[Watch the video interview on Youtube here]
Film Courage: What do you tell your students who are afraid their ideas will be stolen?
Corey Mandell, Screenwriter and Screenwriting Instructor: That is a great question, it’s obviously something people worry about. First of all, I’m not a lawyer so I can’t give legal advice. If someone’s really concerned about this you should talk to an entertainment attorney. I’ll just tell you some of my understanding. I’m not an attorney, don’t do any of this without checking with an attorney.
So you can copyright your scripts by…well you can actually, literally just mail a copy to yourself and keep it sealed up and that will prove that you wrote that script on that date or you can register it with the WGA. That’s not too much money. What you’re doing is you have a record of I wrote this script on this date.
Okay, now again, I’m not an attorney but I have taken law classes and it is my understanding that you cannot copyright a concept, you cannot copyright an idea, you can only copyright the execution. So if I have an idea about a guy who’s in great economic distress and he….(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
About:
Corey Mandell is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter who has written projects for Ridley Scott, Wolfgang Petersen, Harrison Ford, John Travolta, Warner Brothers, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Fox 2000, Fox Family, Working Title, Paramount, Live Planet, Beacon Films, Touchstone, Trilogy, Radiant and Walt Disney Pictures.
Corey teaches screenwriting via private online classes using video conferencing to allow participants to see and hear each other in real time. His highly popular classes draw students from across the US, Europe and Australia.
His students have gone on to sell or option scripts to Warner Brothers, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Disney, Fox, Fox 2000, MGM, Universal, USA Network and Lifetime. Others have gained admission to the USC Graduate Screenwriting Program, the AFI Conservatory Screenwriting Program and Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab.
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