Credit where credit is due

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odonnelly99

Active member
Hey guys, sorry if this questions been brought up before, but it's something that needs answered. Here's the gist:

I started writing a screenplay last August. After about a few months I had a rough, really rough, draft finished and I sent it to another writer/buddy of mine. He liked it and made some suggestions, and added maybe 10 lines of dialogue throughout it. We were going to work on fixing it up together, but he got slammed by his own projects.

Since then, it's been through countless revisions by me exclusively, and it's a completely different story than it was in the beginning. His contributions to the script consist now of about 5 lines of humorous dialogue, and really have nothing to do with the story. It'd be like if I looked at an Apatow script and gave him five funny one liners.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the guy, he's one of my good buddies and the last thing I want to do is not give him credit where it is due, but I also don't want to give him more credit than he's earned.

I guess the question is, how does this work? Would he be after me in "screenplay by" or should he be in "additional writing by" or something else?

Ahhh, I hate that I even have to ask this. I just don't do the wrong thing, ya know?
 
Unless you're selling it to a studio for a bazillion dollars and the credits mean something, why does it really matter? Are you shooting this yourself? Is there a pending sale of the script?

If I was shooting it myself I'd give him equal credit. Who cares? What's important at that stage is that you get credit, not that you have to share it.
 
Sounds like your friend just put a small amount of idea time into it, certainly not worthy of a byline. But what did you two agree to-- verbally (oral contract) or in writing? Maybe he deserves a byline credit if you agreed to it in advance. Otherwise thank him for the small bit of help he provided and buy him dinner at Red Lobster, offer him that and see if that suffices?

I know how that can go. Early on I had a friend who had not written anything and he kept talking about getting credit for tossing a few story ideas my way, he just did not understand the HUGE amount of work involved in developing a story (plot points from concept, beating it, 20-30 page treatment), let alone writing the screenplay and rewriting and rewriting. All about communication, being certain everybody is clear on writing credits and in return for doing x amount of contributory work; everything I have read says to think very very carefully about co-writing because it can get very sticky as with your situation.
 
I appreciate your quick feedback.

It's a budgeted feature length indie. I'm using both the film and screenplay as samples in my creative portfolio for film grad schools.

I def get what you're saying. Last time I talked to him, he said he didn't feel that he deserved a writing credit, but its up to me.

This is sort of a connecting question, but if I give him credit, does that mean I have to give credit to an actor who improvises a line on set, or a producer who makes a suggestion, and in the end I have 40 names on the front of a script?

Oh, and why film grad schools someone may ask? Because I was in Iraq, and the GI Bill pays for it all!! Wheeeee!! Nothin' like a tradeoff of mental stability for some free schoolin'!
 
Randall, thanks for the feedback. It does get confusing, because even though I wrote a tight script, we're all a bunch of improv/stand up comics making a film, so its going to be very organic. I recently read the script for the 40 year old virgin, and its amazing how much was changed through improv during filming.

Needless to say, we're gonna have a blast filming it.
 
Give your friend and everybody producer credits. Man, watch the credits for the TV show The Ghost Whisperer; I have never seen so many producer credits in my life.
 
G.W. is so formulaic for each episode it got real old after a few episodes. Of course there were those two other 'prominent' 'reasons' to watch the show, LOL. :)
 
odonnelly99 said:
Randall, our immature "wit" is going to take us far in this business.
Click to expand...

MAD TV, parody skit on those two prominent reasons to watch The Ghost Whisperer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U3Cxmusq-o

On a more serious note-- if you ever get a chance check out Jennifer Love Hewitt in the closing scene of Trojan War. Maybe just me, but I love that scene, and the music. Just a fun movie. I wish it was on DVD; Netflix used to have it on instant play, I love it and the music-- wow I just checked and it is no longer on Netflix, damn, glad I at least have it on VHS. Although the writer Scott Myers feels the director botched his script. I was lucky to get the screenplay from Scott Myers, a fun romcom script to study (he is a great teacher btw, I have taken several UCLA courses online from Scott, starting up another UCLA screenwriting course from Scott in a couple of weeks on Scene Writing)
 
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He doesn't deserve a credit, only your gratitude. I'm sure there are WGA rules you can look to if you want a guideline of how much work gets you a credit.
 
Giving him credit for those 5 lines would be like giving prehistoric humans credit for the invention of the automobile. Sure, he contributed some, but not enough to be worth noting.
 
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