SAG On A Possible WGA Strike
Quick newsflash in between setups over here.
SAG has sent a mass email out to its membership regarding the possibility of an upcoming WGA strike. They write:
Negotiations between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are ongoing, and the expiration of their contract is not until October 31. We continue to be hopeful that an amicable and equitable conclusion to their negotiations will occur. However, now that the results of the WGA Strike Authorization ballot are in and an overwhelming majority of the WGA membership has voted the authority to call a strike if the talks fail to produce a deal, it is appropriate that we discuss with you what the ramifications of a work stoppage would mean to you, the members of Screen Actors Guild, and your continuing to work if a strike becomes a reality.
In the event of a strike by the Writers Guild of America it is important to remember that the Screen Actors Guild’s support of the Writers Guild is steadfast and will remain so. That said, it is also important for you as a member to understand what you can and cannot do in regard to working under our contracts and supporting the WGA during a strike.
If you are contracted to work on a show that continues to produce episodes you are obligated by your personal service agreement and the “No Strike” clause in our collective bargaining agreements to go to work.
You can continue to audition for work.
We encourage you, on your own time, to walk any picket line that has been set up by the Writers Guild to show your support of their effort.
You will continue to get updates from Screen Actors Guild on any job action that the WGA has undertaken.
You should also visit the WGA website for the latest updates and information.
This is a good message for a couple of reasons.
First, it’s responsible. Unlike some people (including a few of my more cockeyed commenters), SAG gets that you can’t choose to “not cross a picket line” simply because you feel like honoring a strike. If you have a contract, you have to work, and the union can’t support any action preventing you from working.
Second, the tone is very friendly to the WGA. The inroads that have been made between the two unions is a good thing. I’m not sure it will matter much in the long run if the WGA strikes now, because SAG can’t flex its considerable muscle for us until the summer. That’s one reason I hate the idea of an early strike…when it comes to SAG and the WGA, our strike threat is weaker, simply because we can’t shut production down instantly, and maybe also because we don’t have a collection of the most famous faces in America to help promote our position.
Nonetheless, SAG sounds very supportive, and that’s something to be thankful for. I give current leadership credit for creating a relationship there when there was almost none to speak of before
So, after speaking with a bunch of people, I’m starting to get the feeling that there will be no strike.
Am I alone on this?
Just thought I’d kick-start the comments here:
From Clifford J. Green:
“I agree with you that this is a wonderful development; however, I would like to see SAG leadership just a bit more rabid, if we may. Impressive solidarity, but not enough backbone.
Best,
C…”
From SML:
“SAG definitely should not cross any picket line. There should not be any picket line. The WGA should accept the reasonableness of the Companies’ position and put all this nonsense to bed. Then I can sell another spec script to whomever I want.”
From Sorry, Anonymous:
“Justify your existence, Craig. Please don’t take offense. But.. why do you make seven figures? Are you lying? I mean this in the nicest of ways. I really do. I appreciate all your hard work on this blog. By the way, you’re an overpaid schmuck.”
From Kevin Arbouet:
“Nice post, Craig. Keep up the good work.”
From Travis Fields:
“[Perfect English; one sentence per line; double-spaced; totally incomprehensible content.]
P.S. What would you say to a writer who was also an actor who wanted to keep acting and writing and selling and making money and was going to do it anyway but wanted everybody to just be okay with it?”
From Josh Olson:
“F you, Craig. You’re an idiot and can’t be expected to interpret basic grammar, much less an email from SAG leadership.
P.S. I hate everybody on these boards.”
Silly me. I was so busy filling out everyone else’s name that I forgot to type in one of my own. Must distinguish myself from all the other Anonymous posters (Anonymice?) on this site.
Dear AW Fan,
Well done. Now can you come over and, in my voice, finish the two scripts I’m working on?
Best,
C…
AW Fan,
You forgot one.
From Ted Elliot:
“Having studied the original document language carefully, I find the wording of the clause after the fourth comma in the first paragraph clearly indicative of the leadership’s desire to circumvent the accepted process… If you disagree, you’re obviously drunk.”
Those comments are really, really funny. Too bad Craig won’t get them.
Damn, I got away pretty unscathed!
I’m surprised it wasn’t:
“Nice post, Craig. Keep up the good work. Oh and by the way, your balls taste delicious.”
AWF wrote, “Then I can sell another spec script to whomever I want.”
Not whomever I want. Whomever my agent wants. Zing!
Found this:
http://www.hollywoodscabwriter.com/
He’s handsome.
Hey!
I was left out of that character-slime!
How about this:
“Anonymous posters without the sack to sign their own names to their posts are pussies!”
Hey, I wanna play too….
From Anonymous:
“To Anonymous,
I think you’re completely missing Anonymous’s point. If you had read more carefully, you would have seen that he was agreeing with Anonymous that Anonymous #42 was wrong to imply that what Anonymous X said to The Original Anonymous was simply intended as a friendly joke. If you look back at Anonymous X’s earlier posts to Anonymous Poster, Anonymous Rex, and Anonymous: The Anonymous Experience, it’s pretty clear what his real agenda is. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was really a studio shill. His comment to Anonymous reads like it was lifted directly from the AMPTP’s website.
And a side note to ‘The Real Anonymous’: I am the real Anonymous. My style is very distinctive, and you, sir, are not fooling anyone with your feeble attempts to imitate it. Try coming up with your own preudonym next time, and maybe someone will take you seriously.”
Joshua:
You were left out because you’re too busy with your new kid.
Congrats on the adaptation gig, btw.
“Preudonym”?
Sigh. Guess it’s a good thing I’m anonymous….
All very, very funny! Remember when I said this place was getting tired. I guess AWF found the beauty and humor in it all, so I stand corrected. BTW, even with my tired comment, I still can’t resist tuning in with the hope of seeing something great. And these last few posts made me laugh. Especially AWF, number #11, and number #5.
God bless Alex Perez, the most useful bargaining chip the WGA has ever been handed. I can’t think of a better way to demonstrate the need for professional writers in the entertainment industry.
I’m just glad that I didn’t turn out to be too rabid. I’d like to have screenwriter friends when I finally get the points. At any rate, from what I heard from insiders is that the strike may be exacerbated by the majority of writers who AREN’T working as they have nothing to lose. Same with SAG as a small % of them are constantly working.
Hopefully though being right is the only reason for going on strike. There were some arguments elsewhere that ended with “so if I rent UHaul trucks I should only charge once for the same truck?”
The creative individuals are the ones who make it possible for ANYONE to make money. Pay for their work. PERIOD! I don’t think anyone wants more than they are entitled to.
Anonymous:
I’m actually not planning to try to sell my spec during the strike - but that doesn’t make me immune to temptation, should an opportunity arise.
And btw, good post :-D
Travis -
The idea that tyros will get a good shot at selling their specs while the pros are on strike is a little naive. Studios have already stopped reading scripts and taking pitches, and the strike’s not even in effect. And even if your sister posing as your manager gets a script into an executive’s hands and he loves it, chances are it won’t sell. Why? Because there’s no A lister or tried writer available to give it a page-one polish or do production rewrites, and the risk of going into production with a tyro scripe are way too high. Better to polish that brilliant spec so when the market opens up again you have something to show.
Travis,
Have you seen Alex Perez’s website? It’s something you might want to consider.
He’s very handsome.
Johnny: yeah, you’re probably right.
I’m going to be where Mike Medavoy is going to be tonight, but it’s highly unlikely that I’ll pitch him: I just have no practice doing it.
Ironically, when you first start writing, you’re so overloaded with enthusiasm, you could probably convince someone in a pitch that you were going to win Oscars -
but after a few years of work and comparing what you actually do with what a great Pro does, all you can think of is
@”)@&#%^@#% it! How do I get better than THIS?”
Maybe I should settle for trying to write a sharp simple script well, instead of failing to write a great final draft of a great script in which I attempt to do everything all at the same time.
Maybe.
Craig, if at times I seem a bit hostile, just know that regardless of what I say, I support you 100%.
Well, thanks. I’ve always craved 100%-but-occasionally-hostile support. Keeps my feet on the ground.
Travis,
I take back my last dig and all others.
Write a tight, simple script. Don’t worry about pitching yet. Think long term. Do you want to write one script or 100? Just focus on the writing, the story, the character. And you’ll make it without the aid of the strike. I promise.
Good luck.
Ummm, that wasn’t me. Someone used my screen name? WTF? I’ll have you know I generally support Craig only about 92% of the time.
Quill (both),
The real question is which one of you is Hitler? Catch 22? I say yes.
This is the first time that I’ve ever defended my honor by saying “I am the one they call Hitler.”
RealQuill,
I laughed. Thank you.
Anonymous P.: At least it wasn’t a freudonym?
Joshua James: I do feel bad about that, but you’ve been kind of quiet lately. All in good fun. This place needed a laugh.
Brilliant responses, all (esp. Kevin’s).
Alex Perez is very handsome! When SAG goes on strike, he’ll be playing all roles.
Damn it SML!
Why you got to go and grow up on me so soon?
Sorry about my insta-tirade re: the military, but when someone says “please, (a little respect) thanks”, the correct answer is not a dick joke.
Anyway…
Thanks. :-)
That Alex Perez site has got to be a joke. Have you watched the videos? They’re so awful, they’re funny. I mean, that’s got to be on purpose, right? No one is that bad.
JHF, I hope for his sake it’s fake. Otherwise he may end up usurping that guy who auditioned for Full Metal Jacket as the most pretentious hack on the web.
Brian McGinn (aka Alex Perez) and company pulled off the perfect WGA scab-in-the-making hoax.
Really? Outstanding! Kudos to you, Brian!
JHF,
“So THE GAME PLAN was the #1 movie at the box office and you want to make a football movie…”
That was funny.
Further research shows: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/69abf46813
I bet he gets a spot on SNL by months end… I was going to do a dick in the box joke, but I’m not going to… so, yeah.
There were more laughs in those Alex Perez videos than in Scary Movies 2 through 16. You all might want to reconsider this whole strike thing, unless hastening your own obsolencence was the idea. What’s the conversion rate for a million bucks in scab dollars?
Oh, and he IS very good looking.
I understand the bargaining strength of a combined WGA-SAG strike threat, and of the mutual and overlapping interests both union have regarding some issues. But what I haven’t seen is anyone acknowledging that many of the WGA’s proposals mean diddly squat to SAG.
There’s only power in a combined front if it is, indeed, a combined front. Will SAG care about going to the mat on, say, animation jurisdiction? (That’s an easy one — the answer is a flat no.) Can Craig or Ted point out the areas where the two unions demands are in sync, besides the obvious areas of New Media (“the real battle”) and DVD residuals (“the lost cause”)?
Latest from Nikki Finke:
http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/wga-says-variety-scoop-has-no-reality/
Does Mr. Verrone actually deny the content of the article or just seem to deny it?
I’m on the fence.
Informal poll: How many WGA members received that e-mail from Patric Verrone? Half my WGA friends did and half didn’t. (And the ones who received it are NOT strike captains, just regular members.) Why is half the membership not getting such an urgent message? I consider it a big problem when Nikki Finke has that before we do.
That is most troubling.
“There were more laughs in those Alex Perez videos than in Scary Movies 2 through 16.”
Ah, envy really is a terrible thing.
You don’t like what Craig writes? Well, guess what? He don’t need your approval. He’s doing quite well for himself, thank you very much for asking.
And we don’t need any more irrelevant comments about Craig’s credits.
Question — as someone who is just on the verge of being able to get into the WGA (I know, great timing), what do the pros think about the whole reality issue? Personally, I don’t know any writer who works on these shows — obviously, they’re scripted, but it still seems more of a producing/editing thing — do they even use script format? Seems to me it’s a totally different field than screenwriting — I have a producer friend at Access Hollywood, he writes stories, he’s not in the Guild. I really wish the WGA would drop it… Thoughts?
“The WGAW continues to be committed to organizing reality.”
— Patrick Verrone.
And people wonder why I want to be part of this guild.
God of Irony, I’d bet a thousand-million scab dollars that you’re one of those chumps who thought the Alex Perez site was legit. Bet it made you ball your hands into tight little fists, turned your puffy screenwriter face all red, huh?
But you were obviously just jealous of his extraordinary handsomeness. Ah, envy really is a terrible thing.
Christian Howell:
I’ve never bought this line of reasoning. For the most part, writers who aren’t working are just as interested in working as their currently-working counterparts. If they aren’t, then it means they’ve likely opted out of the industry. There’s probably a few non-working writers who might vote for a strike out of a “I’ve got nothin’ to lose” mindset … but the idea that that mindset drives a strike is just implausible.
Thanks Kevin,
Yeah, things be hoppin’, the kid keeps me busy and lots o’ writing to be done before Nov 1 … but things are good …
Be nice if the producers played nice and we didn’t have to strike - but it doesn’t seem likely.
I don’t get any Guild emails anymore. I used to get them, though. My email address hasn’t changed, so I don’t know what the problem is, but I think it’s much more likely to be a technical one (that could even be on my end) rather than my being removed from the email list or something sinister like that.
Now, I’m paranoid. I didn’t get the guild email. But I thought it was ONLY sent to strike captains. Any clarication, out there?
Alex Perez is almost as handsome as Tim Talbott.
I believe there is a way to update the preferences on which mails you do/don’t receive which is indicated with a URL at the bottom of every WGA-related listserv-style email.
If you click it…
I am interested in receiving email updates about:
…and then you can select from various categories. I’m guessing that one of these checkboxes determined who got the emails and who didn’t.
AYAAW
I didn’t get the WGA e-mail, either.
Mine went to Tim Talbott.
Oh, by the way, when this striking nonsense is all over and things go back to semi-normal, I do hope we can all have a fun “meet anonymous” mixer somewhere so we can wear name tags (“Anonymous #19”, “Anonymous P.”, “AYAAW”, etc.) and laugh and laugh…
AYAAW
No.
AYAAW,
I’ll be the one wearing the Groucho Marx glasses and the burqa. See you there!
Craig, I’m sorry I was being nasty. Honestly, I thought everyone would get the joke.
I’m a big fan of the B.O. as critic: people can say they love your movies or hate them, but if people are repeatedly buying tickets, then you’re doing something right.
Actually, truth be told, I’m a fan.
CMAC:
Don’t sweat it. 12 years of this…you learn to take a few punches.
Jen G,
Thank God someone else said it. I actually have friends who work in reality, which is why I’ve been totally befuddled by how Reality became such a big issue (more so than Animation? I don’t get it). But, that said, writing reality is writing in the way that scripting a documentary is writing. Yep, the format is completely different, but they do write a script. I’m assuming that if Reality were covered the minimums would be less than they are for fully scripted television, but maybe that’s a faulty assumption…
Btw, love that 99% of the comments on this one are punchy nonsense. Think I’ll go mix a cocktail myself.
To answer a previous question, it is my understanding that Verrone’s email only went to strike captains, game show writers and reality writers. This is an outrage. The story runs in Variety and every member wonders WTF is going on, and then only certain members are entitled to receive Verrone’s response? WHATEVER HAPPENED TO “WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER”???
If it was the leadership’s decison, then they can’t let this happen again. If it was the WGA Communications department’s decision, then they should all be fired.
The Reality debate is truly philosophical… what is writing? Is it the pecking of a keyboard? The swish of a pen? A digital cut of a visual image? Holding the camera? The ad lib of an actor? The tears Oprah evokes with her mere presence?
Do we really want to open this can o’ worms? Do we really want Oprah in our guild? Maybe we do and maybe we don’t, but that’s beside the point?
Everyone thinks they’re writers, it’s the problem with literacy, but does it mean we, as writers, should go around with our writer sword knighting anybody with their hand up? Damn, let’s show some self-respect.
Why, it’s the creation of unique literary expressions in fixed form.
And not the pecking of a keyboard, the swish of a pen, an edit, an audio-visual image of any kind, the holding of a camera, etc.
Writing is putting uniquely expressive words on a page, hard drive, stone tablet or anything else with some tangibility.
This actually isn’t a big debate.
Unless you’re Patric Verrone, and you find it convenient to suggest that editing is writing.
Or arranging pre-existing dialogue in audio-visual form is writing.
Or finger painting is writing.
Craig,
It was supposed to be funny. Zing?
And Craig,
“…not the pecking of a keyboard, the swish of a pen, an edit, an audio-visual image of any kind, the holding of a camera, etc.”
You forgot to add, “The tears Oprah evokes with her mere presence…” to your list.
See. Oprah. Funny.
I’ll stop now.
By now, you’ve seen Nikki’s post about the script validation program, so here’s the question: if there’s a strike, is it legal for signatories to receive writer’s work and pay for it, during the strike?
It’s legal from the company’s standpoint. And it’s not against the law for writers to turn in such material. It would be an internal Guild matter as to how those writers who did turn in material during a strike would be punished, if at all (and the talk is always that non-Guild members who sold work during a strike would be barred from membership, but I don’t really see the point of actually following through with that).
Thank you.
No matter how many times the WGA purges its membership list for “inactive” members, this keeps popping up.
They the strike isn’t real because of non-working writers yet no one one goes around saying that a “no strike” vote doesn’t reflect the merits of the deal but is just a bunch of writers who have mortages or cocaine habits voting “yes” no matter what.