I believe every damn word in this article about the original writer of Yesterday, Jack Barth, getting steamrolled by Richard Curtis. And I guarantee you this: If Yesterday had been a critical/commercial bomb, Curtis would've been the FIRST ONE to give Barth all the credit for it. https://twitter.com/BittrScrptReadr/status/1263862463214190597
Screenwriters are the first ones blamed when a project goes badly, and the last ones to get credit when a project is a success.
I was once told by a more successful screenwriter that if I would put their name in front of mine on a screenplay I'd written, they'd take it to their reps/producing partners. There was no shame in the request. It was casual. Business as usual. That shit happens all the time.
And if I'd agreed to do that, and if by some miracle the movie had gotten made, that dickhead would have taken all the credit. With no issue. I would've been the junior writer with whom he was generous enough to share credit. On my own script. That he never touched.
And yes, you can speak up after the fact. You can request arbitration. There are protections. But first you have to decide to burn the only bridge you feel you've built in one of the most high-walled industries ever. It's terrifying when you first start out and feel so alone.
It's that fear in writers of every level that's exploited by executives/producers/other writers. It's that fear that kept Jack Barth, with 40 years in this industry, silent when Richard Curtis came calling. You can hear it in his every word, especially if you've felt it yourself.
The other thing that burns me is all the replies to that article stating if the situation was under the WGA's authority it would have been different/better for the writer. There is just... so much largely unacknowledged grey area there that swallows writers whole.
The WGA is largely a very good org filled with tons of great people doing great work, BUT it remains as exploitable as writers themselves and there are many segments of writers it outright fails to protect.
I've been on the non-union side of things in this town. I've written internationally syndicated TV series produced by hideous human beings who used every shitty loophole/tactic to not employ any union labor and get away with it and make massive bank doing it.
And I'm sorry, but the burden simply cannot fall on a broke 22-year-old writer with no industry experience to fix situations like that. There's little to no proactivity coming from the only people who govern these corners of the industry.
The other reason it really pisses me off is that AFTER the fact in those unbelievably exploitive situations, it's the writers who are punished. You can't put non-union TV work on a resume. Agents/managers will tell you not even to mention it. It "doesn't count." It's infuriating.
The people who exploited you suffer NO consequences and keep being rich, successful assholes, while everyone else treats you, the writer, like a pariah or a scab or an idiot who should've somehow known "better," despite NO ONE teaching writers this shit ever.
Looking back, I abhor the situations I perpetuated/participated in... but I'm still absolutely proud of a lot of the non-industry work I did. I produced good, shootable scripts under inhuman deadlines/conditions while practically starving to death. That shit is HARD.
All of this stuff needs to be talked about more, because it's still treated like it doesn't exist. I love that TV writers are actively working to make the industry more accessible to folks with things like WGA Staffing Boost. That's immense. But there's so much more to be done.
You can follow @MattFnWallace.
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