Thursday, October 25, 2012

What's the deal with logline sites where you basically put your idea up for the world to see. I write a motocross- themed story in 2001 and had an early version of it up on one of the "Lit Sales" sites. Never heard from anyone regarding it yet a couple years alter I see Corbin Blue (or Cordon Bleu) making a motocross movie all over my motocross magazines with a storyline eerily similar to the early version I posted on said site. 

If I get a hold of a copy of this film and see it was "borrowed" from my putting it up there I will be the most prolific antagonist they ever saw. Social media is a bitch and it can work both ways for writers who register and show proof of p regression to a story and show it was posted on said site to gain interest, not to be ripped off.

Well, this a good reason not to post your ideas on logline sites. I certainly wouldn't. If you have a great hook, you're giving it away. It would be all but impossible to show that someone from the other company went to the site and looked at your logline. And even if you could prove it, you cannot copyright an idea, and a logline is an idea.

That said, without knowing your story, there is another possibility, which is that sports movies tend to use only a few plots, usually involving a wise but flawed coach, a hotheaded kid, a team of misfits, and some overfunded, dickish adversaries. It's entirely possible that the other guys made their own motocross movie without any knowledge of yours, and its similarities come out of the genre. Most people who think someone stole their movie idea are wrong. It can happen, but it's rare.

And social media do not scare production companies at all. They call it "free publicity."

9:15 AM

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