Partnerships and Credit
I need advice. A tiny spark of an idea developed in my mind when I was spending time with a friend and fellow filmmaker (at the time) about two years ago. We started talking about the idea and then quickly progressed to working out some notes in a few meetings. The idea barely developed, and it was a skeleton of a great idea that needed tons of more thought and development... i.e. a movie about four friends that end up getting an opportunity to do something special because they did something wrong (vague, I know - i don't want to post the idea here). But we don't know what obstacles those four are facing or even know the conflicts in the story.
We talked up situations and possible characters, but ultimately I was frustrated with his contribution and the progress. I would do all the typing and then most of the time we didn't see eye to eye on ideas. He wanted to write blindly without further developing the outline and thinking about the story. The writing stopped because he chose to pursue something else, but made it clear to me that he wanted to continue at a later date.
Both of us value this script, but it was difficult for me to work with him because he makes everything else his priority and things must be on his time. Also, he is a very controlling human being and in the past we have worked on other projects where full credit was not given to me. It has been almost two years, so I just went ahead and wrote it without telling him - otherwise this idea that originated in my head would never see light of day. However, he still mentions the idea with hope and excitement as he works on his projects.
I registered some of the original notes with WGA when I was working with him (my money), but in comparison to my current finished draft, there was no plot, character development, but only a vague idea with a rough outline that really didn't have any meat. We wrote about seven actual screenplay pages together.
My question now is:
If a miracle happens and I sell this screenplay, then does this person deserve any credit? Story credit? Any advice for me? How should I approach this from here on out?
This causes me much frustration because I hate conflict, but I am also an ambitious writer that does not want to let good things go to waste because of a fouled partnership.
I need advice. A tiny spark of an idea developed in my mind when I was spending time with a friend and fellow filmmaker (at the time) about two years ago. We started talking about the idea and then quickly progressed to working out some notes in a few meetings. The idea barely developed, and it was a skeleton of a great idea that needed tons of more thought and development... i.e. a movie about four friends that end up getting an opportunity to do something special because they did something wrong (vague, I know - i don't want to post the idea here). But we don't know what obstacles those four are facing or even know the conflicts in the story.
We talked up situations and possible characters, but ultimately I was frustrated with his contribution and the progress. I would do all the typing and then most of the time we didn't see eye to eye on ideas. He wanted to write blindly without further developing the outline and thinking about the story. The writing stopped because he chose to pursue something else, but made it clear to me that he wanted to continue at a later date.
Both of us value this script, but it was difficult for me to work with him because he makes everything else his priority and things must be on his time. Also, he is a very controlling human being and in the past we have worked on other projects where full credit was not given to me. It has been almost two years, so I just went ahead and wrote it without telling him - otherwise this idea that originated in my head would never see light of day. However, he still mentions the idea with hope and excitement as he works on his projects.
I registered some of the original notes with WGA when I was working with him (my money), but in comparison to my current finished draft, there was no plot, character development, but only a vague idea with a rough outline that really didn't have any meat. We wrote about seven actual screenplay pages together.
My question now is:
If a miracle happens and I sell this screenplay, then does this person deserve any credit? Story credit? Any advice for me? How should I approach this from here on out?
This causes me much frustration because I hate conflict, but I am also an ambitious writer that does not want to let good things go to waste because of a fouled partnership.
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