Protecting your story ideas

U

Ulysses27

Member
So I've written up a proposal for a documentary I would like to make. I'm in the process of looking for funding, partners, distribution etc. It has occurred to me to wonder how I can prevent someone from just taking my idea and making it themselves. I'm not particularly worried about it, but is there any way to protect against this? There are people I will be interviewing, but it's not the type of story that involves any particular person.

Thanks for the advice!
 
Copyrighting is the only real way to protect your concept. Actually, copyrighting doesn't protect concepts, but if you write it down (which you have), you can copyright it.
 
Great advice

Great advice

I guess if your subject is a general one you can't really protect it right? If I want to make a documentary about General Washington I can't object if someone else does it first. But what if I want to make a documentary about his relationship with slaves. Or I have a documentary that talks about slave relationships and their historical descendants? Does a combination of aspects represent an original idea? Am I being paranoid in thinking that someone more qualified might steal my idea?
 
Ulysses27 said:
I guess if your subject is a general one you can't really protect it right? If I want to make a documentary about General Washington I can't object if someone else does it first. But what if I want to make a documentary about his relationship with slaves. Or I have a documentary that talks about slave relationships and their historical descendants? Does a combination of aspects represent an original idea? Am I being paranoid in thinking that someone more qualified might steal my idea?
Click to expand...

The thing is, you can't protect an idea, original or not. Only the specific tangible expression of an idea can be protected. If your log-line is "George Washington loved his slaves, sometimes twice on Sundays" you can't prevent someone else from using the same idea. After all, how many books, movies, and stage plays have been made on the idea of "Boy meets Girl?" What you can protect is a specific script based on your premise. You can protect the words and sentences as you've strung them together to express your idea and no one can copy that script's wording without permission. But the ideas presented in the script, even its structure such as what visuals you use to illustrate your points, are fair game. Anyone can make a documentary about the Civil War and anyone can use a photo of a cannon in the mist on the Gettysburg battlefield on the title card - what sets Ken Burns' version of it apart is not the idea that the North and South fought but rather that Burns did such a damn good job with the specifc way he expressed that idea. You can never copyright facts, only the specific way you relate them.
 
I have a few hit shows on the air today with no love coming my qway as a result of pitching unprotected material.
Shoot a pilot and copyright it. As mentioned, you cannot protect an idea but you can protect a treatment. Pitch nothing unprotected, man. They will indeed take it and run.
 
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