Can we reuse characters? |
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alexdsut
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 01 May 2017 Location: Warsaw Status: Offline Points: 1785 |
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Posted: 14 Jun 2019 at 5:40am |
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So, after writing "Dick Rogers Versus The Coconut King" for the first round of the Short Screenplay Challenge last year, a friend demanded that if I get Action/Adventure again, I should do a follow-up "Dick Rogers Versus..."
Now, I've just gotten that genre, and I'm not feeling too sure about reusing a character from a past NYC Midnight comp... Is this frowned upon? Any obvious reasons not to do it? Any other insights? Thanks in advance! |
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beckyrcollins
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 21 Apr 2018 Location: England Status: Offline Points: 2184 |
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Rules! http://www.nycmidnight.com/Competitions/SC/Official%20Rules%20and%20Participation%20Agreement%20SC2019.pdf
I'm looking specifically at items 16 and 17, but they've never really made much sense to me. Any lawyers out there who can help?
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Tim G
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 02 Nov 2016 Location: London Status: Offline Points: 6626 |
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I would think this would be absolutely fine - I certainly wouldn't worry.
TG
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Rhyming Story R2: Flying On Empty (Thriller)
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fioOxf
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 13 Jul 2018 Location: Oxford, UK Status: Offline Points: 6625 |
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Do it, change the names and description details before submission and change them back for your friend.
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JeffreyHowe
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 02 May 2017 Location: Missouri Status: Offline Points: 1966 |
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I see nothing ethically wrong with this. I mean, c'mon, some of us reuse characters like this anyway...
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Random
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 17 Nov 2017 Location: C. of Letters Status: Offline Points: 5401 |
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There are only about seven characters in existence; about the same number of stories. The names change, and they have different histories and motivations, but the character remains the same... |
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NilesPerry
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 10 Dec 2014 Location: Nevada Status: Offline Points: 2199 |
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Not a lawyer, but the rules don't say anything about serializing or creating ongoing characters that might appear in later competitions. I know we'd all love to see the next or future installments of John Adams' Round 1 piece. I've had characters pop up in different competitions before, but not as main characters... more of an insider thing for me and my writing partner than anything else. I'm not sure what advice to give. I'm sure a reply from emailing NYCM would come AFTER deadline, if at all (I only say that, as I have never once received a reply to any of my really important emails to them), so that won't help. I'd be afraid to say, "Take a chance...," just to have it blow up in your face.
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alexdsut
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 01 May 2017 Location: Warsaw Status: Offline Points: 1785 |
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Hey! Thanks for all your input. I ended up going for it and reusing the past character (along with his name). Other than the "brand" name, nothing in the script is preconceived, so technically there should be no issue... but, we shall see. :D
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Tim G
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 02 Nov 2016 Location: London Status: Offline Points: 6626 |
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Excellent! I'm looking forward to it. I definitely have characters I want to reuse, the prompts just haven't aligned...
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Rhyming Story R2: Flying On Empty (Thriller)
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