1. Unit 19
Section one – finding work as a script writer
There are plenty of jobs in the film industry such as:
Commissioning editors: they research what genre of films/shows are popular at the
moment. They will research popular movies and research what the average budget for a
film in that genre. They may have creative input on a project. These editors are
extremely important to producers as they can look at data about what genre a script is
and weather it will be successful or not or what can make the script even more
profitable. For example, commissioning editors will tell producers that they believe that a
horror film that is pg13 will be profitable even at a low budget so a company may look
for horror scripts and change them to be pg13. Commissioning editors may also set
budgets for the films based on the budgets and profits of similar scripts.
Producers: they fund projects and have control over the ethical respectabilities of the
product. They do have creative input too since they are funding the movie. An example
of this is Spiderman 3 where the producers pushed the director and writers too include a
third villain venom. This resulted in the movie being too convoluted and it was very
badly received because of the producers forcing Sam Rami to include venom. Producers
have the most important job, taking research from commissioning editors and looking at
scripts and deciding whether a project is worth funding or not. Producers are also in
charge of parts of production that don’t fall under there director's responsibilities. For
example, collecting the funding for the project.
Directors – Creates the product with guidelines from producer; he’ll follow the script to
make the product the producer and script writers wanted. A good director will be
involved in all areas of the film being made; they may talk to editors on how he wants it
to play out and he’ll talk to cinematographers on how he wants the shots to look like.
This is why a lot of directors’ work with the same people on different projects, for
example Quentin Tarantino has worked with editor Sally Menke on films like kill bill 1
and 2, inglorious bastards and pulp fiction. Christopher Nolen has also worked
repeatedly with Hans Zimmer a composter for all his movies. Overall a director’s job is to
tell his interpretation of the script in the best way possible.
Script editors: they make sure the script is suitable and doesn’t have any errors or plot
holes. They may offer suggestions and work with the editor to create the best script
possible. Script editors are important as they can challenge the script writer if a part in
the script doesn’t really work; it's good to have an unbiased opinion on the script. It’s
the script editors' job to make sure there is cohesion between the script, producer and
commission editor. If there is a problem in the script however it's not the script editor's
responsibility to create a solution; they must only tell the writer if something needs
changing.
Agents: they are people who network and find people jobs which suit them; they will
present scripts to producers who they know. The agent's role is quite important as they
are responsible for connecting writers too producers. If a writer didn’t have an agent, it
would almost be impossible to have their script read by studios.
Writers: they will research and create a narrative. This can be a one that they created,
or a producer could come to a script writer and ask for them to create a script in the
genre of the film they want. Writers who write by themselves in their chosen genre must
have an agent to pass their script onto producers. No matter who the script is going to it
must tell a narrative in the master scene script format. Some writers have specialties
like Andrew Kevin Walker creates darker movies like seven and 8mm; in fact, in an
2. interview with the talks Walker talks about this idea called “cinema of discomfort” where
the story is made to engross you in a believable world but you as a viewer would never
want to be in that world. Walkers writing style takes existing dark elements from real life
weather its underground crime or religion he takes these ideas and puts them into this
hyperviolent version of our world creating this believable world. Diablo Cody is another
script writer who, according to imdb wrote the second-best movie script of all time with
2007s Juno. It was such a great script actors really wanted to be in the movie; for
example, JK Simmons stated that he’d even be a background character with no dialogue
just to be in the movie. Another actress Jenifer Garner found out it was an indie movie
and decided to take a percentage cut instead of a normal paycheque that shed usually
get for being a big actress. This went well for her though as the film became a huge hit
earning 231.4 million. This film may not have been so successful if it wasn’t for these big
actors wanting to be in this small movie and the reason they did is because the script
was so good.
There are different commissioning bodies you could get your film produced by.
Corporations are big productions houses such as Disney, fox, universal and paramount
which may be good for a script writer to get into. This is because big production
corporations usually will not use a writer just once (unless the scripts flopped) so one
breakthrough in a corporation produced film could lead to a successful career. However,
scripts for these production houses will usually have to be conventional in genre; genres
that are popular at the time. If you are an Independent director who does not want to
make a make big blockbuster with big companies, you could approach an independent
production company. Production houses which are outside the Hollywood circle that
usually make lower budget movies, independent production companies. There are other
Organisations which help writers like the BFI and the BBC writers' room. Competitions
like film freeway is a yearly writing competition to help writers in the UK gain status.
Section two – working as a writer, demands and requirements
One thing you must do as a writer is professionally present your script in the correct
format: using master scene script for film, branching script for video games and for radio
scripts there is more of an emphasis on the sound effects and the punctuation/emphasis
on certain words. If you don’t producers will throw your script out without even looking
at it.
To get jobs in the industry having agent representation can be a huge help; this is
someone whose job it is to network and if they know that there is a studio wanting a
comedy movie and knows of a writer who does comedy scripts they will connect them.
Some production houses won’t even look at a script which hasn’t been given by an
agent.
Another thing it’s important to do as a writer communication; know what the producers
want. Don’t write a script which goes against what your producers wanted.
One thing that is vital as a writer is time management. Making sure you have time to
finish the script. This will differ for different jobs though. Soap operas usually are written
a week before they air so the script writer must plan to do long hours. Some writers will
write a script before it’s been picked up then hand it to an agent to show to producers,
in that case they can write it in their own time.
The royalties the writer receives are from the sales of whatever product they wrote for;
the writers get a portion of the royalties but the other portions go to the agent and
producers.
3. Some writers will collaborate on projects like film, games and Tv shows. They might do
this for a multitude of reasons; the volume of work may just be too great in a film or
show, producers or script editors may read it and think it needs reworked and might and
a second writer. For example, GTA 5 was a game with a large story mode so you needed
writers to create the script for that story, however the same game has a lot of side
missions and added content since it came out; also, just npc dialogue had to be written
too. This was a huge volume of work and required three writers: Dan Houser, Rupert
Humphries and Michael Unsworth. Also, in film a lot of script writers feel like they are
better when they write together. For example, Lilly and Lana Wachowski who wrote the
scripts for the matrix movies. Also, Ethan and Joel Cohan wrote together creating Fargo
and the big Lebowski. In an interview for no country for old men they talked about their
writing process. They said that they always write in the same room and that they bounce
ideas and concepts of each other; often one will write whilst the other talks. They also
say that during writing sessions they will usually take small naps, even saying to NPR
“It's mostly napping”. Since no country for old men is an adaptation of the book when
talking about how they created the character of Anton Chigurh they looked at his
characters speeches from the book and looked septically ad these words and created the
character around that which made the character seem more cold hearted.
Another thing a writer must do is hand over control of a project; when the project is
handed over it can be changed and you may not like what they have done with it.
Section 3 – the process with legal and ethical considerations
As a writer you must trademark your script to make sure no one copies your idea. But
also, you mustn’t tread on another’s copyright (copyright is having the rights of an
idea/story) as this is plagiarism. If you do tread on someone's trademark you can be
sued and could pay royalties. Trademarking your script is important as it protects you; if
you don’t trademark a script there is nothing stopping a big company from stealing your
idea and profiting from it
As a writer you are libel for the product you make; you shouldn’t attempt to miss inform
your audience or make a product which guides people to incite hatred. An example of
this is “Passion of The Christ” which incited discrimination and was an anti-Semitic film.
Screen writers Benedict Fitzgerald, and Mel Gibson had their names discouraged after
the movie. In an interview with ABC after the film's release Mel Gibson said, “he was
wounded for our transgressions and by his wounds we healed, that’s the point of the film
it's not about playing the blame game it's about faith hope love and forgiveness”. Mel
Gibson's reputation was hurt by this movie. Furthermore, the director for the 1980s
movie cannibal holocaust Ruggero Deodato was taken to court for murder allegations
after a scene showed a woman being murdered and the actress was missing. However,
Deodato explained in an interview with starburst that he intentionally hired actors and
actresses from New York who hadn't had big fame to star in his movie, written in the
contract was that after the film finished production they must “disappear” for a year. The
director even went so far to say that they “were dead to him”. However, the woman was
still very much alive; the film was just made to look too realistic resulting in controversy.
For example, the film was banned in the UK till 2011 and was banned in other countries
upon release for scenes which showed actual animals being killed for the film. When this
film was being made the director, who has a background in ultraviolent horror, should
have really thought weather killing animals for his film was really justified as it caused
such a backlash. Lability is important in documentary film making as writers shouldn’t
attempt to show audiences a bad message or give their audience false information.
Furthermore, if you are making a documentary you shouldn’t allow your biases. It’s easy
to only see one side of something but if you are creating a documentary bias will ruin
your film as you will only see one side of the story.
4. Some writers must deal with censorship from producers. In the biopic “Bohemian
Rhapsody” about Queen with a focus on Freddie Mercury the film censors some of the
film as it doesn’t show Freddie’s controversial side. This is also bias as the producers
wanted to show Freddie to be cleaner than he real was. Another form of censorship is
watersheds which is the cut of point in the UK at 21:00 where after that time you can
show nudity and swearing. Watersheds are important as it prevents shows that are
inappropriate from being shown on television to children. You must know as a writer
weather the show you're writing for is before or after the watershed so you can make
sure your show is appropriate.
