John August

QandA

Optioning a book

QandA, Rights and Copyright

I’ve written a screenplay adaptation of a young adult novel.
The rights to the novel are available, and a one-year option can be had for
a not-cheap but do-able fee. Does it give me any advantage or protection to
option the book myself before shopping the script to studios and production
companies? Obviously what I want to avoid is introducing a buyer to the book
by way of my screenplay and then seeing them pursue the story without me. Would
buyers be just as likely to wait out any option I have if they like the book,
but not my script, as they would be to "steal" the idea if I don’t
option it?

–SP

Most
scripts don’t become movies, and a hundred things could go wrong
in the process. You might end up shouting at people, suing people, or
being shut out. But if you’re really interested in making a movie
from this book, go for it. The only way to never get hurt in the film
business is to never get in the film business.

Have you tried to option the book yourself? Even if it’s out of your
price range, it may be worth trying to forge a relationship with the author,
or at least the author’s agent. If they like your approach to the
material, they’re much more likely to stick up for you down the
road.

If you can’t get the agent to take you at all seriously, then you’re
going to have to get someone more powerful involved. A producer/production
company is one option, as is an attorney working on your behalf. Whatever
happens, remember that a good screenplay has value beyond its produce-ability.
Even if your script never gets made, it may open up other opportunities
for you as a writing sample. But it won’t if you never show it
out of fear.

Finding time to write

QandA, Writing Process

I enjoy writing just as much as another person, but my time
is limited. I work 9-5 everyday and when I get home I am dead tired. I have
some good ideas for
a story/screenplay but have trouble finding the time. Do you have any advice
on how I can stretch my time out in order to start writing again?

–Kevin B Smith

Writing is now my full-time job, but I wrote my first few scripts while working
full-time. Outside of some wacky high-concept family movie (likely starring
either Eddie Murphy or Tim Allen), there’s simply no way to squeeze more time
into the day. So something has to give.

Some how-to-be-a-writer books will recommend you get up an hour earlier, or
stay up an hour later in order to write. If that works for you, God bless,
because I need every bit of sleep I can get.

You might be able to give up weekends. I ended up staying in a lot of Friday
and Saturday nights in order to write, which was a little pathetic and lonely
at the time, but hey. It worked.

One relatively safe bet is to give up television. It’s a giant time-suck,
and now that it’s summer, who needs it anyway? I’ve been known to make a sign
that says "NO," which I tape directly onto the TV screen. Other times,
I’ve rationed my TV viewing: one hour for every four pages written, or somesuch.

Delete all the games on your computer. That’s a no-brainer. And unplug your
internet connection.

When I was writing my first script, I was fortunate to be working a completely
brainless summer job at Universal, answering phones and making copies. I ended
up getting a lot of writing done. After work, I’d come home, eat some spaghetti
and start writing longhand, siting on the floor of my apartment. (Note: I had
almost no furniture, thus the floor.) I would take my PowerBook 180 into work,
then type up those pages on my lunch break. Repeat this process for four weeks,
and I’d written a script. As a bonus, I’d avoided banal office lunch conversation.

Everyone’s situation is different, so what worked for me may not work for
you, but my general point is that you need to actively clear time in your day
to write, which means giving up something.

Portraying "endurance"

QandA

I am working on a screenplay where I am trying to portray extreme endurance
on the part of the main character. The problem is I am afraid that my method
of illustrating this leads to a sort of monotony in my script. What creative
approaches could I use to portray redundancy while maintaining the momentum
of the story?

–Jonathan

If "endurance" is shown by having the character run for pages and
pages, then yes, I think you’re right to worry that your script will be monotonous.
But one of the amazing things about both movies and screenplays is that they
can compress space and time to great effect.

For example, let’s say you had your character run from New York City to Miami
without stopping. That’s pretty extreme endurance. If this action were supposed
to take five days, you’d probably want to show the passage of time in some
form: sunrises, sunsets, and shadows sweeping past in time-lapse. Maybe there
would be rain storms that come and go. If your runner were a man, maybe you’d
notice his beard growing.

Next, you’d need to show how far he’s running. You could cheese out and show
a map of the Eastern seaboard, with an animated line charting his progress.
Or, perhaps more cinematically, you could show his journey in relation to major
geographic icons: running across the Brooklyn Bridge, through the Washington
Mall, down the Georgia coast and into the heart of Miami’s hotel district.

Regardless of exactly how you show the journey, I suspect you could do it
all in less than a minute of screen time, which means less than a page of script.
That’s a pretty economical way to establish this information.

Got the story, but I can’t write

QandA, Treatments

Is it possible to sell a "story," "treatment," or "outline" instead
of the full script? I see separate story & screenplay credits on films
all the time. I’ve got some great ideas, but have no screenwriting skills and
I believe they would make great films. What can I do?

–Edward Brock

The "story" and "screenplay" credits you see on movies
are actually determined by the Writers Guild after the movie is finished, and
don’t necessarily mean that one person wrote a treatment and someone else wrote
the script. Often a person getting story credit did write a script, but a later
writer changed so much that only the essence of the story remained, thus reducing
the credit. (For the record, "Written by" means the writer receives
both "story" and "screenplay" credit. The rules are so
complicated and contentious I recommend you don’t even think about it unless
you’re lucky enough to get a studio movie produced.)

In Hollywood, a person with a great idea and no writing talent is called a
producer. Or a studio executive. Or a bag boy at Ralphs.

I’m being glib, but it’s true. Treatments or pitches from non-writers rarely
go anywhere. What can and does happen is that a person with a great idea pairs
up with a real writer and either (a) decides to work on it together, or (b)
somehow convinces a third party to pay the writer to write it. This is how
studios develop movies "in-house," and how a lot of producers function.

My advice? Find a writer. If there’s a known writer who’s perfect for it,
hunt her down through her agent. Or find someone who’s written a really good
script, maybe out of a screenwriting program, and convince them to do it. It
won’t be easy, but that’s how to do it.