[B5JMS] attn. JMS: A TV writing question...

[b5jms at cs.columbia.edu]

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From: "jehanne" <jehanne_daix at hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2003 20:47:15 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 30


"Joseph DeMartino" wrote:

> Maybe.  But consider this:  The "final work" in these cases is *not* the
> script, it is the collaborative effort of *dozens* of people from the
> writer to the grips, all of whom work for the studio, and all of whom
> are using the studio's money to produce the *actual* "final work" - that
> is, is the movie or television episode.

OK, so forgive an ignorant question on my part. Who owns the script of, for
instance, "Value Judgements" (which was never produced) or "Grey 17 is
Missing," (which, AFAIK, has never been published), or "Day of the Dead"
(which has been published on its own) or "The Coming of Shadows" (which has
been published in multiple books)? Do JMS or Neil Gaiman or Fiona Avery own
the scripts they wrote for the show or does Warners?

> Granted it would be better if the rest of the folk who worked on the
> picture got a *share* of the actual copyright, rather than a diminishing
> residual, but this is not exactly the same situation as an author's
> relationship with a publisher.

And who gets residuals? Producers? Writers? Star actors? Guest stars? Any of
the production staff?

jehanne






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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 04:16:56 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 35

>OK, so forgive an ignorant question on my part. Who owns the script of, for
>instance, "Value Judgements" (which was never produced) or "Grey 17 is
>Missing," (which, AFAIK, has never been published), or "Day of the Dead"
>(which has been published on its own) or "The Coming of Shadows" (which has
>been published in multiple books)? Do JMS or Neil Gaiman or Fiona Avery own
>the scripts they wrote for the show or does Warners?
>

Under the WGA Separation of Rights provision, the studio owns the characters
and the concept, but the writer owns the physical script and can do with it
whatever he/she wishes, so long as in doing so no copyrighted images are used
on the cover of, for instance, books containing those scripts.

>> Granted it would be better if the rest of the folk who worked on the
>> picture got a *share* of the actual copyright, rather than a diminishing
>> residual, but this is not exactly the same situation as an author's
>> relationship with a publisher.
>
>And who gets residuals? Producers? Writers? Star actors? Guest stars? Any of
>the production staff?

Residuals are not a part of ownership or copyright; they are deferred
compensation, if the film or tv series does well, they benefit, if not, they
lose.  Everyone on your list gets residuals except production staff.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
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