Screenwriting Task 1

In this examination on the different roles within the film industry and also I will provide a detailed and informative evaluation on the process, impact and importance that these roles hold to the overall outcome that we see on screen.

 Job Roles 

Commissioning editors

The commissioning editor is the senior employee of the broadcaster and have a very powerful and creative input on the production, they also work closely with everyone on the commissioning process of a script or story and they oversee the whole writing process. They are also responsible for selecting programme ideas and allocating all funds of production, most commissioning editors focus on a specific genre of which they specialize in.

Producers

Although a producer has many roles over the course of a films production I can break it down to two main roles that they play and these are:

DEVELOPMENT

The producers are in charge of finding the story or project that is worth producing and it’s up to them to find and discover these screen worthy stories. Movies can all start in the form of an original screenplay, novel or book with a chance of adaptation or even a real life story that would make a great product.

It’s easier said than done the role of a producer because they have to initiate negotiations with the owners of the source material, acquire the rights on their terms and gather everything else up for production. 

FINANCING

Once the producer has bought the rights of the source material they also are the ones who have to pitch the idea to studios in the hopes of securing finance and investment for the film. If they succeed in receiving an investment they are the ones who are entrusted with managing said investments throughout the whole production to make sure everything is delivered within a certain amount of time and on budget.

Directors

A director’s main job within the production of the film is that they control a film’s artistic aspects and visualizes the screenplay or script while guiding crew, actors, editing, soundtrack and every aspect of the film. 

A good way to think of a director is like an artist with a blank canvas. The brushes and paint being the cast and crew the director creates the picture whilst directing everyone in their roles. The main responsibilities of a director are to translate a script/screenplay into a film. Main characteristics of director are leadership, well focused, quick thinking even under the stress of a movie set. 

The director may seem like the captain of the ship but although they have most say on how the film is shot, a director is not superior to the producers and of course the studio that is financing the film. Producers and Directors play different parts like how a producer will typically manage the logistics and business operations of the production but whereas the director will be more focused on the role of making the creative decisions but that being said they are restricted within the budget and the demands of the producer and studio such as if the studio wanted to keep the film appropriate for a particular age rating. 

Directors also take part in post- production, while the film is still in production the director will normally send “dailies” to the film editor which are basically explanations of their overall vision for the film which allows the editor to assemble an editor’s cut and then the director will work with the editor to edit his material into the director’s cut. Many directors have what the show business like to call the final cut privilege, meaning that they have the final say on which edit of the film is released but in some cases the studio can overrule that decision and can release any cut they want. It takes a very passionate film maker to be a director in my opinion as its one of the most intimately involving role in the whole production. 

Script Editors

A script editor is a member of a production team of scripted television programmes, films, games and radio shows and whom who provides a critical overview of the scriptwriting process. The script editor has many responsibilities including finding new script writers, developing storyline and series ideas with writers and are constantly ensuring that scripts are suitable for production. The script editor will work very closely with the writers at each draft and give feedback on the quality of the work, which helps to strengthen and develop scripts and stories but it is mainly suggesting improvements that can be mad but also taking into consideration the practical issues like continuity and maintaining a correct running time are adhered to. But script editors will analyze the work and identify problems but don’t normally create the solutions. Unlike writers, script editors will usually be full time members of a production team, working closely with the producer/s that is unless script writers aren’t the producer themselves.

Agents

Agents are someone who works on behalf of another person (clients) who will find this person work and roles in productions such as acting, directing etc. They organize contracts and negotiate appropriate deals with a third party to make sure their clients are getting the best. Agents build strong and long lasting relationships with many creative minds from the industry so they can maintain a flow of roles that will be given to them and then passed through the chain to their clients. They also help with getting writer’s stories seen and read whilst supporting and guiding the writers. 

Writers

Writers are epicenter for film and television as the main narrative comes from writers and they also provide most of the emotional impact to the screenplay, writers work very hard and most of the time struggle to even get their work entertained by any industry so writers are responsible to gather their own research thus meaning they have to find their way to the industry through Agents or knowing someone in it. Sometimes writers gather in teams produce a story that is joint piece of work between them and that all rights are shared equally, the same principle goes for the profit made from the story.

Commissioning Bodies 

Corporations

Almost all the pitching of ideas for big corporations such as Fox, Sony, Disney, Universal. goes through established relationships which provides a ‘safe bet’ of already known names who have already worked for big companies, indies or agents. These companies are part of large CONGLOMERATES because they have complete ownership of all stages of production (funding, production, marketing, distribution, and in some cases exhibition) In the US there is a ‘pilot season’ around March-May each year where a lot of commissioning networks run competitions to get your screenplay noticed. Big UK corporations like BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Amazon Studios commission scripts and budgets for TV shows that are on their channels. 

Corporations can give up and coming writers the opportunity to submit their scripts to them and if the corporation particularly enjoys someone’s script they may commission the script to be made for one of their channels. For example, on the BBC website you can access a range of scripts that people have submitted and download them to read - this also gives the BBC a bigger insight into what is popular amongst the public. 

Independent Production Companies

There are hundreds of independent companies in Britain

They strike deals with other companies to produce material (e.g. this could be for broadcast on a network) Writers may submit work directly to IPC’s. Different companies are known for different genres and work to varying budgetary capabilities.

Organizations

There are also a number of organizations that are set up to assist prospective writers to kick-start a career in media.

•     BBC Writers Room

•     Good in a Room

•     BFI Film Academy

•     The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain supports writers across media including film, online, radio, theatre, TV and videogames

Competitors

There are numerous screenwriting competitions available for entry with cash prizes

Winning screenplay contests is not an automatic ticket to success, but your work is more likely to be read by potential managers, agents, and producers. For example, the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting and Austin Screenwriting Competition - there is a proven track record of writers who have sold scripts, gotten representation, and launched their careers based on winning these screenwriting contests. In the UK Film Freeway run three competitions, with all winners since 2013 being in pre-production or production, with some winning awards.

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Working as a Writer

Professional Presentation

 Writers need to make sure that they are correctly educated and hold knowledge on all the different requirements on scripts and screenplays so that they even have a chance of being entertained by the industry as it is crucial to stick to the industry accepted format as it maintains the consistency of the business. Depending on what your script is intending for there are different formats and requirements for Films, TV, Radio etc.

Firstly, any writer should make sure that they are not copying and replicating any other writer’s work because this could lead to many copyright issues and overall result in being a huge waste of time for both the company and the writers. 

The Industry Format has strict requirements in order for writer’s work to be taken seriously and these include making sure that their screenplays and scripts include these elements.

Scene Heading
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A scene heading is a one-line description of the location and time of day of a scene, also known as a "slugline." It should always be in CAPS.

Example: EXT. WRITERS STORE - DAY reveals that the action takes place outside The Writers Store during the daytime. 

Subheader
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When a new scene heading is not necessary, but some distinction needs to be made in the action, you can use a subheader. But be sure to use these sparingly, as a script full of subheaders is generally frowned upon. A good example is when there are a series of quick cuts between two locations, you would use the term INTERCUT and the scene locations.

Action
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The narrative description of the events of a scene, written in the present tense. Also less commonly known as direction, visual exposition, description or scene direction.

Character
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When a character is introduced, his name should be capitalized within the action. For example: The door opens and in walks LIAM, a thirty-something hipster with attitude to spare.

A character's name is CAPPED and always listed above his lines of dialogue. Minor characters may be listed without names, for example "TAXI DRIVER" or "CUSTOMER." 

Dialogue
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Lines of speech for each character. Dialogue format is used anytime a character is heard speaking, even for off-screen and voice-overs. 

Parenthetical
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A parenthetical is direction for the character, that is either attitude or action-oriented. With roots in the playwriting genre, today, parentheticals are used very rarely, and only if absolutely necessary. Why? Two reasons. First, if you need to use a parenthetical to convey what's going on with your dialogue, then it probably just needs a good re-write. Second, it's the director's job to instruct an actor on how to deliver a line, and everyone knows not to encroach on the director's turf!

Extension
Placed after the character's name, in parentheses

An abbreviated technical note placed after the character's name to indicate how the voice will be heard onscreen, for example, if the character is speaking as a voice-over, it would appear as LIAM (V.O.).

Transition
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Transitions are film editing instructions, and generally only appear in a shooting script. Transition verbiage includes: 

•      CUT TO: 

•      DISSOLVE TO: 

•      SMASH CUT: 

•      QUICK CUT: 

•      FADE TO: 

As a spec script writer, you should avoid using a transition unless there is no other way to indicate a story element. For example, you might need to use DISSOLVE TO: to indicate that a large amount of time has passed. 

Shot
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A shot tells the reader the focal point within a scene has changed. Like a transition, there's rarely a time when a spec screenwriter should insert shot directions. Once again, that's the director's job.

Examples of Shots:

•      ANGLE ON -- 

•      EXTREME CLOSE UP -- 

•      PAN TO -- 

•      LIAM'S POV – 

The writers need to also make sure that the entire script is written in courier font and size 12, this ensures consistency in writing this way makes a minute on screen needs to be represented as one page and keeping every screenplay this font makes it easy for the industry to evaluate the script quickly by knowing the rough length of the film just by knowing how many pages there is. 90 pages = 90 minutes on screen.

Agent Representation

An agent is someone who looks after the sales and work load of a client. They are more popular among actors, musicians and screen writers but many different jobs from many different industries all have agents of some sort. The agent's income is dependent on the amount of income their client receives mostly on average the Agent takes between 10-15%. The agent also is there to help negotiate with producers, and for very successful producers most of the time they will not accept anybody if they are not represented by an agent. Having a well-known and connected agent has a massive advantage as they will already have contacts to send on the work. Royalty Payments are what a writer will receive if from the sales and use of their scripts royalty payments are split between the writer, agent and the producer. 

Communication 

Scriptwriters must be able to communicate their ideas effectively when pitching their idea or product to the industry professionals. Also good communication is key to achieving productivity and maintaining strong working relationships with other members of the industry. Many screenwriters become desperate to get their stories sold and produced and sometimes knowingly enter a deal were they know there are being "under appreciated" with the regards to income they will receive through the production so screenwriters also need to make sure to communicate and not be afraid to stand up for themselves in these pitches.

Time Management

Managing your time correctly when writing a screenplay is vital. If you spend too much time or get hung up on the minute details in a script, you may end up with a novel rather than a script. A common problem when writing a screenplay is spending a lot of time trying to think of an amazing idea, because the longer and harder you try to think of an idea, the less likely it is to come to you. Taking a small idea and adding things to it is a way of getting past this, and playing games to pop random things into your head is also a good way to get started. This is a sure fire way to get you writing, rather than spending a mass amount of time thinking. Also, many writers say "first ideas are often the best". Some production companies and screenwriting competitions will ask for a sample of a script before they want to see the whole thing. In this situation it is important that the sample that is handed over is representative of your entire script.

Collaborating as a writer

Writing a script on your own may be extremely difficult with worrying about plot, character, continuity and quality so sometimes it’s in the writer’s best interest that they collaborate with another writer, this leads to another voice and opinion on the script which can improve and elaborate the story but there’s nothing worse than a bad collaboration. Just how some collaborators want to add to the masterpiece some want to steal the material from one another leading to arguments and conflicts between the writers, most of them take place due to the fact that one may be doing more work than the other and disagree with the money going 50/50 and believe they deserve more.

To prevent this no matter who the writers anybody is collaborating with they should always start their screenwriting relationship on the foundations set in a contract, regardless if your best friends or family with the potential co-writer, a contract should always be signed and agreed upon.

The most popular method between one than one writer to write an effective script and maintain productivity is to:

outline together, write individually. In this step all the writers collaborating on the script meet up and brainstorm the skeleton of the screenplay and then split up to add their own ideas to it and rejoin and discuss each other’s different takes on how the narrative can go. Most of the time they don’t decide on just one they more of less create a patchwork of a script taking ideas from all participating writers.

in modern times it has become easier to collaborate with other writers thanks to technology and the way we use it to communicate with one another, two writers can sit on opposites sides of the globe and have a conversation, or a meeting, then develop a script. This Helps if they want to discuss the outline of the story without haven’t to travel great distances like the old days and sit in the same room with one another. Some writing partners like to write the whole thing together from start to finish it depends on the writer’s preference and what works best for them. In addition, many writers use software to help them produce scripts more professionally and keeps the screen formatted the correct way.

Coen brothers. (Raising Arizona, No Country for Old Men, Fargo)

The Coen brothers have a very interesting way of writing a script together. One brother will write a scene, pass it to the next, that brother will try to raise the bar in conflict and character before passing it back to the first brother. With each pass, they always strive to outdo the other. Which may come across as being a very competitive way of collaborating, but it obviously works for them and the audience.

Handing over control 

When a script is bought from a writer most of the time they lose all control over it, this is because normally writers aren’t that concerned with the production stage of a script were it goes from page to screen, they are just mainly concerned with the process of their narrative and it being sold. They make an agreement based on the producer and writers needs both being considered and then it is handed over to the producer. After this point the company or individual who owns the rights to the story can do whatever they so please with it, many writers anticipate that changes will probably most occur to their characters, dialogue and story. Some writers don’t like that they can spend months and even years writing a script for it all to be changed and their original idea of the film could turn out nothing like they wanted it to. They has been many cases where the screenwriter did not enjoy the films they had written, when the film The Shining came out and Stephen King who originally wrote the book which was turned into a film hated the way it turned out and is deeply upset about it and mainly of how his characters were portrayed on the screen he said once in an interview "Shelley Duvall as Wendy is really one of the most misogynistic characters ever put on film, she's basically just there to scream and be stupid and that's not the woman that I wrote about".

The only time a writer really has any major impact on the production of their script is if the writer is also the producer or director. 

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Legal And Ethical Considerations

COPYRIGHT 

Copyrighting work is a way for the product (script) of a creator, such as an author to stop other people copying or distributing their work. 

First of all, you can’t copyright your idea but you can copyright your script and story, as you right your script digitally the computer keeps a date automatically from when the script was started and attaches the copyright to you and your data. You should always put the copyright symbol on every page of your script. The copyright on any material lasts the LIFE OF THE WRITER plus 70 years. 

PLAGARISM

Plagiarism is the practice of taking someone else’s work and passing it off as one’s own. Writers have to be very careful about how similar their products are to existing work. It is an actionable offense to infringe and steal somebody's copyright and trade ark.       Plagiarism covers a spectrum from copying someone’s work word for word all the way to copying their ideas and changing only minor details. The common issue with this is that it is very dishonest as there is no acknowledgement to the original writers.           Plagiarism cases are to be settled via by the originator receiving credit which means that they will be eligible for royalties and can gain some of the profits that the copy acquires)

LIBEL

Libel refers to when a writer will produce inaccurate and malicious things relating to an individual, a certain group, demographic or business in a written text or in a broadcast. Therefore, research has to be done by the writers in order to make sure that they are not putting anything that could be false and then their work would be LIBEL. Writers have to be very attentive when it comes to details because if anything is misinterpreted the wrong way it could lead to court. But to even get to that point they must prove that actual harm and malice was intended or was it just a misinterpretation, regardless its best not to have any trouble whatsoever and therefore writers should save their selves from drama and be very meticulous with their research. Some writers do this research individually whereas some writers, as I’ve wrote, like to work in a group and therefore have more help with this problem. 

BIAS

Bias writing occurs when the inclination or prejudice for or against a person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair based on the ideology of the writer. Writers have to consider a lot of ethical issues that can be raised from their work, for writing both fiction and non-fiction. Writers have to think about how they are representing different people, groups, events and organizations. Representation is a great concern in media production and it should always be in anyone’s thoughts when they are writing scripts and screenplays.

If the script writer is writing for non-fiction such as for the news, this raises even more of an issue and everything needs to be considered about your writing. BBC News have a commitment to be a balanced, impartial and fair broadcasting company whereas companies such as 'Fox News' produce very Bias views on subjects and most of their issues come from politics and how they are a very Republican news outlet for the American people and their views on certain politicians and events could be Bias because their opinion on the matters at hand.

We saw this a lot when I studied the news After Donald Trump was elected as The President and Fox news, as they supported the same governmental party, made his presidency look like a miracle whereas other news producers around the world reported the events in a different light.

Censorship and Watersheds

Censorship is what something may be considered to be harmful, rude, or inappropriate towards others. But it also depends on what the writer is writing for, if a writer was asked to make a script for a 12A film they would have to keep within the regulations to maintain that rating for the story, these regulations include using mild language, mild violence and If drugs are to be shown they must not be frequent and not presented as glamourous. If the writer was to break any of these regulations, then the producer would censor or change the script that then writer has produced.

But whereas for television there is a watershedwhere images and stories that may be unsuitable for children are allowed to be shown and this gives a little bit more freedom when including graphic or mature themes in films and television, the watershed begins at 9pm at night and ends 5:30am the next morning. The watershed is set up by a company called OFCOM which is to protect children. With all that being said a television programme cannot show whatever they want during this watershed as they can still not show anything that is too offensive or can be viewed as harmful content.