Toronto Fest Lands World Preem Of Godfrey Reggio’s … 
Hot Trailer: ‘Man Of Steel’ 
Former Digital Domain CEO & Auditors Sued For Fraud By … 
Fox Acquires ‘Narc’; Zac Efron Attached To Play … 
ABC’s ‘Nashville’ Undergoes Production … 
CBS Wins Season & Ties Sweep In Demo; ABC Tops Adults … 
Mike Lobell Adds Cast To ‘Eisner,’ Plots … 
Sony Shares Rise On Report That It Will Consider … 
Alki David Agrees To End Name Games With Aereo And Barry … 
Next-Gen Xbox One Unveiled With Content Including … 
UPDATE: Apple CEO Challenged For Moving “Crown … 
ESPN Layoffs Could Reach 400 As Part Of Latest Disney Cuts 
Cannes: Weinstein Co Acquires Keanu-Reese Sci-Fi Pic … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Up … 
Hot Trailer: ‘The Wolverine’ 
Ang Lee Departs FX Pilot ‘Tyrant’ 
How Many Times Does Seth MacFarlane Have To Say No To The … 
Cannes: Stanley Weiser To Script ‘Three Graves … 
Cannes: Deadline Crashes Palais Forum With Costa Gavras, … 
‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ $164.5M Global: Lower … 
‘The Great Gatsby’ Starts With $5.4M … 
I dunno. I’ll look into it today. But everyone I’ve talked to thinks this will be a long and hard strike that will still be going on well past the big-deal 80th Academy Awards. Use the monitored comments here for an Industry-only discussion about that or anything else strike-related. After all, Hollywood is about to shut down. How long will this walkout last? ( I keep hearing this is a 6-month strike.) Who among Hollywood insiders should step in to solve it? Which contract compromises should be considered? What will writers miss most while they’re not at work? How do producers plan to cope? 
(I just heard an apocalyptic memory from a TV exec about spending strike days playing ping pong in his Warner Bros office. Sheesh.) I’d enjoy hearing more tales from the 1988 walkout and its professional and personal impact. Let’s keep this thread going all weekend. Please remember to be pithy. Over on my pal Sasha Stone’s Awards Daily blog, a commenter recalls that, in 1980, the Emmycast was “turned on its head” by striking SAG and AFTRA actors. “All three scheduled emcees canceled at the last minute, and Steve Allen and Dick Clark stepped in as cohosts. Only one Emmy winner in all the acting categories showed up to accept — Powers Boothe (Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones). All of the TV clip footage originally scheduled for use during the telecast had to be pulled because AFTRA refused to grant permission clearances.” Oscar host Jon Stewart will have lots to talk about in his opening monologue. But who will write his strike-related jokes?
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
Loading ...
Can anyone point to any strike in the last, say, 25 years, in ANY industry, where the workers striking for a long time resulted in any gains for them in collective bargaining? Auto workers? Nope. Grocery store workers? No again. WGA in 1988? Wait for it… nope. I’m sure somehow this time will be different though — I mean, Patric Verrone said so!
Dollygrip — you are right. WGA and SAG haven’t walked your picket lines, or the teamsters’, in the past. We also have a “no strike” clause in our contract now that won’t let us go out with you, though we could picket with you. That is one thing we are asking for in a new contract — the ability to honor other unions’ actions. We have promised the teamsters that we will picket with them and honor their lines to the best of our abilities if they ever need us. We are deeply grateful for their support. Looking at what we’re looking at now, we see clearly that we were wrong not to address their concerns head-on in the past. Everyone shares these issues when six monolithic corporations control our lives and livlihoods. We would like to feel that our friends in IATSE agree.
I fully support the writers, however –
This ain’t war. WGA members aren’t going to march into the lots and knock down, say, the Paramount water tower. The studios are, like it or not, your bosses. Are they evil? F*** yeah! But keep in mind the purpose of a strike is to (hopefully) affect a positive change that will put more food on the table of the writers and their families.
Judging by some of the language in these comments, I get the sense some are projecting their frustrations as a writer — by far the most frustrating career — at the studios.
Remember, without studios screenplays are . . . well, they ain’t novels. Writers DESERVE more money and credit across the board. Let’s hope and pray the studios realize the truth here.
But a message to the writers:
“Know they enemy.”
Wait a sec. The DGA negotiates off a business template? Puhleeze. The more accurately described ‘ADs and UPMs Guild of America’ has a lesser stake, and therefore less interest, in the residuals issue. That they are also far less interested in acting in concert with, as opposed to against, the other Guilds? Also not that surprising.
But, I would suggest, hardly something to be proud of. Even after 25 years.
RE “Working Writer”
I don’t doubt that middle class writers will suffer, but the card on the table is the whole town shutting down. The power brokers in the WGA and the Producers are not peons and will not suffer. There is political drama being played out here. I suggest “Working Writer” read Augusto Boal’s “Theatre of Oppression” to get some political/dramatic perspective.
Believe me he is a pawn in a bigger game and nobody who counts really cares about your residuals. The Writers are fighting by proxy, using the threat of an overall economic disaster to leverage a position to regain the some of the status/income they lost after vertical integration killed independent production companies in TV.
I think the WGA have a just cause because we all suffer under the vertical model and their dramatic structure is good enough to win the day. Let’s just drop the moral bs, it’s money politics and it’s dirty.
Why can’t we split the difference and up DVD residuals while giving internet revenue the chance to grow? Isn’t that compromise? DVD’s aren’t going away in the next few years, and it’ll probably take as long for internet to really start making a dent in overall revenue. Studios have had to invest a lot to even get the new revenue stream going in the first place, so let them collect their nickels and once they’ve got dollars to go around, go for our piece.
I totally agree with the reasons for your strike, Marjorie, I think most IA members do. You are right. At the end of the day, it’s us against six conglomerates who think of all of us, no matter whether we hang truss or write episodics, as a necessary evil. The Teamsters adding their support is a HUGE wrinkle to the suits. God Bless ‘em.
multi-hyphenate is right….get as much as you can up front. In Canada, we’ve been used to upfront buyouts and advances for 20 years. How many ex-pat Canadian writers are going to jump on a plane and start scribbling up here….?
> Comment by TV showurnner:
I think a real forward-thinking proposal would be to scrap the residual model entirely in favor of increased upfront script minimums. With product distribution fragmenting to online, cell phones, screens in airports, etc., let them worry about where they sell it. Just pay us more to write it. <
Your suggestion would make way too much sense. Residuals are the most convoluted, and in this day and age, anarchic process invented. As you correctly point out, all of these new media outlets will only continue to fragment and multiply. Let Writers make more upfront and participate in the net profits (like producers). Leave the distribution and sales up to the owners… which is not easy in this bittorrent era…
Vem
If we’re still in the throes of a writers strike during the Oscars, I’m going to predict ABC will have a “joke-writing”/”one-liner” contest with submissions done via the ABC website. Registered users will vote for the best quips and the winners (those whose “jokes” used in the telecast) will receive personalized autographed pictures of the “Caveman” actors in full makeup.
“Why can’t we split the difference and up DVD residuals while giving internet revenue the chance to grow? ”
Cable has had ‘time to grow.’ Where’s the pay bump for that?
DVD has had ‘time to grow.’ Where’s the pay bump for that?
The truth the writers know is, what you get at the ground floor is what you get forever. That’s why we’re asking for a percentage. If they make money, we’ll make money. Two cents off an ITUNES download will not break the business model.
Internet replay is already killing residuals for some shows. LOST does not repeat prime time. Those writers never see residuals. Instead they see their entire episodes rebroadcast online, for ‘promotional’ purposes. With imbedded advertising. And also sold on ITUNES. LOST today, every other show tomorrow. And we know it.
“On the writers front, get more upfront, rather than gambling on some phantom future revenue stream.”
Comment by multi-hyphenate — November 2, 2007 @ 10:16 am
You mean like those phantom future, 20 billion dollar-a-year DVD sales that were lurking out there in the ether after the ’88 strike? Y’know, the residuals we were screwed out of. Ever hear of “Fool me once….”?
Norm A. Rae wrote:
Not to nitpick, but AMPTP isn’t saying that the internet “will never be subject to residual payments.” It’s offering an unacceptably low payment formula, and at present, refusing to negotiate on other issues unless we accept it.
But at some point– which I wish had been three months ago, which is why I still question the WGA’s refusal to begin this whole process earlier– both sides will begin bargaining in earnest. And at that point, I hope that there are creative solutions on the table (such as the first season new media residual discount I suggested above) rather than haggling over a straight percentage. Because 1) I think it’s actually fairer and more growth-promoting, and 2) If negotiations center on a straight percentage, I think, sadly, we’re in for a longer strike than necessary, and we’ll end up with a number much closer to .3% (the current AMPTP position) than 2.5% (the current WGA position)
I’m sure Nikki didn’t open this up for some dumb flame war, but Dan Rhys, do you really think we are unaware of the fact that this is a political game? Only thing is, the players suffer real consequences. And as far as producers not suffering, I’m a showrunner of many years standing, this year a co-exec on a fine network show, which is less intense but not unremunerative. And still, I will suffer from a strike. And the young writers will suffer. And anybody force majeured out of a deal. And everybody else involved, whatever union, whatever job… The point is, it’s inportant at least to stand up to our corporate masters, to protest a bad system, to make moves toward change no matter how incremental, and to resist cynicism, self-abasement and fear.
Larger negotiated upfront fees leaves far less room for creative accounting on the part of the studios. That would put just as big a dent in their profits as increased residuals, so it doesn’t seem like a solution they’d go for. Transparency is not the mogul’s friend.
As a non-WGA writer, it seemed counter-intuitive to me for top tier writers to race to finish scripts for studios. I understand it on a personal level, but professionally… did the grocery store employees at Vons several years ago stock shelves before they walked out? I don’t think those voices are being heard on these posts because they have very little at stake, as they’re specs will be the first to be picked-up post-strikee. Obviously I am in full support of the strike; I just hope it’s a short one.
Have the Studios considered scaling the DVD/EST residuals based on the revenue generated by the discs/downloads. I know the WGA brought the idea up but a million dollars is an embarrassingly low ceiling.
It’s pretty much a matter of fact right now that digital downloads/streaming video is not making more than a few million dollars per year across all studios. If we signed a contract now that would increased incrementally every 10, 25 or 50 million dollars it would help the studios cover the costs of bombs and more fairly distribute the profits from hits.
When NBC comes right out and says they are making 15 mil a year across every show on iTunes (and movies studios are barely braking 10 mil across all films), then the Studios will have plenty of time to figure out their business models before they end up having to pay the 25 or 50 mil residual levels. It could be 10 years before a single title breaks 50 million in digital sales.
And then everyone seems to be ignoring the piracy that is creeping up on Hollywood and already destroying the music industry. I might just print out the latest movies on piratesbay and take them outside to the picket lines on Monday and see if the writers realize that keeping the Studios from building a workable digital business model only results in their works being stolen by an ever growing tech savvy audience with faster and faster internet connections.
Eventually entire movie libraries will be posted on the pirated sites. Just wait if this goes long enough it won’t be cable that the audience jumps to, it will be download entire seasons of South Park and download high quality HD-DVD rips on supernova.org
TV Writer… Unless the strike fund I hear WGA members bragging about on every blog is available to all the other unions who have lost thier job in result of your strike, I wouldn’t be so boastful. It’s nice to know that YOU will be covered – I guess that makes this STRIKE TO THE DEATH part so easy for you. If you want your sister unions to sympathize, stop being an arrogant ass.
Where is our governor? Of anyone walking around right now, he should step in. I’m serious. His fame, prestige, and pocketbook are all due to a place called Hollywood. It’s time he steps in a gets this thing solved.
Just one thing Digital Entertainment Exec., the South Park creators don’t care how you acquire even one minute of South Park. I for one have the infamous Tom Cruise episode on my hard drive, and Trey and Matt don’t care one bit.
Meanwhile back to the issue at hand, I don’t really care about the Oscars right now, but Canadian writers can be flown in to write the show though they may not want to do so. Also, to avoid legal issues, could the ceremony be moved to Las Vegas. Maybe hold it at the MGM Grand, but I wonder if the local Teamsters there would like that to happen.
On other note, Nikki please find out what will happen to NBC’s The Office this week. I understand that a few writers double as actors there and any appearance by BJ Novak (like as scheduled next week), would cause major headaches for NBC.
I hope this strike goes on for two years. All the good shows will start to suck and people will realize how vital writers are. They might even recognize that reality TV getting boring. Coincidence?
The current state of affairs in the WGA is troubling – this strike has the potential to cause far more harm than good including putting many WGA members out of work due to screwing up the current television season. The timing of the strike is simply vindictive against the studios, and striking during the spring or summer would be far more appropriate.
That the cause is just is falling to the wayside of their rhetoric and foolish behavior. The WGA has even gone so far as to tell those on picket lines to not bring high end food, as if that in any way can be construed as anything but a flexing of muscle. The pressure being put on those who serve dual roles on productions is also outside of their boundaries, and an outright abuse of power and union pressure.
Meanwhile people like Jon Stewart(who while I am not sure if is a current member was at least at one time, and a strong supporter of socialist worker politics) talk big yet the chances of him and people like him putting in the 20 hours of week on the line the guild has stated as a requirement is slim to none.
The WGA is taking things too far and conducting themselves in a manner that only serves to hurt their cause and their members, and it needs to be realized before permanent damage is caused.
(I am not a member of the WGA nor any similar organization, but am an aspiring writer who has had technical writings(mostly related to the video game industry) published and fully understand the perspective and issues of the WGA.)
I don’t think the studios will be actually willing to negotiate in good faith until March or April. That is when they HAVE to come up with new product, or lose BIG BUCKS, during the traditional Upfronts.
If that turns out to be the case, perhaps the 80th Academy Awards should be rescheduled. Wouldn’t JON LEIBOWITZ be violating the work stoppage by even writing his own material?