All screenplays on the simplyscripts.com and simplyscripts.net domain are copyrighted to their respective authors. All rights reserved. This screenplaymay not be used or reproduced for any purpose including educational purposes without the expressed written permission of the author.
I have a short script on the site here that is set in a mental ward. It is not based on any operating facility, and I made up a random name.
I would not worry about too much about "working hospitals", depending of course what you wantted to show. I do recall some medical fiction shows using a closed down hospital in LA somewhere that was used for sets many times.
There are a couple of reasons not to include a playlist:
1. For production purposes (and you should always write a script as if it's for production), you have to deal with royalties, which raises production cost.
2. The producer may not like your choice in songs. This could be a deciding factor, believe it or not.
3. The producer may not be familiar with your song choices. This could gnaw at him while reading. "What's this Rover song?" I remember reading a script where the writer had the band play several songs by two bands that I was not familiar with. It got a little distracting after a while.
There are a couple of reasons not to include a playlist:
1. For production purposes (and you should always write a script as if it's for production), you have to deal with royalties, which raises production cost.
2. The producer may not like your choice in songs. This could be a deciding factor, believe it or not.
3. The producer may not be familiar with your song choices. This could gnaw at him while reading. "What's this Rover song?" I remember reading a script where the writer had the band play several songs by two bands that I was not familiar with. It got a little distracting after a while.
Cheers Phil, sorry only just noticed your reply.
Um, yeah, well the songs that will be played are mostly well known, no real obscure ones. This is a very Aussie script that i'm hoping might be done here locally on the Gold Coast where it's set. But my question again is, do cover songs need permission? So does every little pub band that does cover need to pay for the privilege?
Jeff buddy, yeah The Rover, top Zep song. I plan it to played about halfway through the set. Great album it's off to, their best I reckon
Covers need permission, but it's a different sort of royalty issue. A lot of times, pubs and such have a type of license that covers any song played in their club and they just pay a fee for that general license. Churches have this sort of thing over here called CCLI where they pay an annual fee based on the normal attendance to play nearly any contemporary Christian or worship song that's out there. The way it works is that the CCLI company has contracted with the publishers of the music to allow these cover versions to be played. The organization reports which songs it played and CCLI pays the royalties to the publisher.
When you deal with covers, you deal with the publisher of the song, not the band. I would bet a producer would be happier to deal with covers than the original recordings.
That aside, I'm in the camp of write whatever you think you need for the story you need to tell and deal with the logistics later. If you haven't written it yet, then the last thing you need to concern yourself with is logistics of song royalties.
Same goes with the original hospital question. You need to finish your story first, and if the songs or hospital is an issue, fix it in rewrites.