Writers Guild of America

THE PLAYWRITING SEMINARS > FILM > PLAYS vs. FILM > REALITIES > TIPS > HUSTLE > WGA

'It was a film of emotions. The sound was more important than the words, the colors more enchanting than the scenery. Every moment was a cry, the sound of a car engine, a song. It was, I think, my first romantic film. With this film, I became convinced that one must not narrate but express. What the characters did not say was often more important than what they said.'

-- Claude Lelouch

The WGA offers unproduced screenwriters two important services:

• Screenplay Registration Service.
  Upon receipt of your screenplay manuscript with the necessary forms and payment, the Guild issues you a registration number and records your script in its archives. This establishes the date on which you completed the script and helps protect you against unauthorized appropriation of your efforts by anyone who sees it after that date.

• Manuacript Format for Screenplays
  The WGA has guidelines for screenplay and teleplay manuscript format. This is markedly different from professional stage play format and very different from the format of published screenplays and teleplays. If you've gotten hold of a screenplay manuscript, more than likely it's a shooting script and will not be in the right format for a first draft screenplay.

Here's almost everything there is about the Guild from the source . . .

Or contact the WGA by snail-mail . . .

Writers Guild of America-West
WGAw Intellectual Property Registry
7000 W. Third Street
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 782-4540
Fax (323) 782-4803

That's industry jargon for the minimum you'll get for your screenplay if someone with money wants it.