It has always been kinda hard out there in HWD for the lowly 'scribe.'
Writers might very well be at the poverty rung of the glitz'n'glam scale if we were discussing whose greenbacks are most sure. And according to Variety, that's only getting worse.
As studio-produced flicks decrease, the mechanics of filmmaking are creating the opportunity for greater exploitation of new writers and writers with new ideas. A writer may write for a studio "on-spec" [def: a script shopped or sold on the open market, as opposed to one commissioned by a production company" Variety Slanguage Dictionary] and not get a money-backed commitment (that is, get PAAAAAAAAIIIIIID!) until the studio is satisfied with the re-write, singular.
However, writers are re-writing their lives away with no check in sight for several drafts.
If ya ask meeeeee...
sounds like all the more reason to go INDIE! Write, produce, go broke, and shoot the thing your danged self.
Check the full article over at Variety.com, but first, here are a couple of money shots:
"For writers who have sold a script or landed an assignment, studios have gone from making deals that included a traditional first draft, two sets of revisions and a polish to what are called "one-step" deals. It's essentially payment for that first draft, with fees for additional work left to be determined.
In a landscape of waning producing deals and fewer pictures in the pipeline, writers say it's become especially difficult to insist on getting paid for rewrites -- even if they end up doing more than a dozen drafts. Their fear: not getting a next assignment."
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