strike

[newb]

As a work stoppage becomes reality, Hollywood would be wise to listen to Jeff Zucker.

"A strike will happen at everyone's peril," the NBC Universal chief told a breakfast of industry insiders last week. It's a sentiment shared by many in the Hollywood community.

Yet after three-plus months of acrimonious negotiations, the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers remained far apart at the bargaining table when their contract expired at midnight on Oct. 31, and a strike began on Monday at 12:01 a.m.

In a last-ditch attempt to avert a stoppage, the writers and their employers were prodded by a federal mediator to meet for another round of negotiations on Sunday. But, after ten-plus hours of closed-door session talks, the two sides failed to reach any kind of solution.

"It is unfortunate that they choose to take this irresponsible action,” said Nick Counter, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, in a statement after Sunday’s negotiations broke down.

Hollywood’s scribes said the union had agreed to withdraw its proposal to double DVD residuals, which Counter had cited as a stumbling block during last week’s talks, but that their employers refused to make concessions in other vital areas.

Still at issue: how writers should be compensated when their work appears on new media platforms like the Web. The guild, which represents about 12,000 writers, wants residual compensation, while the studios and networks argue that the online arena is still too new to establish any kind of payment formula.

Hollywood’s scribes are also adamant that they be better compensated for content on DVD, looking to receive what amounts to about 8 cents for each disc sold rather than the current 4 cents. Producers feel differently, arguing that the revenues are criticial to moving projects out of deficit amid sharply rising costs.

Despite the deep divisions on these and other issues, there are powerful incentives to avoid a drawn-out stoppage. The last writers' strike, in 1988, resulted in a 22-week work interruption that not only delayed the TV season but crippled the industry. In addition to losing about 9% of its audience when new fare finally returned, industry-wide losses were estimated at $500 million. Nearly two decades later, the stakes are even higher for companies like General Electric (nyse: GE - news - people ), News Corp. (nyse: NWS - news - people ), CBS (nyse: CBS - news - people ), Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ) and Disney (nyse: DIS - news - people ).

Television will see the most immediate impact of a strike, with late night programs hit first. Without writers on staff to create monologues, shows like CBS's The Late Show With David Letterman and Comedy Central's The Daily Show With Jon Stewart will likely go into repeats fairly quickly. Within a month or so, daytime soaps will probably follow suit.

Prime-time schedules would appear relatively unchanged for a couple of months, since a handful of episodes have already been prepared. But if the strike drags on the 2008 schedule will be heavy on reality shows (not covered by the current contracts) and reruns.

Like many in Tinseltown, Lisa Klink, who worked on Star Trek: Voyager and Roswell, worries that audiences will flee out of boredom or frustration as schedules fill with repeats. Television is already struggling to maintain its relevance--and viewers--in the face of new technology. "It's tricky to get them back," she said.

Emmy-winning writer, director and producer Ken Levine, whose TV credits include M*A*S*H, Cheers and Frasier, agrees. "It's like if you're a restaurant that's struggling, it's not a good idea to close on the weekends."

Though CW entertainment chief Dawn Ostroff says her network is prepared, with new reality series like Farmer Wants A Wife and Crowned waiting in the wings, she, too, sees no advantage to striking: "It's just better for everyone if habits aren't broken and if people that are getting into characters and shows are able to continue to do so."

The film side is in slightly better shape, at least in the near term, since movies have longer production timetables and major studios have reportedly readied their 2008 scripts in preparation.

But that doesn't mean a strike will have negligible impact in the coming months, remarks director/producer McG, whose film credits include We Are Marshall and Charlie's Angels. Any film he has ever been a part of has had a writer involved in every step of the process.

"I don't care how much stockpiling has been done," he says. "No one is immune."

[Roderick Usher]

1 issue - New Media

Currently the studios are making movies available for download with writers receiving exactly 0% of the profits.

It is the future of media and to be cut out of the loop at it's inception will screw writers forever. Not to mention directors, who will likely model their stake of these profits on the WGA's model.

and then there's how my pal David J Stieve (writer of Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon) put it:

Time Warner:
Revenues--$44 billion
Profit--$6.53 billion
CEO Richard Parsons' 2006 pay: $12. 95 million. Five-year pay haul: $45.36 million. Stock options value: $14.2 million (at April 2007 prices)

Disney:
Revenues--$35 billion
Profit--$4.34 billion
CEO Robert Iger's 2006 pay: $29.93 million plus $8.8 million stock options

News Corp.:
Revenues--$26.74 billion
Profit--$3.34 billion
Boss Rupert Murdoch's 2006 pay: $25.91 million. Five-year pay haul: $86.42 million. Stock: since he owns the company, his stock is worth $8.7 billion

CBS:
Revenues--$14.32 billion
Profit--$1.66 billion
CEO Leslie Moonves 2006 pay: $24.86 million. Five-year pay haul: $63.43 million. Stock options: $30 million.

Murdoch's is my favorite. His stock option alone (just one guy out of all of the corporate bigwigs involved) is more than 120 times greater than the ENTIRE PACKAGE the writers are asking for. And all of these profits depend on content that writers create! Writers are the wellspring from which these corporate giants siphon their cash! As one blogger commented, "when was the last time you watched a movie written by Rupert Murdoch?"

PLEASE, PLEASE don't be fooled by the "Big Oil" mentality and spin-doctoring the corporate giants put out there. There is nothing you "don't understand" about the costs of doing business.

It is, like so many other facets of our society now, nothing more complicated that the extremely wealthy at the very very top of the buildings not wanting to give the people doing the real work their fair share. Not even a fair share, but a meek increase in pay.

There are no "complicated revenue structures or costs" that you don't understand. There is only unchecked, rampant greed.

[GorePhobia]

This strike is gonna suck. Hopefully it will end fairly quickly and they pay the writers what they deserve.

[missmacabre]

I've been following this carefully through the news so I knew that the writers getting no profit from downloads was a problem but I had no idea about the CEOs. Thats rediculous!

[Zero]

i think we should all join the strike and quit writing on hdc

[newb]

i think we should all join the strike and quit writing on hdc

You already had your time off




slacker

[GorePhobia]

The computer is the only thing I am ever on so I will have to disagree with you on that one. I can't stop writing on here.

[Sharkchild]

I hope the writers milk the producers for every penny they can get because they deserve it and more than earned it.

[X¤MurderDoll¤X]

I'm glad they're striking actually, the fewer super hero movies the better.

[ManchestrMorgue]

It is very very sad when talent and creativity is able to be exploited by corporations.

I mean, who should be rewarded the greatest - those with the talent and creativity or those who are able to buy and sell it?

[X¤MurderDoll¤X]

I mean, who should be rewarded the greatest - those with the talent and creativity or those who are able to buy and sell it?

welcome to life.

[Roderick Usher]

http://web.mac.com/ziboskwitz/iWeb/Cooper%20Family/Home/EF3D1C1D-C652-4650-8BB1-FFC2E383EF75.html

the strike explained in this short video clip

[Roderick Usher]

I've been hearing a rather interesting rumor going around town that the WGA is negotiating with Sergey Brin and GOOGLE about establishing a residual pay-rate for writers on the upcoming GOOGLE TV which could easily serve as a model for (and force the hand of) the AMPTP's future dealings with writers in New Media.

Like I said, it's a rumor...but a very interesting one.

[Disease]

I've been on an unintentional strike for a few years... Doubt anyone is going to pay up though...

[missmacabre]

I heard this strike may last up to 5 months :(

[Roderick Usher]

Ronald D. Moore on NBC: They Weren't Going to Pay Us

November 8, 2007 in Labor, Television

It seems like the popular thing to do now. Go out to the picket lines and score quick interviews and quotes from showrunners on everything that's been pissing them off lately. Well, Ron Moore is plenty pissed off at NBC and it's easy to understand why. I've written on this subject before and had my reporting linked from the WGA website and quoted in a trade labor magazine, because I think this is important and because I knew it was a pretense to the struggles going on right now over digital media.

NBC wanted Ron Moore and company to create a series of webisodes - basically two-minute shorts that step outside the main thrust of a TV show - to broadcast on the web only, sourced from the Battlestar Galactica franchise to wet viewers appetites between the second and third season. Moore had his guys start writing and producing them and then found out NBC had no intent of paying for the material at all. Not a dime, not for anybody involved.

Moore halted all work on the webisode production until an agreement on payment could be made, causing NBC to seize the material immediately which they then pushed out onto the web as planned. NBC also filed a complaint against the Writers Guild of America claiming they were illegally interfering with their contract with the shows producers and writers (the one that requires they be paid for writing.) Intimidation, essentially, is what they said the WGA was doing to Moore and company.

Well, without going into it any further, I'll tell you that NBC lost the original ruling and an appeal, and they lost it by a mile. Moore never really spoke out on the matter, but he told someone at Entertainment Weekly while he was walking the picket lines precisely what went down and why this strike is all about things like webisodes.

At Battlestar, we had a very specific situation last year, dealing with webisodes, which opened my eyes to the problems. When we were approached to do Galactica webisodes, the studio's position was they didn't want to pay anyone to do it—they considered it promotional material. They weren't going to pay any of the writers or the actors or the directors to do it, which we thought was crazy. We refused to do it, and eventually came to an accommodation where they said they would pay us, but then when we were almost done, they decided they weren't going to credit anybody. They weren't going to acknowledge anybody who wrote it. And then I refused to deliver the webisodes, and they came and took them anyway, which is their right since they own the show...but it really made me aware of these issues. I mean, my staff writer, who is the lowest man on the totem pole, they want him to do all this work for another media, not pay him for it, and then make money off of his work. Ultimately, that's why we're here, because that's just wrong.

Imagining what it would be like to fight over residuals when you don't have such a thing in your job can be a tough sell, but this is something I think anybody can understand. This is a "duh" moment if there ever was one. As Mal says, "I do the job. Then I get paid."

Damn skippy.

http://www.mediapundit.net/2007/11/r...to-pay-us.html

[massacre man]

I found this in a bulletin from Robert Ben Garrant's (Travis on Reno 911) MySpace page. Just thought I'd post it.

My name is Robert Ben Garant. I am a screenwriter. You might just know me as Travis Junior, the guy who gets hurt a lot on Reno 911!. But I also write Reno 911!, and I have written a few movies.

The WGA (Writers Guild of America) is my union.

There is a lot of misinformation out there about the Writers' Strike. This is no coincidence. The corporations who run the news (NEWSCORP, VIACOM, etc.) are the very people we are striking against.

I wanted to set a few things straight:

WHAT WE ARE ASKING FOR: Our contract with the studios is up. The old contract gives us 4 cents per every DVD sold. The studios make about 17 bucks profit per DVD. We get 4 cents. We were asking for 8 cents per DVD. (For the record, the Chinese companies that package DVDs get about 60 cents per DVD.)

We are also asking for -- and this is the big one -- the same cut for every movie and TV show that you download off the Internet.

The studios have told us that they will not give us that. The studios want to keep the DVD rate at 4 cents, and give us NOTHING for every time you watch a movie off the Internet.

I think we all know, within a few years, people will download movies more than they buy DVDs, maybe more than they watch reruns on TV. I know I do. I watched Lost off iTunes. They cost $1.99 per episode then they have commercials anyway.

The studios say they don't know how much money they're making off the Internet, so they can't pay us. Poppycock. They're making $1.99 per show, plus what they get from the advertisers.

I want to set the record straight on some other stuff, too:

MISINFORMATION: "Most Hollywood writers make 200 grand a year." Poppycock. Most writers are middle class. There are about 40 writers who make that kind of money. The union has 12,000 other members, who don't make anywhere near that.

A friend of mine is a staff writer for a very big late night talk show. He has enough money saved up to last about two months. He will have to sell his house, if the strike goes on longer than that. His house is not a mansion. It is a one-bedroom in Burbank.

MISINFORMATION: "The writers wanted this strike. They're causing all this economic hardship in LA." Poppycock. No writer wanted this strike. We want to work. But the studios ARE NOT EVEN NEGOTIATING WITH US. THEY WON'T EVEN TALK TO US.

The Studios told the WGA that they would NOT EVEN NEGOTIATE until we stopped asking for 8 cents on every DVD.

So, on the Sunday before the strike, the WGA stopped asking for 8 cents. We took that off the table, and went back down to 4 cents per DVD. THE STUDIOS STILL REFUSE TO TALK TO US.

They won't even negotiate until we accept their offer for the Internet. Their offer for the Internet is: NOTHING. No money at all.

My union wants to work, but we would be CRAZY to accept a contract that says THEY GET TO USE OUR WORK FOR FREE ON THE INTERNET. The Internet is the future.

Screenwriters and TV writers live on residuals. We are not on salary. We are all self-employed. Our only insurance comes from the union. If our union is finished, so are we.

We live from job to job. It is the residuals that get writers through from job to job.

I have heard people say things like: "Well, I make staplers, I don't get paid every time someone staples something."

That is true. But you don't make ONE stapler, sell it, then -- after people staple with it for a while -- and IF people like it, they call you in, interview you, and maybe hire you to make another stapler.

And the next stapler you make can't be like the last stapler you made at all.

That is what writing is like.

Successful shows make TONS of money -- millions on millions -- for the networks. And the writer, who created this successful money machine, gets a tiny piece, ever time a show airs. (I have never gotten one of those for "Reno." "Reno" is non-union.)

Back in the Golden Age of TV, the guys who wrote "I Love Lucy" got paid a fee to write it, then they never got a residual. For 50 years, the networks made MILLIONS off of those "Lucy" episodes, and the writer never got another penny. We can't go back to that. And that is what the studios want us to do.

Now, I'm not crying poverty. Since I left Farragut in 1988, I have been really lucky, going from cable to features, and back and forth. Most writers get about one writing job a year -- no matter how good they are.

This Union, like all Unions, is here to protect the little guys from being crushed by the mega-corporations.

The Studios want 100% of the pie -- and that is not fair. The fat cats on the top, the Rupert Murdocks and the Sumner Redstones are making more money than they ever have.

We're fighting for everybody: writers, actors, directors (because they will get stuck with this deal, if we cave in.) And we're fighting for all writers in the future.

That is why I am striking. We are striking for our future.

Thanks, everybody, for listening to my side of this.

And you all should know, this strike might go on for quite a while. The studios aren't even talking to us yet. Oh, and people ask me: WHAT CAN I DO TO SUPPORT THE WRITERS.

Simple: Don't download movies or TV. I'm not. ... and I still haven't seen season 6 of The Sopranos yet.

Robert Ben Garant, Reno S.D., WGA.

[PR3SSUR3]

Blah blah blah blah...

What a load of shit.

Why anybody would want to be associated with any kind of claustrophobic writers guild or union in beyond me.

Make independent films, don't be bound by the same equilibrium that strangles a system producing mostly trendy, intellectually vacant academic celluloid in the first place.

Shoot all the striking 'writers', and give their orphaned kids' food to tramps on the street as well.

Then maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to reset and see more films ground out from raw inspiration and passion instead of the diluted Hollywood sperm spouted freely from the shafts of fatcat market-watchers.

Placard waving khuntz.

http://www.selkirkshire.demon.co.uk/analoguesat/images/colourbars.jpg

[massacre man]

Shoot all the striking 'writers', and give their orphaned kids' food to tramps on the street as well.

:eek: Rod is one of them.

[GorePhobia]

Rod isn't apart of the guild....

[X¤MurderDoll¤X]

really? I would have thought he would be.

[PR3SSUR3]

That's OK, writers have got thick skins.

Some of the strikers are going on as if their worlds will fall apart unless they get paid a bit more (I think the current issue is about Internet promotion - of the films they have written). As if writing screenplays is all they can do with no possibility of getting a blue collar job to support themselves while they try and create entertainment.

Though since many of them are part of a money-drenched and horribly commercial system anyway, it stands to reason that they are caught up in the Hollywood way of thinking, what with all that cash flying about.

It's always encouraging when the 'it's not what you know, it's who you know' attitude gets smashed to bits by successful indie productions.

[Zero]

i'm proud of the WGA and hope they hold out (although the TV is going to suck until its over)

[Phalanx]

So, is it true that BSG may not air?

[BudMan]

i'm proud of the WGA and hope they hold out (although the TV is going to suck until its over)

TV sucks no matter.

[ChronoGrl]

i'm proud of the WGA and hope they hold out (although the TV is going to suck until its over)

Cheers. I believe that they have every right to strike. Go for it. Get as much money as you possibly can.

Screw TV. I have Netflix.

My ONLY problem with the Strike... Quite frankly, I'm sick of the news covering it. Just let me know when it's over and what the outcome is. Until then, I'd imaging that there are other things going on in the world...

[PR3SSUR3]

Hold it - so the 'brains' behind Lost and Family Guy have put these popular series' on hold?

Please keep on striking.

:D

[massacre man]

Hold it - so the 'brains' behind Lost and Family Guy have put these popular series' on hold?

Please keep on striking.

:D

Family Guy's a cartoon, sadly, I doubt it's affected.

[PR3SSUR3]

Are you saying animated shows do not require writers? :confused:

Seth MacFarlane recently spoke out for the strike in a rally at Fox Studios.

[massacre man]

Are you saying animated shows do not require writers? :confused:

Seth MacFarlane recently spoke out for the strike in a rally at Fox Studios.

No, it takes longer with animated shows, I know with The Simpsons it takes around 8 months to make an episode. Figured it was the same with Family Guy, and about Seth MacFarlane, I don't watch Family Guy so I wasn't aware.

[PR3SSUR3]

Strangely I think Family Guy's sister show American Dad is a hoot - still lagging behind The Simpsons and South Park, but sharper and a bit more fun than Futurama.

[massacre man]

Strangely I think Family Guy's sister show American Dad is a hoot - still lagging behind The Simpsons and South Park, but sharper and a bit more fun than Futurama.

I strongly dislike Family Guy (I liked 2 or 3 episodes, they were all on the "Best of" DVD) and American Dad. I love South Park and loved Futurama. The Simpsons is my all-time favorite thing ever (Entertainment-wise, of course).

[JL_Benet]

{from the Horror Writers Association}

The Horror Writers Association, on behalf of its writer members, stands in support of the Writers Guild of America strike in seeking appropriate compensation for writers when their work is distributed digitally, either via DVD or Internet downloads. Although HWA is not a union, it is an organization of writers that advocates for authors' rights. Writers Guild of America and its demands fall solidly into this category. All writers will be affected by the outcome of this strike, and we stand in solidarity, resisting those who seek to distribute our work on the Internet, DVD, or any format without fair compensation.

http://www.horror.org/