Songs in dialogue - format

[Magda100]

If a character mentions the title of a song or sings part of a song, should I use italics or quotation marks within the dialogue?

I got a book on script formats but it doesn't get into that kind of detail. Does anyone know of a good book?

Thanks for the help.

[Deus Ex Machine]

no. this is not a term paper, just write what they say in normal courier 12pt.

........DEUS
Now I'm going to slow things
down a bit.
...(sings)
Why do birds suddenly appear?
Every time, you are near.
Just like me, they long to be.
Close to you.

[writersblock]

I thought I read somewhere-

song lyrics are supposed to be all in caps?

[pnugentr]

Just an FYI --you cannot sell a screenplay if it includes copyrighted material that you don't own (like song lyrics.)

[NikeeGoddess]

I got a book on script formats but it doesn't get into that kind of detail. - this is b/c....what nugent just said
however, if you write your own lyrics or use public domain lyrics then the first example (above) is write in dialogue but use italics for the title in the action line.

[pnugentr]

Yes, Nikeegodess's caveat is of course dead-on. My advise was in the "I have the action synchronized to "Hey Jude," so how do I format that?" sense.

If the ownership of the lyrics is your own or PD, I would cap them.

[Deus Ex Machine]

Caps in dialogue indicate YELLING and SCREAMING. Is this character singing or YELLING?

Also, no worries about the copyright issue. If the rights are not bought by TPTB they will change it to a song they can get rights for. Use the lyrics to demonstrate how the song effects the scene. IMHO using original songs rarely do that because the reader has no point of reference so you might as well leave the lyrics off and just say in the narrative that the character "sings a (insert genre) song".

My 2 cents.

[pnugentr]

Deus -- Just a legal tid-bit. If you SELL a screenplay with someone else's copyrighted lyrics, you are breaking the law. It has nothing to do with any eventual movie.

Unlike describing a scene from a movie or TV show (where the SP might describe copyrighted material), song lyrics themselves ARE the copyrighted material. It's like receiving payment for an original book of poetry that is acutally full of coprighted poems. Should the publisher publish the book, they would be in violation. Seperately, however, when you receive payment for the book, you individually have violated the copyright and are liable.

The distinction you are overlooking has to do with the difference between DESCRIPTION of the material:

"The Beatle's 'Hey Jude' play while they embrace"

versus the USE of the material:

John leans in.
BEATLES: Hey Jude/ Don't make it bad
He kisses her.
Take a sad song/and make it better

[Deus Ex Machine]

I'm not over looking the distinction, I'm saying that it is not quite the barrier to a sale you imply it is. It happens all the time, characters quote poetry, songs, other writers etc... No one really cares.

After all, reproducing and distributing copies of your screenplay is itself a violation of copyright law and yet it remains a necessary and integral part of the system.

In any case, if you are concerned about it, simply attributing the source of the quoted or referenced material is sufficient for lyrics in a screenplay as it is for any other published material that quotes or references other copyrighted material.

He sings the Beatles' song "yesterday":

........DEUS
Yesterday, all our troubles
seemed so far away.

[pnugentr]

Deus-
I am not trying pick a fight, I find your comments (especially your loglining skills) invaluable. In fact, you are certainly more of an asset to the community than I am, but--

1. I have no idea if it's an inpediment to sales or not, but it is illegal.

2. "After all, reproducing and distributing copies of your screenplay is itself a violation of copyright law and yet it remains a necessary and integral part of the system"

You hold the copyright, you can do whatever you want with the material.

3. "if you are concerned about it, simply attributing the source of the quoted or referenced material is sufficient for lyrics in a screenplay as it is for any other published material that quotes or references other copyrighted material."

You seems to be referring to "Fair Use," which in no way applies. A good counterargument to this is the fact that Stephen King (his "people" actually) lines up the permissions for all the song lyrics he uses before he submits the manuscript to the publisher.

[Deus Ex Machine]

You hold the copyright, you can do whatever you want with the material.

But the people you send it to do not have the right to make copies and send them to other people without your express consent -- but they do it anyway because it is SOP for the business. Scripts are copied and circulated all over town without permission of the writer/copyright holder.

[pnugentr]

And if someone sold copyrighted material that they had no right to, like the topic that kicked off the thread, there would certainly be legal action.

I am not saying things aren't done a certain way, just alerting the poster to the nuances of the law on the topic she asked about.

[Deus Ex Machine]

True.

But the question is one of if the person is profiting from the use of the copyrighted material. IOW is the script being sold because it has those lyrics in it is is the script being sold because of a story that happens to have those lyrics in it. I'm not an intellectual property lawyer but I would suspect the argument would come down to how much the story depends on the lyrics to gave how much the writer is profiting from the use of copyrighted material.

Taken to its logical conclusion you couldn't write a character drinks a coke or drives a Honda or shoots a Glock or goes to Disney Land or watches Monday Night Football or Fox News or attends a NY Yankees game because these are all registered trademarks and even writing them in a script is done so without the express permission of the trademark holder.

[pnugentr]

That would again be DESCRIPTION vs. USE. Let's agree that it probably doesn'r matter.

[Verbalcody]

Okay, i have a scene where the bad guy sings the song lynard skynards freebird, its sourced and everything, but its a pretty intergral part of the plot (he uses it to calm down his army of fast food worker zombies) Should I nix this whole scene?

[NikeeGoddess]

if the scene works for the story then there's no need to nix it just b/c of the song. just don't be so specific about the song. tell us what "kind" of song or what the song is about that calms down the zombies.
if you ever get to the point where production is eminent then you can bring up the possibility of getting the song you want.

write on!

[Willis4000]

well how did they go about writing films like this is spinal tap or school of rock?

School of rock has one scene were the characters really connect in the bar and they are singing along to a group that escapes me now.

Did the writers write the songs for the film themselves?

[NikeeGoddess]

Did the writers write the songs for the film themselves?
- sometimes they do
- usu they'd have a professional to write the music/songs for the soundtrack
- or the producers purchase the rights to use an already published song....but, you as the writer cannot do this unless you have a lot of money

[Margie24]

Just an FYI --you cannot sell a screenplay if it includes copyrighted material that you don't own (like song lyrics.)

What about submission of a script that contains
copyrighted material? Can you submit it with the lyrics written in full, or a quote from a novel, then change it to a description before the actual sale takes place?

I have a script that features a singer as one of the main characters. I have the (copyrighted) lyrics she is singing written out.

Another main character is often reminded of certain lines from his favorite novel. On two occassions, he quotes lines from this novel to another character. On another occasion, he hears them in his mind (as voice-over).

Can I send the script out as it is? Should I get permission from the publishers? Or should I just change it from dialogue to description, as somebody suggested earlier?

[Margie24]

Thanks, Deux. This guy (he's the screenwriter for "Big Fish") agrees with you:

johnaugust.com/qanda/131.html (http://johnaugust.com/qanda/131.html)

I like your nic. Reminds me of the "script guru" from Adaptation... when he tells his class that he "better never catch them using a deux ex machina."

The film critic from the NY Times wrote something like, "He doesn't realize- he is a deux ex machina."

Gotta love that Charlie Kaufman.