What's the Protocol for...

[donroy]

I bought a screenplay a while ago and have been adding to it for production. There were a number of aspects that I felt were underdeveloped, but I loved the main premise. A new character has been added, along with several more scenes. The original idea and concept remain unchanged.

It's about ready to move to the next stage, but I want to do a WGA registration on it. How do I correctly handle authorship for this? My thought is:

"Original screenplay by Mr. X, adaptation by Mr. Y (me)"

Does that sound right, or is there a more proper way?

 

[VPTurner]

Typically, the ampersand indicates joint development and the "and" indicates a rewrite by someone else without joint involvement:

[Name of Film]

by

[Your Name]

and

[Original Author]​

What I've personally used previously when the story was joint developed and I wrote the screenplay was:

[Name of Film]

Screenplay by

[My Name]

Story by

[My Name]

&

[His/Her Name]​

 

[VPTurner]

Here's the title page template from Final Draft 8:

http://www.angelfire.com/on2/Vinnie/Title_Template.pdf

 

[GabrielM]

The WGA explains:

If there is no source material (novel, play, article, etc.) and the same writers receive credit for both the story and screenplay, the credit is "written by".

The "story by" credit is used when the basic narrative structure was originally written with intent to be used for a movie (as opposed to a short story) and the actual screenplay had different authors. A shared "story by" credit is the minimum awarded to the author of an original screenplay.

If there was previously existing source material but the writer creates a substantially new and different story from the source, then the "screen story" (or "television story") credit is used.

Finally, the "screenplay by" (or "teleplay by") credit is used to denote the screenplay (teleplay) authorship if the story credit had to be separated as above.

In rare cases, "adaptation by" can be awarded to a writer who shapes the script without qualifying for one of the above credits.

There are other specialized credits used for television programs such as documentaries and audience participation shows.

Within each of these categories, members of a writing team are joined by "&"; teams or writers working on separate drafts are joined by "and".

 

[directorik]

When you say you bought a screenplay did you purchase all the
rights? Including the copyright?

Interesting that the script wasn’t registered by the writer or
that a contract wasn’t written to include how the credits would
read. Typically the producer who buys the script does not get any
screenplay credit even if they changed some things.

What does the writer feel about you registering the script and
taking some of the authorship?

 

[donroy]

Thanks to all for the suggestions and references.

directorik - It's a very small project, and yes, we're covered on the adaptations. Actually, my point in registering it was more for protection than anything else. If the producer gets nothing, so be it.

Thanks... Don