Re: Assignments -- Can NEW writers without a sale really land them?
I agree. If you are going to spec... Spec for yourself.
I was in a similar situation.
I was fortunate to have two A-List writers... They are a pair; they were very hot at the time... Who wanted me to write a script on spec for an idea they had. They said, they were going to take it out and if all went well, pay me a percentage of their take (a percentage of a percentage!?), give me "story by" credit and all this other B.S.
Suffice to say, I turned down their offer.
Sure, I might have had the clout & connections of these two writers on my side... For a while... But I looked ahead at what the overall END RESULT was for ME. Which was nothing. Especially if it didn't sell. Not only is that a good chunk of time wasted developing the script with them, but it's mostly me doing all the work. Not to mention, it's their idea. They own it, even if I write it.
Looking back, I think they liked my writing, but they just got lazy and or greedy (due to over scheduling their own work) and wanted someone to do the heavy lifting for them, but also wanted reap all the rewards, too.
This is the darker side of the business you don't hear much about, IMO.
There is doing "free work" that really isn't work, like BDZ describes, and then there is being taken advantage of. Problem is a lot of new writers can't tell the difference starting out...
Originally posted by BattleDolphinZero
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I was in a similar situation.
I was fortunate to have two A-List writers... They are a pair; they were very hot at the time... Who wanted me to write a script on spec for an idea they had. They said, they were going to take it out and if all went well, pay me a percentage of their take (a percentage of a percentage!?), give me "story by" credit and all this other B.S.
Suffice to say, I turned down their offer.
Sure, I might have had the clout & connections of these two writers on my side... For a while... But I looked ahead at what the overall END RESULT was for ME. Which was nothing. Especially if it didn't sell. Not only is that a good chunk of time wasted developing the script with them, but it's mostly me doing all the work. Not to mention, it's their idea. They own it, even if I write it.
Looking back, I think they liked my writing, but they just got lazy and or greedy (due to over scheduling their own work) and wanted someone to do the heavy lifting for them, but also wanted reap all the rewards, too.
This is the darker side of the business you don't hear much about, IMO.
There is doing "free work" that really isn't work, like BDZ describes, and then there is being taken advantage of. Problem is a lot of new writers can't tell the difference starting out...
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