Screenwriting : Project Green Light Season 2 "Battle of Shaker Heights" by Boomer Murrhee

Thanks for sharing this, Boomer. :) I'd say your observation is correct. Of course different production companies or creative teams may do things differently, but generally speaking, that would be the role of the screenwriter during production. However, it also depends on the type of project. This whole process is built from collaboration. The more I learn and experience the industry the more I become interested in independent film and producing. :)

Hey Boomer, I completely agree with your observation and have heard many of the executives we work with say the same thing - often if a writer is too precious with their script and unwilling to take notes it loses them the job. I've also heard that many films become different films than the original script intended once a studio gets involved. If you're interested in Project Greenlight, you should network with Nick Phillips - he produced the Project Greenlight film FEAST.

Not off base at all, Boomer. As I've heard many a producer say through the years, the screenplay is simply a blueprint. Now, every once in a while you'll get a director who loves that blueprint so much he doesn't want to move a wall or change the structure of the plumbing, but a smart writer understands that notes are part of the business and learns how to pick his or her battles wisely.

"Subjugated" is not the right word. Generally speaking, in Features, it's a good thing if the writer does NOT have to be involved over production. Why? That means you got the script right BEFORE production, and therefore, production has a good chance of going smoothly. The writer's job is ideally accomplished before the start of production, although he might be asked to come back in at certain key points. In this paradigm, it's like starting a 3000-mile road trip with a very clear map, which everyone loves, already in place. Typically, if the writer IS involved over production, that means the start of production was rushed (often due to a movie's release date or maybe an actor's limited avail), the script didn't get set before production started, and everyone is scrambling to keep working on the script even as the movie has already started shooting. It's like starting a 3000-mile road trip without a clear map in place, and having to struggle to plan your trip, stay on schedule, on budget, etc. In TV, because you're producing several episodes and hopefully, multiple seasons, writers also serve as the show's producers, and they are involved from start to finish.

The difference between Greenlight and real life is that there is only one writer. Usually after you sell your screenplay, you will do a couple of drafts based on notes from the producer, director, director's girlfriend, director's girlfriend's dog walker, etc... and then be replaced by another writer. By the time a film shoots you probably will no longer even be involved with the project anymore. Though it's impossible to write "the perfect screenplay", even if you had the notes you get are not about improving the screenplay as much as changing it. "What if they're cowboys?"

Great dialogue about this topic. It pretty much like a "darned if you do, darned if you don't" situation. For writers who don't want to let go of their 'babies' but rather maintain creative control, it seems the only choice is to also be director. But what if they don't want to direct? Then it's give it up, let others take control, and watch it change from where it was to where it ends up. If there are various writers, does the original writer get any credit? Or does it all depend on what's stipulated in the contract?

Regina can probably answer your question, T. Chambers, better than I, but I think it depends on the contract to some extent but also on arbitration by the Writers Guild to determine credit. I'm also wanting to mention cases like AMERICAN HUSTLE, where the director and the cast apparently just decided to run wild with their own "riff" on the original screenplay. A friend of mine attended a screening where Christian Bale actually bragged about how little attention they had paid to the script. Which is why, in my humble opinion, the movie was almost two and a half hours of a talented director and a talented group of actors masturbating.

For WGA signatory movies, when there is a screen credit arbitration, the final credits are determined via the arbitration process, not by any contracts. The credit arbitration process is by no means perfect, but it's the best way the WGA has come up with to make as fair a final credit determination as possible. Much like in a court of law, where a jury of your peers is empanelled to render a verdict, WGA credit arbitration is rendered by an "Arbitration Committee" of 3 screenwriters. Your credit determination is made by your peers. It is very rare that the original writer is found undeserving of screen credit. In fact, in some cases, A-list writers are hesitant to come in for a rewrite job, because they believe they won't get screen credit (because the original writer will get the credit). This is a very reductive explanation. Of course, when if a financier is paying a big rewrite fee, most writers won't turn that down. But maybe if a top writer is choosing between a job in which he's the "first writer in" vs. a rewrite job, and he likes both projects equally, he'll likely take the "first writer in" job because that gives him a better chance at getting screen credit, and thus, a credit bonus. All that said, most of the emerging writers on S32 can worry about this stuff later! Worry about that first paid gig now! Prioritize what you need to know NOW, and worry about the other stuff later!

This is why if you want to write movies and preserve your vision, you should also produce and/or direct. As a producer now, I view a script as raw material - the gold - but as the producer I'm the one who decides if I want to turn that gold into a necklace or a ring or a gold-plated cigarette lighter

Subscribe to the New Yorker and read this article. You can cancel your subscription afterward. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/10/20/credit-grab

Hi Richard, contracts do not determine screen credit for WGA signatories. The studio, with approval from the movie's producers, submits proposed screen credits to the WGA. The studio might say John Writer deserves a credit, but then it goes to arbitration, and the WGA Arbitration Panel disagrees. The WGA is the boss. John Writer gets mad at his own union, not the studio.

Filmmaking is like a marriage. All sides have to compromise. No one gets everything that he/she wants. And how is that different from any other industry/job? It's not. I bet the guy who designed the Prius didn't get everything he wanted either.

Very thorough explanation. Thank you Regina.

Hey Boomer and everyone else, it's also important to note that the OPPOSITE case can happen. The Studio has approved the script, and therefore, any significant changes that depart from the approved script have to be approved by the studio. (Someone brought up American Hustle. Yeah, when a studio hires David O. Russell, they do so knowing he's not taking orders...) Writer delivers a script that the studio is pleased with, greenlights, and "locks." Of course, creative and production notes were given in the development process, but the point is, the studio has signed off on THIS SCRIPT as its approved production draft. From that point forward, the script is the touchstone. Any production-related changes have to be flagged by Production and approved by the Studio. For example, in Pre-Production, the Production can't find the 1970s-style football field that was in the script; will the studio accept a 1980s football field, or will the studio allocate more money to find, create, and/or travel to a location that's more evocative of the scripted location? How important is this particular element of the script? Worth extra money? Another example - "On the day" of shooting, actor improvises and never delivers the line that the studio approved. Producers on set that day phone the studio exec and report the news. Will the studio insist that the actor deliver the exact line? Maybe the Studio Chaiman LOVES that line. Maybe the Marketing President loves the line and wanted it for the movie trailer. How will this situation be managed? Will they reshoot (which costs money)? Will they approve the improvised line? There are egos, practicality, relationships... People start sweating and wondering who is going to get in trouble. Or the dailies/rushes come in. Studio exec watches all the dailies, notices Production took liberties that weren't approved. Studio exec reports to his boss. Studio President calls Producers and gives them hell for not shooting the approved version of a scene. These are just examples. My point - the approved script may be a touchstone that the filmmakers executing the production are not supposed to screw with. Again, very reductive and impossible to explain in a few words.

In Project Greenlight 2 (Shaker Heights), you see Chris Moore and Jeff Balis telling Kyle & Efram that they aren't allowed to change Erica's script. That's the script that Miramax approved. Changes to the approved script have to be approved by Miramax.

Thanks to all who contributed to this thread. These responses have been most insightful and educational. This season, Greenlight appears to have taken a new direction with going with a "creative" director who didn't really seem interested in directing the script unless he did it his way. I find it interesting that when given the project along with a 3 million dollar budget, in the first 5 minutes, he wanted to fire the writer, work on a different script and shoot on film. That seemed ballsy for a first-time director. Maybe it will payoff in the end?

Great insights as per usual, Regina!

I happened to be acquainted with John Patrick Shanley when he sold MOONSTRUCK, and that was definitely a "touchstone" project, as Regina mentioned, where everyone right down the line wanted to preserve that remarkable voice. So it does happen.

Great example. And a great film.

Hey Richard, that IS a great example. It can happen with extraordinary scripts like MOONSTRUCK, or it can happen when the studio simply likes/trusts the writer's/script's specific vision more than they trust the director's and/or producers' specific vision for the particular project.

Absolutely, Regina! And, please...call me RB!

btw RB, if you call me BS, you're in deep doo-doo ;-)

6 feet tall, eyes brown, initials BS, and a philosophy lover... so it does get deep with me quick... as "I'm often a legend in my own mind" (to loosely quote a Dirty Harry film). Just wipe off your shoes on the mat if you step in it. ;-)