Adaptation; A Screenwriter's Word for Borrowing

Researching the concept of Creative Commons also got me thinking about how I borrow creative material in my professional life as a Film and Television screenwriter. Based on this thought I thought it might be interesting to share with you, the members of our Writing for New Media class how I borrow or build off of creative material in order to create a screenplay. First off, if you don't already know in both the TV and Film industry converting a book, video game, news article or any other creative material into a script is called an adaptation. I personally have never written a feature length script that is solely an adaptation because it sometimes takes a huge chunk of change to get the rights to turn a New York Times bestseller into a script.

A New York Times Bestseller that became a Feature Film

However, I have taken concepts or ideas from other types of media that I have enjoyed or were successful with audiences and compiled them into my own feature length script. For example I really enjoyed the story featured in Marvel comic books called Civil War where the superheroes turned against each other splitting into two factions that broke out in war. Based on my knowledge of the story, I took the idea behind my favorite female superhero Phoenix, the concept of the Justice League Unlimited episode Clash and my imagination to create my own feature length script about a war between superheroes.

Visual representations of the sources I used to create my feature length script

As for the TV scripts that I have written I would not classify them as adapted material, instead like created works under a creative commons license, they are products of building off of previous materials. This comes based on the fact that they are spec scripts which means that they are scripts for TV shows that are currently airing which I can use as a resume to get a job as a writer. With that being said I bet some are you asking how can I turn in a script to a producer of a TV show when I don't own the rights to the characters? Well, the answer is simple you send your spec script or episode that for me is Supernatural to a show that is similar to the one you wrote for which in my case would be Smallville. The reason behind sending my Supernatural script to Smallville is that the writers on Supernatural are contractually obligated to not read material for their show created by outside writers and my episode would not fit into the season long story arc which is planned months ahead of time.

The TV Shows I wrote spec scripts for

However even though my spec scripts are primarily created by building off of previous materials, that didn't stop me from adapting other sources into my script. For instance my Supernatural script used information on the Salem Witch Trials to help me formulate my story and the Smallville script was based on stories I read in Superman comic books.
Examples of sources used to write my spec scripts

Honestly, it is incredibly hard to write a script that is not adapted especially when there is a stat that says there are more adaptations than original script. I guess what I'm trying to get at, fellow Writing for New Media classmates is that my professional life requires a lot of adapting a.k.a borrowing and I'm curious how much borrowing you do in your own personal lives especially with those of you who are web designers, musicians or partake in something else besides creating TV and Film. So if you feel like it post a comment to reply to my inquiry about how much borrowing you do.

Important!!! A Warning About Copyright

Recently I was introduced to the term Creative Commons which refers to a license that an author of a creative work can set up to allow others to build upon or share their material without having to deal with all the legalities of copyright. While researching more into this topic I watched an informational video on the Creative Commons website which told me that whenever you take a picture or save a document onto a computer that automatically means your material is copyrighted.



The video I watched on the Creative Commons website.

This was completely new to me and instead of looking at the video saying to myself that's interesting, my gut reaction was to jump on this blog to warn you, the members of our Writing for New Media class that the video's statement about copyright is not totally accurate. Yes, there is a legal document like the one in the video which states works become copyrighted automatically the moment they're made but what they don't tell you is that the only way that can hold up in court when someone tries to steal your material is if you have the certificate that says your work is registered with the Library of Congress which you can receive by visiting their website.

The reason why I feel it is important to share this information with you, the members of our New Media class is that by us being students at a Fine Arts School like Columbia College we have been all been asked to produce some form of creative work such as a script, music composition, painting or film and I feel as one of your peers I have a responsibility to make sure that your material is protected in a way that will prevent some industry exec from stealing your idea leaving you screwed. Now I know by making this statement some of you think I'm being paranoid but according to many of the Professors that I have had here at Columbia not thinking your material is copyrighted until you receive a certificate from the Library of Congress is the way to go.

An example of a form you will recieve after copyrighting your work with the Library of Congress.

For example, my Television Producer teacher, Tracy Fetteroif told us a story that she had a friend that turned in a script for the X-Files without registering it with the Library of Congress. A month later, the episode aired on TV with writing credits going to another writer for just changing the names of the characters in the original script. Based on this story, the best advice I can give you when it comes to setting up copyright, creative commons or showing your creative works to a company is to consult with a professional if you are unsure about a decision that needs to be made. These professionals may include a friend or family member that is a lawyer or someone who is in the same field as your creative work but the bottom line here is that this person needs to be someone you trust because your creative work is your livelihood and I would hate to see something happen to it.

My Opinion On Citizen Journalists

I was recently asked how I feel about Citizen Journalists and I can't say that hate them because that would be an oxymoron especially since that refers to all of you, the audience following my blog. In fact that's why we are using Blogger to be reporters, writers, commentators and critics who express their opinions on the Internet about a variety of topics. However, as Citizen Journalists we have a responsibility to show that all of us are more than a pajama wearing army of people who spread gossip around the Internet by giving ourselves credibility as writers. Giving yourself credibility as a Citizen Journalist if you have a working career is just as simple as posting a link on the bio for your Blog that connects to your profile on the website for the company you work at or professional articles that you may have written.

The Blogger profile for professional TV Critic Alan Sepinwall linked from his Blog What's Alan Watching.

Although for those of us who are students in Writing for New Media Class the idea of giving ourselves credibility as Citizen Journalists or Bloggers is more complicated because we may say that we are film, sound or web site design majors but we don't have the credentials like a degree. This is where posting movies, pictures and hyperlinks comes in handy because we can use another person's credibility to back up our thoughts and opinions that we leave open to the audience of the world wide web, thus making us true Citizen Journalists.
A screencap of Beatnik Babble Broadcast a Blog that does a great job of backing up its information with movies, pictures and hyperlinks.

In a nutshell that is why I think that Citizen Journalists are needed to allow us, members of a Writing New Media Class and the rest of the world to see each others thoughts and opinions without needing to travel. With that being said there needs to be more true Citizen Journalists like our New Media Class who backs up their posts with sources and less of the Gossipers who live in their Mother's basement. This will benefit the Internet because if more Journalists like us come into existence we might force the Gossipers upstairs in to the world of backing up facts with sources.

Wikipedia: A Good Resource?

While reading Chapter 2 of a book that was discussed in class called Cult of the Amateur I came across a quote from Stacy Schiff of the New Yorker who stated that “Wikipedia may be the world’s most ambitious vanity press". What Schiff means by this statement is that Wikipedia allows anyone who has access to the Internet aka Amateurs to post information on topics like Astrophysics raising them above paid professionals which in this case would be Astrophysicists.

In thinking about it I do agree with Schiff's statement because there are Wikipedia users like "Essjay" who according to Keen's book is someone who claimed to be a scholar but in reality he is just a High School Graduate that posts false information. However with that being said I don't want to give the idea that Wikipedia is a useless resource, but I would not think about it as something that can be used on Works Cited page. Instead, I would call it a list of links to websites that focus on a certain topic based on the fact that most of the information featured on a Wikipedia is matched up with a numbered citation that leads to an article from a legitimate news source such as The New York Times.

Examples of the numbered citations that can be found on a Wikipedia page.


List of legit references used to compose a Wikipedia page.


On a personal level I use Wikipedia when I write a spec script of a TV Show for my classes at Columbia College to ensure that my episode fits within the continuity established by previous episodes or to make sure that the characters personalities a portrayed correctly. Also during the school year or when I am working on a film, I read bios of comic book characters in order to keep the story arcs I want to use as a way to get a job at DC and Marvel Comics updated without having to read comics every week when I don't necessarily have the time. I guess the bottom line I'm trying to get at with these examples is as long as you know that characters like "Essjay" are out there Wikipedia can be a good resource if you know how to use it.

Template Experiment

This weeks assignment also required us to perform an experiment to see how our blog would look if we used different templates. I performed this experiment on my blog about the Television industry, Across The Airwaves. Here are the results...

My original template with the dots and deep colors would be the most interesting to see because it reminds me of the neon lights that can be found in places known for entertainment like Broadway or Las Vegas which is a perfect fit for a blog about Television. At the same time, the information is easier to read and seems more organized. The dark colors make the text jump out at the reader and seem to make the topic more exciting. The colors also seem to fit the neon lights concept better.

The second template being all white has no pizzazz. It is very black and white and uninteresting. It is like someone handing a person a regular piece of paper. There is no selling the topic or imagination used to advertise the TV Industry. This makes my blog very drab and uninteresting.

The third template is a little more colorful but does not seem to go with the theme of the blog. The colors are more for outdoors or happy summer type colors. The blocks make the blog seem more straightforward making my posts like a news story rather than a story about a form of Entertainment.

5 Tips to Consider When Creating A Blog

After reviewing four blogs that were similar to my own Personal Blog, I chose to use the experience to create five tips everyone needs to consider when creating a blog.

1. Do not use a white background especially when using Blogger.

This is a tip that the author of the blog What's Alan Watching failed to follow and it made all the wonderful information featured on the blog about the TV Industry extremely hard to read. Also, white is boring, you need to make the background on your blog flashy to attract the attention of readers. However don't make the background too flashy you do not want to blind the people trying to read your text. What's Alan Watching and its boring white background.

2. Make sure the text on the blog is readable.

This refers to making sure that the text on your blog is big enough that people don't have to squint to read it or making sure that the color of the text is visible on the background you are using. Making sure that text is readable also requires you to make sure that their are parameters set on the template that you are using for your blog to prevent the text you are writing from getting cut off or being presented as one long sentence that runs across the screen.

Examples of texts that may appear on a blog.

3. Make sure your blog stays on topic.

For example I have a blog entitled Across The Airwaves that is dedicated towards providing news and opinions on the Television Industry. This means that you will not find posts about movies or housewarming tips on my blog and if I ever turned away from that decision I would just leave the people reading my blog confused. In fact they might even turn away from my blog.

Best Week Ever is a blog that goes from discussing TV such as the Tyra Banks Show (left) to commenting on YouTube videos (right).

4. Write your posts in a way that does not require the person reading your blog to do a lot of scrolling with the Mouse.

I hate to say it but people are lazy which means that when people look at a blog they want the information right in front of them, they do not want to roll the little wheel on their Mouse to get to it. In order to put the information right in front of the people reading your blog try to keep your posts short and to the point while still making it clear that you are putting effort into them. However if you feel like making a post that is going to require visitors to do a lot of scrolling place a portion of your post on your blogs main page and then hyperlink it to a separate page dedicated just to that post.

This blog post links to this web page.

5. If you have factual information in your blog posts back them up.

Backing up the information on your blog using hyperlinks, images and videos is a great idea because it gives your blog legitimacy. For example on my blog, Across The Airwaves I try to hyperlink the names of TV Shows and actors used in my post to give my blog viewers background on what I am discussing in case they have never heard of it. I also use pictures to help my readers visualize an actor I am writing and I use video if it is available to help them experience a scene I am describing. An example of backing up facts posted on my blog.

Don't Know What To Watch On TV? Find Out What Alan Is Watching

Want to know what this man is watching? Check out his blog.

The next blog I am reviewing is entitled What's Alan Watching and it is a place where Alan Sepinwall, the TV critic for The Star-Ledger discusses the television shows he watches every week.

Layout: The blog is not cluttered with advertisements mainly because it was created using Blogger. Also the posts are easy to locate because they are in a column centered in the middle of the page. However the blog's background is white which is a problem because it makes the text on the page especially the links faint and unreadable at times. Despite this the blog has a nice feature in the right hand column where Alan lists all the shows he watches and they are linked to blog pages where all the posts focus on one TV show like Chuck.

Writing: The writing on the site is very eloquent with no typos which comes from the blog's author being a professional writer. The fact that Alan Sepinwall is a TV critic puts some legitimacy behind his opinions such as the new show Community relying on their characters to create jokes instead of pop culture references because obviously his profession requires Sepinwall to be an expert on the television industry.

Content: The content on this page stays focused on one thing Alan giving his opinions on the TV shows he is watching and he never strays away. He is also very timely about posting his opinions on shows he watches before each new episode to give the people reading the blog the experience of watching TV with Alan. The only problem is Alan watches too much TV meaning that he goes more in depth with his opinions on some shows more so than others.

Media: As for media there are no videos on the site but each post Alan makes about an episode of a TV show contains a screen-shot from that particular episode. Alan also does a good job of making sure the information he has in his posts are backed up with hyperlinks but as I said before the white background makes the links hard to read. At the same time Alan tries to encourage interactivity by allowing visitors to see his Twitter updates and leaving his posts opened ended to entice readers to leave comments. He also has interviews with people who work on the shows he is watching to make up for the lack of video on the blog.

Final Thought: What's Alan Watching is a great place for people to get direction on what to watch on TV but if you need the opinion of more than one blogger I would encourage you to check out TV Squad.

Best Week Ever Comedy at the Expense of the TV Industry

This week in class we were once more required to review a blog that was similar to a personal blog hat was based on a topic of our choice. In case you didn't remember my personal blog is entitled Across The Airwaves which focuses on news and opinions about the television industry. However before we get into reviewing this week's blogs I thought I would introduce the four parameters my reviews are going to be based on.

Layout: This refers to the look of the page such as if it is easy to read, if it is cluttered with advertisements or where the blogs information is posted on the web page.

Writing: This parameter explores how well a blog is written. For example, when looking at a blog I might ask myself are there any typos, is it presenting factual information, or does the writing come off as humorous or entertaining?

Content: Focuses on how well the blog stays on topic. Does it stick to the topic of television or does it tend to wander around in different types of media? Also this parameter looks to see if the blog sticks to a particular pattern with its posts or if the author is completely random.

Media: Refers to how well a blog author uses pictures, hyperlinks, and video to support his writing and the point he is trying to get across in each post.

The first blog we are going to explore is entitled Best Week Ever and it is sponsored by the television network VH1.

Layout: The information posted on the site in the blog is very easy to locate because it is centered in the middle of the page and matched up with fairly large headlines and dates. The only downfall is the site contains many animated advertisements which can be distracting but they are pushed off to the right hand side preventing them from making the blog difficult to read.

Writing: On the blog there weren't any typos mainly because it is run by a professional company. The information written on the blog also appeared as factual by making statements whose text was attached to a hyperlink that led to resources used by the author such as a clip to a TV show a blog post is talking about. The blog is also written in a way that is humorous but not offensive because the blog's authors tend to make fun of everything from bad TV shows to Michael Phelps and Sarah Palin.

Content: Even though the blog is listed as primarily focusing on TV, it tends to reach all over the Entertainment industry from celebrity sightings and movies to videos on YouTube. Also the blog's authors do not seem to follow a pattern with their posts. Normally they tend to focus on humorous things about the Entertainment industry but on occasion a TV or movie based news stories will pop up but the parameters of what makes a news story worthy to be posted on the blog seems unclear. However based on my observations this decision seems to be up to the writers discretion.

Media: The media on the blog is utilized successfully by movie clips being used to emphasize why Chicago is still a great city even though it did not get chosen for the Olympics. As for the pictures they are used to support the humor featured on the blog. For example an author on the blog was making fun of how boring the cover of Sarah Palin's book is and to support his joke he created this image...

The blog also does a good job of posting hyperlinks without distracting the reader through sentences that say click here for more information instead they attach the hyperlink to phrases that are written in a way that describes what each link is about while still allowing the author of the post to express his point.

Final Thought: Best Week Ever is a great site for a good laugh at the expense of Hollyweird but if you are looking for general TV news you might want to try somewhere else.

Entertainment Weekly's Resident Blogger

TV Guru Michael Ausiello

The other blog I reviewed this week is the The Ausiello Files and it has the exclusive television news and scoop. This blog seems to take individual television shows and give more of an opinion of how Ausiello feels about each show. Each show is dated with a small paragraph that states an opinion and if the reader wishes they can read a longer version by clicking on the read more phrase to read a longer article in more detail. This blog seems more organized and easier to read since there is more white or space that doesn’t make the blog look so cluttered. It did not seem as colorful or as fun with eye catching pictures. The blog was organized and it did seem predictable as to what information the reader could expect to find however it seemed to only have Ausiello’s opinion which seems it would be more informative to have more than one opinion.

For background info on Michael Ausiello go here.

Meet The TV Squad

This week in class we were asked to review blogs that were similar to the Personal Blog that we created based on a topic of our choice, mine is entitled Across The Airwaves and it focuses on the Television Industry. However enough about me, let's check out some other TV blogs...

TV Squad is a great blog because it is a great way to catch-up on the latest news as to what is happening on television shows, what is happening to specific actors, and how different critics feel about different shows. TV Squad also compares and contrasts shows to previous programs and sometimes to certain writers own works. The blog is informative but it is not predictable. It seems like it has all kinds of information without being very organized or predictable as to what information a reader could expect to find. TV squad gives fans the chance to comment and to ask questions. Many of the shows have excerpts that can be watched and shared with friends. The blog is fun looking and colorful but it has a great deal of information in a small area.

Here are some of the TV Squad Bloggers...

For more members of the TV Squad click here.