Monday, May 16, 2011

Ampersands and Ands

I noticed a strange screenwriting credit back in 1992 (yes, I am old) for LETHAL WEAPON 3 where they credited things as



screenplay by Jeffrey Boam and Jeffrey Boam & Robert Mark Kamen Story by Jeffrey Boam


which struck me as kind of weird.

From the WGA handbook:
Quote:

When credit is accorded to a team of writers, an ampersand (&) shall be used between the writers’ names in the credit to denote a writing team. Use of the word “and” between writers’ names in a credit indicates that the writers did their work separately, one usually rewriting the other. This distinction is well established in the industry through custom and practice.


So, this means that Jeffrey Boam came up withthe main plot points, then wrote a draft by himself, then did a collaborative draft writing WITH Robert Mark Kamen.

I highly recommend reading the WGA's Handbook on credits, CLICK HERE