Hello folks :)

So, to set things up:  A little over a year ago, a filmmaker from India sent me an email about my short that I had posted on here about wanting to film it.  I didn't have any problems giving him permission, in fact, this same short was actually filmed by a film student for a project who had emailed me prior.  He sent me a few updates saying how he was working on this project and doing rewrites and how he was developing it for the Hindi language and all that.  He just recently contacted me again saying how he was still developing this project, and that he was making a lot of changes to the story, adding characters, changing plot ideas, etc.  He even mentioned how confident he was in this story that he was even thinking about expanding it into a feature.  (Btw, this guy is not an established filmmaker, I don't think)

Let me just say that this particular short was written almost 4 years ago when I had virtually no screenwriting experience, and was posted on this website nearly 4 years ago.  Since this short was written, it has been pretty much shelved and untouched, and I moved on to another script, one that I have a lot of passion for.  Not to say I don't care about this short, but rather that it was more like a 'practice run' for me, someone who was starting out writing and put something together.  More recently, I have taken a step back from writing to focus on my schoolwork, and honestly I've been having trouble coming up with new things to write anyway.

So, the thing is...should I care?  Should I be caring that this filmmaker wants to make all these changes to a script I wrote?  Like I said, I wrote this way way back and put it aside, so I'm kind of glad someone wants to pull it back out and breathe new life into it.  From the messages he's sent me, he really sounds passionate and confident about this project, and plans to shop it around to festivals or companies and whatnot.  He also insists that my name will go in the credits wherever he takes this project.  I kind of want to let him take free reigns and do what he wants with it, but then there's a tiny part of me wondering if I should lay down some restrictions.  Would there be any negative ramifications for letting him do whatever he wants with the story?  Should I care more than I do now about this?  Thing is, if he ends up changing it so much that only a little of what I originally wrote remains in the final product, can I still take writing credit for it?  

So anyway, I'm thinking about just letting him develop this project how he feels, but I wanted to get some opinions on if that's the right thing to do.  Like I said, I really haven't touched this script in years, so might as well, right?

If he's using your name, then I'd say no. It's only a short. He's not a writer... adding new characters, plot lines... makes it a new story based off yours. So you'll just get a 'story by' credit at best.

He's got no other credits to his name... you haven't even checked. I wouldn't trust it.

If you're desperate and have no other 'ins' then it may be worth rolling with it and keeping your fingers crossed... but if I were you I really wouldn't hold out much hope.

At the same time. I'm not you and not in your shoes. If you don't care about the short then let it go and chalk it up to a learning experience if it all goes wrong.

Quoted from rock. I'm thinking about just letting him develop this project how he feels, but I wanted to get some opinions on if that's the right thing to do.  Like I said, I really haven't touched this script in years, so might as well, right?

Ship of Theseus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

IMDB: http://pro.imdb.com/help/show_leaf?writerterms

WGA Screen Credits Manual
III. Guild Policy on Credits: http://wga.org/subpage_writersresources.aspx?id=171

Okay - *major* warning flags going up in my mind at this post. You're saying that this guy wants to expand the short into a feature?  He doesn't have that right - unless you specifically give it to him.  Granted, if he develops something completely different, using the short as a creative springboard, you don't have too much protection there.  Ideas can't be copywritten.

But tangible work can.  IE: that script, those specific characters (regardless of the names). Have you seen any examples of this guy's work?  Because if it's not sterling quality, I personally wouldn't risk it.  Especially since he's in another country, and you'll have very little control over anything he does that might violate whatever contract you agree upon.  Granted, it'd be hard to keep him from proceeding anyway...but no reason for you to wrap it up in a bow for him.

If he does do great work, I'd say let him do the short.  But put explicit limitations on what rights he has.  And definitely no right to expand the script on his own.

Thanks so much for your responses :)

He recently sent me a draft he was working on.  Granted, it was in Hindi so I did the best I could with Google Translate, but even though he added a bunch of stuff, most of what I wrote was still there, some of it word-for-word.  So at least he's not just taking the concept and writing his own story, he's expanding off of what I wrote.  He also explained to me in detail what kind of things he was going for thematically and story-wise, and they're not that bad.  

I was thinking about providing my own input and telling him to give me updates regularly.  My gut feeling tells me to just let him proceed with the project - I feel like it's at least better in his hands than sitting in my drawer gathering dust, which is what would happen if I told him no.

Yeah, well... that's it. Bollywood is also a huge film industry, far larger than the one we have in the UK, so this could become a beneficial relationship in the future. Who knows. Good luck.

I would let him have at it. If it were a feature you've worked for months on, I wouldn't be so prone to let him rewrite too much. If it's just a short and things are being lost in translation anyway, I don't see any real harm. Nobody's going to make any dough off it lest it goes viral on the web so you're not missing any piece of a pie. I wouldn't attach my name to it if it's awful though. I have a few shorts I pretend not to have ever existed.

James

Okay - and I do agree that it's fine to let the guy play with the short.  But make sure that it's down in writing that you're not giving this guy the rights to the characters overall, or make a feature out of it...

Cheers,

--J (W)

Just a word of advice....

ANYTIME you agree to let someone come onto your story ....like a cowriter for instance, you could LOSE YOUR ENTIRE CREDIT! Take it from me. It's happened to me. So be warned that if you give him the 'ok' you are surrendering your rights in a way as the writer. A great concept is like a good heart. Don't let someone take your heart...we all know what happens to a body without a heart, right?