• Wondering which camera, gear, computer, or software to buy? Ask in our Gear Guide.

A "Risky" Idea?

sourmonkey

sourmonkey

Hey all, I just finished 1/3 of a feature length script (45 pages) and plan on finishing the script by summer 2005.

I really like the story, and I'm thinking about posting the script in a narrative form on a blog for public review. I will post it in segmented episodes over the next several months and my main aim is to give the story a little exposure. Also, I can send friends, family, and other persons of interest to the blog to review the story.

The feature length script is actually part one of a trilogy, however, I do not plan to post all three scripts (just the first).

On a personal note, I maintain a guerrilla- type mentality when it comes to art, i.e. "do it and fuck the consequences". However, I do not want to "regret" posting my baby on the internet. The story is complex, so I don't think it can be stolen (as the main story points will occur in the second and third scripts).

So, what do you guys think?

Bad idea? Good idea? Give me some input, por favor....
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
You're not planning to just cut and paste the actual script are you? You mean you would post it like a regular story, novella or whatever. Could be interesting. You could always say that the script is an adaptation afterwards.. ;)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
sourmonkey said:
On a personal note, I maintain a guerrilla- type mentality when it comes to art, i.e. "do it and fuck the consequences". However, I do not want to "regret" posting my baby on the internet.or
Click to expand...

Interesting dilemma you place yourself in.

Short answer: Don't post story on 'net.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You obviously feel that you are onto a winner with your baby.
I think you have to really ask yourself why you want to 'blog' it. Is it really to publicise it? You yourself admit that there are still 2 thirds to go, and that the plot stuff really happens in those final thirds. So you would not really be promoting the final work. If your clever bits occur in something unwritten, then people will just not see how good it is - at best they will keep an open mind toward it, at worst they will misjudge it and cast it off.
The only way that you can build up a reputation for this project is once it is written in its entirety, then you can release it - and only then will people think this is special. If the 1st third to the Usual Suspects was on some fellow's blog (or even The Third Man or Double Indemnity or Sixth Sense etc etc) would anyone have batted an eyelid? Steven King may have released chapters of one of his books on the internet, but his reputation is made – yours is not. Learn from that M Night guy.
In short, I doubt that publicity is your real reason. If I may be so bold as to guess what your motivation to post is, I would say its that you’re immensely proud of what are promising to create, and want the world to turn around and say 'wow, this guys got something' and become the new Eggars or Foer. Those guys waited til their babies were complete before posting any of it and are now hailed as having written the two greatest debuts of the last 10 years. You seem impatient to wait until it is finished, and want some recognition for your promise sooner. That is fair enough. That is an instinct that is hard to shake off, and perhaps shouldn't be.
So try the middle road. You want recognition for your talents, but you don't want to actually risk your child - and any mother would be the same.
Post on a 'blog' some other stories. Ones were you are 'getting your voice sorted' or poems etc. As if your promise as a writer were a pool, allow the world to dip its toes in, don't drown them straight away. At least wait until your water source is secure (or something.........)
This way you get some recognition, and improve your general writing talents, yet don't risk your child. This is what I do. I post things on my blog that are a fair few years old and read over them every now and then. They are worse than what I currently work on, but they help me to gather my thoughts and skills....and now you see this may have just been a very longwinded advert for my own blog, but I can assure you it is no such thing!! :blush:
This way you get the best of both worlds. Indy + Zenny (if I may) are right - you should not post your baby. However, you clearly have a wish to make the world turn around + see what you have got, and good for you. So post little things, that don't matter, but make you a better writer. This is how Eggars plied his trade (in the McSweeney’s short stories) – learn from that Eggars guy.
Also, posting your worst stuff on the net acts as a good source of motivation as it makes you believe that you have something to prove, not only to yourself, but also now to the world. Thats what I do. I save my best so that I can be as good as Eggars + Foer (one day) and I post so that I can evolve and receive a negative recognition that can encourage me - (ok, ok - I just post racist shorts :blush: )
try this out, it'll help no end, good luck.
zoolio
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
This is a really interesting question.

If copyright is automatically applied to any published document and a blog is a document, then it should be possible to register the blog as a magazine and therefore anything published on it has automatic copyright protection. You have established electronically a date the entry was published. (No idea about how this would stand up in court, the real issue is likely to be whether it is technically possible to alter the date on the posting)

You have, however, from a practical POV put your idea in the public domain. So, as you can't copyright an idea all I have to do is read your blog, steal the idea and create a new script from your idea which then becomes a new and copyrightable document and there is nothing you can legally do about it.

I think the problem everyone has with copyright is that they want it to protect the thing that they have, which is a good idea. It doesn't. Copyright protects good writing. Therefore the way to protect you idea is to write it in such a way that people fall in love with the execution of the idea, not the idea.

This may sound harsh, but actually as ideas are easy and great scripts are unbelievably difficult, as almost anyone can have a good a great idea and almost nobody can write fantastic scripts it is actually very, very fair.

Copyright only protects great writers, not people with ideas

Now that's something that should go on a fridge magnet!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
clive said:
This is a really interesting question.

If copyright is automatically applied to any published document and a blog is a document, then it should be possible to register the blog as a magazine and therefore anything published on it has automatic copyright protection. You have established electronically a date the entry was published. (No idea about how this would stand up in court, the real issue is likely to be whether it is technically possible to alter the date on the posting)

You have, however, from a practical POV put your idea in the public domain. So, as you can't copyright an idea all I have to do is read your blog, steal the idea and create a new script from your idea which then becomes a new and copyrightable document and there is nothing you can legally do about it.

I think the problem everyone has with copyright is that they want it to protect the thing that they have, which is a good idea. It doesn't. Copyright protects good writing. Therefore the way to protect you idea is to write it in such a way that people fall in love with the execution of the idea, not the idea.

This may sound harsh, but actually as ideas are easy and great scripts are unbelievably difficult, as almost anyone can have a good a great idea and almost nobody can write fantastic scripts it is actually very, very fair.

Copyright only protects great writers, not people with ideas

Now that's something that should go on a fridge magnet!
Click to expand...

I was going to say exactly the same thing, probably using slightly different words. And maybe not as long. But, my initial reaction is that you're looking for positive feedback, but, as zoolio said, your best shot at that is finishing the script, maybe rewriting it once, then showing it to people. Personally, I think posting spec scripts on the Internet is a stupid idea at any time. If it's truly going to be good, then you can wait til you're done with it. You have to put in all the hard work before reaping the rewards. Don't try and cheat.

Speilberg isn't searching the Web for his next great film. Get your story done, make sure it's tight, then worry about showing it to people.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
T Shipley said:
I was going to say exactly the same thing, probably using slightly different words. And maybe not as long. But, my initial reaction is that you're looking for positive feedback, but, as zoolio said, your best shot at that is finishing the script, maybe rewriting it once, then showing it to people. Personally, I think posting spec scripts on the Internet is a stupid idea at any time. If it's truly going to be good, then you can wait til you're done with it. You have to put in all the hard work before reaping the rewards. Don't try and cheat.

Speilberg isn't searching the Web for his next great film. Get your story done, make sure it's tight, then worry about showing it to people.
Click to expand...

Actually, I meant to reply to Zoolio's post, not your's Clive. Though your reply is good too!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
clive said:
Copyright only protects great writers, not people with ideas
Click to expand...

This is very true. I think that it is still important to write things that are nothing to do with your idea. With that process you will become a better writer/script writer in general, and not just in relation to your idea. This is the best way to turn yourself into the great writer Clive speaks of, versatile, flexible, better and better. So I reccommend trying yourself out on little writing tasks that are totally seperate from your idea to give yourself the talent as a writer that you need to pull your baby off (that is not meant to be a sexually explicit joke - it just came off like that. Neither was that one. I just can't control it....)
zoolio
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
T Shipley said:
Actually, I meant to reply to Zoolio's post, not your's Clive. Though your reply is good too!
Click to expand...

Cheers T-man,
yeah i'm sorry about the lengths of my posts. i can't help it. i just don't like to edit down the word count unless its imperative (like an essay or a real script). if enough people complain then i'll do it. so far, you are the 8th, just behind Mrs Creighton, my old cockney history teacher wth one breast but plenty of balls (metaphorically).
anyways cheers for the words,
zo-zi-zah-zo-zi-zah-ZOOLIO!!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Clive makes an interesting point about the copyright thing.. technically a blog is a 'periodical' of sorts, as you are publishing the document periodically, whenever you upate it.

While I suppose it would be technically possible to change the date on a blog post, it's not really all that practical. Likely it would take access to the database the blog is stored in, so one could manually change that entry, I assume there are a very limited few who have that access.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Awesome guys! These are the honest responses I was hoping for. Thanks for the input! It will be greatly considered.

Well, in preparation for this, I've reserved a modblog account in the name of the story so that if (and when) I decide to do this I don't have to play mental "scrabble" with the domain name.

On the issue of copyright protection, I'm pretty sure that the safest defense in court is a physical copy of the work with a library of congress or screenwriting guild copyright. However, I know that intellectual works published on the interent are also guaranteed a certain copyright in light of the reality that they may not actually exist "physically".

My main interest in publishing the story on a blog is to just simply tell a story that people can visit and read at their discretion, plus it gives me a chance to produce music and visual art to compliment the narrative. I do not plan on publishing the story in screenplay format, but I wanted to create something with a 1st person blog-type-feel that was entirely fictitious but with a certain voyeuristic quality that tells a mythological story.

Concerning piracy, the story is outlined in such a way that it's difficult to predict the plotline. So, Someone might read the first part of the story and rewrite it in their own words but their story will inevitably be different than mine. Actually, this might even enhance the "mythology" of the story within a cultural context. Who knows? Eitherway, I'm pretty sure that even if I publish the story on a blog, my story will remain my story (with a few possible 'bastard' copies).

If I publish on the blog, I will only display one version of the first script. There will be two other scripts but I will not write them until next year (at the earliest). Once my first script is done, I plan on hitting the usual festival circuits with it looking for a potential buyer (maybe).

So, although I feel very close to this story and want to protect it and see it through to its completion, I also want to tell it. Impatience is certainly a factor in this decision, but I feel like publishing on a blog will hone my writing habits and compell me to make my story a reality.

Now, having said ALL that, I'm still considering the pros and cons of this idea and Id like further input from those who would like to share.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
sour, you know my feelings. I don't think you should post it on the net in any form until you have the three completed scripts. I would like to see a blog on the "behind the scenes" of the scriptwriting process (this is what I am doing to some extent with my blog, link below), but sticking the story out there in any form could cause you to, as you said, "lose your baby."

Remember ideas are not copyrightable, and though you have a complex idea there's nothing that says someone else might be able to take it and interpret it for their own gain.

Poke
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Clive is right about owning the copyright by publishing. That's all you have to do; present your work to the public. Now registering your copyright, that is a competely different thing. In most court cases a registered copyright will beat out a copyright that isn't registered, even if the one without registry came first.

My advice would be to finish the work, register the copyright, then show it to the world. If you need to get someone's oppinion on the work, show it only to people you trust, and wait until its finished before you show anyone.

You are the artist. Right now its all your vision. Finish it the way that you see if without any interference or doubting brought on by other people's opinions. Save that part for the revision process. Feedback from others is very important, but it can stunt the growth of your baby.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thanks again for the input guys.

I've decided to wait on the script to blog publishing but I'm still anxious to tell some sort of twisted story on a blog.

However, I've had a back burner idea percolating for a while now and I may just swap ideas.

I would like to work with several other writers on a free form blog where we each writer contributes an entry and the next writer builds upon the former. Does this make sense? I'm thinking about getting a group of five to seven writers who share one blog and basically write fiction in their own respective voice. No promise of money, fame, etc. Just communicating ideas and telling stories.

The blog will be free. We can discuss the blog name and the content, etc, once the writing group is formed. The topic is open to discussion, no thematic rules (whatever you want to say goes), and all of it will be free form. The writing doesn't have to be fancy, just fulfilling to the artist's desire to communicate... we will all have the same password for publishng access, and the sky (and our imaginations) are the only limit.

Anybody want to jump in with me?

(obviously, this can't work with too many people, but the first, say, five people to email me at: sour_monkey@hotmail.com I will count in the group).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ktdamien said:
You are the artist. Right now its all your vision. Finish it the way that you see if without any interference or doubting brought on by other people's opinions. Save that part for the revision process. Feedback from others is very important, but it can stunt the growth of your baby.
Click to expand...

right on.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I think that you should complete the screenplay first. Until you've completed the screenplay you can't say for sure what works and what doesn't because you can't see whether everything fits in. If you've honed down the 45 pages that you have I still wouldn't suggest submitting it to the 'net. In short, I suggest finishing the screenplay first.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top