Fake sUCKs! - safeguarding your work on the internet. Is it possible?

Thanks to Toba Beta for the first part of the quote. (See, I DO TRY to acknowledge every single person from whom I borrow (steal?) words and images for this blog.)

I put links to the artists' or writers' websites, where possible, hoping that it will generate more interest and traffic for them - leading to purchases? If I don't put links, it means the work is unattributed.

Imitation...the sincerest form of flattery?

From Lolha

 Stealing other people's work and calling it your own. NOT.

There's always that dilemma when posting your creative outpourings online - and here my experience is with screenplays, but it could just as well apply to anything you've ever written.

Looking for ways to protect your work? Here's the bad news!

You can't...not really.

Sure, you can register it with Writers' Guild of America or copyright it - but even so it's not difficult for someone to take it, change it (or not) and claim it as his own.

I've seen it happen.

By the way, forget that urban myth that you can prove ownership by sealing it up in an envelope and posting it to yourself.

"As the copy you post remains in your possession, the other party can easily show that you had ample opportunity to tamper with the contents, and of course once opened it could not be used as evidence in any future claim or appeal."(The UK Copyright Service)

Counter-intuitively, the very best way to ensure that your work isn't used without your permission is to post it in as many places as possible. That way, the ownership and date it was written is very visible and verifiable.

memegenerator.net

 Actually, I should re-phrase that - the best way to ensure that if your work IS used without your permission you are more likely to find out about it and be able to do something about it is to post it in as many places as possible.

A number of screenplays I know of, written by friends of mine, have been used without their consent and appeared elsewhere on the internet, either as screenplays with the author's name changed or as completed films on YouTube. Not the end of the world, but seriously annoying and unnecessary.

The crazy thing is that if 'the thief' had only emailed the writer, permission would almost certainly be granted without a second thought! Writers are invariably delighted to know their work has met with approval.

Tomorrow's blog - a brilliant tip which allows you to keep track of your work online, thought up by Techie-Meister Tim Coxon, Number One Son, of whom I am so proud. It really works!

If you don't know history, then you don't know anything.

You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree...said Michael Crichton, and that's much how I felt having watched Lincoln last night - wanting to see for myself what all the fuss was about, prior to The Oscars.

I was horribly confused by Democrats and Republicans in that film. I was sure in my own mind, based on following current affairs, that it would have been the Democrats that were the Abolitionists, not the Republicans. More study required...

Spot the real Lincoln...Daniel Day Lewis was simply mind-blowingly incredible in the role (and I tried very hard not to be swept along by the hype - but it was impossible not to be in total awe.)

 

I loved what Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian film reviewer, said: "And what a feat from Day-Lewis: the nearest thing a 21st-century biopic can get to a seance."

As a screenplay writer myself, she says, laughing hollowly at considering herself in the same breath as, in this case, Tony Kushner, I was interested in its history. The screenplay's history, I mean, as well as Lincoln's.

Based in part on Doris Kearns Goodwin's biography of Lincoln, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,  the screenplay was first written by John Logan in 2001, then another version was commissioned, this time to be written by playwright Paul Webb, around 2006. Spielberg was still dissatisfied. In 2008, I think, Tony Kushner was hired.

His first draft was FIVE HUNDRED PAGES (a screenplay is usually about 100-120!) 

He joked he was on his "967,000th book about Abraham Lincoln," and finally narrowed the plot down to the two months in Lincoln's life when he was preoccupied with adopting the Thirteenth Amendment.

Filming must have taken place in 2012 - more than ten years after the first screenplay was written.

I think perhaps I get too impatient too quickly!

I have a very firm grasp on reality...

I can reach out and strangle it any time! 

So - as promised yesterday - if only to myself - a reality check about my work.

Of Night And Light - the novel - still waiting to hear back from the commissioning editor.

Dancing With Elephants, The Wilful Child, Belief in Cod, One Of Our Pies Is Missing, Little Red Riding Hood and The Granny Confusion - still waiting to hear back from the animation company.

Filth - short film - at final edit stage.(London) To be taken to Le Marché du Film, Cannes, Short Film Corner.

The Other Side Of Silence - short film - original shoot date disrupted by the snow but apparently it is imminent. (Whitby)

Downtown Abby - short film - script approved and scheduling shoot with Eastenders actor attached. (London)

Caught In The Act - short film - (apparently) to be shot this year. (New York)

 Just For A Moment - a short film which has, apparently, been "on the point of completion" for over two years, (Leeds) - so I will chase it up, now I've remembered its existence! UPDATE: Answer to my query 'Any progress?' - "Sadly no. It's still ongoing. Will be finished though. I promise."

Creep Like A Rat - 22 page short - script approved - (apparently) to be shot within  the next eighteen months (New York)

The Colour Of Her Scream - longer short - loved by director but wants to seek proper funding in order to do it justice. (London)

The Last Assassin - a short script commissioned by a producer, in progress (London)

(The apparentlies in brackets are because I'm relying on the word of a director whom I've never met...)

Aside from all that - I have three feature length scripts complete, another 30 plus shorts, and Quirky Tales - a series of stories for young children, two of which have been broadcast on FunKidsLive, and Earthbaby, an audio story for babies, and Milo Saves The Circus - a long-time-coming interactive iPad story for young children.

So - quite a lot! And quite a lot needing to be done to get that stuff off my computer and out into the big wide world.

Inner Essence Designs

“When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears.”

One day, I had to quote from Anthony Robbins. Today is that day.

Yes, I'm grateful, there is abundance...and other weird cosmic things.

It seemed as though the minute I accepted the fact that I DO want to be a full-time creative writer, the universe took that on. Good old universe.

Or, to put it another more worldy way - misquoting Wendy Cope from Serious Concerns - a favourite anthology:

Bloody Film Directors

Bloody film directors are like bloody buses
You wait for about a year
And as soon as one approaches your stop
Two or three others appear.

(By the way, none of the aforementioned film directors are in the slightest bit bloody, either literally or metaphorically!)

SO a week or so ago, my script Filth was produced. The director is coming down next week to show me the rushes and discuss future projects.

AND I received a mail out of the blue from a director in NYC asking to option Caught In The Act. He has also asked me to write a script for him from one of his ideas

AND I received another mail out of the blue from a young film maker wanting to make The Other Side of Silence

AND a good film-making friend of mine wants us to create a film for next year's Raindance Festival.

by Henry J Cowdery

Head.

Mine.

Spinning.

Try as we might, we write what we write.

bg Thurston said this. She's a poet and I can't find out much about her.

A ca Coxon aside: I found her name slightly annoying, at first. WHY does she not use a capital BG? What IS her name? I searched and searched and could find nothing much at all. That was even more annoying. I like to KNOW things. Then I realised - what a very good way it was to ensure your name is memorable

That aside, yes, try as we might. we write what we write...

Oh, the strategies I've employed to get this screenplay written.

I regularly face west as part of my Feng Shui strategy to promote creative thoughts.

I make myself complete x number of pages before I'm allowed to eat another Iced Currant Bun (food of the gods)

(I'm getting used to eating stale Iced Currant Buns)

Yesterday's strategy was - I'm trying to think of a name for it...

If I have a problem, say - I can't think where a scene should go, or what will be a credible motivation for a character's next action or whatever, normally I sit and stare at the page until I go cross-eyed.

Yesterday, I wrote a list of household chores. A problem surfaced. I looked at my list. I chose a chore. I said to myself - 'Before I've finished hand-brushing the stair carpet I will have worked out how to get x to do y"

Other stair carpets available

IT WORKED!

Peter likes my new strategy.

Day 23 Update
6 pages - that's better, girl!

Writing - The Importance Of Names

It's funny - well, strange - that I can't start writing a screenplay, story, novel, ANYTHING unless I have the title there. I have an idea of the plot but it doesn't crystallise until the title is there. I can't even operate with a working title. It has to be THE title. That's what makes the whole thing come into existence for me -  a reality, rather than an amorphous blob of random thoughts swimming around in the pond of my brain.

Then there's the naming of characters. I don't KNOW the name of a character until I see it somewhere. It might be on a website of baby names or practically anywhere, including a telephone directory. All I know is that when I see the name, THAT'S IT, and the character takes on a life of its own.

I was thinking of this today because of how some names just sing out to me as being so perfect.

Today, that name was Curiosity - NASA's rover that just landed on Mars!

Yesterday, was the title of a novel: Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo (now, SHE could do with a different name!)

I wasn't forgetting the screenplay update. I have visitors. No chance at all to write.

Day 5 Update
Half a page and incipient panic

 

Screenplay writing: How to end not starting - as if by magic

I would like to say a HUGE thank you to British Telecom for providing such an appalling service yesterday.

My phoneline went dead at about 10 in the morning...

No phoneline, no internet.

I spent quite a time unplugging things and plugging them in again and watching little lights flashing on the Home Hub when they shouldn't have been flashing and trying not to bother Peter at work because surely A Woman Such As Myself should be able to deal with a simple techie problem like this?

HOWEVER...

Do I need the internet to write a screenplay? No, I do not.

Usually, I use the internet a lot when I'm writing (yes, I know it's sad and ridiculous!) It's when I include facts and details. I feel the need to check that they're accurate before I carry on with the next bit. So I stop writing and consult Mr. Google. I do the same if I can't find The Perfect Word.

Yesterday, with steely determination and a stiff upper lip, whenever I got to a bit like that I put in the words BLAH BLAH BLAH and carried on.

(I am now thinking that I'll submit the completed work without having found all those places and people will think I've gone mad. Or madder.)

Doing that seemed to work...

Day 2 Update

I wrote 5½ new pages and sorted out a lot of things in my head.

So yes, thank you British Telecom. You may well beam proudly.

BUT DON'T DO IT AGAIN.