Michael F-ing Bay

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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Webshow - "Writing with copyright-protected concepts"

I suspect this week's video will get some discussion going.  The Bitter puppet discusses why it's a bad idea to write a spec based on characters and concepts that one does not own.


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6 comments:

  1. Haven't had a chance to watch the video yet (it's blocked here) but sounds like you're offering some generally sound advice. I am curious about what you think of this though http://www.tracking-board.com/tb-recommends-the-boy-and-his-tiger/

    Had Dan shied away from CAH he wouldn't have written such a beautiful script and broken into the business.

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    1. Yes, but Dan didn't write a Calvin & Hobbes movie. He wrote a biopic about its creator. That's a little more useful as a writing sample, though as more people do so, the novelty will diminish.

      I'm talking more about cases where someone tries to write their reboot of BATMAN, or re-adapts a Grisham novel, so something like that.

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  2. What's your take on scripts about historical figures? Being that Rodham was recently listed on the Blacklist, I'm curious what the writer had to do to circumvent the legal labyrinth. I'm aware that public figures carry with them a different standard (as most of the information is public), but what about those events the writer takes poetic license with?

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  3. Jem and the Holigrams, eh? That sounds like an awesome idea. Thanks, buddy!

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  4. I wrote a Hellraiser remake a few years back, when they were super popular just for the fun of it. I think it actually really helped my writing at the time, especially structurally adapting somthing I was very fond of and wanted to see happen. Weirdly enough my new boss just happens to be a former exec at the company that owns the rights, I gave it to him to check out, so you never know... I'm still a fan of writing what you want, but not spending a whole year of something crazy like that on it

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  5. Since copyright also includes all derivative works, isn't it more accurate to say, not that there is only one buyer for your Star Trek script, but there are zero buyers, on the grounds that they already own your work the instant you hit CTRL-S?

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