so there's been talk of a hollywood strike in almost every news item about upcoming movies. is this the same strike that is on the news all of a sudden? union stuff usually bores me to tears, but this seems a bit more relevant than the tribulations of piano tuners..
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my understanding is that writers want a cut of the revenue from new distribution streams, online etc. the studios say they don't know how big the pie is and so can't/don't want to divvy it up. a writer's strike will mean more reality tv. though it seems that nobody really WANTS it to happen, everyone has been talking about it as an inevitability for some time now.
who else is going on strike? will they win? how will this affect LOST?
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mac. explain yourself.
Hollywood Writers Could Strike by Friday
By GARY GENTILE – 7 hours ago
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Talks between Hollywood writers and producers have reached a cliffhanger, with the next few days determining whether there will be a strike or a happy ending.
A strike could happen as early as Friday, with writers meeting Thursday night to discuss whether to walk out or continue to work without a contract while seeking a deal.
Their contract expired at midnight Wednesday after talks ended abruptly, with both sides saying they were still far apart on the key issue of raising payment from the sale of DVDs and extending payment to the distribution of TV shows and film over the Internet. No new talks were scheduled for Thursday.
While both sides have withdrawn other proposals since talks began in July, neither has budged on what the Writers Guild of America termed "the hated DVD formula," which pays writers pennies on the sale of home video.
Writers had sought to boost that payment. They wanted the richer formula applied equally to the sale of digital downloads. They were also seeking a piece of advertising dollars generated when TV shows and films are streamed for free over the Internet.
Writers also want to be paid for creating original content for the Internet, cell phones or other digital devices.
Producers maintain that profits from DVDs largely offset the increased cost of production. They also don't want to commit themselves to higher payment for digital distribution at a time when business models are still uncertain.
"The magnitude of that proposal alone is blocking us from making any further progress," J. Nicholas Counter, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, told writers Wednesday.
"We cannot move further as long as that issue remains on the table. In short, the DVD issue is a complete roadblock to any further progress."
The issue is key to the industry because actors also are expected to fight for a larger share of DVD and digital revenue when their contract expires in June.
While the WGA leadership has authority to call a strike, it is expected to give negotiations one last try.
Jonathan Handel, an entertainment lawyer at the Los Angeles law firm of TroyGould who served in the 1990s as an associate counsel for the guild, said it was in the union's interest to delay a walkout, perhaps by five days or more.
"The writers guild has two weapons: one is a strike, the other is the threat of a strike. It has no reason to toss that weapon away without using it for a bit," Handel said.
If writers do strike, the first casualty would likely be late-night talk shows, which are dependent on current events to fuel monologues and other entertainment.
"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" will almost certainly be forced into reruns by a lack of fresh skits and monologues if writers walk off the job.
"If the strike happens, we are very likely looking at repeats for both shows," said Tony Fox, a spokesman for Comedy Central, which airs the shows starring Stewart and Stephen Colbert that lampoon political doings of the day.
"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" could follow.
NBC declined to comment on what would be in store for the show. But a person with the network, who was not authorized to comment and spoke on condition of anonymity, said "Tonight" and other NBC late-night shows likely would have to resort to repeats with no writing staff to generate new material.
CBS declined comment on the possible fate of "The Late Show with David Letterman."
A strike would not immediately affect film or prime-time TV production. Most studios have stockpiled dozens of movie scripts, and TV shows have enough scripts or completed shows in hand to last until early next year.
After that, networks might turn to reality shows, news programs and reruns to fill the prime-time airwaves.
AP Television Writer Lynn Elber contributed to this report.
i'd love to watch some early daily show. i missed out on the days of vance degeneres, for example. and no i don't have access to the archives because of stupid canadian internet redirection. and so far proxy's aren't working. maybe we'll finally see that unproduced kaufman show! or further examination of the macarena.
while theyre busy being on strike, trying to get their demands met and stupidities like that, we'll just move in and take over.
who needs writers! improvise!
Writers Strike Officially Starts 12:01 a.m. Monday
Source: Variety November 2, 2007
The Writers Guild of America has announced that its 12,000 members will go on strike Monday against studios and networks, reports Variety.
The strike officially begins at 12:01 a.m. Monday. Members began receiving the official announcement Friday afternoon -- at the same time that the WGA was holding a news conference at WGA West headquarters in Los Angeles.
Members were told that all writing covered under WGA agreements must cease when the strike starts.
Talks between the WGA and the companies broke down on Wednesday, a few hours before the contract expired, over the issue of DVD residuals and work for the Internet. No new talks have been scheduled, but WGA West president Patric Verrone and WGA East president Michael Winship said at the news conference that they would be open to meeting with the companies.
The WGA's expected to mount multiple picket lines Monday. The guild's email to members said, "We'll be sending you information about our picket lines. Come out and show your solidarity. Your Contract Captain will be in touch with you. Be prepared to serve."
Wasn't this one of the signs of the Apocalypse?
Quote from: Pubrick on November 01, 2007, 09:42:56 AM
how will this affect LOST?
I've kinda been following this over the last month or so, and of course it's all over TV now, which is kinda ironic I think. Of course, they're journalists, not writers...
Apparently, as the articles by Hedwig and Modage pointed out, it's primarily going to be talk shows that are affected immediately. Primetime shows largely have many episodes in the can by this point in the year (especially this year since networks were anticipating the strike). So depending how long the strike goes on, it depends... Some shows already have eps in the can, plus more scripts which they can still shoot and air before they run out of material, so many shouldn't be affected at all. Lost, in particular, shouldn't be hurt at all seeing as it's not due to air until February, so they're already way ahead of the game, and when the new season does start up again it should go straight through as planned without any problenms at all.
Entertainment Weekly recently mentioned their sympathy for John Stewart whose show will be one of the immediate casualties of the strike, but also mentioned that he will find himself in a tough scenario if the strike continues until the Oscars (24 Feb) as he will have to host the ceremony but will be unable to write any gags as that would be a violation of the strike. They've also bemoaned the imminent arrival of crappy reality shows flooding the networks, particularly criticizing one called "Farmer Wants A Wife".
Appologies, I'm paraphrasing here, I couldn't find the articles I wanted to quote online, so had to transcribe in a rush from the print editions.
Quote from: Pubrick on November 01, 2007, 09:42:56 AMhow will this affect LOST?
How will the strike affect 'Lost?'Source: Entertainment Weekly
So far, the news about what the strike will mean for Lost's return to ABC this winter isn't all that bad, but it could get worse if the picketing persists. According to Lost executive producer Carlton Cuse — who was walking the picket line Monday in front of Burbank's Disney lot with fellow EP Damon Lindelof — ABC will soon have eight episodes in the can that it can begin airing after the first of the year (ABC has yet to announce a start date, though it seems likely the show will return in February). If the strike is prolonged and the scribes can't get back to work writing the rest of the episodes, fans are going to be stuck with the kind of stunted season they were forced to endure last year. "It will feel like buying a Harry Potter book, reading half of it, and then having to put it down for many months," explains Cuse. "There is a cliffhanger at the end of the eighth episode. It will only be frustrating [for viewers] to have to step away from the show and not see the second half of the season.
"The first half of the season, like a good novel, sets all the events of the show in motion and the second half deals with the consequences," Cuse continued. "We're very proud of the first eight but it feels weird to have to stop literally mid-stream."
Quote from: MacGuffin on November 06, 2007, 01:05:17 AMit feels weird to have to stop literally mid-stream."
future episodes occur in the middle of a stream? you plan to be in the middle of a stream for when the eighth episode ends? writers strike indeed.
some chants heard today, according to david mills:
When you've got comedy writers working a picket line, you're bound to hear some clever chants. Here were some of today's best:
"Eva! Longoria! Who's gonna write your storia?"
"Marcia Cross, don't cross the picket line! Marcia Cross, don't cross the picket line!"
"Nicollette! Sheridan! We can't think of one for you!"
And this one I'm still feeling:
"We're finally getting some exercise! We're finally getting some exercise!"
that's fucking hilarious.
GENIUS IDEA #595: a reality show about the writers on strike.
checkmate, suckas.
WRITERS, STUDIOS AGREE TO TALK
Negotiations to begin Nov. 26
Source: Variety
Studios and networks will resume negotiations with striking writers on Nov. 26.
The WGA remains on strike. The companies recently dropped their insistence that the strike had to stop, at least temporarily, as a condition of restarting negotiations.
The Friday night announcement came on the 12th day of the strike in the form of a joint statement from the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers.
Both sides have agreed to a news blackout.
"Leaders from the AMPTP and the WGA have mutually agreed to resume formal negotiations on November 26," the statement said. "No other details or press statements will be issued."
Shortly after the joint statement was released, WGA West president Patric Verrone sent an email to the WGA membership.
"This announcement is a direct result of your efforts," Verrone said. "For 12 days I have repeated that a powerful strike means a short strike. ...Now it is equally important that we now prove that good news won't slow us down, either. We must remember that returning to the bargaining table is only a start. Our work is not done until we achieve a good contract and that is by no means assured. Accordingly, what we achieve in negotiations will be a direct result of how successfully we can keep up our determination and resolve."
Backchannel efforts have been ongoing throughout the strike to restart the talks, spurred partly by the fact that the negotiations were progressing on Nov. 4, the final day of bargaining. Since then, as job losses and show cancellations gained momentum, agents, high-profile screenwriters and showrunners have exerted pressure for a resumption of talks.
WGA leaders were angry over what they saw as a lack of substantive response by the AMPTP after the guild took its DVD residuals increase off the table. By contrast, the companies contended that they had made significant moves in new-media compensation for streaming video, providing a six-week window for promotion and giving the WGA jurisdiction over made-for-Internet work that was based on existing properties.
Verrone had indicated that for his union to restart negotiations, it needed to receive assurance that the companies would offer more in new media than they did on Nov. 4.
As for the companies, AMPTP president Nick Counter had said he needed to be convinced that the guild wanted to make a deal. He had moved away from last week's stance that the guild would have to stop striking in order to return to the table.
"For true negotiations to take place, there has to be some expectation that a deal can be made, but by their past actions and their current rhetoric that certainly doesn't appear to be the case," Counter said in his most recent statement.
On Wednesday, the WGA trumpeted a pair of surveys showing the public had plenty of sympathy for the writers, with backing of 69% in a Pepperdine poll and 63% in a SurveyUSA poll. Companies received a only a smattering of support, with 4% and 8%.
That same day, IATSE topper Thomas Short had blasted WGA leaders over job losses, noting that more than 50 TV series have been shut down by the strike. "The IATSE alone has over 50,000 members working in motion picture, television and broadcasting and tens of thousands more are losing jobs in related fields," he said.
Quote from: Pubrick on November 06, 2007, 09:58:03 PM
that's fucking hilarious.
GENIUS IDEA #595: a reality show about the writers on strike.
checkmate, suckas.
And it needs to be the writers of The Office: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6hqP0c0_gw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6hqP0c0_gw)
Let me ask a small question. Why does 95% of the news coverage and discussion about strikes focus on the various ways in which the strikes are harmful?
Quote from: Jeremy Blackman on November 17, 2007, 01:16:45 PM
Let me ask a small question. Why does 95% of the news coverage and discussion about strikes focus on the various ways in which the strikes are harmful?
Because the companies that own and operate those news outlets are the same companies that the writers are striking against.
Laughs continue for 'SNL' and '30 Rock'
With their regular programs halted by a writers' strike, cast members of NBC's "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock" planned to stage a pair of live performances at a Manhattan improv theater.
The shows, held at the 150-seat Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre co-founded by SNL's Amy Poehler, will benefit the behind-the-scenes staffers who have lost work because of the shutdowns caused by the two-week strike by the Writers Guild of America.
"The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater is a second home to a lot of these performers and writers," Poehler said in a statement. "We are doing this to raise spirits, raise awareness and raise money for our hard-working production crews who will be having a hard holiday season if this strike continues."
Saturday night's sold-out 11:30 p.m. performance, billed on the Brigade's Web site as "Saturday Night Live — On Strike!" was reportedly to include skits, musical guest Yo La Tengo and "Superbad" star Michael Cera as guest host.
A performance of "30 Rock — On Strike!" at 8 p.m. Monday is to include the show's full cast performing a complete episode, according to a theater employee. The show's stars include Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski and Alec Baldwin.
That show is also mostly sold out, except for a handful of tickets to be made available at the door.
An NBC publicist declined to comment.
Sherry Goldman, a spokeswoman for the Writers Guild of America, East, which represents the East Coast scriptwriters who have been out on strike, called the project a wonderful idea.
"We're thrilled that they're doing this," she said. "It's a great cause."
Late-night talk shows and several sitcoms shut down production and went to reruns after the strike began Nov. 5.
Among the hardest hit in the strike are the legions of workers who do not belong to the writers' union but have been put out of work anyway by the studio shutdowns.
The New York Post reported Saturday that the list of the unemployed included most of the off-camera staff of Saturday Night Live.
Here are the WGA's "Speechless" video spots, conceived by George Hickenlooper and Alan Sereboff. WGAW chief Patrick Verrone has given Deadline Hollywood Daily's Nikki Finke an exclusive internet window as a reward for her ceaseless pro-WGA strike coverage.
Speechless # 1 (http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/speechless-episode-1-holly-hunter/) - Holly Hunter
Speechless # 2 (http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/speechless-2-richard-benjaminpaula-prentiss/) - Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss
Speechless # 3 (http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/speechless-3-sean-penn/) - Sean Penn
Speechless # 4 (http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/speechless-4-jeff-garlin/) - Jeff Garlin
Speechless # 5 (http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/speechless-5-ugly-betty-cast/) - Ugly Betty cast
Speechless # 6 (http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/speechless-episode-6-david-schwimmer-and-kate-beckinsale-directed-by-rod-lurie/) - David Schwimmer and Kate Beckinsale
watched holly's cuz it was first... stupid, cliched and stupid.
watched sean's next cuz it's him i guess... cliched and i imagined they were all gonna be like this.
watched david & kate's cuz like mac, im in love with her (kate not david)... stupid, cliched, writer's still write the action and stupid.
so they work cuz they show how much the writer's creativity is needed.
Quote from: pozer on November 25, 2007, 05:03:32 PM
watched holly's cuz it was first... stupid, cliched and stupid.
watched sean's next cuz it's him i guess... cliched and i imagined they were all gonna be like this.
watched david & kate's cuz like mac, im in love with her (kate not david)... stupid, cliched, writer's still write the action and stupid.
so they work cuz they show how much the writer's creativity is needed.
So how many of us watched exactly just those three? And for those exact reasons?
Striking Screenwriters Dismiss New Proposals
Source: New York Times
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 29 — Striking screenwriters on Thursday night dismissed a new set of proposals from producers as "a massive rollback," and called on their members to continue their walkout with fresh resolve despite a plan to continue talks on Tuesday.
In a move to end a nearly four-week-old strike by writers, Hollywood's studios and networks — represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers — earlier in the day offered a new package of proposals that includes a revised offer for payments related to movies and shows distributed via new media.
In a statement, producers said the new package, styled a "New Economic Partnership" with writers, would add $130 million to $1.3 billion already paid annually to writers.
One company executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid conflict with writers and other executives, said the word "partnership" was chosen to convey a sense that the new proposals were far-reaching, offered new approaches to issues that had separated the parties and involved "give and take" between writers and producers.
The new proposals were disclosed in a press release at the end of a Thursday bargaining session. The sides had talked for four days in an effort to conclude a nearly four-week old strike by 12,000 members of the Writers Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East.
Writers have been demanding payments for electronic downloads many times higher than the companies initially offered, and have sought to limit promotional showings to a matter of days, at most.
In a letter to members, however, the two guilds blasted the proposal as inadequate. They said, for instance, that it would pay only $250 for a year's re-use of an hour-long program streamed on the Web, in contrast to the $20,000 currently paid for a network re-run. They also said the new proposal did not change the company's proposed payments for downloaded films and shows. The guilds also said the companies refused to grant them jurisdiction over original content produced for the Internet.
The continued stand-off pushed Hollywood toward a decision point in the next week or so, as writers will have to decide whether to dig in for a long strike, or return to work without a contract, perhaps to resume their walk-out next June when members of the Screen Actors Guild might join them.
At the same time, companies will rapidly see the rest of the current television season crumble, unless they make another move to meet the writers' demands.
Producers, Writers Negotiations Collapse
LOS ANGELES (AP) Negotiations between striking Hollywood writers and studios collapsed Friday, the culmination of a day in which the sides traded barbs and accusations.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced that the round of talks that started Tuesday had broken down, stalling efforts to end the five-week strike that has sidelined many prime-time and late-night TV shows.
The alliance said it was "puzzled and disheartened" by the Writers Guild of America's ongoing negotiating strategy "that seems designed to delay or derail talks rather than facilitate an end to this strike."
In response, the guild said the chief alliance negotiator slammed the door on bargaining after presenting an ultimatum and before the union could respond to his latest proposal regarding crucial new-media compensation issues.
"As we prepared our counteroffer, at 6:05 p.m., Nick Counter came and said to us, in the mediator's presence, 'We are leaving. When you write us a letter saying you will take all these items off the table, we will reschedule negotiations with you,'" according to a union statement.
A detailed alliance announcement on the talks' collapse was released a short time later. Counter was unavailable Friday night for comment, the alliance said.
The guild said it remained "ready and willing to negotiate, no matter how intransigent our bargaining partners are, because the stakes are simply too high."
"If someone called tomorrow and said 'Let's start on Sunday and we want to hear your counterproposal,' I'd say 'great,'" chief guild negotiator David Young told The Associated Press.
The writers guild represents 12,000 members but not all are on strike, with about 2,000 or so news writers and others covered under a separate contract.
Hopes that a settlement might be imminent were dashed just two days after the sides had expressed their first hint of optimism.
The alliance reiterated its position that its latest offer aimed at settling a central contract issue compensation for the Internet and other digital media makes it "possible to find common ground."
Last week, the studios had proposed a flat $250 payment for a year's use of an hourlong TV show on the Web. That contrasts with the $20,000-plus residual that writers now earn for a single network rerun of a TV episode.
Friday night, the guild said producers were holding to their $250 offer and demanding that writers give up on proposals including unionization of animation and reality and, "most crucially, any proposal that uses distributor's gross as a basis for residuals."
As word of the breakdown spread, some writers expressed frustration.
"It's disheartening that a month into this, I'm not getting the overwhelming sense that we're getting any closer to a settlement," said Robert Port, a writer for the CBS series "Numb3rs." "I hope we can continue to negotiate and wrap this thing up."
Earlier Friday, in a letter sent to its members and released publicly, the guild said that "highly placed executives" have told some writers that the companies are preparing to abruptly end the talks by accusing the guild of an unwillingness to bargain.
The letter said any such anti-union claims are "absolutely untrue" and challenged studios to negotiate "day and night, through the Christmas and New Year's holidays" to reach a settlement.
The union's remarks reflect its vulnerability, said one observer.
"I think the producers are displaying their leverage quite publicly and aggressively and the writers know it and are fighting back," said Jonathan Handel, an entertainment lawyer at the Los Angeles law firm of TroyGould and a former associate counsel for the guild.
"At the end of the day, the companies have the leverage because they have the money," he said. Studios also can try to reach a favorable deal with the directors guild, Handel said, and use that to set a "pattern bargaining" template the writers would be expected to follow.
About 300 writers who are also members of the Directors Guild of America sent a joint letter asking the directors union to postpone negotiations on its contract, which expires in June, until the writers make a deal, according to a guild member who spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he was not authorized to comment on the letter.
Latenight tries to stage comeback
Hosts may be back on air by Jan. 7th
Source: Variety
With latenight ratings continuing to plunge, the betting in network circles is that several hosts will be back on the air by Jan. 7, if not sooner.
Nothing's been officially decided, and nobody will comment. But with the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers so broken up, people familiar with the situation said several hosts are nearing the conclusion that it's time to return.
Latenight hosts have stayed off the job since the strike began out of deference to their scribes. And while talks were ongoing, they didn't want to take away any leverage from WGA negotiators by returning. They even went so far as to begin paying their nonscribe staffs out of their own pockets.
So who will come back first? There's some talk that the Big Four hosts -- David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and Craig Ferguson -- may all return around the same time. While informal discussions between the NBC and CBS camps have continued via backchannels throughout the strike (Daily Variety, Nov. 16), absolutely nothing like that has been agreed upon.
Latenight insiders, however, believe Leno and O'Brien are most likely to return in early January, no matter what Letterman decides. NBC has to be concerned about the plunging ratings for both shows, which in recent weeks have lost nearly half their audience.
ABC's Jimmy Kimmel has actually done OK in repeats, a reflection of the show's audience growth in the past year and a sign regular Leno and Letterman viewers may be checking out the "new" guy. Getting a read on his intentions has been more difficult, though some latenight observers believe he may also be preparing to go back soon.
Biggest fear in latenight circles is that the WGA will denounce hosts who come back. Carson Daly, who's not even a WGA member, took a tongue-lashing from the guild and has had to endure at least one disruption of his show by disgruntled scribes (Daily Variety, Dec. 13).
Those worries -- and a desire not to be the first host back -- explain why nobody has returned to the air this week, even though talks have broken down. Some latenight insiders fear the hosts may yet still decide to stay off the air.
Writers for both Letterman and O'Brien have been quoted as saying they'd understand if their hosts returned to work, particularly since they stayed off the air for nearly two months.
Meanwhile, the latenight laugh blackout continues to help ABC's "Nightline." For the second consecutive week, the ABC News broadcast beat both Leno's and Letterman's shows -- the first time that's happened since 1995.
friendly admin tip: if you're gonna steal an article, at the very least note the source. also added the title, introduction, author, link.
A war of words: Writers' block: the strike starts to bite
After seven weeks, Hollywood is waking up to the impact of the screenwriters' labour dispute: if it isn't resolved soon, the Golden Globes and the Oscars could be cancelled.
By Andrew Gumbel
Published: 19 December 2007
SOURCE: The Independent (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article3263526.ece)
What if Hollywood held an awards ceremony, and nobody showed up? Greater disasters have, of course, befallen the planet, and there is certainly an argument to be made that the over-gaudy spectacle of diamond-encrusted self-congratulation that sweeps the entertainment industry for the first two months of each year could use a little course correction.
Still the fact remains: the worst industrial dispute to hit Hollywood in two decades is about to close down the Oscars. And the Golden Globes. And who knows how many other glitz fests where the battles between Atonement, Sweeney Todd, No Country For Old Men and the other nominees would ordinarily be eclipsed only by the battles between Armani, Prada and Valentino.
Hollywood's film and television writers are in the seventh week of a strike that shows no signs of ending any time soon, and its effects are beginning to bite, and bite hard. At a rowdy meeting in the beach town of Santa Monica on Monday night, the Writers Guild membership threw down its latest gauntlet – refusing to grant a waiver for the Golden Globes awards show on 13 January, which means no participation by any writers or their sympathisers, including the actors' union, and turning down an initial request by the motion picture Academy to show movie or television clips at the Oscars in February.
Barring some miraculous resolution over the next few weeks – which both sides say looks impossible – the red carpets will be empty of the usual familiar faces, and the shows themselves, devoid of the usual comedic banter as well as actual stars to hand the awards to, will have all the allure and razzle-dazzle of an employee-of-the-month ceremony at a second-hand car showroom.
As the head of the Writers Guild West Coast branch, Patric Verrone, put it: "Writers are engaged in a crucial struggle to achieve a collective bargaining agreement that will protect their compensation and intellectual property rights now and in the future."
A first superficial glance suggests the dispute is turning very much in the writers' favour. They have shown remarkable unity of purpose in their quest to seek fair compensation for use of their work through new media outlets – the internet, mobile phones, and the rest – and a striking degree of consistency in their line that they were cheated out of their fair share of the video and DVD market, starting back in the 1980s, and have no intention of being cheated all over again.
They closed down the late-night chat shows and satirical fake newscasts on day one. They persuaded the so-called show-runners – writer-producers who commission, guide and polish scripts – to come out on strike with the rank and file, thus greatly speeding the rate at which popular series such as Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy and Lost ran out of material and were forced into reruns.
Assuming the strike lasts into January and beyond, they will effectively sabotage next autumn's line-up of new television shows, because no writers means no pilot episodes for network executives to view and test-run. The studios had to give a lot of money back to advertisers in October because their audience figures – before the strike – did not live up to expectations, and they are preparing to give back a whole lot more because the November showcase known as "sweeps week", the basis for calculating future advertising rates, was overshadowed by the start of the walkout.
Where the writers are leading, the actors are following close behind. The Screen Actors Guild contract is up for renewal in June, and the thinking is that the writers will either win a settlement that the actors can piggyback on to or, in the event that the current strike continues for another six months, the two Guilds will make common cause and bring the entire entertainment behemoth to a screeching halt. "Your fight is our fight," SAG's president, Alan Rosenberg, told his writer friends this week. "We are proud to walk shoulder-to-shoulder with you and SAG will be there for as long as it takes."
The impression that the writers are slowly bringing all of Hollywood to its knees is, however, a misleading one. First off, pain is not a one-way street and the writers are taking their own hard knocks. Already, the stoppage has lost the writers $100m (£50m) or more in lost pay cheques. In a plummeting property market and a stagnant economy, that means real worry about meeting mortgage payments and keeping family budgets afloat – worries that will only increase with every passing week.
The studios have already suspended standing deals with many writers and have the power, as of this week, to invoke force majeure and cancel those deals outright if they choose to. That's not without its advantages: it's an opportunity for the boss class to cut out a lot of dead wood and free up funds to commission new sorts of shows, shows that do not depend on unionised writers – the whole genre of reality programming, for starters – and can often garner good audience ratings at a fraction of the production costs of scripted comedy and drama.
Then there is the ugly fact that Hollywood's creative workers are not as united as the WGA leadership would like to think. True, the actors are right there with them. But the Directors Guild, whose contract is also up for renewal in June, is a whole different story. The writers and actors are pushing for better residuals – extra payments for reruns and reformulations of their work in other media like DVDs and the internet – because they don't always have regular work and rely on the success of past shows and films to see them through the fallow periods.
Directors, by contrast, don't care nearly as much about residuals because they tend to be paid much more upfront. Big-name directors can secure lucrative, so-called, "back-end" deals through one-on-one negotiation brokered by their agents, so they don't need the minimums that any union deal might guarantee. At the other end of the scale, the assistant and second-unit directors who make up about 40 per cent of the DGA's membership don't care about residuals because they are considered "below the line" – Hollywood's equivalent of blue-collar workers along with the gaffers and grips and camera operators – and don't qualify for any kind of profit-sharing in the first place.
Here's what, in the opinion of many writers and studio executives alike, the next few months might look like. The producers association will give up on talking to the writers – in fact it gave up last week, much to the fury of the WGA – and focus instead on brokering a deal with the directors. The DGA talks will probably begin in January and, barring some big sticking point, wrap up in February or early March. At that point the guilds will be split, the writers will be hungry for work and a sizeable faction is likely to emerge to challenge the hard line adopted by the WGA leadership. Maybe the strike will last long enough to bring the actors on board, maybe it won't – but sooner or later the writers will have to realise they don't have anything like the deep pockets of the media conglomerates who own the studios and the networks, and they will be forced to give in.
Why do some of Hollywood's sharpest minds think the writers will lose? In short, because they always do. In 1988, they walked out for five months because they felt short-changed and cheated over video residuals – a stoppage that netted them precisely nothing. Their powerlessness has a lot to do with Hollywood tradition. When car workers go on strike, they target just one big company – Ford, or General Motors – and hope the competitive disadvantage felt by that company will pressure them into making a deal. But the writers are striking against every single major media conglomerate – Disney, and News Corp, and Viacom and Time Warner, and the rest. Just one would probably be too much on its own; taking on all of them at once is reaching for the impossible.
That explains, perhaps, why the WGA has belatedly decided to negotiate with the studios one-on-one – a proposal the producers are now in a position to laugh off – and allowed independent production companies, such as the one that produces David Letterman's late-night chat show on CBS, to reach its own deal with its writers. Others writers are trying to go it alone, raising venture capital to generate shows that will bypass traditional media altogether and air directly online. How that might fare without a big distributor behind it is anybody's guess.
At an informal discussion among writers and producers in Los Angeles over the weekend – its contents off the record to maximise frankness – those most sympathetic to the writers' cause (who of course deserve to share in the profits of the programmes they have created) were also most gloomy about their prospects of success. They should have forgotten about digital media for now, one argued, and focused on DVDs, which are sure to be big sellers for the foreseeable future. Instead, the WGA has dropped its demands to double residuals on DVD sales and gone all-out for a deal on online content.
Some writers also questioned just how bad the past 20 years have been. True, they have been screwed over video earnings, but the explosion of cable TV has dramatically increased the number of lucrative writing jobs. "These have been bonanza years for our industry," one prominent comedy writer said. "A lot of writers are sitting very comfortably in $1.5m houses."
That line provoked immediate objections from the floor. "$1.5m isn't what it used to be!" a fellow writer howled.
Such are the parameters of one of the world's weirder labour disputes. And so far – Oscars notwithstanding – the executive class has barely broken a sweat.
WGA, studios frame a deal
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Clear progress has been marked in informal contract talks between studio execs and striking writers, stoking broad expectations that a tentative agreement may be announced sometime this week.
Such a pact with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers would have to be approved by the WGA West board and the WGA East council and ratified by memberships on both coasts. But recent movement in key areas under negotiation, chiefly involving new-media residuals, now has industryites expecting an imminent end to the 3-month-old work stoppage barring an unforeseen glitch as negotiators wrap up final details.
Word of the positive developments first spread Saturday, the result of two weeks of discussions between guild officials and Disney president Robert Iger, News Corp. COO Peter Chernin and other top media company execs. On Sunday, WGAW president Patric Verrone and WGAE president Michael Winship issued a joint statement to members warning that more work needed to be done to secure an actual tentative agreement.
"We are still in talks and do not yet have a contract," the guild presidents said. "When and if a tentative agreement is reached, the first thing we will do is alert our membership with an e-mail message. Until then, please disregard rumors about either the existence of an agreement or its terms.
"Until we have reached an agreement with the AMPTP, it is essential that we continue to show our resolve, solidarity and strength," the duo added. "Picketing will resume on Monday. Our leverage at the bargaining table is directly affected by your commitment to our cause. Please continue to show your support on the line. We are all in this together."
But despite those words of caution, a sense of optimism spread through Hollywood over the weekend -- and not a moment too soon for those hoping to salvage a star-studded Academy Awards telecast on Feb. 24. If no deal is reached by then, the WGA is expected to picket the Oscars, and that would keep actors and other celebrities away from the Kodak Theatre in droves.
Well-placed sources touted broad progress being marked in key areas, including compensation for content streamed over the Internet. Although the DGA recently reached a tentative new contract marking historic gains in new-media compensation, the writers hinted they would press for sweeter terms.
In an unusual twist, there appears to be a good chance that the informal talks between guild reps and the AMPTP will quietly segue into formal sessions in which contract language of a tentative agreement would be crafted. It had been assumed the parties would publicly acknowledge any resumption of formal bargaining sessions.
The AMPTP and WGA haven't met for on-the-record negotiations since Dec. 7. That's when the studio organization demanded the guild remove from the table demands for reality TV and animation jurisdiction and the right to stage sympathy strikes.
The jurisdictional demands have since been withdrawn. It was unclear how -- or even if -- the parties have yet dealt with the demand for the first-time right to stage sympathy strikes.
The WGA's most recent contract with the AMPTP expired Oct. 31, and the guild launched its work stoppage Nov. 5. The AMPTP and the WGA began their on-again, off-again negotiations for a new contract on July 16.
Next on the AMPTP's to-do list -- once a WGA pact is secured -- will be mounting negotiations with SAG over that guild's next film and TV contract. SAG's current pact expires June 30.
Since formal negotiations with the AMPTP broke down, the WGA has pursued interim pacts with smaller film and TV companies. The WGAE said Sunday it had reached such deals most recently with New York-based indies including GreeneStreet Films, Killer Films, Open City Films, and This Is That Corp.
it's about f'ing time b/c i'm so sick of everything to do with this strike. whatever modicum of sympathy i once held for these writers quickly vanished a long time ago. they need to get back to work and give thanks to the fact that they still have a job millions of people (many of who are far more talented) would give up their kidneys for.
it has nothing to do with not appreciating their jobs. they were being treated unfairly. they would write stuff just for the internet that would generate millions in revenue for the networks and not see a penny.
Quote from: picolas on February 04, 2008, 07:48:56 PMit has nothing to do with not appreciating their jobs.
ok, but i didn't mean to imply that was the reason. all i meant was i find it hard to sympathize with them. we're not talking about blue collar workers living paycheck to paycheck. we're talking about rich people doing a dream job and wanting more money. deserved or not, it still seems silly in the grand scheme of things.
and it was my understanding that those internet dollars they're fighting for don't really even exist yet.
Quote from: ©MBBrad on February 04, 2008, 09:19:38 PM
and it was my understanding that those internet dollars they're fighting for don't really even exist yet.
Well, when you pay 2 bucks for an episode on iTunes, that's money. And when you see the advertisements every ten minutes when you watch shows on the networks' websites, that's money. And when Viacom sues Youtube for one billion dollars, that's suggesting very strongly that they either are making or expect to make a shitload of money off of internet content.
most writers are not rich people with dream jobs, a lot of them don't even work in a given year.
Plus, it's mainly to demonstrate that they deserve the respect. Not that they'll keep writing until a deal eventually comes up, but they have the power to deny the gigantic industry the stepping stone for projects.
I think the resurgence in game shows and reality TV is giving us all the wake up call as to how important writers are.
However, it does turn out to be sort of selfish because a lot of up and coming writers had their careers stymied and had to find employment elsewhere, and until the resolution still have to find a way to thrive until the strike is lifted, which is unfair. Maybe the fight will justify itself in the end and roll in more benefits from the money they'll make from internet revenue.
Quote from: ©MBBrad on February 04, 2008, 09:19:38 PM
Quote from: picolas on February 04, 2008, 07:48:56 PMit has nothing to do with not appreciating their jobs.
ok, but i didn't mean to imply that was the reason. all i meant was i find it hard to sympathize with them. we're not talking about blue collar workers living paycheck to paycheck. we're talking about rich people doing a dream job and wanting more money. deserved or not, it still seems silly in the grand scheme of things.
and it was my understanding that those internet dollars they're fighting for don't really even exist yet.
You're sounding a lot like this guy (http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/mixed-media/2007/11/07/michael-eisner-calls-writers-strike-insanity).
Quote from: Chest Rockwell on February 06, 2008, 11:09:17 AM
Quote from: ©MBBrad on February 04, 2008, 09:19:38 PM
Quote from: picolas on February 04, 2008, 07:48:56 PMit has nothing to do with not appreciating their jobs.
ok, but i didn't mean to imply that was the reason. all i meant was i find it hard to sympathize with them. we're not talking about blue collar workers living paycheck to paycheck. we're talking about rich people doing a dream job and wanting more money. deserved or not, it still seems silly in the grand scheme of things.
and it was my understanding that those internet dollars they're fighting for don't really even exist yet.
You're sounding a lot like this guy (http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/mixed-media/2007/11/07/michael-eisner-calls-writers-strike-insanity).
:shock:
©MBmiscalculation.
Please. Just do something!!!
I can't take anymore American Gladiators or Moment Of Truth!!!
Don't know if anyone else reads 'Script', but there's a very interesting article in the Jan/Feb issue by Aaron Mendelshon, a self-described "blue-collar writer" who sits on the board of the WGA and who voted for the strike despite it wound up disrupting many of his potential deals. It's really insightful, and if anyone can track down a copy, I urge you to read it. I'm not going to bother to transcribe the whole thing, but there is this section which I thought might shed some light on the situation and add to the debate here.
"We all know computers and TV are going to merge. But, as episodes of Lost and the umpteenth broadcast of Die Hard yippee-ki-yays itself onto the internet and away from traditional rerun and syndication patterns, the cushy 1.2% and 2% residual formulas writers are used to will shrink to a paltry 0.3% for downloads and a whopping 0% for streaming content. No matter how they try to spin it, that amounts to a dramatic reduction in a writer's pay.
"Yeah, that's right, residuals are a part of a writer's pay - 20% to 50% of it, to be exact. With nearly half the Guild's membership out of work in any given year, residuals are what enable us to soldier on. Marc Cherry lived on residuals for eight years before he came up with a little money-printing machine called Desperate Housewives. Paul Tamasy and I wrote a micro-budgeted independent movie called Air Bud which, between it and its many sequels, has gone on to make tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars for Disney. The residuals which spun of it (fours cents for every $20 DVD sold - crumbs really) have covered many a mortgage payment and put food on the table when I was between gigs. If the companies were paying then what they want to pay going forward, I'd be long out of business and the world would be short one Wisteria Lane."
is it over?
http://www.cnbc.com/id/23057002 (http://www.cnbc.com/id/23057002)
WGA.org says no.
Quote from: Stefen on February 06, 2008, 03:10:40 PM
Please. Just do something!!!
I can't take anymore American Gladiators or Moment Of Truth!!!
I say let's not do anything too hasty before we all get to behold NBC's "My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad."
The latest from WGA.org: "We have a tentative deal." That's all I can read, I'm afraid, you have to be a guild member in order to read the full article. So it seems there's no official news right now, they're still flying under the media blackout.
Hollywood writers consider studio offer
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Striking Hollywood writers on Saturday gave resounding support to a tentative agreement with studios that could end a strike that has crippled the entertainment industry. However, it appeared the approval process might briefly delay their return to work.
About 3,500 writers packed the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles to hear from union leaders about the proposed deal that was finalized just hours before meetings were held on both coasts by the Writers Guild of America.
A person familiar with the guild's plan, who requested anonymity because of a media blackout, said the WGA board would meet Sunday and decide on whether to authorize a quick, two-day vote of its members to determine if a strike order should be lifted.
Giving writers a 48-hour window to vote on lifting the strike order would help alleviate concerns that the agreement was being pushed too rapidly by the guild's board.
If guild members support lifting the strike order, they could return to work as early as Wednesday.
"The feeling in the room was really positive," said screenwriter Mike Galvin, adding that no one at the Los Angeles gathering said the deal "was crummy."
Compensation for projects delivered via digital media was the central issue in the 3-month-old walkout, which idled thousands of workers, disrupted the TV season and moviemaking and took the shine off Hollywood's awards season.
"I believe it is a good deal. I am going to be recommending this deal to our membership," Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America, East, told reporters before the New York meeting at a Times Square hotel.
Winship said afterward that he was encouraged by the membership's response.
"We had a very lively discussion. I'm happy with what happened. ... At the moment, I feel strongly it (the proposed deal) has a strong chance of going through," he said.
Writers leaving the two-hour-plus New York meeting characterized the reaction as generally positive and said there was cautious optimism that the end of the strike — the guild's first in 20 years — could be near.
Carmen Culver, a film and TV writer, lauded the guild "for hanging tough."
"It's a great day for the labor movement. We have suffered a lot of privation in order to achieve what we've achieved," Culver said.
Michael Moore, the Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker ("Bowling for Columbine") and a nominee this year for his health-care film "Sicko," attended the New York meeting.
"It's a historic moment for labor in this country," Moore told The Associated Press.
Winship cautioned that it's not a "done deal" until the contract is ratified by members who need to be polled by mail in a process that usually takes two weeks.
An outline of the three-year deal was reached in recent talks between media executives and the guild, with lawyers then drafting the contract language that was concluded Friday.
According to the guild's summary, the deal provides union jurisdiction over projects created for the Internet based on certain guidelines, sets compensation for streamed, ad-supported programs and increases residuals for downloaded movies and TV programs.
The writers deal is similar to one reached last month by the Directors Guild of America, including a provision that compensation for ad-supported streaming doesn't kick in until after a window of between 17 to 24 days deemed "promotional" by the studios.
Writers would get a maximum $1,200 flat fee for streamed programs in the deal's first two years and then get a percentage of a distributor's gross in year three — the last point an improvement on the directors deal, which remains at the flat payment rate.
"Much has been achieved, and while this agreement is neither perfect nor perhaps all that we deserve for the countless hours of hard work and sacrifice, our strike has been a success," guild leaders Winship and Patric Verrone, head of the Writers Guild of America, West, said in an e-mailed message to members.
Together, the guilds represent 12,000 writers, with about 10,000 of those involved in the strike that began Nov. 5 and has cost the Los Angeles area economy alone an estimated $1 billion or more. Studios are represented by Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
One observer said the guild gained ground in the deal but not as much as it wanted.
"It's a mixed deal but far better than the writers would have been able to get three months ago. The strike was a qualified success," said Jonathan Handel, an entertainment attorney with the TroyGould firm and a former associate counsel for the writers guild.
The walkout "paved the way for the directors to get a better deal than they would otherwise have gotten. That in turn became the foundation for further improvements the writers achieved," Handel said.
Just heard on the news that the strike is officially over, I can't find anything on the net yet, they only said the vote was in favor of ending the strike.
Link to the tentative agreement: http://www.wga.org/contract_07/wga_tent_summary.pdf (http://www.wga.org/contract_07/wga_tent_summary.pdf)
So, realistically, how soon can we expect to get new episodes of TV shows now? Specifically 30 Rock and The Office?
30 Rock is due back April 10 with 5 new eps. Office is due April 10 too, with either 5 or 6 new eps. Heroes looks like it's waiting till fall.