In the media industry, in order for there to be any production, there first has to be a story written or thought by someone and there is an occupation for this which is a writer. A writer writes the story of the movies that are currently in the cinema or the ones that are currently being made. But like anyone they have to make a living, then same is with the job of a writer, but the way they make there money is a bit different from the rest. When a writer finishes a script, they have to try and sell it off to a production company, this can be done in different ways, you can pitch it to a company but an independent writer will struggle trying to get a appointment in order to do that. This is why writers try and get a agent to represent them as the agent will be able to get you the appointments with high end production companies and allow you to pitch your script and see if they will buy it off you, but with an agent, they will take a percentage of what you make, this can be different for different agencies, but the most common is around 15-25%, so if a script writer had their script bought off them for thousand pounds then their agent will get around 150 to 250 pounds depending on the size of their percentage. Another way that script writers earn a salary is by something called "Royalties" which in the case of a script writer is that every time someone uses their script they get money for it, which will only be a small amount the way it's increased is by if the script was made into a production and that way, when people go to watch it then the writer will get increased amount from what it was originally.
But the thing that most screenplay writer do in order to get money, is something called "Optioning". Optioning is when a producer or a production company want to buy the rights to a screenplay for a certain amount of time in order to try and make it into a film. The period for which the buyer has in order to try and make the screenplay into a film can vary, as it can but 6 months or 12 months and even more, but often the optioning comes with ability to get an extension if possible. Before a producer or production company can get the rights they have the first pay the writer a fee in order to be able to option their script, this called an "Option Payment and the amount of money payed can vary quite a bit depending on the type of script it is, like is it from someone new or old to the industry and if it's in the current popular genre or not. The money given can be as little as a £10, or can be in the thousands as well, but it's really up to the writer/writer's agent and the buyer to negotiate it, as it is said that the payment should be 10% of the actual paying price when the film is green lighted to be made and when it is green lighted then the writer is payed a "Purchase Price" which is a larger amount to the "Option Payment". The amount of the money given for the Purchase Price can vary but is often a percentage of the budget of the film so could be in range of £1,000 to £50,000 or more. But mostly all of this is firstly agreed upon of the first meeting to make sure everyone is on the same page and no confusion is created. The "Option Agreements are a win win for both the producer or production company and the writer as the writer is paid money to loan his or her's screenplay out to a producer to try and get it green lighted and if doesn't happen then the writer still gets to keep the "Option Payment" they received at the start.
An example of a screen play writer is a man by the name of "Tony Jordan", he's has been listed as being the number one script writer in the UK,he has written screenplays for things like EastEnders, Hustle, Life on Mars. He is very strict when it comes to the quality of his scripts as he will focus on page of the script for either 30 seconds or even eight weeks in order to get it perfect. He also listen to music when he writes in order to keep focus, he will listen to classic songs or when writing for a particular season or theme he would listen to that fr example when writing a Christmas special for EastEnders, Tony listened to Christmas Music. Tony main style for his screenplay is light dramas, due to allowing freedom for dialogue and characters to come out as well as letting some action take place as well. Another example is a famous director, actor and writer who has wrote and made films like Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Bastards and Django: Unchained called Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino doesn't believe in writing script on a computer and focuses mostly on writing with pen and paper instead and like Tony Jordan he also listen to music when writing as it helps him imagine how scenes will play out and he also make sure that he writes in a particular genre so he doesn't write to much.
With anything in the media industry there comes to a point where the ethnic and legal aspects are questioned, this is the same with writers and their screenplay as what they write can be seen as ever racist, sexist or it can be that what they write about is copyrighted by someone else and like ever job in the media industry they have to follow certain rules from companies like OFCOM or the BBC's guidelines, this is to make sure that what you create is legal and won't cause any problems for the writer or the person or company who options the script off them. The biggest thing that will effect a writer is copyright, as things can always go wrong from the tiniest things, like having the title or narrative be similar to another which can cause a legal disagreement between two different parties. But with screenplays, as soon as you've created it, it has become a copyrighted in your name, so if anyone stole it and tried to play it off as theirs, then you will most likely win, but the only time you will most likely not win is if you sold it off to someone else for a paycheck, as you have sold the rights to the person or company. But when someone tries to play off that your screenplay is theirs and not your, that is when the libel laws come in to play which are specified for this conduct, the libel focus on mainly false statements. When a film or TV show is given a age rating for it being suitable for only person over the age of 18, then that programme is given a watershed, which means that it will be able to be played on a channel after 9pm when it is then suitable to be broadcasted and can continue to be broadcasted, until 5:30am. The reason behind the after shed can be if the programme has mature content, swearing, nudity etc, anything that would be unsuitable for children to see.
But when the writer finishes the script, they need either send it off to the person who commissioned them to write that script or they find a commissioning body, which will help give your script publicity and get it out in the world so people can see it and maybe gets it bought off them. But there are tons of different commissioning bodies, for instance there is a competition commissioning body, which allows anyone to do it, but you have to follow some rules, for instance the one i chose as an example which is the London Film Award's screenplay competition which allows anyone to submit an entry, but with this competition, you have to pay a fee in order to be able to submit it this will be around £15-30, depending on the time you submit your screenplay, you don't have to pay a fee for all competition, some allow you to do it for free, but for my example you have to. The competition allows you to enter different types of the competition, for example you can submit your entry into feature screenplay, which is a screenplay for a feature film and it has to be over 75 pages or you can put your entry into the short film screenplays, which has to be below 75 pages and the rest of are the television scripts, stage and first time screenplay writers. There is also the big corporations that do commissioning, for instance one of the biggest corporation to do this is Channel 4, as they have no programs on their channel that they made themselves, instead they reach out to other independent production companies to make their programs instead, companies like "Poppy Pictures" and "Big Talk Production". Another type of a commissioning body is a independent production company,as they will buy the screenplay in order to see if they can make it turn into a production and see if they can make money out of it. An example is a company called "Red Planet Pictures", which is dynamic and independent production company that was created by Tony Jordan who was listed to be the number screenplay writer in the UK, there main focus can vary as they done mostly every genre, but their main one seems to be drama, as they have done shows like "Babs", which was a 90s show, which was broad casted on the BBC, they also have done shows for Sky One and Channel 5. Another independent production company that are good,is one called "ZigZag Productions", which i one of the best independent production companies in the UK. They are one of the providers for channel 4, as well as others like the BBC, ITV and Fox, because of the wide variety of channels they make shows for, then they would easily commission scripts in order to provide for them, making it easy for a writer to get a job, as ZigZag have produced television shows like Troy, which is about a street magician do loads of different creative and extravagant tricks and illusions. They have also done entertainment reality shows, like "I Want to Marry Harry", which about when a group of girls, live in a house with a guy who is pretending to be a prince, as well they do factual programming as well, like "Danny Dyer's Deadliest Men", which shows off the lives of Britain's most dangerous men.
Throughout the whole of the commissioning process, there are different jobs in it that do different things from the people to the paper all the way to making it a big screen production. The first major role of the process is of course the writer, the main role that the writer has to do is write narratives as well as first being able to research and develop their ideas in order to be able to create a good and unique screenplay that will be able to earn the writer some money, when it optioned from them by a producer or a production company, in order to be good writer you need to have the a in depth knowledge of a narratives structure and the different ways that you can effect the audience's emotion when reading or watching your possible film or television show. The next major can vary in the order as the Producer can be in any part of the order, as because the way that most writer will make a living is from pitching their ideas to the producers in hopes or getting it bought or optioned or the producer will actually commission a writer to write a screenplay based on a concept or a true story. The producer is apart of all of the production's aspect from planning to filming and editing, they are responsible for finding and selecting a screenplay and gain the rights to it and also the story editing team as well. A role that helps the writer quite a lot is a Agent, a writer's agent helps them be able to present their ideas to producers easier than the writer, the agent only takes a percentage of the earnings of the writer. The main focus for an agent is to create loads of contacts within the media industry as the make themselves wanted more by other people because they will be able to get them work easily. The Script Editor is a role within the commissioning process, the script editor is the person who evaluates screenplays written by writers and gives them a different perspective, the script editor is a helper for the writer, as if the writer has been commissioned to write a script then the script editor will make sure that the writer is writing within the requirements of what they were commissioned to do. But hey also let the writers know what the current market is like for films, allowing writers to be able to write a script within that market, they are the middle man between the screenwriter and the producer, as the editor will create development meeting between the two in order to discuss the development of the screenplay.
Another editor role is the commissioning editor, which is like the producer, in which they're there in order to buy writers into their company in order to add more publicity to it and gain more work and money from production companies. They do this by always researching into the market and finding the trends in it and then find people who fall into that trend and hire them in order to gain money from them as well as giving that writer more publicity as well and like the script editor, they are likely to help develop the writer's ideas as well as making sure they meet deadlines. One of the most major roles in this process other than the writer is the Director, because the director is there to turn the words from the writer's screenplay to images on the big screen, allowing audiences to view and enjoy it. The director, like the producer, can also commission a writer to write a script for them. But when a screenplay is green light for production, the writer can have some involvement in the production, this can be as a consultant, as to how a scene should look, or how a character should look or act and any narrative help. But in most circumstances after the script has been green lighted the the writer has no longer got any involvement with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment