Treatment writing

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Screenplay writers’ fees

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From our Google Analytics data I discovered that a lot of keywords leading visitors to our site www.TheScreenplayWriters.com were related to screenplay writer rate and other keywords close to that. It suggests that a lot of people are looking for more information about how much screenplay writers charge to write a screenplay. Since screenplay writers almost always do not announce their rates in public, there is ambiguity about ‘how much does it cost to get a screenplay written’ and ‘how much do screenplay writers charge’.
WGA Rates
Writers Association of America (WGA), which actually are two organizations (unions to be precise), one for the West Coast and another for the East Coast have fixed some minimum and maximum rates for all writers who are their members. This is basically to ensure writers are not underpaid, and there is no unhealthy competition and undercutting of rates.
The highest, the lowest
Roy McCardell, probably the first screenwriter of USA sold his short screenplays for $15 each in 1900. Going by the rate of depreciation, $15 today would have been less than $350.
In 2003, Manoj Night Shyamalan, the American director and screenwriter of Indian origin charged $7.5 million for writing the screenplay of ‘The Village’.
Screenwriters Terry Rossio and Bill Marsilii received $5 million for the screenplay of Déjà vu in 2005, which is a record for spec screenplay rates. Spec screenplay is a screenplay which is written without a formal order, or without the writer receiving any fees for it initially. He or she writes it without being paid and then tries to sell it to a studio or filmmaker.
‘Against’
Often we hear terms like a screenplay writer is paid $75,000 against $150,000, which actually means, the filmmaker guarantees the screenwriter a payment of $75,000. If the film is not made, the screenplay writer does not receive anything more than $75,000. But if the movie is made and released, the screenplay writer receives $150,000, which means an additional $75,000. Interesting, isn’t it?
TheScreenplayWriters.com screenplay writers’ fees: 20% – 30% less than WGA rates
So, the big question is what is the screenwriter’s salary if you choose to order a script with TheScreenplayWriters.com? We are very democratic regarding this, and have kept into consideration the inde filmmakers and student filmmakers who are tight on budget as well as big studios and producers, who want nothing but the best. Our rates start from $3,000 and goes up to over $100,000. The rate really depends on the writer who is writing your screenplay. But we are still the most reasonably priced screenplay agency around. Our rates are at least 20% to 30% less than WGA rates and that is one of the main reasons why more and more studios and filmmakers are choosing our service. We also offer innovative cost cutting solutions like getting your screenplay written by a middle order screenplay writer and then getting it refined and polished by a top order screenwriter. The result is a world class screenplay for a rate which is almost 40% less than WGA rates.

pinaki-ghosh

By Pinaki Ghosh

From our Google Analytics data I discovered that a lot of keywords leading visitors to our site www.TheScreenplayWriters.com were related to screenplay writer rate and other keywords close to that. It suggests that a lot of people are looking for more information about how much screenplay writers charge to write a screenplay. Since screenplay writers almost always do not announce their rates in public, there is ambiguity about how much it costs to get a screenplay written and ‘how much is a screenplay writer’s salary’.

WGA Rates

Writers Guild of America (WGA), which actually are two organizations (unions to be precise), one for the West Coast and another for the East Coast have fixed some minimum and maximum rates for all writers who are their members. This is basically to ensure writers are not underpaid, and there is no unhealthy competition and undercutting of rates.

The lowest, the highest

Roy McCardell, probably the first screenwriter of USA sold his short screenplays for $15 each in 1900. Going by the rate of depreciation, $15 today would have been less than $350.

In 2003, Manoj Night Shyamalan, the American director and screenwriter of Indian origin charged $7.5 million for writing the screenplay of ‘The Village’.

Screenwriters Terry Rossio and Bill Marsilii received $5 million for the screenplay of Déjà vu in 2005, which is a record for spec screenplay rates. Spec screenplay is a screenplay which is written without a formal order, or without the writer receiving any fees for it initially. He or she writes it without being paid and then tries to sell it to a studio or filmmaker.

In Bollywood, rates of busy screenwriters start from INR 400,000 and goes up to INR 3 million. Recently one of the highest fees in Bollywood was paid to Joshua and Bryan, the American screenwriter duo who wrote the screenplay of ‘Blue‘ (2009). Joshua and Bryan are a part of our team of screenplay writers.

‘Against’

Often we hear terms like a screenplay writer is paid $75,000 against $150,000, which actually means, the filmmaker guarantees the screenwriter a payment of $75,000. If the film is not made, the screenplay writer does not receive anything more than $75,000. But if the movie is made and released, the screenplay writer receives $150,000, which means an additional $75,000. Interesting, isn’t it?

TheScreenplayWriters.com screenplay writers’ fees: 20% – 40% less than WGA rates

So, the big question is what is the screenwriter’s salary if you choose to order a script with TheScreenplayWriters.com? We are very democratic regarding this, and have kept into consideration the inde filmmakers and student filmmakers who are tight on budget as well as big studios and producers, who want nothing but the best. Our rates start from $3,000 and goes up to over $100,000. The rate really depends on the writer who is writing your screenplay. But we are still the most reasonably priced screenplay agency around. Our rates are at least 20% to 30% less than WGA rates and that is one of the main reasons why more and more studios and filmmakers are choosing our service. We also offer innovative cost cutting solutions like getting your screenplay written by a middle order screenplay writer and then getting it refined and polished by a top order screenwriter. The result is a world class screenplay for a rate which is almost 40% less than WGA rates.

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How is Hollywood and Bollywood screenplay writing different?

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pinaki-ghoshNick is back from Maine.
From the recent inquiries we discovered that a lot of student filmmakers looking for screenwriters are coming to us. So we decided to set up a team of writers exclusively for the student filmmakers, who are tight on budget.
We may soon have a couple of really big names joining our team of screenplay writers. But I’d prefer to remain tight lipped till that is confirmed.
I believe there are a couple of fantasy film screenwriting projects in the pipeline, which I expect to come to me this September. They come from two of my old clients. The demand for fantasy screenplays are also increasing stunningly. Harry Potter effect? Maybe. One thing is sure, till this Harry Potter bubble is intact, we will remain busy. 
Since we are catering both the Hollywood and Bollywood industries and as such have a team of writers who hail from both these massive industries, I discovered some interesting differences in the ways scripts are written in Hollywood and Bollywood.
One. Hollywood filmmakers do not expect, neither allow the script writer to use camera and editing directions in their screenplay. That is left for the director and editor. I agree. If the screenplay writer decides how the camera should be placed or how it should move, or how the editing should be done, why the hell are the director and the editor employed? Just to follow the instructions of the screenwriter? In the Bollywood industry however I noticed some of the directors encourage the screenplay author to use camera directions like pan, trolley, or directions about the angle, as well as editing instructions. Interesting, isn’t it?
Two. Now this is an interesting difference, and Hollywood may wonder why at all it is like that in Bollywood. Bollywood, in addition to script writers employs separate dialog writers, and dialog writers are separately given credit. The screenplay writer and the dialog writer are often different persons. Of course it is not that way in Hollywood. If I try to trace the roots of this practice, it comes from the days when very melodramatic movies were made in Bollywood (arguably, this practice has not entirely been ). There were separate writers, besides the screenplay writers, who could empower the dialogs, add spice to the dialogs and make them powerful. I have myself seen in my childhood, people in theatres used to burst into applause and throw coins at the screen when powerful dialogs were delivered. I don’t know if coin shower happens or happened anywhere else in the world. The practice of a dialog writer still exists in Bollywood, though nowadays in a lot of movies the screenplay writer and the dialog writer are the same person. But they get paid twice for the two roles. Nice… to get paid twice for one work. 

pinaki-ghoshBy Pinaki Ghosh

Nick is back from Maine.

From the recent inquiries we discovered that a lot of student filmmakers looking for screenwriters are coming to our TheScreenplayWriters.com.  So we decided to set up a team of writers exclusively for the student filmmakers, who are tight on budget.

We may soon have another couple of really big names joining our team of screenplay writers. But I’d prefer to remain tight lipped till that is confirmed.

I believe there are two fantasy film screenwriting projects in the pipeline, which I expect to come to me this September. They come from two of my old clients. The demand for fantasy screenplays are also increasing stunningly. Harry Potter effect? Maybe. One thing is sure, till this Harry Potter bubble is intact, we will remain busy.

Since we are catering both the Hollywood and Bollywood industries and as such have a team of writers who hail from both these massive industries, I discovered some interesting differences in the ways scripts are written in Hollywood and Bollywood.

One. Hollywood filmmakers do not expect, neither allow the script writer to use camera and editing directions in their screenplay. That is left for the director and editor. I agree. If the screenplay writer decides how the camera should be placed or how it should move, or how the editing should be done, why the hell are the director and the editor employed? Just to follow the instructions of the screenwriter? In the Bollywood industry however I noticed some of the directors encourage the screenplay author to use camera directions like pan, trolley, or directions about the angle, as well as editing instructions. Interesting, isn’t it?

Two. Now this is an even more interesting difference, and Hollywood may wonder why at all it is like that in Bollywood. Bollywood, in addition to script writers employ separate dialog writers, and dialog writers are separately given credit and payment. The screenplay writer and the dialog writer are often different persons. Of course it is not that way in Hollywood. If I try to trace the roots of this practice, it comes from the days when  melodramatic movies were made in Bollywood (arguably, this practice has not entirely been discontinued). There were separate writers, besides the screenplay writers, who could empower the dialogs, add spice to the dialogs and make them powerful. I have myself seen in my childhood, people in theatres used to burst into applause and throw coins in the direction of the screen when powerful dialogs were delivered. I don’t know if such coin shower happens or happened  for similar reasons anywhere else in the world. The practice of a dialog writer still exists in Bollywood, though nowadays in a lot of movies the screenplay writer and the dialog writer are the same person. But they get paid twice for the two roles. Nice… to get paid twice for one work.

7uvhie5fnb

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TheScreenplayWriters.com is creating ripples already

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pinaki-ghoshBy Pinaki Ghosh

TheScreenplayWriters.com, which was my US writer friend Nick Blake’s and my brainchild, completed little more than 20 days since launch on 31 August and has bagged a number of new projects already.  Of course the people associated with the new service are not new; I feel glad to say, each of our team members have backgrounds of huge experience.

TheScreenplayWriters.com is unique and one of its type because it is the only screenplay writers’ agency to employ both Hollywood and Bollywood screenwriters.

The first project that was confirmed was director Raj Rahi’s  (Jo Bole So Nihal) new English movie Angel Jay. The name of the movie may change though. The second project to roll in was from Dubai, and was about the Iraq war. The subject was challenging, and I was already wreaking my brains with Raj Rahi’s project, so my US writer friend Nick Blake volunteered to take up the Iraq movie project. When the Iraq movie project came up, Nick was on a vacation in Maine with his wife Laura and we had massive communication problems, with the mobile phone signal fading out more often than not, from Nick’s side. Nick had to come to the town library in Maine to check my mails and reply them. I hope I did not ruin Nick’s perfectly planned holiday.

The next to come our way was a Bengali movie project, which has not been finalized yet. It was piece of cake for me, because I am a Bengali by birth. Did I forget to mention that there was a Kannada movie screenplay enquiry on the second week? Though I was not too keen to take up the project simply because I don’t know the language (but would love to), Nick however was very eager to take up the project and spent one day searching for a reliable Kannada film writer.

There were a couple of very positive enquiries from Gurgaon and Bangalore. Both from first time filmmakers, whose passion is genuine. Hopefully the Bangalore project will materialize this month and the Gurgaon screenplay project will take longer.

Good news is that a lot of good film writers are approaching us and we have found some really talented writers in the process. One writer I would like to mention is Shivani T, who wrote the story ‘Sex on the Beach’, one of the ten short stories of the critically acclaimed film ‘Dus Kahaniya.’