Coe William K. The Screenwriting Bible

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The Screenwriting Bible™

Sir William K. Coe™

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Copyrighting Screenplays

Many writers are concerned that someone will steal their work. Other

writers want to use concepts or situations created by someone else.

This page attempts to explain how writers can best protect their own

work, while shamelessly stealing other people's ideas.

for the past four hundred years or so. In Classical times, authors

wrote for fame; they had no way of getting royalties when books were

copied by hand.

With the invention of the printing press came the possibility of

getting paid royalties. But Elizabethan England had no copyright laws.

Rogue publishers would regularly send people with extremely good

memories (memories were much better then) to see plays by popular

authors such as Shakespeare. They would come home, write down as much

of the dialogue as they could remember, and the publisher would try to

get a folio out before the legitimate owner of the work published a

clean copy. They also bribed actors to steal scripts, which required

the playwright to write out separate copies of the play for each actor,

with only the parts they needed to have. Only after the publication of

many "bad folios" did Shakespeare publish his own copies of his plays,

risking that someone would buy his "good folio" and put on his play

without paying him.

Current copyright law is strong but finicky.

What is copyright?

her work. It exists from the moment he creates something copyrightable,

and can be sold, licensed or given to another party.

There are four main criteria for determining what is copyrightable:

• The work must be original. If you stole your plot from

Shakespeare, you can't copyright that plot, only the ways you

creatively departed from Shakespeare's work.

• It must be the independent expression of an author. Only the

expression, not the underlying ideas, are protected. For example,

your specific dialogue, the sequence of scenes or visual images,

your characters, all can be protected. Your concept can not be

protected. What's an idea, and what's the expression of an idea,

is a matter the courts decide case by case, but if it can be told

in two sentences, my bet is it's an idea.

• The work must be of a non-utilitarian nature. You can't copyright

a contract or instruction manual.

• The work must be fixed in a tangible medium of expression, i.e.

on paper, computer disk, magnetic tape, or stone tablets, not

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just something you said over lunch.

How do I enforce my copyright?

There are two ways people protect their copyright in the

entertainment industry.

The Writer's Guild of America (WGA) will, for your $20 check, archive

a copy of your work (screenplay or synopsis), and send you back a

slip with a registration number on it, providing independent proof

that you wrote a screenplay or story at a certain time. This can be

useful if someone later steals your idea or screenplay, but:

• The registration lasts only 5 years, then has to be updated.

• The registration has no legal meaning, except as evidence.

A better way to protect your screenplay is to register it with the

Registrar of Copyright. You do so by sending it to the Library of

Congress in Washington, DC. It is then archived by the Librar of

Congress in perpetuity, which is why the LoC is the largest library

in the world.

There are important legal differences to the two services. The

Library of Congress provides a legal registration of copyright under

federal law. The WGA provides only a private-party service with no

legal effect. It is good for evidence, but it is not statutory. The

legal difference between evidence and a statutory registration is the

difference between having a contract that says you bought a house

(evidence), and having the title deed registered in your name with

the state government (statutory).

The legal distinction is important. If someone steals your screenplay

and you can prove it (evidence), you are entitled to damages. But you

have to prove you have been damaged, and you have to prove how much

you have been damaged, usually by measuring how much money you would

have made if the other guy hadn't stolen your work. But if you have

registered with the LoC, you can be awarded statutory damages. That

means that the statute fixes a certain minimum amount of damages

which you will be rewarded even if you can't prove you would have

made any money if your work had not been stolen. You don't need to

prove you were hurt, or that the other guy made any money. You only

need to prove that he stole your idea and "published" it.

To register a work at the LoC, you need a form PA, which you can

order by phone at (202) 707 9100. This

• Is permanent, and

• Is a legal and statutory registration with the US government.

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You can also download a form PA in PDF format.

• Download Form PA with instructions.

• Download Form PA without instructions.

• Download Short Form PA.

You will need Acrobat Reader, which you can download free on the Net:

For more information on copyright in the US, check out the LoC

itself.

Note that popping a script in the mail and mailing it to yourself

(so-called "poor man's copyright") is completely useless. What is to

prevent you from mailing yourself an envelope today and then putting

a different script in it ten years from now?

You do not need to be a US citizen to copyright a work at the Library

of Congress. However, if you copyright your work in most nations,

your work is effectively copyrighted in the US, I believe. For

example, if you copyright your work in France, you may consider it

protected in the United States by virtue of various international

Croatia, or a nation on poor terms with the US such as Cuba, North

Korea or Libya, then you will need to copyright your work here in

order to be protected. Of course if youÕre a writer, youÕd better get

out of Cuba, North Korea or Libya as fast as you can before you say

something someone doesnÕt like.

Although you can't copyright an idea, you can protect your idea

contractually. If you agree with someone that, if they use your idea,

they have to buy it from you first, then you have a contract. If they

steal your idea, you can sue them for breach of contract -- even if

it isn't an original idea and you never wrote it down. A written

contract is the safest way to do this, but an oral contract is

legally all you need, though practically, it's usually not worth the

paper it's written on. You can create a legal and enforceable oral

contract by saying, "If you use this, I wanna get paid, okay?" in

front of witnesses who will testify to what you said in court.

The truth is, most producers in Hollywood are far too busy to steal

your idea. When you're making a $30 million picture, it's rarely

worth the hassle to steal someone's idea when you can buy it for

$50,000.

Before 1989, you were obliged to put a copyright notice on your work.

You no longer have to do so. However, the copyright infringer may

claim she infringed "innocently" unless you put the notice on.

By the way, you only have to copyright your work once. Even if you

revise it, by protecting the plot and characters, you are essentially

guaranteeing that anyone who steals from a later work will run afoul

of your copyright. If you change the work so completely that someone

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could steal from it without stealing from the original, thatÕs when

you need to copyright the work again..

What if you want to write something based on someone else's work?

You may not legally distribute something that incorporates copyrighted

work that someone else owns, unless they give you permission. If you

do, they are entitled to sue you for money damages, and then also

enjoin you (stop you) from distributing it any further.

Two exceptions are "fair use," which allows you to use brief

quotations; and parody. You can, for example, distribute a poster for

"Starr Wars" in which the evil Kenneth Starr appears as Darth Vader,

using the exact style and format of the original Star Wars poster. You

can quote a short phrase from a song in a movie without permission from

the owner of the copyright of the song, but if you have a character

singing the song or if you use any part of an actual recording of a

song, you will need permission, which will generally cost a lot of

money. "Happy Birthday," by the way, is still under copyright!

You can base your work on other people's work that has fallen out of

copyrightable includes, for example, a premise, a concept, or a basic

plot. In other words you can write a script about a little girl who is

whisked away to a magical land and, opposed by evil creatures and

helped by wonderful allies, tries to get home. But from the moment the

allies include a Tin Woodman, a Cowardly Lion, or a Scarecrow, you have

infringed on the copyright of the L. Frank Baum estate. You also can't

have the Tin Woodman show up in a dream sequence in a drama you wrote;

the character himself is under copyright.

Once enough time has lapsed, the rights to the book The Wizard of Oz

lapse, and become "public domain." At that moment, anyone can make a

movie of The Wizard of Oz. However, they can't use any details invented

for the 1939 movie starring Judy Garland; these are still under

Prior to 1978, the author of a work had a copyright for 28 years, and

could renew it for an additional 28 years. This has now been extended

to 47 years, for a total of 75 years. So, as of this writing, a work

that is older that 75 years (i.e. written in 1913 or before) is now

public domain. Under Public Law 102-307, any work created in 1960 or

later is automatically renewed for 47 years.

In the case of works written now, copyright lasts 70 years after the

death of the author, or in the case of multiple authors, of the last

surviving author. A "work for hire" lasts 95 years from publication or

120 years from authorship. (These terms were extended in October, 1998;

they used to be 50, 75 and 100 years.) A "work for hire" exists when a

writer is hired by a company to write something for them, for example a

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television staff writer; in this case the "author" is legally

considered to be the company paying the bill.

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Glossary

A Page - A revised page that extends beyond the original page, going

onto a second page. (i.e. Page 1, 1A, 2, 3, 3A)

Abbreviations - shortcuts used in scripts such V.O., O.C.,

Act - A large division of a full-length play, separated from the other

act or acts by an intermission.

Act/Scene Heading - Centered, all CAPS heading at the start of an act

or scene. Act numbers are written in Roman numerals, scene numbers in

ordinals.

Acting Edition - A published play script, typically for use in

productions in the amateur market or as reading copies. Often has a

list of prop list or set design sketches.

Action - The moving pictures we see on screen. Also, the direction

given by a director indicating that filming begins.

ad lib - Dialogue in which the characters or actors make up what they

say in real time on the movie set or on stage. From the Latin ad

libitum, "in accordance with desire."

Against - A term describing the ultimate potential payday for a writer

in a film deal. $400,000 against $800,000 means that the writer is paid

$400,000 when the script is finished (through rewrite and polish); when

and if the movie goes into production, the writer gets an additional

$400,000.

Agent Submission - A method of play submission, in which a theater

requires that a script be submitted by a recognized literary agent.

Alan Smithee - A fictional name taken by a writer or director who

doesn't want their real name credited on a film.

Angle - A particular camera placement.

Approved writer - A writer whom a television network trusts to deliver

a good script once hired.

Arbitration - Binding adjudication by members of a Writers Guild of

America committee regarding proper onscreen writer credit of a movie;

arbitration is available only to WGA members or potential WGA members.

Artistic Director - A theater company's chief artistic officer and

usually the last stop before a play is selected for production.

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Associate Artistic Director - An artistic officer of a theater company,

frequently a director and often second to the Artistic Director,

integrally involved with its artistic decisions.

At Rise Description - A stage direction at the beginning of an act or a

scene that describes what is on stage literally "at rise" of the

curtain, or more commonly in contemporary theater, as the lights come

up.

Attached - Agreement by name actors and/or a director to be a part of

the making of a movie.

Audio/Visual Script - A dual column screenplay with video description

on the left and audio and dialogue on the right, used in advertising,

corporate videos, documentaries and training films.

b.g. - Abbreviation for "background" (i.e. In the b.g., kids are

fighting).

Back Door Pilot - A two-hour TV movie that is a setup for a TV series

if ratings warrant further production.

Back End - Payment on a movie project when profits are realized.

Back Story - Experiences of a main character taking place prior to the

main action, which contribute to character motivations and reactions.

Bankable - A person who can get a project financed solely by having

their name is attached.

Beat - A parenthetically noted pause interrupting dialogue, denoted by

(beat), for the purpose of indicating a significant shift in the

direction of a scene, much in the way that a hinge connects a series of

doors.

Beat Sheet - An abbreviated description of the main events in a

screenplay or story.

Bill - The play or plays that together constitute what the audience is

seeing at any one sitting. Short for "playbill."

Binding - What literally holds the script together. As a writer

submitting your manuscript, you might use either brads with cardstock

covers or one of a number of other pre-made folders (all available from

The Writers Store).

Black Box - A flexible theater space named for its appearance.

Blackout - A common stage direction at the end of a scene or an act.

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Book - The story and the non-musical portion (dialogue, stage

directions) of a theatrical musical.

Brads - Brass fasteners used to bind a screenplay printed on three-hole

paper, with Acco #5 solid brass brads generally accepted as having the

highest quality.

Bump - A troublesome element in a script that negatively deflects the

reader's attention away from the story.

Button - A TV writing term referring to a witty line that "tops off" a

scene.

Cable - A cable television network such as HBO, or cable television in

general.

Cast - The characters who are physically present in the play or film.

These are the roles for which actors will be needed. When we talk about

a role in a stageplay as being double-cast with another, it means that

the same actor is expected to play both roles. This happens in film as

well (e.g. Eddie Murphy), but only rarely.

Cast Page - A page that typically follows the Title Page of a play,

listing the characters, with very brief descriptions of each.

Center (Stage) - The center of the performance space, used for

placement of the actors and the set.

CGI - Computer Generated Image; a term denoting that computers will be

used to generate the full imagery.

Character - Any personified entity appearing in a film or a play.

Character arc - The emotional progress of the characters during the

story.

Character name - When any character speaks, his or her name appears on

the line preceding the dialogue. In screenplays, the name is tabbed to

a location that is roughly in the center of the line. In playwriting,

typically the name is centered, but with the advent of screenwriting

software that automatically positions the character name correctly, it

has become acceptable to use a similar format for character names in

stageplays.

Cheat a script - Fudging the margins and spacing of a screenplay on a

page (usually with a software program) in an attempt to fool the reader

into thinking the script is shorter than it really is.

Close Up - A very close camera angle on a character or object.

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Commission - A play for which a theater company gives a playwright

money to write, typically with the understanding that the theater will

have the right of first refusal to premiere it.

Complication - The second act of a three-act dramatic structure, in

which "the plot thickens," peaking at its end.

Conflict - The heart of drama; someone wants something and people and

things keep getting in the way of them achieving the goal. At times,

the obstacles can be common to both the hero and villain, and the

ultimate goal a laudable one for both parties.

Continuing Dialogue - Dialogue spoken by the same character that

continues uninterrupted onto the next page, marked with a (cont'd) in a

stage play.

Continuous Action - Included in the scene heading when moving from one

scene to the next, as the action continues.

registering your script through the United States Register of

Copyrights.

Courier 12 pitch - The main font in use in the U.S. by both publishers

and the Hollywood film industry.

Designer - Theater professional whose job it is to envision any of the

following elements in a play: costumes, sets, lights, sound or

properties.

Development - The process of preparing a script for production.

Development Hell - The dreaded creative death malaise that occurs when

the development process lasts too long.

Dialogue - The speeches between characters in a film or a play.

Direct Solicitation - When a theater contacts a playwright or his agent

about submitting a script. Theaters that use this method typically do

not want the playwright to initiate the contact.

Direction, Stage Direction - (See Stage Directions in Revised above.)

Director - In a stageplay, the individual responsible for staging (i.e.

placing in the space or "blocking") the actors, sculpting and

coordinating their performances, and making sure they fit with the

design elements into a coherent vision of the play. In a musical, there

will typically be a separate musical director responsible for the

musical elements of the show. In a Dramatists Guild contract, the

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