Wednesday, December 18, 2013

And & Ampersand or Author and Anchorman

An and credit is better than an "&" credit, one of the first things I learned in Film School. An & ("ampersand") means that you are part of a team and get a half share, while an "and" means that you are your own person, and getting full credit. Even though I'm not getting paid as an editor of the Southwest Writer's Anthology, I got an "And."

Let's say a movie has a 100 dollar budget for writers. Joe Writer & Jane Writer write the first draft. AND Francis Author writes the second. Joe and Jane split fifty, Francis gets fifty on his or her own.

Will Ferrell and Adam McKay are getting ampersands for writing Anchorman. The writers and performers of my new favorite show, Key& Peele are ampersanded. I don't know if ampersanded is a verb, but it is now.

So when is there an "and." In writing, it means the first draft was so bad, that someone new was called to "punch it up."

Who are the famous "Ands" in film acting? Jack Nicholson in "A Few Good Men" was an "AND." If not, he should have been.  Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now was an And. There are too many "ANDs" on TV shows to count. Usually the AND is listed last.

So when you read the Anthology, the most important word is the word and.

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