Ye Olde Scriptwriter's Code

The Pirate Code

I was asked to look into the Pirate Code for a forthcoming corporate gig. The thinking behind this idea is "even the lawless pirates had a code of behaviour that meant they had a set of rules, so what's yours?"

Now, it's just a bit of fun in order to make a point and to make people think about what they stand for. For instance, as you won't be able to see on the little image above unless you click to embiggen, number 9 is "No man to talk of breaking up their way of living, till each had shared one thousand pounds. If in order to this, any man should lose a limb, or become a cripple in their service, he was to have eight hundred dollars, out of the public stock."

This really was a spirit of "all in it together", plus they had health insurance! Perhaps a better known code is the hippocratic oath. This is the living and evolving set of philospohies for doctors. Doctors no longer automatically take the oath but here is a version that is used at one college in the U.S.

Hippocratic Oath

You get the idea. This isn't about a set of targets or a set of standards as the NHS would use the term. It isn't about activity and what you do day to day, as in the Scriptwriter's Life. It is deeper than that.

What would be the scriptwriter's code then? What is it that we believe beneath all else?

I'll end with a clip that William Gallagher sent me, illustrating the pirate code!