When during the script creation process should I get it copyrighted?

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Movie_Dude_3

Well-known member
I just finished the first draft of a full length script - 87 pages - that I intend to shoot over the summer. I wanted to get this one copyrighted so I can post it online and ask for opinions while having the safety of a secured copyright. But, do I wait until I have the final draft of the script completed, or can I send in the first draft and have it said and done?

I'm not entirely sure how copyrights worked and I searched the boards but I didn't find a topic that dealt with this question.

Thanks!
 
I'd wait until your finished myself, just to make sure there's no confusion in case something comes up, but have other registration for your early stuff. Definitely have one form of protection before you start sending it out, even for critique.
 
You can get the first draft copyrighted through http://www.copyright.gov. It's likely you're going to update the draft, but as long as it doesn't stray too far away from the original work. You'll be covered.

P.S. As you start to write a bunch of screenplays (30-150), you're going to be paying a nice chunk to copyright your work. You can also form a company and put it in the company's name, but that's a different story.
 
First, congrats on finishing a feature length screenplay, no small feat!

I don't know if I would post a full unproduced screenplay online for the world to see, and use, and produce, but that is just me; there are countries in the world that do not abide by copyright law and you might just find your screenplay produced without any $ coming to you. Sharing a screenplay with someone here as an IM, or posting an excerpt is something different. Once you post it on the web it is almost impossible to remove and make it private again. Just my thoughts.
 
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30 to 150? You must be using hyperbole, because going with even 80 as a number, at a conservative six months to write a feature screenplay, and we are at 40 years of one's life. Although I suppose some might be able to speed write screenplays. 150? Hmm. Kudos to you other writers out there who can crank out so many screenplays, I think I will be lucky to write one good feature script each year.

Romane19 said:
...P.S. As you start to write a bunch of screenplays (30-150),...
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Yes, the first completed draft. You can show it to people first, as copyright goes back something like 6 months before it's registered.

I wouldn't be worried about people stealing it -- there's hundreds of thousands of unproduced screenplays online for the taking and rarely is one "stolen". Personally, I hope and pray that someone steals one of my scripts, because I can then wait until the film is "in the can" and then hit the US distributor for $100K -- which they'll put up without a fight because the US copyright system is so draconian.
 
Randall_Oelerich said:
30 to 150? You must be using hyperbole, because going with even 80 as a number, at a conservative six months to write a feature screenplay, and we are at 40 years of one's life. Although I suppose some might be able to speed write screenplays. 150? Hmm. Kudos to you other writers out there who can crank out so many screenplays, I think I will be lucky to write one good feature script each year.
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I think he meant 30-150 pages. At least I hope so.
 
Maybe some writers can crank out 30-150 screenplays, who knows. I did meet a writer in a local screenwriters group who had written ten feature screenplays in the past year, she claimed to write a feature easily in a week; but she had never heard of Syd Field or Michael Hauge or Joseph Campbell, nor of the Hero's Journey, and she used MS Word to format her screenplays (which were horribly formatted) and she used "EXT:: DAY" for sluglines, etc. I looked at her most recent feature screenplay and the protagonist did not even have a name. Hmm.

So quantity is not always everything, although I am sure there are writers who can crank out quality feature screenplays in a matter of a few weeks. I am not one of them. I like to outline and sequence a story thoroughly now before firing up the software and typing FADE IN:
~randall

Movie_Dude_3 said:
I think he meant 30-150 pages. At least I hope so.
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