Quoting Unicus69:

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I have said it before, and I will say it again, the 'notes' section for writter needs to be deleted.  It does nothing but cause confusion.

And for Screenwriter!

I think you simply prefer to be confused. 

Quoting pdf256:

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Quoting GSyren:

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Ok, color me confused...

When the notes for Director says Do not include Unit Directors or Directors of Special Features  then everyone seems to agree that this is the law.

When the notes for Writer says Used for Original Screenplays only  then you say to ignore that.

That doesn't seem consistent or logical. 

No need to be embarrassed, this is a part of the rules that is badly in need of a rewrite. The notes for the credits table are not consistent!

pdf

Hopefully when the rules get updated for the new Media Distributer, Rating Reason, and Overview features then this can be addressed as well.  2 simple little deletions and the problem is solved.

Quoting hal9g:

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I think you simply prefer to be confused. 

Agreed

Skip

Although I still feel that the intent is that adapted screenplay should be given a screenwriter credit in Profiler, I bow to the opinion of the majority and have changed it to Writer and shall contribute it as such once contributions are accepted for 3.5.

Still waiting in vain, though, for an explanation for Skip's comment in the other thread. Since this concerns the same title I would certainly like to know what was meant by that sarcastic remark. 

It's clear that the rules are contradictionary regarding Writer. I asked if my interpretation was correct. Most disagreed, so I abided by the majority decision. I didn't remember the previous discussions. Am I not allowed to express a different opinion?

Regarding the sarcastic comment in the Voice Credits thread - since everyone else agreed that my way was the only way to do it, why don't you tell me exactly how you would have done it? And please be specific, not any vague "just follow the rules"!

Quoting nolesrule:

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The example in question was not an adapted screenplay. To be adapted, the film's story must have been based on a another work previously published. Simply writing the story for the studio prior to it being converted to a screenplay does not make it adapted.

Ok, now I'm confused - again... 

If the "writers" based their screenplay on Linaweaver's story, then the screenplay cannot be considered original. So if it isn't original and not adapted, then what is it...?

Quoting GSyren:

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Quoting nolesrule:

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The example in question was not an adapted screenplay. To be adapted, the film's story must have been based on a another work previously published. Simply writing the story for the studio prior to it being converted to a screenplay does not make it adapted.

Ok, now I'm confused - again... 

If the "writers" based their screenplay on Linaweaver's story, then the screenplay cannot be considered original. So if it isn't original and not adapted, then what is it...?

OK. Let me try to remove the confusion.

In producing a film, there are three basic writing credits. "Story", Screenplay" and "Writer". "Story is for those who develop the premise in paragraph form. "Screenplay" is for those who write the screenplay. "Writer" is reserved for those that were involved in both parts of the process.

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The term "Written by" is used when the writer(s) is entitled to both the "Story by" credit and the "Screenplay by" credit.

If the original story is written for the sole purpose of turning it into a movie, then the screenplay based on it is original, not adapted. It is standard practice for studios to develop the story of a movie in paragraph form before writing the screenplay. The "Story By" credit is reserved for those who wrote the prose version of the story.

If the story is originally published as a book, short story, ballad, poem, magazine article or even another movie (any previously published work) and the studio sees it and decides to turn it into a movie, then it is adapted.

Now that all of this is explained, let's look at the credits...

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Here's another interesting credit from Spacebabes and the Monsters:

Story by
Brad Linaweaver

Written by
Buddy Barnett
Kathe Duba-Barnett
Chuck Williams

I entered this as OMB for Linaweaver and Screenwriter for the rest. Does that seem correct?

Based on WGA descriptions of the credits, all 4 were involved in the "story" process (that's developing the premise in paragraph form), while only the final 3 were involved in writing the screenplay.

The problem is that here we don't have a "story by" credit, so how do we credit the person in DVDP when they didn't write the screenplay? Technically they haven't earned the writer credit, while the other 3 did.


Edit: I left out the caveat that generally, the WGA will not give "Writer" credit on adapted material. Rather, they use separate "Story" and "Screenwriter" credits, even when the person did both. The credit question in the thread about Blade Runner reminded me of that.