Are you a screenwriter unsure how the WGA screenwriting credit system works? Screenwriting credits for theatrical motion pictures are designed by the WGA to give screenwriters due credit for their work. It may sound simple, but a lot of time (and often argument) goes into completing the term “written by”. Writing credits, in the presence of…
Tag: WGA
Residuals For Screenwriters 101
RESIDUALS are monies paid to WGA screenwriters writing for a WGA signatory company under a WGA agreements. They are based on reuse of your work rather than a profit sharing model. Writers in the US don’t own copyright to their work. They sell it to the studio system for commercial exploitation. In other parts of…
Navigating Your Screenwriting Career In The Current Market
The comic invasion slows no sign of slowing down. Comic-Con is fast becoming a “must see” event each summer. In fact, attendances are so strong at the San Diego Convention Center, that the organizers are considering moving the event to a larger venue. Apart from feeding Hollywood’s unabated hunger for comic book properties, it is…
WGA Seeks Credit System Review
Like all evolving organizations, awarding screenwriting credits must all adapt to reflect changes in the film production landscape, particularly with non-original scripts (rewrites, polishes and adaptations). As screenwriters become hyphenates (writer-directors or writer-producers) and increasingly seek more ownership and creative control of their scripts, the rules need an overhaul. Back in the day, a newer…
Post Oscars 2010 Film World
What a year! A far cry from last year’s “Slumdog Millionaire” (albeit well-deserved) award blitzkrieg and more glitz than than desert of 2008 after reeling form the Great Writers’ Strike. Oscar provides a vehicle to maximize exposure to the “indie” films that would otherwise hover in a theatre for weeks before gaining traction via word…
How Screenwriters Negotiate Step Deals
Ready for a business lesson for screenwriters? How do we get paid? Mainly by check, but sometimes in magic coffee beans… Just kidding. But there is a step payment process used in many screenwriting deals. Screenplay option The first type of payment for your screenplay is typically an exclusive OPTION. This is analogous to renting…
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
While other industries have been struggling to survive over the past year, film exhibition has enjoyed a paradoxical boom. Around summer time, box office was around 15% higher than the same time last year. Box Office is up around 9% this year compared to last year. That’s good, right? Yeah. We’re slowly emerging from the…
State Of The Nation
Well the good news is… things aren’t getting any worse. Not that there was much scope for the spec script market to fall any more. Universal and Sony have used up their development budgets for this year, or had it taken away form them The other studios aren’t faring much better. So far this year,…
Educate Yourself On The Screenwriting Craft and Business
The world is a mercurial and ever changing place. Continuous improvement, career enhancement and professional development are buzzwords that permeate every industry, even ours. First and foremost, read lots of scripts. You can’t become an architect just by looking at buildings. So you think you know everything about screenwriting after reading a few books by…
Gideon's Screenwriting Tips: Now You're a Screenwriter 