Weeded Out - what went wrong

How did a genuinely good first draft fizzle? That's probably want the film pros are interested in knowing. Maybe this is a typical story: I don't know. - Well, for starters, the production companies that wished to produce the film never actually sat down and met me to discuss production or writing another draft. There's nothing wrong with working remotely - many screenwriters live outside of hubs like LA or Wellington - but those people are usually working as freelancers on contracts. The second problem was that, despite this lack of faith, they had a bizarre fixation on the idea that my Shipwrecked on Islands EP songs were the way to improve the movie, even though I'd been very clear that they were separate projects and advertised both scripts. As I say, they want to use my songs to make Daffodils, which was a jukebox musical based on the catalogue of Jordan Luck's songs (Victoria, Why Does Love Do This To Me). The producers got some young, hot people to sing the songs and claimed it was NZ's first movie musical ... it wasn't. They kept on analogising my draft script to Once, totally missing the point that Portrait of a Knight is equivalent to Once, particularly if Spielberg is a fan of both flicks. Love that flick, but my vibe is obviously more classical. In essence, these people aren't fond of full-blooded musicals, which made their advice extra-insulting. They want to run away from anything sophisticated, and want every number to be dumb and overdone in the Hollywood movie musical style. - There was never any contract, let alone any implication of implied consent: I wrote the draft, and I developed methods to shoot it as written, before giving up and pursuing the Dakumentary. The money people refused to come to the party based on that draft, despite the popularity of Weeded Out with the wider film industry.

The idea that Cassandra and James had somehow contributed to the script to a point where they thought that their contributions were worth credit was incredibly sneaky.

Michelle K wrote less than 30% of the screenplay of Portrait of a Knight, but he came to several meetings and re-did the script with us. That was a genuine collaboration, and that was also the draft which became the shooting script, so that's another reason that we added Michelle to the credits.

The Red Scare contribution = 0% of the initial draft.

All the dialogue, plot and characters are mine.

The only reason they claimed co-authorship was because production had been halted by my decision to stand firm. Much like VUW is only kissing my arse because they think that I'll eventually donate the script to them. Sorry. This is my livelihood, or it would be if people accepted that good writers aren't all that common and my scripts have something extra, despite the flaws. We could've easily come to an arrangement where I sold the script and those theatre geeks could've written their own original songs to fix the flaws. I even offered to give it away for nothing if Cadence and the kids wanted to do that, though it was implied that was for an indie production, rather than coursework. VUW's sneakiness and abuses of power are pretty pathetic, but it just goes to show that pretending to be a film studio is much more difficult than it appears. They're a university: they're used to creating IP rather than negotiating to use it. Except in music, of course, where tertiary institutes licencing sheet music is one of the major sources of income for contemporary composers. - To adopt some hip-hop lingo: when you come to negotiate with me, come correct. Everyone likes to laugh at showbiz gossip or showbiz language, but that jargon is a sign that you know what you're on about. If I was negotiating for a contract to fix some IT bug that's affecting multiple systems, nobody would laugh at $50,000 and stubborn, forceful negotiations. People that were initially ticked off that I'm not some subservient beta jumping up and down at the possibility of making an expensive movie are slowly growing to respect that I'm playing by the rules (despite the piracy). Most producers would rather work with a forceful creative person than a doormat.