Adapting your own short story to short script

RainbowDragon · Oct 24, 2008

I'm writing a short script adaptation of an UNpublished short story. Those of you in the short story market know it can take months or years to find a publisher for a short story.

My goal for the script is just to open up a new genre to start making connections with up-and-coming producers. I've gotten feature (funding-pending, of course) independent gigs from shorts before, either as samples or as submissions for possible production.

Are there significant advantages to waiting to place the short story that I'm not seeing? I"m leaning heavily toward not waiting for lightning to strike there, though if it does all the better. If I write "adapted from the short story by me" on the script and make sure the producer is aware that it's an adaptation, do I retain extra rights to characters, etc. that are often forfeited with a spec script? Or would publication be necessary to secure those?

Thanks, all!

AnneAtWordHustler · Oct 24, 2008

I recently adapted a short story I had written into a film. The short story was unpublished BUT had won a few minor awards from some contests I had placed in. The film went on to show in a few film festivals, which was great. It ended up not really mattering that I had written the story that it was based on. Point being: if you are adapting your own work, I don't think it being published or not will monetarily make a difference, and rights-wise of course you'll own it all since it's all your creation.

In my experience, the only time it will matter is if you publish the short story and someone buys the rights FROM you to make their own adaptation of the story into a film version. Best-case scenario, you wouldn't want to have a script started if you are looking to sell the rights to your story because you'd want a producer to come in there, buy the rights, and then pay YOU to write the adaptation. If you already have a script started, they won't have to pay you as much because you've already started doing the work for them.

Hope this helps.

Plot Device · Oct 24, 2008

On a side note, Stephen King's short stories and novellas make excellent adaptations, but NOT as short films, but rather as feature-length films.

Consider feature length for the particualrly meaty ones.

RainbowDragon · Oct 27, 2008

Good points, thanks! Maybe I'll wait (and likely wait, and, sadly, wait some more. . .

) Just not forever. . .

small axe · Oct 28, 2008

do I retain extra rights to characters, etc. that are often forfeited with a spec script?

Also, if you sold the script BEFORE you sold the story, wouldn't the filmmakers probably want to buy the rights to your characters (they almost always want sequel rights etc) ?

I dunno. But imagine if you'd written STAR WARS as a not-yet-published short story, then sold the script.
They buy the rights to sequels, they decide "we don't want you diffusing that cool Darth Vader character with any short stories etc" ... they want to keep Darth Vader for themselves.

I dunno if your intellectual property rights to the character would be controlled because they bought and now own the movie rights to the entire character (which wasn't published yet, so hasn't really staked a claim yet etc)

If nothing else, you'd want the script contract to specify whether you can still use your own character(s), or whether they now own them, I think?

I'd be afraid it might be like a musician who sells the rights to his songs, has a falling out with the label, and suddenly the label's saying "You cannot sing/record songs we own ... even if you wrote those songs" -- messy unless specifically dealt with ahead of time?

Hillgate · Oct 28, 2008

Short Story to Film

Very good advice I got when I wrote one particular script was that I should write the book, which I did, and then claimed the script was an adaptation of the book rather than the reverse. As I'd written both, it didn't really matter in which order they came.

I read a fantastic adaptation of a short story recently (unproduced but by a very well-known writer) which makes me think that a popular short story that's sold well is more adaptable than a full-scale novel, which at times can fall flat in the adaptation.

Write both, keep the script under your hat, maybe, but holding out to get paid to write the script is probably not an amazing idea because the producer will probably hire someone else to do it unless you can show him there's a workable script already. S/he'll probably get another writer on board even if that is the case. You're going to get paid anyway, and your agent or lawyer should be able to ensure you get what's coming to you for whatever work you've done.

Also, if you've already written a successful novel AND a good screenplay of it then you're saving the prodco/distributor a lot of marketing dollars, so they should be prepared to pay you more for that.

Good luck - I'd adapt the short story to a full-length feature and see what it looks like. You never know, you might get a very pleasant surprise.

dpaterso · Oct 28, 2008

Just my personal 2 cents, I haven't had much joy in adapting short stories, there's never enough source material. Novellas on the other hand have more plot and usually a B story as well.

-Derek

RainbowDragon · Oct 29, 2008

dpaterso said:
Just my personal 2 cents, I haven't had much joy in adapting short stories, there's never enough source material. Novellas on the other hand have more plot and usually a B story as well.

-Derek

Yeah I agree, for every Shawshank Redemption there are many Cats in the Hat.

RainbowDragon · Oct 29, 2008

small axe said:
Also, if you sold the script BEFORE you sold the story, wouldn't the filmmakers probably want to buy the rights to your characters (they almost always want sequel rights etc) ?

I dunno. But imagine if you'd written STAR WARS as a not-yet-published short story, then sold the script.
They buy the rights to sequels, they decide "we don't want you diffusing that cool Darth Vader character with any short stories etc" ... they want to keep Darth Vader for themselves.

I dunno if your intellectual property rights to the character would be controlled because they bought and now own the movie rights to the entire character (which wasn't published yet, so hasn't really staked a claim yet etc)

If nothing else, you'd want the script contract to specify whether you can still use your own character(s), or whether they now own them, I think?

I'd be afraid it might be like a musician who sells the rights to his songs, has a falling out with the label, and suddenly the label's saying "You cannot sing/record songs we own ... even if you wrote those songs" -- messy unless specifically dealt with ahead of time?

Good point - a real contract sounds like the solution, then, whether short or feature, to make sure the character rights, etc. are retained. Usually for shorts there is no pay, so they don't have much of a case for usurping all rights, but best to spell it out in no uncertain terms.

If you have to wait till publication to have enough clout to sell (for real-life up-front money not used in board games) and keep the rights, then that's probably worth waiting for. But I suspect the vast majority of published short stories aren't going to sell movie rights without the writer actively pushing the idea or a script adaptation. Though someone please correct me if I'm wrong. . .

Adapting your own short story to short script

RainbowDragon

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