registration

[clandis88]

should i register with WGA West or WGA East? Looking at the two sites it seems they are different and have a dispute going on right now.

[William Haskins]

go with west for a screenplay. regardless, both are equally effective and protective.

[clandis88]

When i register do i need to send the whole script or can i just send a page or two describing what the story is about? And should i get into extreem detail?

[dpaterso]

When i register do i need to send the whole script or can i just send a page or two describing what the story is about? And should i get into extreem detail?
The less detailed your registered treatment is (treatment: a long synopsis or outline for an unwritten screenplay), the less protection you're giving yourself. The more story and character detail you supply which tells a unique tale, the better. The shortest treatment I've written is around 10 pages, the longest is closer to 20 pages. I adapted these into full-size screenplays.

By story and character detail what I mean is, if you write something like, "This is a story about a fantasy world where dragons and knights do battle" -- that's a little too generic. If you write, "In the fantasy world of Zakadum, a band of heroic knights led by Sir Gaylord vow to stop the evil elf wizard Magamoog from unleashing an ancient spell that will awaken monstrous dragons from their thousand-year-old slumber to terrorize the world and do Magamoog's bidding. But upon learning of the knights, Magamoog sends winged monkeys to kidnap Lady Fyreena, Sir Gaylord's true love, and imprisons her in his Fortress of Dark Doom. While the other knights continue with the quest to stop the dragon spell, Sir Gaylord and his clever esquire Rupert ride for Dark Doom..." etc. etc. Yes I just pulled that out my a$$, apologies, it's for example's sake only.

Written out in detailed form like this, I'd be mildly surprised if your treatment will fit into just a page or two. Depends how much you compress the story and exclude the very information that makes the story unique and undoubtedly yours.

From reading all of your messages, it actually sounds as if you're putting the cart before the horse. You've not really got anything concrete written yet, as such, but you want to register it and immediately start sending out queries or arranging pitches. But screenwriters like Joe have earned respect and "trust points" from producers -- if Joe submits or pitches a treatment, the people who see this will believe he can deliver a useable screenplay if they express interest in the idea. That's a position we'd all like to be in, I think, but until we earn respect and points through optioning a script or placing in a contest or otherwise proving ourselves, I'm none too sure whether anyone is going to be interested in reading a treatment.

Your best hope, in my opinion, is to write the screenplay, register and copyright it until you feel safe, then send out queries and/or enter contests, the winning of which will give you some measure of credibility.

The choice is yours, as is the decision to throw away money on registering what you have right now, whatever that may happen to be.

-Derek
Derek's Web Page - stories, screenplays, novels, insanity. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57/scripts.htm)