A friend and I took a class last year where we were commissioned to write a script for BYU-Television. They paid us to finish a 30 page screenplay that they would produce for a special programming that they are working on called "Writer's Block."
They said that if our script was to be picked up for production we would get an additional amount as compensation. They didn't pick up either of our scripts (even though they led us on and told us "maybe" for several months).
After December the rights lapsed back to our control, so we went ahead and started developing a feature based on my friend's script. Unfortunately, and fortunately, they decided that they still wanted to produce it and that they would let him know when they pick it up.
We had a choice...he could pursue the BYU thing and get some money out of it, or I could try and convince him to sign over the rights of development to me. Eventually he decided (and I encouraged) that he pursue them and try and get his way with the script (like having sole authorship and okay on director).
I think this is a good course for him, we can always come up with better ideas and better scripts. This way something he wrote will be produced and aired on national television. If we had held onto it, who knows what would have happened to it, it might have died.
On to the next project!!
They said that if our script was to be picked up for production we would get an additional amount as compensation. They didn't pick up either of our scripts (even though they led us on and told us "maybe" for several months).
After December the rights lapsed back to our control, so we went ahead and started developing a feature based on my friend's script. Unfortunately, and fortunately, they decided that they still wanted to produce it and that they would let him know when they pick it up.
We had a choice...he could pursue the BYU thing and get some money out of it, or I could try and convince him to sign over the rights of development to me. Eventually he decided (and I encouraged) that he pursue them and try and get his way with the script (like having sole authorship and okay on director).
I think this is a good course for him, we can always come up with better ideas and better scripts. This way something he wrote will be produced and aired on national television. If we had held onto it, who knows what would have happened to it, it might have died.
On to the next project!!
