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Script?

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  • 14-08-2010 10:22pm
    #1
    JG009
    Registered Users Posts: 2,482 ✭✭✭


    Say you have a great drama/film or whatever on paper. Where do you go with it then? How do you stop people from stealing your ideas and how would you convince someone to give you funds to film it etc. What way do profits work then (if you were lucky enough to make some)? Thanks.


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    #2
    BlitzKrieg
    Registered Users Posts: 14,685 ✭✭✭✭BlitzKrieg


    JG009 wrote: »
    Say you have a great drama/film or whatever on paper. Where do you go with it then? How do you stop people from stealing your ideas and how would you convince someone to give you funds to film it etc. What way do profits work then (if you were lucky enough to make some)? Thanks.

    under european law, if you have put it to paper (or word document) its automatically copyrighted (something that is misunderstood alot) you just need to prove it was put to paper by you first and of course that the accused plagerised your work. Hence why most often people tell you to mail it to yourself to get the stamp confirming the date etc. Its not necessary though. American law is different and I dont know it, so I cant help there.

    The more common problem is people gleaming general ideas from your script rather then wholesale thievery, sadly unless you can prove with 100% assurance that the idea came from your script there's nothing you can do and thats more proving the accused was in contact with your script (i.e you sent it to them or had a formal meeting with their production company or they worked on the project with you before leaving for their own) then anything else. So I must stress this you cannot copyright ideas you copyright the script itself so the goal is not to prove that your idea and his idea are the same, but that that the thief has been in contact with your idea.

    I cant really answer your other questions as I am not a script writer so I have little experiance of trying to get a producer or production company to take on a script.

    But I understand there's alot of approaches to selling scripts, first and foremost is get a treatment put together something short that sells the script and explains it fully to the reader. Dont try to build suspense or try clever writing, this is like selling a car, you want to say what it does, how well it does it and why someone would want it. Then its a matter of getting the treatments out there.

    I do know payment wise you are paid up front for the script as per your contract and you get nothing of the profits unless you have the weight to throw around which you wont because unless putting your name on the poster increases ticket sales they wont give you a cut of the profits.


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    #3
    monkeyfudge
    Registered Users Posts: 23,216 ✭✭✭✭monkeyfudge


    BlitzKrieg wrote: »
    Hence why most often people tell you to mail it to yourself to get the stamp confirming the date etc.

    Has this ever actually worked? What's to stop you from sending an unsealed envelope in the post to yourself and then putting a script in and sealing it at a later date.


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    #4
    BlitzKrieg
    Registered Users Posts: 14,685 ✭✭✭✭BlitzKrieg


    its pointless to do anyway. As I said under european law it is automatically copyrighted, at most its a show of good faith.

    we discussed this before in an earlier thread.

    one second as I grab it.


    Yeah here's a very similar thread from a while back where the issue of copyrighting an idea was discussed (and I had more time to go into detail) and the issue of posting it to yourself to copyright it the last post by fatboydim sums it up nicely.

    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055573388&highlight=script


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    #5
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 14,344 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    monkeyfudge wrote: »
    Has this ever actually worked? What's to stop you from sending an unsealed envelope in the post to yourself and then putting a script in and sealing it at a later date.


    Wouldn't the weight, etc. when it was sent be recorded on the receipt?


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    #6
    Miguel_Sanchez
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,417 ✭✭✭Miguel_Sanchez


    BlitzKrieg wrote: »
    its pointless to do anyway. As I said under european law it is automatically copyrighted, at most its a show of good faith.

    we discussed this before in an earlier thread.

    one second as I grab it.


    Yeah here's a very similar thread from a while back where the issue of copyrighting an idea was discussed (and I had more time to go into detail) and the issue of posting it to yourself to copyright it the last post by fatboydim sums it up nicely.

    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055573388&highlight=script

    Fatboydim has years of experience as a writer so I'd definitely listen to his opinion in these matters.


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