Teleplay versus Screenplay

Feeling a little dumb today. I was working on a statement to demonstrate to the WGA that more than 50% of the final shooting script was mine. (This statement is required for them to determine if you will receive sole or shared writing credit on your script.)

It turns out that although that's what's needed for a screenplay, I had written a teleplay — a script used for a cable movie. And, it turns out that the rules for teleplays are completely different.

You Share Credit if . . .

In short, you will share credit on a teleplay if there is a substantial change in just ONE of the following:

• dramatic construction

• original & different scenes

• characterization or character relationships, or

• dialogue

How do they determine "substantial"? It's very scientific — it's whatever the panels deems substantial.

I spent yesterday bummed out. I didn't think I'd have any problem showing that overall the script was more mine than the other writers' versions. But showing that they hadn't substantially changed the dialogue? That would be close to impossible.

Getting On With It

This whole week has been a downer — trying to figure out rules, working on statements and worrying about credits and residuals. I understand that this isn't a hobby, it's a career and it's all part of the business. But talk about a piece of the career that sucks the creative forces.

Got up this morning at dawn, grabbed my journal and started writing. Spent an hour forgetting about percentages and WGA arbitrations, and writing about the pouring rain and the soggy Northwest.

I wrote about how rain washed away everything when you're young. About how much fun it was to splash in puddles and float things down overflowing ditches. And about how many stories I created running with my dogs through the valley where I grew up, hoping I'd find some treasure that had washed up in the flooding creek.

That's all it took. I'm no longer bummed. I'm ready to write. My muse was just waiting for me to get done with the paperwork and come out and play in the rain.

Hope you write some wonderful stuff today.