John August

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Where to find scripts

Education, QandA

How can I get my hands on the screenplays to movies I like (that aren’t mega-blockbusters)?

–Andrea

There are a few good sources online, such as Script-O-Rama,
which can point you to other places to check out. Most of these sites have
scripts you can download for free –
which is technically a violation of copyright, but is largely overlooked. These
sites do lean more towards blockbuster or science-fiction movies, however,
so if you’re looking for OUT OF AFRICA, you may be Out of Luck.

If you happen to be visiting Los Angeles, you can visit the Margaret Herrick
Library on La Cienega. It’s run by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
(the Oscar people), and has an amazing screenplay collection. You’ll have to
read the scripts on-premises, however, and the whole place has disquieting
feel to it, like an occult bookstore run by the Swiss.

For award-winning or indie-favorite movies, it’s worth trying Amazon or one
of the other on-line bookstores to see if the script has been published. Often,
you’ll find that even if the book version hasn’t come out in the U.S., it has
in the U.K.

Finally, if you’re considering working in Hollywood, you should know that
all the agencies and most producers have pretty extensive script libraries,
so an added bonus of an internship is the chance to read a bunch of great material.
USC’s film school has a great script library, but you have to be a student
there.

Incidentally, whatever script you do get your hands on, make sure you know
exactly what kind of script you’re reading. Generally, you’ll find three types:
the original spec script, which is what the writer wrote before it was produced;
the final continuity script, which reflects all the changes made during production;
and a transcript, which is simply a write-up of the movie, often made by an
overzealous fan.

Of the three types, the spec script is generally the most useful for a writer
to read, because it best reflects the intention and craft of the original screenwriter.
The final continuity script – which you can recognize because it has scene
numbers in the margins and odd breaks halfway down the page – is often something
of a Frankenstein monster, with hastily written descriptions by the script
supervisor of what the actors actually did in a scene, or lines they improvised.
And a transcript is more or less useless except as a quick reference, or a
typing exercise.

MPAA numbers

Film Industry, QandA

I know about WGA and Library of Congress copyright registration, but someone
told me that films also get MPAA numbers on the scripts? Is this true?

–V. Thomas

You don’t need to worry about this. Really. Ever. At all. I’ve made a couple
of big studio movies, and I’ve never seen an MPAA number on anything.
But since you’re curious, I’ll tell you a bit about the the magic numbers.

The MPAA is a trade organization made up of
the seven major film studios: Fox, Warner Bros., Sony, MGM, Disney, Universal
and Paramount. While these studios compete fiercely with each other, they work
together through the MPAA on issues of common interest, such as preventing
piracy, maintaining copyright, and establishing ratings. The MPAA — specifically
its president, Jack Valenti — is the "face" of the film industry
to Congress.

Way down on the list of MPAA responsibilities is the job of keeping track
of its members’ movies, for all sorts of internal reasons. That’s when a movie
is assigned a number, which is probably the same "MPAA number" your
friend saw on a script.

It’s nothing a screenwriter ever needs to worry about, but now you know.

Writer’s strikes

Film Industry, QandA

I’m beginning my first script and I plan to market
it next year. But I wonder about the writer’s strike–what’s the protocol?
I think that writers
fighting for my chosen profession can only be a good thing and I don’t want
to undermine, nor be a "scab." On the other hand, the entire Hollywood
sphere is detached from a newbie like myself. Where do the unsigned, unrepped,
first timers fit in?

–Dan Bentley

Note: This letter came a few months before the great writer’s strike of
2001–which never in fact happened, although there was a de facto production
gap since
studios rushed to get movies finished.

This is the kind of question where a dedicated journalist would call up representatives at the WGA and get a detailed answer to your question, complete with properly attributed quotes.

Unfortunately, I’m just a screenwriter cranking out my column at the last moment. As it happens, I think I can give you some good advice anyway. First, some general background info. With few exceptions, every screenwriter working for the studios is a member of the Writers Guild, an organization that enforces minimum standards and fees, collects residual payments, and awards "written by" credit on films, among other duties.

Every few years, the WGA negotiates a contract with the studios, deciding exactly what fees and percentages will be paid to writers. The current contract is set to expire at the end of May (of 2002), and there are several issues where studios and writers are at odds, which will make coming up with a new contract difficult.

Several of the issues are creative (such as the "a film by" credit), while others are purely financial, such as the calculation of residuals on foreign broadcast television sales (really, I’m not making that up) and how to account for distribution over the Internet. Particularly when it comes to the numbers, the differences may seem trivial — a half of a percentage point here or there — but for many working writers, it can mean the difference between writing full-time or waiting tables.

The writer’s strike is not a foregone conclusion. Many things could happen between now and May 31 which would cancel or postpone a strike, and the possibility of an actor’s strike at the end of the summer (over many of the same issues) might expedite a settlement.

So what does this mean for you, Dan, a newbie writer working on a script? Not a whole lot.

Finish your script, and don’t worry about the larger labor issues of Hollywood. Once it’s done and perfect, stick your head out the door and see if there are writers marching down Melrose with picket signs. If so, the strike is happening, and the whole town has probably gone crazy. Without writers, literary agents won’t have a lot to do, so they may be unusually happy to read your script and possibly sign you on as a client. There’s nothing scab-like about getting an agent.

Where it gets weird is if your agent tries to sell your script during the strike. My instinct is that this is a bad thing. Even though you aren’t currently a member of the WGA, the assumption is that you would have to join immediately after the strike, and they wouldn’t look kindly on your actions. Fortunately, you have a resource beyond my random speculation. Check out the WGA website. It’s chock full of informational goodness, and as the strike comes closer, I’m certain they’ll have a FAQ with answers to your specific questions.

Of course, this is all moot if you don’t finish your script. So write.

Are characters based on people you know?

Go, QandA

As a writer, do you worry about everyone in your life thinking characters
are based on them?

–Dari

Surprisingly, the issue almost never comes up. I guess that means either,
(a) everyone in my life has already accepted that something they say or do
might someday end up on screen, or (b) they’re angry and repressing their rage.

A writer is inevitably going to borrow ideas from real life, both consciously
and unconsciously. With me, it’s dialogue. I’ll hear somebody say something
perfect and immediately jot it down on one of a hundred tiny slips of paper.
(Probably half of the time, I’ve actually misheard what they said, the same
way song lyrics seem much more poetic when you can’t quite make them out.)

But I’m pretty careful to never completely base a character on somebody I
know, especially not a close friend or family member. It’s just not worth the
potential grief.

Of the scripts I’ve written, GO was closest to using actual true people and
events. Tiny (played by Breckin Meyer) was inspired by Anthony Satariano, the
sports editor of my high school paper, who was a white kid talking black way
back in 1988. The food poisoning from shrimp at a Las Vegas buffet happened
to my friend Wende in 1993, while the hotel room fire is a possibly apocryphal
story related to me by my friend Tom
Smith. (No, it didn’t happen to him.)

It’s worth noting that of all these incidents, the only one I asked permission
to use was Tom’s, probably because he’s a writer himself, and might have been
saving it for one of his own projects. He was gracious enough to let me have
it.

Another factor which reduces the "Is-That-Based-On-Me?" tension
is that a lot of the projects I work on already have some form of source material,
be it a book, a TV show or whatnot. For example, my screenplay for BIG FISH
involves a lot of my experience watching my father die, and my frustration
at trying to get to know him. But the fact that it’s ultimately based on Daniel
Wallace’s book makes it easier for my family and everyone else to get some
emotional distance, and differentiate the movie-dad from my actual dad.