For my A Level Media Studies production I had to produce a 5 minute short film. I decided to make a comedy. When it came to writing the script I need to bounce some ideas off a friend. I therefore met up with this friend of mine and told him about the story and the particular scene I was having trouble with. I told him that I wanted him to help me improvise this scene and said that I would be recording it and he gave me his permission to use any of the material I wanted to. So all fine there. We improvised/acted out the scene and that went well. When I came to writing the script, I listened back to what I recorded of the two of us, and used one of his jokes in the final cut of the film.
Now here’s the problem. He claims that seeing as though I’m using his material, he co-wrote the script with me and he now wants the credit for that. I disagree! I came up with the story and I only used that one joke (which he gave me permission to use anyway). This would be exactly the same as using a joke that I heard while passing someone on the street. Technically they wouldn’t have co-written the script because I used the joke in the context that I saw fit and adapted it to the situation within my script.
He is also the narrator for this film of mine, and also improvised some of his lines (which we kept in the final edit) and further claims that this is another reason for being credited as co-writing the script. I can’t see this in any way!
So my question is: is he right or wrong?
