How To Protect Yourself And Your Ideas

Many actors have gone on to have successful careers as writers, producers and directors as well. It’s almost a natural progression in the industry. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck even won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Good Will Hunting, a script they wrote together.

If you’re an actor and you’ve decided to also try your hand at screenwriting – congratulations! It’s a big undertaking and I wish you the best of luck. More importantly, I want to encourage you to make sure your ideas and your drafts are protected. Often novice screenwriters will share their ideas with others to get feedback, which is a great idea and essential to producing well-written project. However, whether you have a treatment or a fully evolved script, it’s important to have your work copyrighted and registered with the Writers Guild of America before you share your ideas, or your script with anyone.

Recently a Elite Casting Network member interested in pitching a television show to a major network posted his idea to the forum to get feedback from other members. Ideas, concepts, treatments and scripts that haven’t been registered – especially if they’re good ones – are extremely vulnerable. You never know when someone may decide to take your idea and pass it off as their own. And unfortunately, this does happen in the industry.

Each year the Writers Guild of America registers more than 55,000 pieces of literary material. In the event that someone tries to pass your idea off as their own, having your material copyrighted and registered serves as legal evidence that the idea is yours and can be used to pursue the matter in a court of law. You do not have to be a member of the Writers Guild of America to have your work registered.

To register your work with the Writers Guild of America, visit www.wgawregistry.org. To copyright your work with the United States Copyright Office visit www.copyright.gov.

Once you’ve protected your work, visit http://www.EliteCastingNetwork.com and get feedback from other members on your project.

Hollywood Terminology: What’s A Table Read?

When you begin working in Hollywood, there will be lots of terms that you’ll hear that you may not be familiar with. Terms like blocking (the physical movements by the actors and the camera in a scene) or dailies (screening of unedited footage) are constantly thrown around and you’ll have to quickly become familiar with the terminology of Hollywood.

Once you book a role, you don’t always simply show up to the set, film your scene and then wrap. There can be lots of other steps in the process, depending on the magnitude of the project. One term - and process - that you’ll want to become familiar with is the “table read.”

As a performer, it’s easy to become fixated on your specific role in a production. But it’s important to take the big picture into consideration. A production requires cooperation, teamwork and creative contributions from everyone involved in order to produce a successful project. A table read is a great way for the writers, actors, producers and director to make sure that the script flows, and to determine if any edits are required. It’s important that this process is completed before shooting begins in order to save money and time.

Once the script is completed, everyone gathers in a room to act the script out – typically while sitting at a table. It’s an opportunity for the writers to hear the script out loud, and see what works and what doesn’t. The actors read the entire script and after they’re finished, the writers can take the notes they’ve made and apply them to the script. The script is then revised and redistributed to the cast and crew!

Don’t you just love the creative process! Want to learn more? Continue to read my blogs and visit our online forums ( http://Forums.EliteCastingNetwork.com ) for helpful “How To” information and other industry tips.