Jaye Starkes: Actor, director and screenwriter in Atlanta, GA, USA.

Looking to understand the basics.

When ideas and scripts are shared, pitched, and submitted - what’s the best way to protect them, and is it necessary?

What if the project is international and not connected to the U.S.?

What if no one on the team is from the U.S.?

What if the script is written in Europe (EU country)?

WGA? U.S. Copyright Office? Copyright.eu?

I’ve read the rules in my country - they say registration isn’t required since copyright applies automatically once the script is created. (what if, it’s still a draft, not fully finalized.)

Also, is it worth registering in both Europe and the U.S.?

For example, using both WGA and Copyright.eu?

What do you actually do? What’s your practical solution?

Thanks in advance for your help and tips :)

I recently completed my screenplay and have submitted 7 pitches and have gotten feedback from three of the pitches so far and am currently improving my next pitches accordingly. The feedback was amazing! The last one suggested I work on explaining the arcs, etc., of the main characters and a few of the side characters, etc., and while I have this all in the screenplay, I did not have this in the pitch. Basically, I have no idea how to write a pitch but with every piece of feedback I'm getting closer and closer. All I want is for the quality of the pitch to match the quality of my screenplay and with all of this feedback I believe I will get there. Thank you Stage32!

Hi Jaye. I'm RB, Founder and CEO of Stage 32. As a screenwriter, producer, actor and filmmaker, I know first-hand the challenges all creatives face finding work, landing representation, launching projects, securing funding and simply making the connections that will make a difference in their careers. That's why I created Stage 32. Since our launch in September of 2011, the community has grown to 1,000,000+ members representing every country on the planet making Stage 32 the social network uniquely populated with the most creative people on Earth.

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Hello Jaye -

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