In the first part of an examination of film activity in Ireland from an economic perspective, Erik Salholm looks at the travails of the screenwriter and the opportunities offered by television.

:'I've been shafted by producers several times. I don't even think it's malicious. They just think that's how it is: get the writer to work for as little as possible, and most of us are dumb enough to accept that.' Terry McMahon is a well-known scriptwriter, who works in Ireland and the US. In 2004 and 2005 Terry and co-writer Brian O'Malley won scriptwriting prizes in Ireland and at Cannes for their screenplay Sisk. Terry says that inequitable treatment of writers is endemic to the Irish film industry. 'After months of wrangling – my lawyer told me I was getting screwed, but I compromised and compromised – I was about to sign the contract and there was one hitch: I wanted sequel rights, novel rights and stage rights – meaningless to them, but possible sources of income to me – and they refused. I just thought: "fuck you!"'

Killer contracts
Terry McMahon's experience is not unique. David Kavanagh, Chief Executive of the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild (IPSG) says that many screenwriters in film and TV face the same prospects. A big part of David's job is talking writers through contracts they have been offered. 'Occasionally we see contracts where writers have been ripped off, but more commonly we get contracts that are badly written and poorly understood by the producers who draft them and the writers who receive them. 'For example, we often see option agreements which contain a full transfer of rights within a contract which is supposed to promise the transfer of those rights in the future! It's a contract which is literally, technically nonsense. I've seen at least ten of these given to writers.' David admits that writers do not help themselves by accepting poor terms. He says that competition among writers in Ireland is huge for the modest rewards that are available. The guild estimates that €3.25–€3.5 million is available to writers – a basic income for about 100 people. David says the guild has about 200 members and a further 120 are waiting to join, so he is not surprised that many writers are prepared to sign 'a bad contract for bad money rather than no contract for no money'.

'Assuming the contract is technically correct,' he says, 'the big question writers have is "how much should I get paid?" I tell them they should get €12,500 for a draft of a feature film script; that's not a lot of money for six months' work, but not only are writers prepared to settle for less than that, they won't even ask. So the third level of difficulty is persuading writers that if they value their effort and their work, they should attach monetary value to it. The same goes for producers.' David Kavanagh says that even a technically correct contract is profoundly weighted in favour of the producer and against the interests of the writer. 'Explaining to a writer that once they sign a contract they no longer own their own project is overwhelming to a lot of people. They don't understand that they sign away not just all conceivable rights - throughout the universe, in perpetuity – but also future copyright. So the minute they put pen to paper they no longer own the project; the producer does. 'These are really only symptoms of the problem that contracts are fundamentally inequitable and ineffective. If this approach to the acquisition of rights was a good idea, we would be seeing lots of great Irish films and TV. But, with all due respect to those involved, we are not. So something is wrong.'

The full article is printed in Film Ireland 114.