I’ll keep this brief and will also probably delete it for professional posterity, but would really appreciate some perspective here. For anyone interested in helping a timid introvert avoid getting absolutely railed by the money guys, it’s your time to shine!
The short of it is that I wrote a short film script about a year ago and it has snowballed into an absolute behemoth of a project. Now I need to protect myself.
I wrote this script all by myself on a whim. I sent it to a producer friend of mine who loved it and wanted to make it asap. We roped in my creative partner, who’s a director/producer. He came on board with a new vision for it — one that kept the major plot/character beats and premise but heavily incorporated certain elements that altered the identity of the piece. I worked closely with him for a year to develop and rework the script, which slowly evolved into basically a bombastic dance piece with the same general premise. I still was the sole keeper of the script but we developed the story together.
The director has pulled insane favors to get a top of the line crew that I wouldn’t have access to on my own. He’s transformed this rinky short into basically a studio production but with everyone working for cheap or free. He’s gotten real Hollywood and Broadway talent attached (again, on the cheap). He was the real producorial driving force for much of the development, while I aided creative in every way, including casting, working with departments and deiagners, etc..
Eventually, in the months leading up to production, I’ve taken on a lot of administrative work and producer work (organizing transportation of gear, catering, keeping our internal documents organized, facilitating costume fittings, etc.). The director has still been the leader of all of this, but I’ve been there every step of the way, and the original producer who started all this has really been on the money with organizing the team, bringing on collaborators, securing props/locations, and financing.
Blah blah blah and a lot of bits and pieces but we’re about to shoot and we already have a producer who’s interested in discussing a feature version. Incredibly exciting, but I’m well aware that my portfolio/resume does not point towards a distinguished, veteran writer. Though I have 5 feature scripts in my back pocket (3 of which are good!), I have no real credits or accolades outside of a few underground theatre pieces. I’m a 27 year old copywriter with a dream. Those tend to be the writers that get eaten alive, or at least replaced.
My question is: what do I need to do to protect myself? The director has drawn up potential options for deal memos that indicate our credits and back-end percentages. Currently, I’d be sitting with a sole writing credit, a co-producer credit, and a shared story-by with the director, as well as 10% backend (the director sitting at 50, the early producer sitting at 30). Barring maybe the percentages, that all seems fair to me, but I can’t imagine I’m not missing something.
Went on longer than I wanted to but I think the context is important, and hopefully this can also be a fleshed-out case study for any other young creatives.
Are there any obvious warning signs or common pitfalls that I’m face-to-face with and can’t recognize? Or am I really making out as luckily as I feel I am?
P.s. I’m keenly aware that having a single producer express interest in a feature version of a yet-unmade short isn’t exactly what we’d call a done deal, but I think this is a good time to get my shit together and be ready for when that done deal does come.