John August

QandA

Does a Brit have a chance?

Film Industry, QandA

questionmarkI’m a 20-year old university student from London, currently studying film and creative writing at Buckinghamshire University. I’ve got a few questions that I would really appreciate you answering:

  1. Coming from England and being a wannabe film writer, would you suggest moving to America or at least selling to America? To me the English movie scene is pretty dull and lifeless. Apart from the odd Guy Ritchie film, there’s not a lot to offer in England unless you want grim reality films of how poor the North of England is.
  2. Do you think being from England will affect my chances of selling to America in terms of dialogue etc?

–Scott Macinnes

answer icon(Scott actually had five questions, but other columns probably answered the other three. So let’s address the England question.)

While your assessment of the British film industry is funny, I also think it’s a little unfair. Considering its size, the U.K. has a pretty substantial film business, with a wider variety of genres than you’d admit. True, if you want non-James Bond big summer popcorn movies, you’re out of luck. But you can find good examples of almost every other kind of movie.

Unless you’re dying to leave England, my advice is to stay put and see what you can learn there, at least for a year or two. It’s much easier to make the transition to Hollywood if you have something to show for yourself.

For instance, Christopher Nolan went from the tiny-budgeted FOLLOWING (shot in the UK), to the small-budgeted MEMENTO (shot in the U.S.) to the studio feature INSOMNIA.

But if you’re sure it’s L.A.-or-nothing, then by all means come. But make sure you’re going to be able to get some kind of work or educational visa that will let you stay in the country for a few years.

Split-screen

Formatting, QandA

How would you go about writing two scenes in a script
that run at the same time in split screen, but don’t necessarily have
anything to do with each other? Basically like a scene from the movie
TIMECODE.

–John

That’s a real challenge to do in standard screenplay format. While someone
watching a movie can follow the action happening in multiple sections
of the screen at once, the reader simply can’t. Reading is a left-to-right,
top-to-bottom process. So you’re going to have to figure out another
way to communicate the same idea.

Your approach depends on how crucial the split-screen timing becomes.
For instance, in an earlier draft of the first CHARLIE’S ANGELS, there
was a chase sequence between Alex (Lucy Liu) and the Thin Man (Crispin
Glover), in which they were both trying to get to the roof of the building
in order to reach the satellite dish that Eric Knox was using. The chase
started with the two characters on opposite sides of an iron fence, which
formed the dividing line down the middle of the screen. We then followed
each character on separate, sometimes overlapping paths, as they fought
their way to the roof. Finally, Alex kicked the Thin Man "through" the
center dividing line.

In this example, the exact timing of who-is-where-when was important,
so I chose to write the action as two parallel columns on a horizontal
page. It was a pain in the ass to format, because Final Draft couldn’t
handle it, so each time I printed out the script I had to make sure to
leave blank "filler" pages in which to insert the properly-formatted
side-by-side pages. Still, it was a fun challenge.

Ultimately, the split-screen stuff was dropped and the sequence became
about Alex and the Thin Man kicking the crap out of each other.
For TIMECODE, Mike Figgis apparently didn’t work off a traditional screenplay
at all. The entire movie was rehearsed and reshot more than a dozen times.
To figure out who-is-where-when, Figgis used musical score sheets.

For your script, since the two sides don’t necessarily have anything
to do with each other, I would recommend writing the scenes out straight.
If it’s important to indicate to the reader that certain scenes are playing
side-by-side, just put a note in parentheses in the first line of a scene’s
description. It’s not a perfect solution, but in most cases that’s as
straightfoward as you’re going to get.

Co-producer credit

Producers, QandA

How did you get co-producer credit on GO? I know it was an original spec.
Is that enough to ask for producer credit, too? Alan Ball got it for AMERICAN
BEAUTY, another original.

I ask because I’ve acquired the rights to a comic book & I plan on writing
the script. The manager I was pitching it to said I’ll "never" get
producer credit because it’ll "set a bad precedent."

–Falzone

I got my co-producer credit on GO for three reasons. First, I asked for it.
No one is going to offer it to you out of the blue. Second, I sold my script
to a tiny company that couldn’t afford to pay me much, so they were much more
inclined to offer me something that didn’t cost them anything – and they didn’t
have any "precedents" to break. It’s extremely unlikely I could have
gotten that credit at a major studio, particularly on my first feature.

The third and most important reason I got the credit was that I did the work.
I was there for every casting session, every budget crisis and pretty much
every frame of film shot. I went through a dozen or more different cuts of
the movie, along with the trailer and the commercials. Being a co-producer
gave me enough authority to be involved in these decisions, but it came with
a load of responsibilities.

Does everyone with a co-producer credit do this much work? Unfortunately,
no. Producer credits are all too frequently handed out.

You’re right in assuming a spec script is a stronger position to be in when
negotiating for credit. As long as you have the option to walk away, a buyer
is more likely to give you what you want. (That’s also how Jessica
Bendinger got her co-producer credit for BRING IT ON.)

Rewriting an old movie

QandA, Rights and Copyright

I have an old movie that I’d absolutely love to rewrite. I was wondering how
you go about doing it. How do you find out who has the rights to the original
screenplay, and is there anything else I would need to do?

–John

Start by looking for what
company made the picture. On IMDb, look up the movie’s page, then click on "Company
Credits." The top entity listed is usually the place to start.

If the studio still exists, such as Columbia Pictures, there’s a very good
chance that they still own the remake rights to that movie. Call information
in Los Angeles to get their main phone number, then call it and ask for the
rights department. (It may have a different name, or be a subset of the legal
department, but every studio has somebody who handles exactly these kind of
rights.) Whoever you end up speaking with will probably have you fax over your
information request, then promptly lose that fax until you call them back and
pester them some more.

At this point, all you probably want to know is whether the company owns the
remake rights for that picture. If they do, it’s up to you to figure out your
next step, be that approaching the studio with your idea, or buying the studio’s
remake rights (with your money or someone else’s).

If the studio doesn’t own the remake rights, hopefully they know who does.
Repeat the process of calling/faxing/waiting until you find out exactly who
controls these rights.

What if the company who produced the original movie no longer exists? If the
movie is available on videotape or DVD, start with whatever company distributed
it. Call their home video department (very likely based in Los Angeles) and
ask to speak with somebody in their rights department. In order to distribute
the movie, they had to secure rights from somebody. Find out who that was.

If you’re at a dead end, with no more numbers to call, start going through
the names in the credit block. You can track down contact information for writers
through the WGA, directors through the DGA, and producers (sometimes) through
the Producers Guild of America. Of these three, producers are most likely to
have information about who controls the rights for their movies.

Keep in mind that just because someone says they own the remake rights, doesn’t
mean it’s necessarily true. You’ll need to have an experienced entertainment
lawyer review the chain of title to make sure all the i’s are dotted and all
the t’s crossed.