brian

This is yet another example of why writers should always be on the commentary
track.

What’s unusual about GO is how little did change from the first script to
the final movie. It’s pretty easy to see what scenes were
new and old by looking at the deleted scenes on the DVD. We went back and reshot
several parts, including
the "branching-off" scene at the supermarket and the finale in Gaines’
apartment. On paper, I much prefer the Gaines’ apartment sequence as
originally scripted. I thought it was smarter and much more in keeping with
the spirit of the movie.
Unfortunately, it just didn’t turn out very well when we filmed it, which is
why we went back and did the simpler version that’s in the movie now.

The other
changes made during filming mostly involved production issues, such as
the names of the hotels we were using, or legal clearance problems. (For
example, Confederated Products was originally American Products, but we
couldn’t get permission to use that name.)

Writer/director disagreements

Directors, QandA

What happens when you disagree with what a director does with your script?
Has that ever happened to you? Is there anything you can do about it?

–Jane

Disagreements can and do occur between writers and directors, and at least
in terms of feature films, the director almost always wins. After all, it’s
the director who is responsible for getting the film up on the screen, and
every department needs to support this effort.

However, it’s important to distinguish between bad disagreements and good
disagreements. Bad disagreements are easy to spot, because they often involve
shouting and name-calling and vows never to work together again. While there
may be genuine issues at hand, more often the battle is over ego, turf, money
and fear. These kinds of situations are movie poison, and usually hurt the
film.

Fortunately, most disagreements between writers and directors are good disagreements,
where they may have different opinions on characters, scenes or plotlines,
but argue only with the intention of making the best film possible. Remembering
the first rule of disagreements (the director almost always wins), a smart
writer will try to figure out not only what the director wants, but why he
wants it, and how to best achieve the outcome without hurting the script as
a whole.

In my experience, many directors use their writer conversations during development
and pre-production to answer their own questions about the project: What will
the movie feel like? Why is this moment important? How will I direct that actor?
The more confident and secure a director feels about the material going in,
the better the movie will hopefully turn out. So it’s generally worth it to
set aside your defensive tendencies and let the director explore the material.
Hopefully, you’ll find yourselves trying to make the same movie.

Disagreements during production are more treacherous, because exhaustion breeds
paranoia, and every hour of filming is literally costing thousands of dollars.
Often writers aren’t very involved during production, but if they are, the
most important thing they can do is make sure the story is still being told,
despite the obstacles and changes that arise.

In post-production, the director’s primary collaborator is the editor, and
the two of them will have the same kinds of disagreements as the writer and
director had during pre-production. The writer’s involvement during editing
is unfortunately rare, but can be extremely helpful. The writer generally has
the best sense of how the story was originally constructed, and can help nudge
it back into shape.

Adapting a videogame into a movie

Adaptation, QandA

This question is going to suck. I have an idea to turn a computer game (I
feel so cheap) into a screenplay. Just as a side-note, it’s more of the atmosphere
of the game that’s appealing, not the quick buck mentality. Obviously I can’t
afford to buy the rights, but where do I lie submitting it to agencies? Would
they even look at it?

–Chris

Your question doesn’t suck. I adapted a computer game into
a movie ("American McGee’s Alice"), and I didn’t feel a wee bit cheap.

But then, it was a damn cool game, and I got paid. So there you have it.

Since you don’t think you can get the rights to the game, ask yourself if
you’re still willing to write a script that can never get made (or even sold).
If the answer is yes, go for it.

Some agents will avoid reading your script, simply because they know they
can never sell it. But some agents will read it as a writing sample, and if
the atmosphere of the game world is as cool as you say, maybe they’ll like
it and see you have potential.
Make sure you identify your source material on the cover page, which would
read:

TITLE

written by Chris Somebody

 

based on the videogame "Underpants Wars"

published by Powerful Software Company

Considering you’re probably broke, and the fact you won’t be able to sell this anyway, there’s
very little danger
Powerful Software Company would bother coming after you. But you’re
morally and karmically better off giving credit where it’s due.

Optioning your book

QandA, Rights and Copyright

I have submitted a book to a producer. This is my first book,
but they are wanting to make it. What can I expect as far as monetary compensation
for the
rights to the story being that I am an unknown author?

–Alma

The short answer is, not a lot. The long answer is more complicated.

When a producer buys the rights to a short story or book, usually what is
being purchased is the option on the rights. What this means is that the producer
is buying the right to buy the rights at a later time. He’s saying, "I’m
gonna pay you $1000 today. In exchange for that $1000, you promise you won’t
sell anyone else the rights during the next twelve months. Also, any time during
these twelve months, I can pay you $25,000 and you’ll sell me all the film
rights to the book."

In this example, $1000 is the option price, and $25,000 is the full purchase
(or buyout) price. But those are completely arbitrary numbers. Often the option
price is just $1. Sometimes the full purchase price is $1 milllion. And the
length of the option can vary as well, from six months up to two years or more,
perhaps with a clause allowing the producer to renew the option at fixed price.

In short, the dollars and dates can be anything, but the basic structure of
the deal is the same.

By why does a producer bother with an option? Why not just put down the full
purchase price at the start?

Because it’s a risk. Lots of things can and will go wrong in the process of
trying to make a movie, and the less a producer has to put down up front, the
safer it is. And in many ways, an option protects the original writer as well.
If the producer isn’t able to get the project made, the option expires and
the writer gets all claim back to her work. She even gets to keep the money.
She can set up the book with a different producer and do the whole thing all
over again.

So how much can you, Alma, hope to make from the book this producer wants
to buy? Unless there are a lot of other buyers interested in it, nothing is
going to drive the price up. And since you don’t have any track record of being
paid a certain amount for your work – what’s called a quote – there’s really
no minimum to expect.

At this level, you should expect a low option price, with the possibility
of a bigger full purchase price. I can’t see any advantage to selling out all
rights to the book at this point, because you’d then be giving this producer
the rights forever, and for not a lot of money.

In this situation, you’re mostly just dealing with how much faith you put
in this producer to get the movie made.