Hollywood Screenwriter Michael Jamin sits down with Phil Hudson to discuss questions asked by fans and future screenwriters. Questions such as, "Is there plagiarism among screenwriters? How do you prepare for a general meeting with a large production company with a development exec as a screenwriter? When you're a writer's assistant, should you ask for an episode, wait until one is offered, or send the showrunner a draft?"Autogenerated TranscriptMichael Jamin (00:00):In terms of stealing ideas, often in a writer's room, someone will say, oh, they, I just saw that episode two weeks ago on whatever show. And then usually the writers will go, Ugh, we won't, we'll kill the idea. So that's not plagiarizing, that's coming up with the idea independently and then killing it because you don't want people to think you plagiarized. You're listening to Screenwriters. Need to Hear This with Michael Jamin. Hey everyone, welcome back. It's Michael Jamin. You're listening to Screenwriters. Need to Hear this. I'm here with Phil a Hudson.Phil Hudson (00:33):What up,Michael Jamin (00:34):What up? And we're doing part two of the ask me anything if Phil has some more questions. These are designed for, what kind of questions are these called?Phil Hudson (00:41):Yeah. So ton of questions came in, so we're moving into professional questions. What I kind of grouped that way, aspirationalMichael Jamin (00:49):Part one, if you missed it, we're, if you missed it, that was questions about CRA or craft. Craft.Phil Hudson (00:54):Right. Craft.Michael Jamin (00:54):Yeah. And these are about questions about professional and what else?Phil Hudson (00:59):Aspirational questions. Aspirational, like breaking in and then some general stuff. So, yeah. All right. You ready for this?Michael Jamin (01:06):I'm ready.Phil Hudson (01:07):All right. Professional.Michael Jamin (01:09):Oh, and by the way, the way these people just, if you're new to the podcast, the way people ask these questions is on my social media profile on Instagram @michaeljaminwriter, every couple months we post a blue tile that says, ask me anything. And so if you have questions that I haven't answered, that's, that's where you do it. Put it up there and we'll talk about it.Phil Hudson (01:26):Yep. Awesome. Professional question number one from Give, give Shrimp a chance, which I think is probably one of the best Instagram ta names I've ever heard. I That's good. I will give them a chance actually, Michael, you're vegan, pescatarian, vegetarian. What are you, technicallyMichael Jamin (01:43):I say I'm a vegan, but I do eat fish from every once in a while for protein PEs, but I don't eat any, somePhil Hudson (01:47):PescatarianMichael Jamin (01:48):Then don't, I guess you could say that, but, cause I don't eat any dairy.Phil Hudson (01:51):Got it. Yeah. So you're vegetarians are vegetarian, pescatarians are vegetarians who eat fish. You're not that cuz you're vegan, but you eat fish. Yeah. Got it. Yeah. Cool. Good question here. I thought, I thought it was interesting. When you are a writer's assistant, can you ask for an episode or wait until one is offered or draft possible story areas and send them to the showrunner just in case asking for a friend? Well,Michael Jamin (02:17):Good question. Well, you definitely wanna put in your time. You wouldn't, if you're, if you got promoted to writer's assistant, you don't want to, in season one start asking for an episode. You gotta earn the right to be there. So you gotta be there for a full year. And then it's, this is how I feel. And then after, once you're there for, you know, full year or two or whatever, then you can approach your boss and say, Hey, I'd love to be considered for a freelance episode. I'd love to be able to pitch you an idea. And you should have all these ideas on the ready. I mean, you're, you're there. So I don't, you can do, you can come up with ideas season one, but I I I kind of, you wanna make it so that they owe you so that the wr