CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar 2 - Electric Boogaloo-Fanboys gone WILD-too many hyphens
- Thread starter jespah
- Start date
Exactly. Period. End of story. Guidelines don't come up. Amateur or professional status is a peripheral factor. Registration wherever or whenever is entirely up to you. Just make up your own shit. Why is this so hard?
What the fuck are you talking about, dude?
I replied to every sentence in the first paragraph of your post, one after the other, without omitting a single character.
There was nothing "selective" about it.
As for the rest of your post, the second paragraph that you edited in after I'd starting writing my reply, it had nothing to do with anything I was saying anyway. But, if it makes you feel better, I can certainly reply to that too:
That's rather pedantic (not to mention, something completely tangential). In any case, unpaid interns are not considered professionals, as they, by definition, are not employees (and nor are they contractors).
Better?
Nothing. Because an idea is pretty worthless. It's the execution. Van Gogh and Rembrandt might have the same idea, the same concept for a painting, but, it's the execution that is special and unique. That's what's copyrightable.
None of these are particularly unique. And in different hands would be executed differently.
I entirely disagree. Concepts are less important than the scripts. A great idea can be fucked by a terrible script. A bad idea might actually be the basis of a great scrip--not often, but, it's possible.
You see so many concepts being copied because there aren't that many truly original concepts. The Matrix and Iron are basically the same concept--life inside a computer, programs represented as people. The executions are tremendously different, the goals are different.
And sometimes it's worth revisiting a concept because it was good but didn't really get explored, like BSG and nuBSG. Or Lost in Space and nuLost In Space, which was Swiss Family Robinson to begin with.
And a lot of concepts are just rearrangement of other concepts, window dressing to make it look new. Like the I married a Zeta up above, it's a fish out of water story, I married someone from another culture, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner just dressed up in an alien costume.
As a school librarian, I know that this book will not only sell quite well, but it will increase the sales of the original Seuss book. That's why I am surprised the Seuss Estate wanted to sue. Gerrold's book is an obviously affectionate parody and it evokes fan memories of the original book. It won't ever replace the original, but enhances its existence.
We'll have to agree to disagree on this.
You could have a great concept inside a low budget highly cut up and edited fan film. Those are far and few between while and correct me if I'm wrong you'll find a lot more script writers to build a high budget story around it.
This is literally my point. It's not the concept. It's the execution of said concept. And I don't know what budget has to do with anything. Primer is an EXCELLENT time travel movie shot for 7000 dollars. It's FANTASTIC.
You can't watch a concept. You can only watch or read the execution of one.
Help me unpack this sentence. I don't know what you mean. Writers want to write high budget stories? Writers want to write expensive high concept stories?
Writers can write whatever they want. Producers worry about the budget. It's, of course, easier to get produced when you're starting out if it's a low budget idea. But, low budget doesn't necessarily mean low quality or low concept.
This totally devalues what good writers contribute.
I could tell you the concept for the pilot I wrote. I came up with it in about 15 minutes when I was driving one day and thought, "They always say 'write what you know,' so what do I know?" Actually turning that into a (hopefully) commercially viable pilot script was easily 1,000x harder.
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perhaps an over generalization of the industry.
How many sitcoms come and go before something new bold and broke the mold?
Not really a fair question if there is a network standard the sitcoms must fit into.
I love the writing on Big Bang, cheers, friends and 91210 but then those few come along like X-files, Firefly,the Simpsons or TOS that have their own twist and don't draw off of a past success.
I'm sure there are others but what writer wouldn't want to be the creator of one of those?
Movies that didn't bore me to sleep because they were just like a movie I just saw a few years back.
Tron, Jaws, Mad Max, TWOK (had to put this one here, it's not a first concept by far) , Planet of the Apes, Rocky, Ghost busters, Terminator, Star gate, Tom Hanks' Perdition (maybe not but I really enjoyed it without being a Mafia fan)
Not all of these are the best written by today's standards but many became a franchise or spawned a TV series of their own.
My comment had nothing to do with the ability of the writer. maybe it's just luck to be in the right place with the right script at the right time.
@dmac, it's funny that you mention The Simpsons because it is the most generic concept imaginable: a family comedy. It's the writing that makes that show, not the concept. Cheers is workplace comedy, with the only thing differentiating it from so many others like it that the customers are regulars so you get the interaction between them, so, again, it's largely the writing that makes it pop. M*A*S*H is a very odd sort of workplace comedy being how unusual the workplace is, but it's an adaptation of a movie adapted from a book, so the concept is sort of built up.
As bad as the show was, one really unique concept was Gilligan's Island, because Sherwood Schwartz wanted to do a comedy with people from different walks of life interacting, but he needed to think of a scenario that would level the playing field so no one had the advantages of money or power or social standing, and stranding this mixed group on a desert island did just that. The show almost didn't sell, and the pilot was submitted to CBS several times and each time rejected until Schwartz went in an edited it the way he wanted to.
The concept will, at best, get you a development deal. It's the script and the execution that make or break the concept. As a producer said to me a while back, "Nothing sells like a script."
As bad as the show was, one really unique concept was Gilligan's Island, because Sherwood Schwartz wanted to do a comedy with people from different walks of life interacting, but he needed to think of a scenario that would level the playing field so no one had the advantages of money or power or social standing, and stranding this mixed group on a desert island did just that. The show almost didn't sell, and the pilot was submitted to CBS several times and each time rejected until Schwartz went in an edited it the way he wanted to.
The concept will, at best, get you a development deal. It's the script and the execution that make or break the concept. As a producer said to me a while back, "Nothing sells like a script."
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And you won’t get a development deal based on a concept without a body of work to prove you can execute an idea.
It's helpful to hash this out with you folks.
Like I said before, I'm going to sit down this winter and get back into writing. Space Adventure is easy to write because I've followed theoretical physics from a young age, space is vast and it's all make believe anyway.
If set-up, written correctly filmed and produced within a budget, I have the means to produce an Amateur season.
Oh joy another space adventure but it's not Star Trek, not suppose to be Star Trek and won't even attempt to compete with a star trek budget. It also won't go where others have attempted to go before, in the sense of Star Command or others that attempted such an epic beginning, it never got off the ground.
Waste of time? Yeah but I won't be working 15/7 anymore.
Sorry to go back to this, but IMO involving any kind of professional anything in a fan film seems like a really bad idea at this point. Even if the person submitting the scrip technically isn't a profession, submitting the script to a group like the WGA is kinda getting close to being professional without actually being professional.
Then don't do it. I'm not here to give other people advice. Except that I'll say that, if you don't feel comfortable doing something, then don't do it.
All I'm saying is, based on the available information, that I don't see it to be in conflict with the guidelines. If convincing information appears to the contrary, like, say, a letter from CBS or an amendment to the guidelines, I'll adjust my opinion accordingly.
I'm really not expecting that to happen, for the reasons already stated. I also have to wonder whether the guild would be happy, if a signatory were to stipulate that certain films could be made but scripts for said films could not be registered with the guild. It would be such a pointless restriction.
I suspect the Guild wouldn't want to step into a copyright dispute. But, if a signatory is saying that the work is a copyright infringement, I feel like the Guild--which is about protecting writers, which also means enforcing copyright, wouldn't be pleased to register something that infringes on said copyright.
If the WGA starts weakening copyright, how would that serve their members?
A script doesn't HAVE to be registered with the WGA in order to be made.
Who said anything about stepping into a copyright dispute?
If it's all make believe why do theoretical physics matter? Color me confused.
Do you mean Zicree's Space Command?
Authenticity matters in all kinds of fiction. Even if it's "all" make believe you have to include some material that either convinces the audience its not or at least makes them go "Hmmm...could be, someday...:" It helps if your characters can discuss theoretical physics convincingly.