Guild's screenwriting guide to be launched at Festival

A new good practice guide for screenwriters (pdf) produced by the Writers' Guild, to be officially launched at this year’s Screenwriters’ Festival, calls for writers and producers to be partners not enemies.

The comprehensive "how-to" document aims to bridge the gap between the art and the business of screenwriting. It stresses that to be a success in the industry you need more than just a great script. Careful collaboration with other key players is imperative to ensure a script’s successful completion and financial viability.

“With this Guide, we’re encouraging screenwriters to roll up their sleeves and get involved”, says Olivia Hetreed, the screenwriter behind Girl with a Pearl Earring, and Chair of the Guild's Film Committee. “It's not enough to be good at writing scripts to be successful in the industry. In order to see your work through from first draft to completed film, and be appropriately acknowledged for your involvement, you need to know the business and build strong working relationships."

She is concerned that writers can be isolated and not know what to expect: “Screenwriters can be worryingly naïve or simply grow so desperate to see their script in production that they sign up to horrible contracts, giving up all their rights for little or nothing.”

Bernie Corbett, General Secretary of the Guild, said: "The launch of the film guidelines is a big moment for the Writers' Guild. Now more than ever writers need to understand the deals they are making and the contracts they are signing. Terminology, fees, credits, rights . . . our new booklet sweeps away the mysteries and gives screenwriters a clear and realistic route map through the jungle of the film industry."

Feedback from big names in screenwriting has been very positive.

Deborah Moggach, who wrote the BAFTA nominated script for Pride & Prejudice, said: “What an incredibly useful booklet, packed full of helpful information. I wish it had been around when I was starting out."

Guy Hibbert, whose screenplay for Five Minutes of Heaven won him the World Cinema Screenwriting Award at Sundance Film Festival in January added: "It’s a guide which every writer without an agent must read, and a guide that every producer working with a writer should read. Screenwriters and producers need each other, and this sets up the basis for that relationship to work.”

Screenwriter, Line Langebek, who wrote I’ll Come Running, said: “This guide is about taking ownership of your own career, knowing what a contract is or should be, and about what's involved in the entire process of screenwriting. To be successful you need to be a good writer, but more than that - you need to be a great collaborator.”

The informative guide, developed through consultation with industry professionals and debates at last year's Screenwriters' Festival, hopes to enhance the rights and status of writers and safeguard original work. The guide aims to:

Give writers a taste of reality:

• The UK industry has a continuing problem in finding a viable development process for screenplays

• There is a gulf between pay and working conditions on the few larger budget films and the micro-budget end, where fees for writer, producer and director can be deferred, often indefinitely

Clarify key working relationships:

• The catch-22 of “Can’t get work without an agent, can’t get an agent without work...”

• What is realistic to expect from your director and producer

• Suggest an alternative working arrangement, using a joint venture agreement, in conjunction with a licence.

Shed light on the process of screenwriting:

• From option to turnaround and everything in between

• Collaboration, taking criticism and agreeing on how much involvement the writer should have in the project

• If you get hired you can get fired – even from your own original script.

Arm writers with the need-to-know terms by:

• Defining screenwriting jargon such as logline, polish, treatment and tagline

• Clarifiying the ins-and-outs of copyright, chain of title, assignment of rights and so on

Unravel the challenges and opportunities that new media present:

• How to avoid unfair exploitation and make the most of these new avenues of distribution

• Compares the deals being done in other areas of new media work.  

….And if all this fails – how to resolve disputes

• “Marriages based on true love can still end in divorce,” so making a sound contract is advised - “The screenwriter’s pre-nup”.

• Procedure and contacts for legal help and other advice.

Download the Writers' Guild  publication Writing Film - a good practice guide (pdf)

Article published: 20.10.2009