Unit 27 Assignment 3

documentary

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Unit 24 assignment 1

1. HOW DO YOU BECOME A WRITER & WHAT'S IT LIKE TO WORK AS ONE?

• To become a writer you first of all need to actually write something. Then you can send your work out to people industry, or even just friends and family for their opinion. You could also take writing classes to brush up your skills. If you're the least bit likeable, you'll make a few friends among the other classmates. This will work in your favour because the more people you meet the more people you can get to take a look at your work and if they sell their work before you do then that's okay because you now know somebody in the business who can help get your name as a write out there.
• Television and film screenwriter Stephen Scaia offers a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to be a writer in Tinseltown and how he got there, in an interview for website art of manliness. During his interview he was asked what's the best way to prepare yourself to become a writer and he said "The best way to prepare yourself is to WRITE. Write every day. Whether it’s a one-page skit, or The Great American Novel, the more you do it, the better you get. Work your brain like you do your muscles and it’ll get stronger every day. When you’re not writing, STUDY. Read scripts." Which I think is exactly the way to start your writing career.

2. WHAT IS A STAFF WRITER?

• A staff writer is someone who is basically at the bottom of the pile. They are the people that help shows with groups of writers collate their ideas. They also help develop characters and narratives, and if their ideas are good enough they could become higher up in the pecking order. 
• Staff writers are basically like the lapdogs of writing, if an executive producer tells you to make something funnier or more compelling then you do it if you want any chance of getting any kind of promotion. 

3. WHAT IS THE COMMISSIONING PROCESS, HOW DO YOU GET AN IDEA 'COMMISSIONED'?

• The commissioning process is about getting your idea out there, and sold to a TV channel. If the channel likes your idea, they will ask you develop the idea even further until its ready to go to the channels, channel controller. 
• Shows are commissioned completely differently depending on what channel it is shown on but all proposals are strictly confidential.
• You can submit a proposal to ITV via email in which they will respond within 6 weeks but only production companies can submit. They are mainly looking for proposals to show at a certain time. They are looking for Saturday night television or a comedy show that can be shown at around 8pm and 9pm on a weekday night. If they commission an idea, all production work is given to a company named deluxe who then give it to ITV media logistics and they develop the idea. 
• BBC take two weeks 

4. WHY DO YOU NEED AN AGENT AND WHAT ARE THE NAMES OF SOME SCRIPTWRITER AGENTS?

• If you want to be a serious script writer you have to have an agent. Agents have knowledge of the industry and will guide you through signing contracts because sometimes there are loopholes that they might see that you didn't, which could lead to you signing on the dotted line to things you didn't necessarily agree to in the first place. 
• Examples of screenwriter agents are Playmaker, United Authors LTD and Gunn Media.

5. HOW DOES A SCRIPT GET CHOSEN?

• When a producer likes a script, they will ask a writer to form an option agreement which is basically a contract giving a producer the rights to the film or show for a certain amount of time whilst it is in production and also how much the writer will be paid for their idea being used. 

6. HOW DOES A SCRIPT WRITER GET PAID?

• A scriptwriter will be paid through a contract, so most likely a payment will be set up within the agreement made between the scriptwriter and the producer/director who buys the script. There is a minimum amount that a scriptwriter who is hired for 6 weeks should be paid which is $3,817. After 6 weeks a write can be paid lower than what they were given for the first 6 weeks but never any less than the minimum pay. 

7. WHAT LEGAL ISSUES DO YOU HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT AS A WRITER? (PLAGIARISM/LIBEL)? 

• Plagiarism is when you take somebody's work whether it be a script or even just an idea, and passes it off as their own and libel is when someone publishes an article about you that could be bad for your reputation in industry. These things can cause big issues for script writers as creating something that you think is amazing for it to be passed off as someone else's who could make a lot of money from it can set back you career massively because your name isn't our there as a good writer nor will you get any money for it. It's also a big deal if a critic says something bad about you in an article because it could lower your chances of people wanting to work with you and people wanting to look at your work and even give you a chance at all. 

8. WHAT EXAMPLES ARE THERE OF LEGAL ACTION INVOLVING SCRIPTWRITERS OF TV AND FILM?

• One high profile legal battle between script writers was in 2013 over the film olympus has fallen. Credited writer Creighton Rothenberger filed a lawsuit trying to get a declaration that he is the sole author of the films script. But his former partner John S. Green claimed that it was his idea to call the film 'Olympus Has Fallen'. In 2012 the screenplay for the film was completed and sold but Rothenberger failed to mention that Green was the co-author, which won Green the case who was given copyright co-ownership to the screenplay of the film.

9. WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE SOME OF THE HIGH POINTS AND LOW POINTS OF WORKING AS A WRITER FOR TV AND FILM?

• I think that a low point of becoming a script writer is being a staff writer because you are basically are doing everything that everybody else doesn't want to do, but to get any further in your career you need to start from the bottom. Another would be the risk of your work being stolen and passed off as somebody else's. It must feel like the worst thing in the world when you create the mother of all screenplays and somebody takes it, sells it and makes a lot of money for it and you get no credit for it at all. 
• But, some high points of being a writer is that if you do creat a good idea and it doesn't get stolen then you can make a lot of money from it. There's also the fact that success raises your profile massively, which gets you more job opportunities.

I CERTIFY THAT THIS IS MY OWN WORK