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# So you want to be a screenplay writer
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/so-you-want-to-be-a-screenplay-writer/
- Published: 2002-07-02T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:25:31.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Entertainment industry built on relationships, expert says*

*By DAVE DANFORTH Daily Press Staff Writer*

So you’re writing a screenplay, huh?

It seems nearly half the literate souls in Los Angeles aspire to the same creative mark.

What are your odds of success?

“It’s really tough, especially at the feature (non-television) level,” said Christopher May, an independent producer who reviewed screen projects for seven years at CBS. “You got a better chance of getting into the astronaut program.”

Bah... details.

If you truly are polishing your screenplay for the final workup, May, as well as the Dickerson-Dadon trial which quietly proceeded last week in Santa Monica, offer some pointers.

May, who started as a gofer, says a screenwriter needs three key elements.

“First, he wants the credit. Second, he wants the payment, because it establishes a quote (benchmark). Finally, he needs it to be produced,” May said.

The price for the screenplay — which starts at a Writers Guild scale of $40,000 — is the benchmark on which later works will be figured. Often, the second screenplay from a previously unknown writer can go to $80,000 if the first one fetched $40,000, May noted.

In Dickerson’s case, he was so anxious to get his credit in the “screenplay by” line and the film in the can that he offered to compromise with Dadon for $10,000, although he said his original deal listed $35,000\. In independent film production, the price, credit, and terms get negotiated often below the Writers Guild scale. That’s where it can get tricky.

Dadon said the price for “Outlaw” was $1,500 — a price Dickerson characterized only as an option — and that the $35,000 was for salaried work Dickerson never did because he went to work for L.A. County Supervisor Michael Antonovich instead.

In the end, Dickerson shared his screenplay credit with director Bo Svenson.

The initial contract is crucial, May said — a point re-emphasized in the trial. May said the contracts he sees are ordinarily about 15 pages long, and include all the terms up-front. Once signed, “what you do is what’s in the contract,” he said. That includes the price for the option to the screenplay (to get it off the market while deciding whether to go ahead), and the price for the screenplay itself should the project get made.

“Credits aren’t necessarily what they appear” in the film business, May noted. “In television, it would describe your job. But in film, you offer credit if you like the work. There are favors, but ‘associate producer,’ in a film? I don’t know what that person would do.”

If other writers are brought in to help with the project, the “screenplay by” credit is even more important, May said. Others may get a “story by” credit, which is a lesser recognition. It should be spelled out in the contract, May emphasized.

51D,“It is signed immediately. You don’t move without them,” he said. An independent producer might work with the credit, using it in negotiating a price, as in, “OK, $35,000 plus ‘associate producer’ credit if I can get that for you.”

May emphasized that producers disrespect screenwriters at their peril. In an industry built on “relationships,” the bond is likely to last throughout the project, which works better with a strong bond between writer, director and producer.

If you’re unsure of what the contract should say, try to examine another one, have an attorney examine it.

Dickerson whipped up a one-page deal, but it failed him because the separate “assignment of rights” not only transferred all rights to the screenplay to Dadon’s firm, but also gave up his right to sue.

“He wanted to undo the deal,” Dadon’s lawyer, Michael Gregg, said. “If he wanted a better agreement, he should have consulted an attorney.”

Finally, learn what a “gofer” does. It’s likely to be your first job if you get on the set.

May started as one. Asked last week to define it for the benefit of Judge Terry Friedman, he said, “You sweep, you get the coffee, you lug stuff. You put in 16-17 hour days. It’s pretty crappy, the lowest rung on the totem pole.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 2, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/070202.pdf?ref=smdp.com)