Two Quick Things...

So apparently, you have trouble operating your computer….

No wonder my many comments about penises never made it through!

Also, the clock was changed last night and new posts were distributed between old posts.

For example, you make a post at 11 o’clock real time, you’re making a post at 12 o’clock Craig time. Then Craig changed the clock back to real time. Old became new, new became old.

Make sense?

Craig Mazin: Screenwriter, Director, Timelord.

I worked as an actor on Cold Case on Friday - I was terrified that I would have to cross the picket lines and see the guys who hired me. I can only imagine what you’re going through. I appreciate all that you have been doing for future WGA members like myself. Peace.

A vision I forsee:

A person of importance gets into financial hardship immediately in California. The rent is not paid, a child is on the way, and there is no security. This person is rightfully angered at those whom are his employers.

The person decides that enough is enough. This person walks to the offices of his employer (studio, corporate, AMPTP), and proceeds to want to talk to the head official as though it was for some minor thing. This person walks into the door, with guns in his hands, and bombs on his clothing. This person is mad as all hell, and suicidal to boot.

The person mentions that both his employer and himself and others are going to die today, without remorse. This person also states that with a press of a button, the bomb will go off, and so will multiple bombs planted in multiple offices. The employer is scared beyond belief. Yet, the end commences.

Media coverage goes into mass effect, shown on all networks and internet sites live as it happens. Hostages are taken, and hostage negotiators come into play. This does not stop the angry person one bit from completing his objectives, ensuing more casualties will be brought forth. In the thick of things, employer and employee will exchange words similar to what David Webb Peoples wrote in his screenplay “Unforgiven”:

“I don’t deserve this. My family needs me, I am renovating my house, my health is no good.” “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.” “I’ll see you in hell, (pick name.)” “Yeah!”

In that instance, the bombs and guns go off in the office and in other offices. Buildings are destroyed, hundreds if not thousands perish. And yet, the perceived agressor is taken down, and perhaps a terror false-flag plan is averted for another day.

There are those in the WGA that are that desperate enough to this, figuring that nothing comes in progress unless through force and massive violence. Honestly, the crew of “The Office” do not share this desperation. But there are those that are thinking of this, and will act lest they die in the hands of their perceived aggressor. To quote a line Tony Gilroy wrote in the final draft of the stupid film “Armageddon”, “It happened before. It will happen again. It is just a question of when.” So, when will this happen? Tomorrow? Day after tomorrow? Next week? Next month? It might be sooner than that. We all shall see.

In the want for peace and closure,

Lax24

Actually, if you guys are curious about the time thing…

…it has to do with where our servers are located.

They have to change the time setting at the host itself before the software here recognizes that DST has begun (or ended…I can never get that straight).

The talk of the picket line in NY was this Saturday Night Live sketch (scroll down to find it):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/writers-strike

Lax24: you could save yourself a lot of time if you just wrote “The End is Near” in lieu of your long, articulate posts.

Because that seems to be what they all boil down to.

If you could see the strikers out there, I don’t think you’d be so afraid of a Hiroshima-like backpack nuke going off anytime soon: writers are, if anything, an over-civilized group of people.

I doubt many of them have ever thrown a punch in anger.

Weird. I posted a picket report about an hour or two ago and it posted, but now it’s gone.

I don’t think it had the “L” word in it.

Go figure,

AYAAW

Craig or Ted,

The Writers Guild of Great Britain successfully negotiated an internet usage rate with their employers. I’m uncertain what the exact rate is, but does that deal compare in any way to what the WGA is fighting for?

If workers at one factory gain something from their employers, it usually follows that workers at other factories will quite reasonably demand the same thing.

You are scary dangerous. Your visions are one step away from voices in your head. I am truly afraid that you’ll take that last step and start doing some of the things you’ve been fantasizing about. Please see someone in the real world — someone trained to evaluate state of mind — and talk this stuff out with him or her.

I posted this in the previous thread which has gone dormant since a new one started, but individual small groups were meeting today around town. I sincerely hope that formal negotiations get rescheduled sooner rather than later.

And Nikki Finke’s reporting “From Inside The Mogul Camp” is perhaps her silliest yet. It’s interesting the sort of statements she’s willing to run with as if they’re “breaking news.”

Lax24,

November 5th is almost over and no terrorist strike (unless you see Ron Paul raising over $3 million dollars in one day as one, but I see that as more a sign of significant progress.

Any thoughts?

Lax: Some of us here have family and friends working at the studios. So knock this shit off.

Lax: Paul Greengrass is not going to make a film about the writer’s strike called “United 11/5,” so what is the point of these weird manifestos?

So where is Nikki getting that “Inside the Mogul Camp” stuff…and that just a media feed to give the moguls are reason to stay out of talks?

Or another way to set up a secret back channel?

Point well taken, Stuart and Travis

Just to clarify, I do not work in the business of entertainment. I am an individual that does talk things over with loved ones, friends, and a psychologist I have had good relations with for ten years. Not once would I ever do the things I wrote.

Perhaps, with these writings, those that are thinking of these desperation on the cusp of madness approaches take measures to not do these actions. And that includes writers, corporations, and leaders and financiers alike.

I know that if I were in a position of leadership, such as Spielberg, Katzenberg, Wells, Young, Counter, Carell, Mamet, Moonves, etc., seeing the picketing today, I’d negotiate immediately before more hurt is caused.

Maybe this will take a day or a week to let off steam and state your needs; but business needs to be done. We know this is the underlying result, be it a deal for the DGA and/or SAG (SAG I do not think intends to strike, due to lack of agressive leadership such as William Daniels: the DGA will not strike for fear of losing Spielberg and Co.) Or perhaps the need to finish certain projects; Lost for example (Heroes? Pfft!) Maybe the terms of marketing and publicity on WGA’s side will be enough (there has been positive coverage for you guys, not negative.) But, optimally, a month at most will suffice being on strike. This is 2007, not 1988. I for one cannot tolerate so-called reality programming, and I know the internet is the future.

From what I gathered, the strike occured in order to have all sides save face. What good is a strike if it does not happen? Back-channel negotiations are being done. Eventually, before Thanksgiving, a tentative deal will be finalized in paper, not best for any side but still. Perhaps, the current heads of the AMPTP, Nick Counter in particular, agree to retire after 25 years of being essentially the producers’ and corporations lead attorney.

Once again, these writings reflect an idea some people in this dispute and overseeing the political end might be thinking. Writing this out serves to stop these individuals from doing such things. I can only hope that my writings, on my part, contribute to what I feel on this issue, and perhaps take a bad situation and lessen the damage. This will end, the strike. Know, though, that we are humans, and we need to care for each other in a world were caring is an afterthought by our leaders. We are all in this life together.

In deep love for my fellow brethren whomever they may be,

Lax24

By the by, it is imperative to never take my words literally dead serious. They are exagerations, nothing more.

Nothing occured today, and that is a good thing. Rep. Ron Paul also had $3 million donated today, and while I am a member of the Democratic Party, this too is a splendid thing. Perhaps from my statements, the writings of these words prompted our leaders and their fianciers to call whatever they were thinking off. That, my dear friends, shows peace being given a chance in our lives. It also showcases how the Internet is the medium of importance.

Note also that while I do not know you all, I will stand by you all. Today, you have done what was coming, by showing your cards. Now, let the eventual fianlizing of a deal take place. I do think this will be beneficial to all writers in this medium.

In humble awe,

Lax24

Lax24:

For someone who keeps proclaiming to be wanting only “deep love” and “peace”, you’ve got some pretty dark stuff kicking around in your head. Perhaps you should consider a writing career.

You claim to understand that the “Internet is the future” — yet even though all the AMPTP is offering is a label of “PROMOTIONAL” for any and all content downloaded and streamed, you seem to be fixated on a lack of negotiation as the underlying problem. If they won’t negotiate on this issue, then pray tell, how can you foresee negotiation as the solution?

P.S, Lax24:

Please, please take a carton of whatever it is you’re currently ingesting and drop it off at 15503 Ventura Boulevard, Encino, 91436.

If you do this, the strike will be over by Friday.

LAX24, you are overlooking one very important FACT - the temperament of a writer does not fit your scenario. Yes, we all know the cliches of iconoclastic curmudgeon, etc. - but here is the real truth.

Writers are not desperate, writers are survivors, writers have options and they know it. One does not come to the path of being a writer lightly. Being a writer means one has to face one’s demons alone at midnight with only the glow of the monitor for company - not just once but hundreds of times.

To be a commercially successful writer, one has to be entrepreneurial, hard working and not locked into a single avenue of choices, but willing to jump from possible-opportunity to possible-opportunity like a lumberjack rolling logs down a river.

To have gotten into the WGA, your writer has already faced depression and deprivation and won. They know they can do it again. Your WGA writer already is figuring out or knows in the back of their mind what they need to do to survive 3 weeks, 3 months, 6 months or longer.

If you think a writer that has managed to achieve even the lowest boughs of success is going to go off half-cocked in desperation, you are mistaken.

Writers are, intrinsically by nature, survivors.

LAX24 — how’s the sequel to “Taxi Driver” going?

(couldn’t resist)

Stephen, the solution is simple:

If the internet content is payed off by either corporation or viewer, then it is not promotional. Nor should it be promotional. The minute this gets into the heads of all involved, the impasse is finished; therefore, the deal is optimalized for the writers.

By any means, I could be rightly pissed off at someone for a legitimate grievance, but eventually we all got to talk things over. I suppose that is the pacifist in me; yet I know the alternatives are much worse. And I would know; my pettiness and quirks when I was a younger person not realizing the condition I have (Asperger’s Syndrome) caused a great deal of friendships with fellow peers to be dissolved. Much of it was my fault, and not a time goes by that I do not regret what I did.

To paraphrase the great Norman Lear, I may have words that raise eyebrows, but know me by my deeds. In addition, I do have drafts, mental and physical, of fiction ideals in my future. Heck, this is probably the most I’ve commented on a regular basis, and I do not have a YouTube account yet. Just to note, a man of peace is a person that has seen war upfront and regrets taking part in it. I hope others take that deed to heart.

Sorry for past wrongs,

Lax24

Hasn’t everyone learned, when you address Lax24… it addresses you back. Perhaps we should ignore Colonel Kurtz’s second cousin.

After previously reporting that the TV show “Journeyman” was shut down, Nikki Finke now reports she heard it isn’t. Remember when reporters used to confirm the information they get before running with the story?

Yeah I just talked to a buddy of mine on the crew and he said they were NOT shutting down and he doesn’t know where this is coming from.

Just to “Counter” what Nikki Finke has written from the “Mogul” POV, here’s a paragraph from Variety that features a voice I do trust:

“WGA negotiators were infuriated by what they perceived as a lack of movement by the AMPTP once they had taken their proposal to double DVD residuals off the table. Negotiating committee member and showrunner Shawn Ryan (“The Shield,” “The Unit”) sent out an angry email afterward after spending nearly 12 hours in the Sunday session.

“I watched our side desperately try to make a deal,” Ryan said. “We gave up our request to increase revenue on DVDs, something that was very painful to give up, but something we felt we had to in order to get a deal made in new media, which is our future. I watched as the company’s representatives treated us horrendously, disrespectfully, and then walked out on us at 9:30 and then lied to the trades, claiming we had broken off negotiations.”

nikki fink was the biggest joke in journalism, now she’s getting a drip of attention because everyone is so urgently seeking info on this. she is STILL a joke.

Jen G., I am not Paul Schraeder, nor am I Martin Scorsese.

Also, a sequel to “Taxi Driver?” Wasn’t the first one fine enough to begin with:)

You do raise an interesting point about sequels though. Generally, with few exceptions (Godfather, Rocky, Lethal Weapon), they, in the words of Mike Judge, “suck more than anything has ever sucked before.” And yet, there were more sequels this year than any other time. Yes they made good money, but I certainly did not plan on seeing them, except for Ocean’s 13 (that was a good film:)

Remakes are even worse, and as a rule of thumb I rarely see them. Though I did make the mistake last year of seeing the Nicolas Cage-Neil LaBute “Wicker Man” remake that eschewed everything that made the original special and scary. I go over to read things on AICN, and remake ideas are through the roof. You guys should read the ideas being pitched to be remade: The Wild Bunch?! The Dirty Dozen??!! Evil Dead ???!!! Harvey ??!!?!? Oldboy??!!

Sad, is it not, when creativity runs dry. Sadder still, when things are remade which are not needed. (I do not count Chris Nolan’s Batman series.) Even saddest when audiences gobble this crap up like a favorite candy. I suggest that any person that wants to know how great film can be at least (television is fine when the creative geniuses have the autonomy, like Lost) take a good look at the Great Movies section at rogerebert.com. Newest on his list is Blade Runner, a film I hope gets a wider release in its Final Cut before its DVD release just before Christmas. Great writing from Hampton Fancher and David Webb Peoples, as well as Rutger Hauer’s known ad-libs.

Maybe when the deal is reached, first priority will be to school youngsters from all walks of life to discovering fine art, and not crap. No offense to anyone. We should have great works be shown all year round, not just in the waning months of a given year.

Sincerely and in good humor,

Lax24

(Climbing the soap box. Clearing throat…)

Okay, gang. Enough. I’ve heard all the “let’s not upset the Teamsters” BS to rationalize the 9am-5pm strike — aka Banker’s Hours Picket. ENOUGH! Stop taking all of us in the industry — WGA and non-WGA alike — on this silly ride. GET F’ING SERIOUS! DO YOU WANT TO FORCE THE ISSUE AND GET BACK TO THE TABLE? DO YOU WANT TO IMPRESS THE AMPTP WITH YOUR SOLIDARITY AND OVERALL INDUSTRY SUPPORT?

C’mon now, guys. 6am to 8pm. Every gate. Every casting session. Every local location. Every network and lot.

You’ve been told by all of the others not in your leadership that you need to be out in force. Dollygrip, Working AD and I are three examples who have all said: Get your asses out there early and stay late! Show up in force!

Among the BTL crew, there is the image of the writer as “the privaleged few.” Agent-negotiated “producer” credit when you are only a junior writer with one credit. Come late. Raid crafty for bagles. Long lunch. Don’t know the names of the crew. Where’s my chair? Talking to your agent on your cell during a take. Can I get in on the Starbucks run? Leave early. Big check.

Sorry, but it’s how many (not all, but many) of you are seen by your industry peers. Face it.

I grew up in this business. I have relatives in the WGA, DGA, SAG and IA. I feel I know the difference. But, here’s the question I have… Here’s the question the industry has…

Are you serious about this strike?

You don’t show it.

The crews are joking that you didn’t start early today cause you NEVER start a day early. They claim that you don’t know where to picket since you don’t know there are multiple gates at any given lot. They joke about the fact that many were seen sitting on “the sideline,” talking on their cells and backberries, picket signs on the ground. The crew even joked that you were rumored to have requested that Central send over a bunch of extras to help alk the picket line.

I know this is BS. BUT, NOT EVERYONE ELSE ON THE CREW KNOWS IT. Many of you say — “Screw it. We don’t care what the crew or the public thinks.” That may be the case, but you need the support of the industry at large if you’re going to find success.

IF YOU’RE GOING ON STRIKE, THEN STRIKE! SHUT THE TOWN DOWN AND STOP MAKING NICE. GET ON WITH THE BUSINESS AT HAND AND GET THIS THING WRAPPED UP.

(Oh, and don’t try and spin this back to the AMPTP, the Evil Empire. They’ve always been “The Man.” That won’t change. But, you guys can grow some huevos and demonstrate that you want a resolution, not a extended vacation.)

point maybe well taken but we’ve gotten tons of great publicity and celebrity support doing it just the way we’re doing it. for crissakes, its only day one. pipe down. we’re rockin it.

Craig,

DST just ended. We are currently in standard time. The “good” part of the year is daylight savings time.

This dark-at-five crap is “Standard.”

As an optioned non-Guild screenwriter, I too have set my pencil down for the duration.

I am 100% behind the Guild on this. I know what the deal is. Fact is, technologies are advancing so fast (HD Blue, Podcasts, downloads, etc.) the WGA will probably run into some other as yet unknown royalty issue before the ink is even dry on the next contract.

IMHO any Guild contract should include provisions for future technologies and applications that generate revenue (key provision) as DVDs and the Internet do now, and which never could have been predicted 20 years ago. Something to think about.

On a darker note (but not as dark as some previous posts), I am dismayed by some of the hostility toward the Guild strike by people who think writers live in the lap of luxury and just pull movie scripts out of our asses when we’re not lying on the beach surrounded by supermodels. Kind of like the Baseball Strike.

Well, you know, it’s a lot easier bitching about a striking baseball player’s salary than it is to hit a Josh Beckett fastball.

I have one simple answer for them. Try it sometime. Write a script. Create a marketable film, ON A DEADLINE, then pitch it, get it optioned, sold and made.

And IF you get that far, tell me how long it took, how many disappointments there were, how many rewrites, and how much hair you ripped out. And how after all that you’re no closer to where you wanted to be than when you started.

THEN you can bitch. And Welcome to Hollywood, ha ha ha!

I agree with you, Shreve. If this strike is going to put thousands of people out of work, strikers better look serious and make it count. The other unions want to be behind you - we really do - but when we see writers complaining of tired feet after a four hour strike shift, we roll our eyes. We stand for at least 12 hours a day. Start striking like your life depends on it. No sitting, no cell phones, no Starbucks. Get some passion and show the anger you are feeling! And #33, if you can’t show that passion the first day, it will only go down from here…

Joss Whedon updated fans (who sent pizzas to the Universal picket line!) on whedonesque:

FROM THE FRONT LINES!

Sick as a dog but proud as a noble and much healthier dog, I made my way to the picket lines outside of Fox studios today. I’m really glad I did. In addition to carrying the banner, it was a chance to talk with other writers, get more perspectives and more information about what’s happening, and to see a surprising number of old friends. David Fury and Mere Smith were there, as well as many non-mutant enemies that I know. We were all caught in that giddy first burst of solidarity and fear. Nobody thinks this is going to be easy. But everybody there knows that, as things stand, it has to be.

A particularly gratifying and unexpected sight was that of Aly and Alexis, along with Cobie Smulders, marching shoulder to shoulder with the HIMYM scribes. Aly and Alexis even brought boxes of candy bars to hand out to the flagging marchers (actually, I was the only one who appeared to be flagging - even the pregnant writer outlasted me). Mere told me young Boreanaz had also been there earlier that day. I was really touched, but my actor-friends were very matter-of-fact about the whole thing. They understand that the issues at hand affect the future of the entire creative community here, and that the writers, by virtue of being first, will set a precedent that affects all the guilds. That is why we writers have to be firm, intractable and absolute in our dedication to getting a fair deal. And that’s all we’re talking about: a fair deal. For us, and for generations of artists to come.

Sounds pretty damn pompous, no? “Generations to come”? Yeesh. But it’s true. Our culture, our government, our corporate structures have all gotten pretty used to taking care of ourselves at the expense of our children and their children. Part of this is simple greed, part is immediate practicality trumping long-view perspective, and part is perfectly understandable fear. It’s easier to take what you’re given, not protest, not make a fuss. A lot of people will suffer grievously if this strike isn’t quickly resolved, and the men and women who voted for it know that. But like so many things - our eco-system being the most obvious - if we don’t make it work now, what’s to come will be much worse.

Let me be clear on one point: I know I have it easy. I’ve done well, and I’m grateful that I can weather a long winter. Compared to what the studios have made off me my share is tiny and cute, but I’m in no position to complain. But take that differential, apply it to someone who’s just getting by when they deserve better. Now take it and- well, just take it, ‘cause when it comes to the internet and the emerging media there’s nothing there for the artists. There’s no precedent; these media didn’t exist the last time a contract was negotiated. We’re not just talking about an unfair deal, we’re talking about no deal at all. Four cents from the sale of a DVD (the standing WGA deal) sounds exactly as paltry as it is, but in a decade DVD may have gone the way of the eight-track. We have to protect the rights of the people who tell the stories, however they’re told. I’m never gonna be as articulate as Shawn or Brian (both of whom have been linked here, I believe), but I am just as committed. And a lot phlegmier.

I don’t think of the studio heads as a bunch of grinning tycoons sitting in a smoke-filled club and drumming their fingers like Montgomery Burns. I know some of those guys. I think they’re worried about the future as much as anyone. But they are beholden to their corporations, and that inevitably causes entrenchment and shortsightedness. They can’t afford that. This is an era of change, and for the giant conglomo-tainment empires, it will either be the Renaissance or the Ice Age. Because we will not stand down. Writers can be replaced, as we are constantly reminded. But so can companies. Power is on the move, and though in this town it’s been hoarded by very few, there are other companies with newer ideas about how to make money off of - or possibly, wonderfully, with - the story-tellers. Personally, I like things almost the way they are. I truly hope the executives negotiating for the AMPTP make the few simple concessions that will allow us to work with them again. I want to work. I have this idea, for a show about a girl… I even have the actress for it. And if we strike effectively, maybe she won’t have to.

I honestly started this post because of Aly and Alexis and their candy bars. But… well… there’s a lot going on. Huge props to the pizza people. Your support during this strike means more than I can express. (Note to self: picket near Jane.) I hope it won’t be long. I watched my Father strike, back in ‘88. It was hard. But I was proud. I’m proud now.

Sincerely, -joss.

Iatse guy,

People were asked to stay longer. Some people chose to do so. People complaining of tired feet might have, you know, stayed.

Where I was, not a lot of folks on cell phones. Not a lot of sitting. Sure, there was coffee (note: Not from any of the chains). There was a sea of red that crossed the street, really getting noticed. There were folks going off the suggested list, chanting catchy, er, chants — even some Twisted Sister.

Strikers could be completely serious and look totally miserable or they could look like they’re quite happy to settle in for a long one. Wouldn’t you rather have producers see the latter?

Johnny —

As I said, I know better what the writers responsibilities and gifts are. I’m not questioning that. But others are. Just as many writers don’t understand what a Rigging Grip does (you will if the lighting grid lands on your head), or the 2nd AD, or the Lead Scenic, or the POC or whatever. They, too, don’t just pull it all out their ass, either.

Chances are, they know your name. Chances are, you don’t know all of theirs.

I’m not looking to get into a mutal appreciation contest of industry peers. I’m looking to point out that you have the support of the industry IF you sincerely put the effort into a real strike. If you half ass it, then it will fuel the misinformed. Today, the crews that I spoke to on various shows at various places felt it was “an executive strike.” That includes more than one Teamster that I spoke to who viewed the pickets as “a joke.”

If the perception — right or wrong — is that you guys aren’t taking it serious enough to put the effort into it, then why should the crews? Worse still… why should the AMPTP.

We all support you and want this thing wrapped up for the good of the WGA and the good of the industry. We all know why the Teamsters asked you to come in late and leave early. Been there. Done that. Now, tomorrow, ratchet it up. Show you really mean business.

SHOWRUNNERS STOP TV! (This just in. The fabulous creator and showrunner of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Private Practice”, Shonda Rhimes, is backing the strike completely. She is not crossing the picket line for her producorial roles. She, along with a hundred or so other TV showrunners (the men and women who literally run our TV shows), has put down her pen. This groundswell of solidarity has STOPPED TV. That’s right! You heard me TV HAS STOPPED! Come on Big Shot Producers – how ‘bout you start negotiating fairly. We took the DVD thing off the table - and you just walked away. Unbelievable. Shonda, and the other brave showrunners of televisions are standing up! They are our heroes.)

I have to tell all of you that this email directly reflects the stance I came to over a very long night in New York. I absolutely believed that I would edit our episodes. Until a thought hit me: how can I walk a picket line and then continue to essentially work? How am I supposed to look at myself in the mirror or look at my child years from now and know that I did not have the courage of my convictions to stand up and put myself more at risk than anyone else? So I choose not to render my services as a producer. I choose to honor the strike. And I am proud that you all stand with me.

-Shonda

Is there anything that we civilians can do in this situation? As much as I love my favorite TV shows, I recognize the importance of this strike and I would like to show my solidarity with the WGA any way I can.

Is there someone I can write to? A petition I can sign? A phone call I can make? What can a college student do? Point the way!

When Nick comes back to the table, for real, then you can claim to be ‘rockin’

For celebrity action there’s TMZ. Good publicity? You think the AMPTP cares what kind of publicity you’re getting? besides, a month later, you won’t be able to buy an ad in the trades, let alone get coverage.

You had great publicity during the Top Model strike- but no plan. No plan to get the parties to the table, no plans to win. Same for the reality campaing in general. But, you did have good publicity, spokesmodels and Myspace pages.

You want our support? Well we’d like to know that you have a plan - a plan beyond ‘rockin’ it and spokesmodels. You’re taking about people’s livelyhoods and futures. Their kids futures.

If that plan is to give the toughguy your lunch money, so he acts like your friend in front of the school bully, well, i’m not so sure it’s gonna get you far. You think Drivers are gonna stick by you even with the 9-5 schedule once they start getting sent to the unemployment office? Personally, I find that concept to be midly insulting.

I get to work at 5.50 am. I get a break at 9am, 11.45 am, and at 3pm I go home at 6pm. other than the breaks, I’m my feet. there’s some 4000 just like me in my local. When we start seeing you at the gate each morning and night, I’m betting you’ll start getting our support.

It sounds like a lot of people are jumping to completely unfounded conclusions, among them, that:

The WGA doesn’t know what time production starts and stops.

The WGA wanted to shut the whole town down on Day 1.

Obviously, neither is the case: I didn’t see an attempt by the picketers to prevent drivers from entering and exiting studios.

Should the WGA have tried to do that? On Day 1? Really?

I don’t see the point of second-guessing everything right now.

Propmaker:

Thanks for focusing on the timeframe issue — it’s really been bugging me. I mean, come on — 9 to 5? We all need to speak up to our strike captains and start organizing 6 am shifts.

This is an era of change, and for the giant conglomo-tainment empires, it will either be the Renaissance or the Ice Age. Because we will not stand down. Writers can be replaced, as we are constantly reminded. But so can companies. Power is on the move, and though in this town it’s been hoarded by very few, there are other companies with newer ideas about how to make money off of - or possibly, wonderfully, with - the story-tellers.

Awesome, a simply awesome, true, squirmworthy point.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear most of the television news coverage, tonight, was sympathetic to writers and eloquently relayed the bonified new media issue.

Thank you, WGA members.

Thanks Steven. That is all I mean. I am not pointing fingers, so everyone can stop being so sensitive. The point is, if we are all in this together (my union having no choice in the matter) this fight needs to be as effective and short as possible. And why shouldn’t the WGA attempt to produce massive damage on the first day? It seems that might prompt negotiations sooner. As of now, there are non scheduled.

What in the holy hell is so difficult to understand about the strike times? Why does that issue continue to be brought up?

Do you just like to talk about writers being pampered or lazy without regard for the actual, you know, truth? Or do you really not get it?

Because it’s pretty frigging simple to understand, and if you don’t, you should really just stop talking about it.

Do you really think nobody else understands how to strike or when grips start work? Really? Do you really think you are adding one ounce of insight? That you are saying anything anyone here doesn’t already know?

There are reasons it is being done this way and they are better than the reasons to do it your way RIGHT NOW. I know you think you know better, but you do not.

Y’all remind me of all the would be stand-up comics making jokes about how stupid people are for buying bottled water, ignoring a reality different than their own. Concepts too complicated for them to grasp, like awful tap water.

John #47:

1) Take a cold shower.

2) Since you claim to have such an excellent grasp of the situation, please to enlighten the rest of us: what is the benefit/harm analysis of starting the lines at 6:00 am?

You made your point. Now it just looks like you have a chip on your shoulder. Take it down a notch. ps: Don’t forget to set your alarm for 8:30 so you can get the Krispy Kremes while they’re warm.

John —

Sorry to touch on such a hot topic with you.

I’m going to take my two Emmys, my Golden Globe, and my crew with me. See you in a couple months. And, be sure to get some Gortex since it’s supposed to be a wet winter. We’ll be pulling for you.

C’mon guys — Working AD, propmaker, Dollygrip, IATSE guy — we’ve all got to get some sleep. Early call tomorrow.

You guys shooting outside tomorrow?

I am.

Stupid frickin’ end of Daylight Saving Time.

I gotta be there at 6 AM.

And I’m one of the later calls.

Goodnight boys, see you Shreve.

Last comment tonight from me. I promise.

Craig — In light of all the time you’re juggling, how the hell do you do this and direct, too? Amazing. Keep up the good work on all fronts and thanks for letting us guest on your blog site. We really are all pulling for a swift and successful end to this.

Drink plenty of liquids and don’t miss the vitamins!

Later, Shreve

Thanks Steven. That is all I mean. I am not pointing fingers, so everyone can stop being so sensitive. The point is, if we are all in this together (my union having no choice in the matter) this fight needs to be as effective and short as possible. And why shouldn’t the WGA attempt to produce massive damage on the first day? It seems that might prompt negotiations sooner. As of now, there are non scheduled.

I think you’re absolutely right. A strike is not a PR exercise, it’s a method of demonstrating that the cost of not meeting the union’s demands exceeds the cost of meeting them. And if that cannot be demonstrated quickly, effectively and powerfully, then what is the point of striking?

If there are good reasons to maintain at 9-to-5 picket schedule at this time, then those reasons ought to be (ought long since to have been) made known to the other union people in all of the other union jobs being affected by the strike. Because, as is self-evident by the posts here, there are a lot of people in other unions who someone assumed would be able to read the minds of the strike leaders and who are heartily pissed off that no one bothered to speak to them about what to expect and why.

If anyone remembers from history class what the description of the first real battle of the Civil War was like, you recall that townsfolk packed picnic lunches and spread out blankets on the hillsides to watch the festivities, thinking that it would be a genteel affair. And they were appalled and horrified at the carnage, for as General Sherman was later to observe, “War is hell.” Just as war is the continuation of diplomacy by other means, a strike is the continuation of negotiations by other means — and like war, it should be prosecuted aggressively and with clear strategic and tactical objectives chosen to force the other side to buckle as quickly as possible.

Oh, I get it dollygrip! I sleep late and eat donuts. Because I’m too lazy to strike at dawn. What a wicked barb. And boy did you nail me in one, too. Why just last week I only worked 75 or 80 hours. And the week before that. And that. And that.

Stephen, my friend, it has been explained. And explained again. None of this strike-advice/lazy writer insult-fest is insightful or original.

If you don’t understand it, ask the teamsters.

People, if your problem is that you don’t think we should honor the teamster’s wishes, then argue that, not the idiotic writers-are-out-of-touch, don’t-know-what-time-real-people-work silliness.

This same nonsense comes up in every single thread by people who don’t understand the issue, yet insist on being insulting.

Completely understandable to question the wisdom of the arrangement… but completely stupid to assign insulting motives because you can’t see any alternatives.

A word about the work schedule of a tv writer/producer: Yes, I’m the one who shows up at shooting call (or a little after) if I’m not worried about how the scene is going to be blocked. Sometimes I leave before wrap if I’ve seen enough takes to know we have what we need. And occasionally, I answer a call from my agent from my chair (but never during a take — I swear!) or even just spend a few minutes on the ichat being stupid with my friends. I don’t spend 16 hours on my feet, and I despise…and I mean DESPISE getting out of bed before 9am if I don’t have to. ( I do tend to avoid the crafty table, but that’s just me).

But here’s my life: breaking story, writing outlines, writing scripts, rewriting scripts, supervising set, managing prep meetings (ok, so I skip the tech scout — hate me), re-editing episodes, sound spotting, sound mix, music spotting, changing hair/makeup/wardrobe, network calls, studio calls, director calls, art department meetings, casting sessions, sleepless nights trying to save a script, sleepless nights trying to find the story in order to write the script, more sleepless nights trying to find the story AFTER the script has been written, approved, shot and STILL doesn’t deliver. Notes on other people’s outlines/scripts. Notes on cuts. Notes on music. Addressing other people’s notes on all of the above. Saturdays writing, Sundays editing. Mondays thru Fridays hoping to hell that my brain stays creative so that all of the work I generate doesn’t suck so that the hundreds of people who are employed on the show don’t lose their jobs when my potentially sucky work gets the show cancelled. Yeah, I make a really good living —- when there’s work. When there’s no work, I’m unemployed.

I live in constant admiration of the craftsmen and technicians who bust their asses on a daily basis (and who more often than not rise before —- cringe —- 6am and work 16 hour days). But even if my job requires less physical stamina, please don’t underestimate what a soul-crunching, exhausting round-the-clock, no-break-in-sight, stressful job it can be. And yeah, don’t get me wrong, sometimes it’s awesome. Which is why I’d like to go back to doing it as soon as possible. So rather than nitpick about whose feet hurt more (although mine do kinda hurt a lot today), let’s just stay focused on finding a way to end this thing soon. And thank you for those of you who have been unwavering in your support, even if we writers do seem like stupid blobs of crafty donut-eaters to you.

dude you’re a freakin riot and the beauty is you’re so worked up you actually took the Krispy Kreme bait. Yes you’re right, we’re all stoopid and don’t get it. I think you’re getting spittle on your screen though.

Shreve, congratulations on your Emmys! And a Golden Globe, too! I’m really, really proud. You totally deserved it. And we are all better people for having been informed of your success.

But unless I missed something, you maligned the Guild’s strategy, not lazy writers. So I’m not sure why you think you touched a hot topic with me or why anything I said was directed at you.

Sorry my last post was about #56. Another Hyphenate- My friend I’m with you, but isn’t it fun to watch this guy melt down?

My strike captain informed me of the strategy of the 9-5. There is a STRATEGY. And I prefer not to repeat it here, for the obvious reasons. Ask your strike captain. Will it work? Who knows? But, there’s a strategy in play.

John, Perhaps you and all other WGA members should read the Variety article posted today about lack of communication. While I know that Variety is a biased publication to begin with, I agree with this point. The WGA has, quite frankly, sucked at communicating with the public or other unions. How will you garner sympathy or understanding otherwise? How do you fight off the AMPTP claims? How do you expect us to freakin know your mind? And yes, I do believe that maybe having the “blessing of the teamsters” is not as affective as having an actual human baricade up that they have to choose to drive through. Of course, I’m probably just stupidly assuming though.

Everyone,

I can say this. I work on “the Office” and the writers there were out front at 4:30 in the morning and they didn’t go in shifts either. All of them stayed all day. And, as mixed as my feelings are about this strike, i.e. I’ll be out of work and I’ll probably have to pull out of escrow, it was still impressive. I hope all of you have this same spirit and that those of you who already have it don’t lose it.

dollygrip - Really? Your entertainment in life is to go to striking worker’s discussion boards and insult them, then proudly announce you are just baiting them?

What a quality person you are.

Do you understand how small that makes you look?

But it’s cute that you think I’m worked up because I used certain words on the internet. I’m about 60% yawning and 40% head-shaking. 0% spittle.

John, my buddy: you keep saying it’s been explained, and explained again, and explained again. Clearly you are aware of this explanation and clearly others posting on this board are not. Some have asked for your guidance — and with a supercilious tone, you say they should ask someone else.

All I’m suggesting is this: either share your wisdom and enlighten others, or stop criticizing people for seeking insight.

Jeez, did you hit that on the head. That’s what it is.

And one more time for you guys who don’t know why the strike isn’t starting at 6am. As I understand it. The teamsters explained to us that by starting later, they get the trucks out early, but then can’t get back in, so it disrupts the studio, but the driver’s still get paid (for sitting in the truck outside the lot). It creates a double whammy on the studio, they don’t get the goods, and they still pay.

I hope that’s correct, and I hope it really has that effect. And do remember that writers don’t have the numbers that trades do. There’s one to three of us on each film - how many of you guys? By all means give advice, but you don’t have to dump crap on us. I’ve been an army drill sergeant, an electrician, an engineer, and a contractor. Now I’m a writer and it’s far and away the hardest fucking job I’ve ever had. And I ain’t in any way rich, most of us aren’t - at all, not even close.

But we are a stubborn lot, we’ve been told, “you suck, go away” enough to make most people roll up in a ball and starve themselves to death. We’ll get through this.

Okay… I lied. One more post

Hyphenate — I think I’ve worked with you or many similar to you. I have total admiration for what you do, how you do it, and the consistency in which you perform. My earlier comments were about the percention — and misinformation — that gets fueled when the crew’s POV of the picket line is of one lacking passion and without intent. I am not questioning your work ethic or your responsibilities to the show or to your staff & crew.

John — I’m sure there must be a strategy with your Guild’s leadership. I hope there’s one, since the planning of this has been ongoing for awhile. Please realize that ALL of us — the BTL crew, the non-WGA producers and directors, the cast — all share you views on wanting a quick and equitable end. We’re just voicing our frustrations over what we see as a passive act rather than one of strength and conviction. We’re all watching the picket lines, looking for an indication that the road we are all collectively traveling is one that will not run us all out of our homes.

Brain turning even more mushy. Have a great and successful picket tomorrow. Make some headway in getting this thing back to the table.

Later…

62 - IATSE - I couldn’t agree with you more and have shared that opinion.

And I don’t expect people to magically understand the issues around this… I don’t myself.

All I am asking is that people do not jump to conclusions and assume bad motives.

And certainly not to go to a website dedicated to a group of people that have just made a difficult and unsettling step and insult them.

And this particular topic has been used by a lot of trolls that are not interested one bit in understanding, only in insulting.

Anyone who is legitimately curious why things are being done the way they are can find answers… but some people (claiming, by the way, to be things they are not) don’t want answers, they just want to keep trolling… and if they can get others worked up about the “lazy writers” along the way, so much the better for them.

Though I’m actually completley vertical and thoroughly relaxed at the moment… I do come from a blue-collar union family and I admit that I take the don’t-care-about-the-working-man stuff as horribly insulting. I didn’t become a writer until my thirties and worked a lot of different jobs before that. I’ve never crossed a picket line in my life.

And if the teamsters went on strike, I don’t know what the Guild would do, but I know what I would… and it would absolutely not involve seeking out suddenly unemployed teamsters and insulting them. The idea makes me a little sick to my stomach.

I think most of the people here claiming to be teamsters are not… but I would hope those that are would give some benefit of the doubt to people who just struck twenty hours ago.

65 - Stephen… my apologies. I was trying to point out that you can find the answers in most threads here and elsewhere without actually giving the reasons. I wasn’t trying to sound like the keeper of the keys.

I know some people don’t want the specifics publicized, but the general issue is that it was not writers being lazy or out of touch. It was about strategy (or tactics, I suppose) and it was about the Teamsters… not about writers. It could have been the same for any union striking.

Shreve - Thank you. I share all of your frustrations. Perhaps that is why I am so eager to not be blamed.

John, your points are well taken. Just be sure to always remember - I am just as struck as you even without being in the WGA. My show won’t go past this week. I have just as much at stake if not more, because in the end I do not see any of your possible residual gains. And I’m not bitter about that, but you must remember that we are all sacrificing.

Well this blog’s comments section has really degenerated into a few people just snipping amongst themselves, hasn’t it?

V for Verrone?

“Remember, remember, the fifth of November.”

Actually, it got to a place where everyone realizes that we’re all in this thing together — writers, producers & directors, cast, and crew. We sink or swim together. Whereas we may have different aproaches or strategies to see the end game, we are all unified. We’re all together. We’re all good.

Just read about the staff on “The Office.” Very impressive.

Wowza — Nothing wrong with some spirited dialogue. I think we’ve all put any personal differences aside, focusing on the real goal. To get back to the table and get a deal done.

I wish I was in the Guild now because it would give more validity to my caring so much. I hope this ends quickly with much benefit to each of you. I pray that you and your families weather this moment.

I aspire to be in your Guild. I like to think that this is in my behalf. Regardless of whether or not that’s true, I want to say thank you. Thank you to everyone walking a picket line and everyone not crossing one. Everyone who’s convicted that this moment is beyond them and is about fighting for the greater good within the writing community. Thanks to everyone who’s sacrificing.

Guy Fawkes False Flag Day is nearly over.

But I predict…that by Midnight…

We’ll all SUFFER THE SAME INESCAPABLE FATE:

A long night of - Lightning Flashes & Diabolical Laughter

nice sleeping weather.

(Look: fog! Scary, isn’t it?)

I took a lot of shit last night from some of you guys, but after 20 years in Hollywood, that’s to be expected.

But the strike today was laughable. Shreve, I understand your dismay. How dare the WGA ask for the support of the Locals, and not show up.

WGA, you did not show up. Until 4pm this afternoon, all news radio in LA kicked off their programs with the Dodgers officially announcing Joe Torre as the new manager of the Dodgers. Last night, some schmuck suggested that “the nation is watching!” Um, no it�s not. The nation doesn’t care about the WGA. Ragging on me won’t change it. But, hey, shoot the messenger. Shoot the guy who has walked a picket line, a successful picket line, a successful picket line before you were born.

This is not a garbage strike. This is not a transit strike. My relatives in New Orleans are laughing at you. Hell, my relatives I Studio City are laughing.

Who the fuck organized this jugfuck? You sent out 30 picketers to every studio? 40? Any Teamster worth their gross vehicle weight would have sent every goddamned WGA loafer to Universal at 4am this morning and actually disrupted not only production, but the Hollywood Freeway. That�s how you get your point across. And that�s why the Teamsters are insulted by the WGA.

At breakfast on our set this morning, (at 5 am, by the way) I heard more writer sleeping jokes than I could have ever imagined. �They�re very serious about this as long as they can sleep in.� Can you imagine a Teamster listening to sleeping jokes that don�t involve them? It was fucking comedy gold!

Let�s recap:

First day of the strike was a total failure.

Resources were grossly mismanaged.

Teamsters never had to make a decision to cross a line. Writers showed up late, went home early.

I hope everybody in the WGA Tivo�d Julia Louise Dreyfuss on the line today, because she won�t be there tomorrow.

WGA, you were the laughing stock of the industry today. Quit whining about coffee and the lack of sunscreen, and better luck tomorrow.

Seriously, if you want help from the other locals, don�t insult us by being big fat pussies.

Oh, and if taking shots at me makes it easier to accept your misery, go ahead. I�m here to help. Ripping me is easy. Explain that to your kids.

I don’t have to explain you to my kids.

They’re very familiar with know-it-all bullies who call people names.

An additional AMPTP Motivation.

The AMPTP isn’t worried about giving away too much money to writers, actors, and directors. They don’t just want to keep the money, they want to HIDE THE MONEY.

Here’s my thinking…

1) Any new media deal will be based on a percentage of the revenue that is taken in through said new media.

2) The revenue gained in new media is taken in through a more intricate process than commercials (TV) or retail sales (DVD).*

3) To determine the money owed the writers a media company will have to reveal where the revenue came from, how much they’ve received, and how many viewers they have. In other words, the company will have to OPEN THEIR BOOKS.

4) The company will fight tooth and nail to keep their books closed.

There is a reason why accountants in the rest of the world look at media accounting and go “you just made up these numbers while brainstorming the latest Spiderman movie, right?”

Actual downloads mean actual eyeballs instead of approximate numbers (see TV ratings). It’s precise. Hard to obfuscate costs and revenue.

It results in accountability. And that scares everyone.

Just a thought.

- Andy

*Unlike network TV, commercials from media streaming/downloading will result from a revenue per download basis. That is, the studio will get a certain dollar per download. That requires reporting of actual sales and actual viewers. Also, it’s a rolling figure where they can only get advertising revenue per download and that keeps changing. In order to get the revenue, they’ll keep track. And they hate reporting that.

Jack,

I bet your kids are VERY familiar with know-it-all bullies who call people names.

Father Of The Year accolades cannot be far behind.

Is it just me, or does anyone else you have the voice of a pirate in their heads when you read Hoffa’s posts? End each sentence with “Arggh” and it’s much more entertaining.

Wow, he’s right. My misery is much easier to accept now. Where are my kids?

Shreve, IATSE, Stephen… just for the record, you have now been introduced to the fella I thought I was talking to. Ain’t he a peach? He has a couple of names, I believe, but this one is particularly charming.

“#83 Is it just me, or does anyone else you have the voice of a pirate in their heads when you read Hoffa’s posts? End each sentence with “Arggh” and it’s much more entertaining.

Wow, he’s right. My misery is much easier to accept now. Where are my kids?”

Try it again in English, Mr. WGA.

I don’t speak Drunk.

“does anyone else you have the voice?”

Hard to believe you’re not working.

Idiot.

Hoffa’s self-satisfied twin:

Your numbers are a little off. And your romantic sense of your own toughness may be a little off, too. No real need to “take a shot at you,” as you’ve done a pretty good job of exposing yourself. Show don’t tell and all that.

I’m afraid you don’t know the half of it, pal. Maybe get to know a writer or two (maybe one who’s also a vet, or an ex-cop, or someone else you’d conventionally respect), or maybe talk to that showrunner who fought like hell to keep the show in LA. Or maybe just talk to one of those pickets, just a regular guy trying to do right.

“#86 Hoffa’s self-satisfied twin:

Your numbers are a little off. And your romantic sense of your own toughness may be a little off, too. No real need to “take a shot at you,” as you’ve done a pretty good job of exposing yourself. Show don’t tell and all that.

I’m afraid you don’t know the half of it, pal. Maybe get to know a writer or two (maybe one who’s also a vet, or an ex-cop, or someone else you’d conventionally respect), or maybe talk to that showrunner who fought like hell to keep the show in LA. Or maybe just talk to one of those pickets, just a regular guy trying to do right.”

Just keep scratching your head. That’ll turn back time.

Off to bed. Have to work tomorrow. According to the callsheet, 135 breakfasts ready at 5am.

135 workers… at 5am.

Think about it.

See you guys at 9!

Hey Shreve, Working AD, dollygrip, IATSE guy and fellow BTL’ers - Thanks for chimin’ in here. I’m glad you’re telling your stories and sharing the scuttlebutt you hear on your shows. I particulary like that you broached the subject of SOME of the perceptions toward writers. It’s raw information, that can be used or disgarded but better that then it being withheld.

when I was there this AM. Do the math, and you’ll see it wasn’t just 30-40 per studio. And don’t forget - the WGA is a small union.

The WGA will be striking from 9-5 this week: that was their decision: it isn’t up to you to decide how or when they strike.

Do you find it fulfilling to show up here and insult Writers? If that’s your motivation, no wonder you post anonymously.

If you’re going to demand people listen to you and take you seriously, have the guts to post with your real name.

To draw a totally-unrelated yet conceptually-similar parallel:

You know, this reminds me of the sniping I witnessed (and took part in) at my fraternity when I was an undergraduate at my previous college (out in the Midwest).

The alumni would always bitch at the actives for how we were supposedly running the chapter into the ground and failing to live up to the glory of “back in the day” when our the fraternity was thriving (you know, back when our university hadn’t, like, forced all the Greek chapter houses to go dry).

In turn, us actives (those who were enrolled, at the time, as undergraduates) would bitch at the alumni for thumbing their noses at us and making bossy, counterproductive comments with no real solutions.

And we would collectively express our ire at the university administration (some of whom made it their mission to make life hell for us), at the National Headquarters (who did nothing to help our chapter other than sending some hotshot to our campus once a year to dispense useless “advice”), and the neighbors who’d make our lives miserable (one, in particular, who “generously” took it upon himself to go patroling the streets at night on behalf of his fellow neighbors, so he could call the cops at any sign of house parties going on).

(I myself am currently an alumni of my fraternity chapter, although I was a Recruitment Chair at the time of the aforementioned conflict; can you tell I’m still bitter?)

Pardon the long anecdote: the point being, I see a lot of the same dynamic found in my fraternity (actives vs. alumni) that I see on this board (between the WGA members vs. the non-WGA unionized trade workers).

I want to commend all of the showrunners and successful writers who have shown their support in the strike. I also believe that the celebrities on the picket lines deserve some credit (yes, Jay Leno, Tina Fey, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss — here’s lookin’ at you!)…even if they only show up for a mere hour out of the day to picket, they’re the faces who’ll draw important publicity from the media, and, by virtue of being celebrities, they can speak out on these issues in a way that will make the press more likely to cover the non-AMPTP side of the story.

I just hope that I won’t end up downing a mouthful of STX once this strike ends. :-(

Shreve -

Well said. I think some of the commenters didn’t read your comment the way it was intended.

As a member of both the WGA and another trade union, I have worked both above and below the line. And I have been in arbitration for several years over underpaid residuals.

The fact is - everyone knows that they may be shooting themselves in the foot by trying to eek out what money they can in the short run, and they are really looking for the Guild to do this fast and furious —to settle the dispute and get everyone back to work.

And while not all writers have done this - many disregard the crews and treat them with disrespect and forget that without them, the TV shows and movies would not be made. I have seen a co-worker belittled and yelled at by a writer-producer who had gotten lost on their way to set- and then , instead of admitting they had made a mistake, wanted to fire someone to save face. (This happend only three weeks ago). This kind of act makes it that much harder to get support across the board, so they want to see the writers pushing back hard to et this done.

A lot of people remember only the hardship that the last strike caused may in this town. And people losing houses is a big concern. And crews who toil in the hot sun all day have little concern for someone who gets preferential parking, treatment and privileges, while they have to take it or leave it. Why should they care or support this?

And one sentiment that is floating around on sets is that So many writers rushed to push out additional scripts - giving the studios material to continue shooting, even after the strike started, why should the crews not get paid for those episodes, since the writers did? The proper course of action would have been to slow down the delivery of scripts before a strike - to leave the studios vulnerable to the work stoppage - not allowing them to stockpile and wait it out, while everyone suffers.

The only real effective way to get the studios to listen is to shut them down. A quick resolution to the dispute will go a long way to gaining the respect of the other trade unions in town - even if initially there is backlash. Everyone knows that this could get very ugly before it gets better. And they are trying to protect themselves by gathering what money they can.

People are taking await and see attitude this week. They are waiting to see if the WGA will be serious about pushing hard and getting this resolved.

If location shoots, studios and casting sessions are shut down - then, you will see more support for the strike among the crews. Because, while they want to keep working - they all know that the studios can survive for al ong time if there is only a slowdown, but they will move to resolve a shut down.

And most TV series only have a couple scripts left to shoot and then will stop - but the studios have plenty of feature scripts to keep them busy for awhile. TV shows are prepared and expecting to shut down. So stopping the flow of features is key to putting pressure on the Studios to come back to the table and negotiate. and it has to happen now.

I support the strike - the issues at hand are important. But the implementation of a strike plan could have been better. Calling a strike, only weeks before the holidays, does not go over well with the crews. But, now that it has begun - block the gates early and hard. Stop production and negotiations will resume. Then everyone can get back to work.

I just saw the numbers — over 3,000 of you turned out to picket today.

I take it back; that’s impressive.

You guys have now won over the other unions’ support and showed the AMPTP that they underestimated you and will have to re-think their position.

Accept my apologies and my kudos as well.

In solidarity, HHT.

I’d like to reiterate that, one way or the other, a shutdown was going to happen if the AMPTP doesn’t offer reasonable internet residuals.

Actors rely on residuals as much, if not more, than writers — and if they go on strike there’s no period of slowdown. Everything shuts down immediately and the whole city is out of work on day one.

By having the WGA go out on strike first, and hopefully establish a reasonable residuals formula, the SAG strike can be avoided. And the rest of the city can keep working while the writers eat the loss of pay until either a compromise is reached or the studios run out of banked scripts.

Hoffa is out of his mind if he thinks today was a failure. I spent the good chunk of my day walking around with a sign and a ton of actors and showrunners didn’t go to work today. There’s nothing else to say there.

Don’t respond to Hoffa.

He’s a scorned writer with no balls.

More Sag writers should be walking the lines. And I’m not talking the big names. WGA are taking the bullet for them. They’ll end up with 3x whatever deal we get.

”The Writers Guild of Great Britain successfully negotiated an internet usage rate with their employers. I’m uncertain what the exact rate is, but does that deal compare in any way to what the WGA is fighting for?”

The WGGB/Pact agreement is a very sensible ”catch all” in which the writer gets a straight 5.6% of gross receipts for the programme in any and all media.

I’m at a loss to see how the AMPTP can’t agree something similar. Apart from Sheer greed and bloodymindedness of course.

First off, good luck to the striking membership. You hold many futures in your hands with those placards. That from a wannabe.

Second, let’s not rag on HHT. He’s only pushing hard on how picket hours and attendance affects WGA perception across town. Boot in pants, if you will.

And now that the lines are packed, he’s with you guys (#93). Nuff said.

Third, for what it’s worth, the UK press is sitting on the fence about the strike, although they keep repeating Counter’s claim that the WGA walked out in an unreasonable fashion.

Here is today’s Guardian on it. They’re the most media-aware broadsheet. The worrying part is Verrone’s statement…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2205784,00.html

BTW, anyone else see this article “Writers and Producers: here’s the deal they should make”?

Comments?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-handel/writers-and-producers-heb71157.html

Link fuggled up in pasting. Here it is again:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-handel/writers-and-producers-heb71157.html

Having technology issues here.

Help me out anyone?

Bruno,

It looks like your link title is too long for this website to handle.

Try using a tiny url (a specially-formatted short link title, that’s easier to fit on a web page comment section).

Go to tinyurl.com, enter your long url into their little box there (where it says: “Enter a long URL to make tiny:”), and click on the button that says, “Make TinyURL!” It’ll generate a much shorter link title, which you can then paste here into the comments section at Artful Writer, and which’ll accurately forward websurfers on to that HuffPo column you’d like us to chck out.

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Patrick Meighan Culver City, CA

Here is the article Bruno is talking about: http://tinyurl.com/28hgxu

FYI I know this may be old news to most, but there’s a supreme a-hole by the name of Alex Perez offering scab screenwriting services at www.hollywoodscabwriter.com and on YouTube, to name two.

I thought it was a joke at first, but I don’t think so. He’s got about ten promo videos on YouTube, and he’s really pushing it all over the ‘net.

IMHO This guy is a total loser who would never make it as a writer anyway, but that’s not the point. You can send him a love note and thanks for his support at alexperezwriter@gmail.com That’s ALEX PEREZ. Might want to remember that.

On a lighter note, there’s a great video on YouTube called “Heroes of the Writers’ Strike.” Very funny if you need a light moment.

From an optioned non-Guild screenwriter, Best Wishes for a short strike and a merry one, all!

Johnny, Alex Perez is definitely a joke. And a very well executed one, at that.

Patrick, Tom: thanks both for fixing! Appreciate it.

Tinyurl is a great tip.

Jacob, If hollywoodscabwriter is a joke, his promo videos omit the two most important elements in comedy: subject matter and timimg. Not funny, not now. Anyway, he’s not important.

Hailing as I do from Boston I can’t join you on the strike lines, but I am doing my best to represent and defend the Guild and the strike around the web. There are a lot of detractors out there who understand neither the strike nor the screenwriting profession. If there is any other way I can help from here, let me know.

Best Wishes, Johnny Simpson.

Pretty good PR on the east coast this morning at 8 am, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough’s show.

They showed footage of WGAe strikers and explained the issue clearly. Mr. Conservative Joe said (paraphrasing), “The writers are right on this one. They deserve a fair share of profits generated by DVD and new media.”

Joe seems to be a fan of Tina Fey — getting known faces like hers on the strike line really helps.

Joe then gushes about how talented Tina is and says something like — if Tina Fey wants it she deserves it.

Also — yesterday, two cable news talking heads discussed the fact they many people don’t realize the talk show guys — Leno, Letterman, Conan, et al — rely on a team of writing talent to produce their shows.

And one of the talking heads said, “Really? I thought they wrote it all themselves.”

And odd comment but I’m sure she was not the only person in TV land who made that assumption.

At least the message is getting out.

Having spent just short of 3 decades listening to “bankers hours” jokes, I can’t help wishing the people who are allegedly making lazy writers jokes around the craft services tables could try showing up at o’dark thirty WITHOUT A SCRIPT.

Oh wait. That’s going to happen soon, isn’t it?

Here is when writers stop working: NEVER. (Not even when they are asleep, BTW. I dream about plot problems I’m trying to solve more often than I don’t.)

Is it true that gradually, one by one, most picketer will be run down cars like that one guy was yesterday?

Cuz if that is the case, and i do believe it is, then why should we put our lives on the line?

will one of you please write a speech for me to read to my employees when i close my doors next week?

While I fully support your efforts, I will be laid off from my show next week. I won’t be getting 1/2 checks like the cast will be getting. I only hope that on day 100 there is as much passion and press as there was on day one. I plead with the WGA leaders to at least start talking again. The strike gives the studios ample tax write-off capabilities. Good luck, but I am scared to death I’ll lose everything. And I’m sure this Episode 11 is the last one this season. Question: when will I come back to work? Next July? 2010?

The strike will end July 7th of 2008. You know, as soon as SAG goes on strike. That’ll end it all.

Dear #112

As you’re no doubt an employer, hopefully you’re a fair one who treats his workers with respect and compensates them for every service they perform for you.

Explain to your people that the writer’s employers have been indulging in a form of unpaid overtime, repurposing our material without paying anything at all in some cases. Tell them that the writers had no other choice but to strike and, if they want the strike to end sooner rather than later, they should support our action.

Karen —

Exactly the point I was just about to make so I’ll say: ditto.

Their jobs were created because someone transformed a blank page into a story.

Stories produced into films and TV shows, many of which have become classics.

Lines of dialogue which later became ingrained in the culture.

Lines such as — “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”

How soon people forget that it is the writer who often gives a voice to those whose stories would never be known if not for their ability to encounter the blank page and make something compelling … memorable, where nothing existed before.

From Hillary Clinton: “I support the Writers Guild’s pursuit of a fair contract that pays them for their work in all mediums. I hope the producers and writers will return to the bargaining table to work out an equitable contract that keeps our entertainment industry strong and recognizes the contributions writers make to the success of the industry.”

From John Edwards: “The striking Writers Guild members are fighting an important battle to protect their creative rights. These writers deserve to be compensated fairly for their work, and I commend their courage in standing up to big media conglomerates. As someone who has walked picket lines with workers all across America and as a strong believer in collective bargaining, I hope that both sides are able to quickly reach a just settlement.”

From George W. Bush: “

                                          ."

WHY IATSE SHOULD CARE -

Your health care is set by WGA residual rates. If our residuals go away (as internet and TV become synonomous), so does your health care.

Literally, we are all in this together.

I personally have a lot on the line too. I can’t buy the starter house I was planning on now and I have a kid on the way.

Personally, I think from the AMPTP side, their behavior has been so egregious, I don’t see how this is not about union busting. And everyone should care about that.

There is a plan for the 9-5 picketing, but the minute they say the word, I will happily trot my fat pregnant ass out there and picket at 5am.

But I hope sides keep talking and it ends fast b/c it’s rediculous!

karen ”Having spent just short of 3 decades listening to “bankers hours” jokes, I can’t help wishing the people who are allegedly making lazy writers jokes around the craft services tables could try showing up at o’dark thirty WITHOUT A SCRIPT”

Not many peple understand what a writer does. And why should they? Actors are pretty. Directors are powerful. Writers are…….. well, shall we say unknown outside the industry?

Artisans of the industry know that is a false mentality. The WGA need SAG the DGA the Teamsters to be strong here.

Writers create jobs. Without writers there would be no industry. I make no apology for that statement.

Writers write because they deep down have a crazy streak. Why else would anyone suffer the slings and arrows that being a pro writer entails?

Yep, some are going to say try digging coal for a living before you start complaining.

My soul is on the line when I write, I might not be good at what I do subjectively but that is what writers do. And create a multi billion dollar business out of it.

I guess I’ll get hammered by some for daring to talk about soul [non religious] but to me that is what a writer is all about. And why those assholes are able to keep shafting us. Come on, the 88 deal was like IBM granting Microsoft the licence for software.

BIG MISTAKE.

Don’t do it again.

What if the AMPTP wanted a strike no matter what? Perhaps they are going to use this time to get rid of Network TV as we know it and go full tilt boogie into internet TV. Now it all makes sense. It’s not pleasent, but truth is not always a pleasant thing. (Buck Turgidson)

Can anyone direct me to a writing job with bankers hours? I haven’t ever worked on one. Pretty much 12-14 hour days on every TV show I’ve been staffed on. Sometimes the crew’s there before I arrive in the morning, but the writers are usually the ones locking up.

unnamed TV show averages 1 million veiwers a week. you get paid for the show broadcast over the air. but if say 10% of the weekly viewers shift to downloading from the internet. wouldn’t residuals from that download essentially be a double-dip? no viewers were gained, you only shifted the delivery of said product and i believe the nets ad sales revenue would be lower since the ratings would only show 900,000 viewers. am i wrong?

I’m up in Vancouver and was listening to the radio the other day. The talk show hosts have a regular segment where they check-in with an entertainment reporter in L.A. to find out the latest celebrity news, movies that are opening, etc. This time of course they were discussing the WGA strike. And just like Susan mentioned above the talk show hosts seemed genuinely surprised to learn from the entertainment reporter that late night talk shows like Letterman had a team of writers on staff. Incidentally, there’s a fair amount of coverage of the strike on our local news mainly because of how it will impact all the crew members working on U.S. shows shot here. What does seem unfortunate in the news coverage is that the writers’ position is never clearly explained. Obviously they don’t have time go into depth on the negotiations but to hear them report simply that “the writers want more money for DVD’s and new media” sounds greedy and obviously fails to tell the whole story.

George W. Bush on the WGA strike:

“I believe that the AMPTP misunderestimated the resolve of the Writers’ Guild, and should work quickly to settle this dispute before it goes nucular.”

“On a personal level, I sincerely hope this doesn’t interrupt the SpongeBob Squarepants show. I haven’t missed one show ever, so you fellers and gals get strategerizin’!”

“God Bless Nickelodeon, and God Bless America. Now where’d I put that remote?”

“Come on, the 88 deal was like IBM granting Microsoft the license for software.”

Really? Changing how syndicated TV residuals are calculated to give a percentage that paid as little as 50% or as much as 50% more than the previous flat rate was akin to IBM ceding the operating system of the personal computer to a different company?

I think that might be a bit of an exaggeration.

“Perhaps they are going to use this time to get rid of Network TV as we know it and go full tilt boogie into internet TV.”

Uh… the last time I checked… my local Best Buy (Atwater Village) was loaded with TV sets.

The newfangled kind, too. The Man wants y’all to pick-up one o’ them schmancy HDTVs.

RE: 122.

The Internet viewers might actually be more valuable to advertisers on a CPM basis depending on their demographics, as well as on other value-added offerings having Internet-based advertising can offer (better placement, higher profile ads, links to advertiser content, etc).

There’s a decent chance, though, that to get to a compromise, the eventual deal will include a window that allows for Internet re-use for a limited time without a residual. So, the writer would not benefit from any “double-dipping” if that ends up being the case.

I’m hearing that none of the actors have shown up on The Office set today. The crew reported with a later call time, expecting a full shooting day on location. Looks like this show may be officially down.

I have to say, the arrogance of a lot of writers here about their singular importance in the film-making process is getting a little hard to take.

Yes, in most cases with no script there is no show. But the reverse is just as true. What would things look like with all those writers, putting their souls on the line to fill those oh-so-frightening blank pages, if there were no cinematographers, no set designers, no property masters, no drivers, no editors, no make-up artists, so special effects artists? Oh, and no producers putting together the money to pay all those people?

I’ll tell you what it would look like — a few thousand penniless tortured geniuses banging away at their laptops at every coffer shop in LA, all creating “fully formed” masterpieces that would be printed up and sold to a few film-school geeks at Larry Edmunds.

Let go of the arrogance. Get off the high horse. If you’re so sure the industry is absolutely nothing without you (and you might be right), consider for a moment the flip side (which is just as true).

Even if the numbers were equal, the lack of residuals would still make it unfair.

Say Swanson hires a bunch of chefs to create recipes for their Hungry Man TV dinners. The chefs get paid for every dinner baked in an oven, but not the ones prepared in a microwave because microwaving is too neeeeew. The hungry man gets his meal either way, but not the chef.

Anyone else hungry now?

Craig, 100% of my posts are being trashed.

What’s the meaning of this? As you know I have important things to say. People come to this blog specifically to hear my opinions.

I’ve been keeping mum for awhile now, watching things play out — so here’s a few thoughts:

If interested, here’s the Broadcasting article. Okay, enough said. Gotta work on my spec that was suppose to go out next month.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6497197.html

OMG — sorry the above looks like a rant. For some reason, my paragraph breaks don’t work — I’m gonna try to fix the format and repost.

Anyone else have formatting issues — for some reason, i can’t do a normal paragraph break… weird.

131 - which big brother device have you invented to watch people in their kitchens?

Jen - Your points are all well taken. The trickle-down effect of all this obviously hurts a lot of hard working people. And yes, this season’s slate is iffy at best, but let’s be sure to place that blame in the proper place. I doubt the writers were peeing themselves to redo Bionic Woman (too much Matrix, not enough Sasquatch, imho). Someone told them to do it and they did. FWIW - I’m really enjoying Journeyman!

Maybe a few thousand fans should show up at the picket lines with drinks and snacks, and nifty tee-shirts that say:

“I watch TV. I watch Internet Downloads. I still think the WGA should get paid for it!”

Hey, nobody will probably care, but it would be support.

I just hope this doesn’t strike everyone out there in Hollyweird out of house, home and TV viewers who turn off the tube and don’t come back.

The fans are crossing their fingers for a return to the negotiating table!!

130 one of their own summed it up on last nights episode of Heroes “he was the visionary, but with these abilities, sometimes people tend to think of themselves as gods.”

Jen - try an html break: [br][/br] (replacing the “[]” with “<>”)

“Yes, in most cases with no script there is no show.”

In most cases? 50%? 75%? 99.9%

Name one show that’s 100% ad libbed?

Post #141 in response to #130 was me.

Mr/Ms #130 … may I add, none of those collaborators you name would be getting paid if not for the script.

You want writers to be more humble about this salient fact?

The problem is most writers have been too humble about the value of their work, in my opinion.

Here’s another fact — all writers, even the millionnaire writers, have at one time or another put time and effort into their work even when there was/is no guarantee it will ever sell. Ever.

They write in the face of impossible odds of succeeding.

They write to the detriment of their social lives, their families, even their sex lives.

They write on in spite of rejection, critiques, negative “feedback” from non-writers who think it’s “not that hard to write a screenplay.”

You think a sellable script, a script that ends up employing a lot of other people, is easy to churn out.

Buy yourself a copy of Final Draft and give it a shot, bubbalah. Then get back to me with your best draft.

Sign me — unsold writer who keeps at it as insane as it may be to do so.

137: It’s not the writer’s stance that I interpret as arrogant — it’s the many statements by writers that ARE arrogant.

You NEVER hear actors or directors talk the way writers do about how completely vital and necessary they are. I don’t think it’s because they’re better people — they just actually spend time with the crew, and see how hard every other discipline in the industry works, and how much technical and creative firepower they bring to every production. That’s why the comments by hyphenates, whether they’re SAG-WGA or WGA-DGA or WGA-producer generally sound so much more thoughtful.

I think most of the really annoying and counter-productive comments are by the writers who spend almost all their time either writing in isolation or schlepping their scripts around town.

Yes, folks, it usually does start with a script. But it doesn’t end there, by a loooooong shot.

and how many are photographed? edited? 50%? 75%? 99.9%?

your arrogance is astounding.

no wonder you have no friends.

Has anyone ever suggested that maybe new media residuals could be done in steps that increase over the three-year contract?

The AMPTP is determined to sell that they need more time to figure out how to make it profitable. Does anyone seriously think they won’t “figure it out”?

So even though most writers think that’s bull, meet them in the middle. For the first year of the contract, set “new media” residuals at like 1.0 percent, year 2 - 1.5, year 3 - 2.0.

Then start haggling over the actual numbers with the low-high game until you meet in the middle.

The AMPTP gets to keep their rhetoric about needing more time to assess, and the WGA can get fairly compensated at the same time.

Is that crazy?

to “trying to figure the numbers” —

Internet streaming is the new media version of broadcasting, Internet downloads are the new media version of DVDs.

In streaming, every viewed segment is countable and (in its present model) every one has a commercial at the beginning which can’t be skipped so both producers and advertisers know exactly how many views are happening. This is even MORE quantifiable than television views, not less and (until someone hacks a workaround) all advertising gets viewed as intended (unlike with television which is now TIVO’d, etc.)

Out of the loop — to be honest, this whole html thing I don’t get. The beginning of my piece had a paragraph break, don’t know what happ’d to the rest. I inputed <> where the breaks should be, like you suggested, but it didn’t make a difference when I previewed it. Strange. I’ve posted on other sites and haven’t had a problem…. thanks for your help though.

Craig Mazin’s words:

I�m taking a directing credit and a writing credit. But the film is by all of us. Me, the DP, the editor, the grips, the costume designers, hair, makeup, craft services��everyone. I�d be nowhere without the crew. I�m part of the crew. We�re a team. No us�no movie.

Karen, i guess youve never heard of bit-torrent.

You NEVER hear actors or directors talk the way writers do about how completely vital and necessary they are. I don?t think it?s because they?re better people ? they just actually spend time with the crew, and see how hard every other discipline in the industry works, and how much technical and creative firepower they bring to every production.

When the writer of a big-budget film gets anywhere near the money or recognition that the star or director gets, he’ll probably feel less of a need to explain how important he is.

Just took a walk around my block, I live right down the street from Paramount and Raleigh studios. Here is the striker count that I could see…

Paramount - west gate on melrose: 25ish Paramount - east gate: 8

Raleigh - south gate: 6 (and two people walked off the line as I walked by, “see you later guys etc…)

Raleigh - east gate (van ness): 8

Raliegh west gate - 0 with trucks just freely coming and going.

You have to be willing to get arrested and block trucks physically or your strike has no teeth.

Someone call Jimmy Hoffa.

It’s ironic how some of the writers posting here want to take such big credit for shows being produced and zero credit for displacing so many fellow union members out of work this week. Less yammering and more marching. Get out there on your lines and get this bloody mess over with already.

“So even though most writers think that’s bull, meet them in the middle. For the first year of the contract, set “new media” residuals at like 1.0 percent, year 2 - 1.5, year 3 - 2.0.”

We might be lucky to get 1% as a final number. We’re never going to get to 2%.

basically there are more people blogging than walking the lines.

To “Interested” : you’re missing the point. Yes, you rarely hear directors and actors remind anyone of how important they are, but that’s because actors and directors are already appreciated. Writers in this business are not appreciated in proportion to their worth. That’s what the above writers are saying.

Writers are a frustrated lot, Rodney Dangerfields, don’t ya know.

No script, no show.

This is a fact. Not bragging, not hyperbole.

Fact.

Why is it, when writers point out this undeniable reality they’re judged as arrogant?

I don’t get it.

… a script that ends up employing a lot of other people, is easy to churn out.

This is exactly the crap I mean. Wake up. “Scripts” don’t employ ANYONE. A working production does. The same production that creates a movie or a TV show. A production that would not exist, despite the existence of a script, without MANY other talented, skilled, hard working, self sacrificing people.

SusanC, everything you said about what writers put into their work is equally true of MANY other professions in the industry. Maybe if one day you actually sell a script and get to visit a set you’ll realize that.

DVD rate stays the same. Downloads at DVD rate. Streaming at 1.2%, suspended for two years to let them ‘figure out’ how to ‘make it work.’

There. Solved. Someone send Counter, Verrone, and Young on a vacation and get some adults in there who have a switch other than ‘antagonize’ hardwired into their brains.

Really — I agree that you’ll never get those numbers. That’s why I said the haggling over the final numbers would begin there. But agreeing to step agreement would break the deadlock and save face on both sides. And they can actually talk about numbers.

SusanC, please read my post (#152). I’m speaking to you, too. If this fight is so important, why aren’t you out fighting it?

Interested:

I’m not sure I agree with you that ALL of the MANY job descriptions involved with film production would do what they do even if there was no guarantee they would be paid.

How many of those others produce work on spec? You tell me.

But I’m willing to ask - what would placate you?

What would make you feel more warm and fuzzy toward writers?

What would you like me to say — other collaborators in film and TV production are equally important?

I’ll tell you what — I’ll negotiate. I’ll say these collaborators are important.

Not equally.

But important.

After the script is greenlit.

to “trying to figure the numbers” —

Yes, I have heard of bit torrent. The only broadcasters I know of that are using bit torrent are Japanese TV. I doubt American broadcasters are seriously considering using bit torrent as their delivery model, especially as it has just come out that Comcast has been blocking bit torrent uploads.

Users aren’t particularly enamored of bit torrent either, if you survey around the net.

blah blah blah. you guys are suppose to be on strike.

if you start pissing the production people off then you are sunk. go and walk the line like the 5 people in front of Paramount, at least they are taking action. need to get some street cred here and you are busy “writing” in blogs.

”Yes, in most cases with no script there is no show. But the reverse is just as true. What would things look like with all those writers, putting their souls on the line to fill those oh-so-frightening blank pages, if there were no cinematographers, no set designers, no property masters, no drivers, no editors, no make-up artists, so special effects artists? Oh, and no producers putting together the money to pay all those people?”

Yeah, that’s the first thing that goes through a writers mind when they write. And the last thing that goes through anyone elses.

Without writers everyone else would have NO FUCKING JOB.

Do yourself a favor. Recognise it and support them. I know that people in the industry will suffer because of this strike. But without us there is no industry. That may sound narcistic but it is still true.

Again a lot of BTL people are behind you but every time you want to throw it in our face “there isn’t a job without us, there isn’t enlightenment with us” and never have the decency to acknowledge the other end of the spectrum that without the crews hard work your wonderful, beautiful, life changing scripts stay on the page, well it just smacks of hypocrisy and hubris.
Ed you speak of the crazy streak, which I’ve heard of before as the ether talking through you or the compulsion to write. Then just by writing that should be enough for you, why do you need us to also fawn all over you that you provide the enlightenment? SOME of you have a deep seated desire to be acknowledged as “bearers of the fire”. Where is the humility in that?
J.D. Salinger is fine with writing and putting it in a safety deposit box to be released after he passes. MOST don’t doubt that you deserve more, stop pushing some of us away by treating us as your enemies.

let me correct your post:

“No SOMEONE THAT PUSHES THE BUTTON ON THE CAMERA, no show.

This is a fact. Not bragging, not hyperbole.

Fact.”

again. you’re not making any friends here.

Short answer: I’m not in LA or NYC, I’m that creature called an “aspiring” writer.

However, I am sending out emails to the suits.

I’m also contemplating suggesting to the WGA that all writers and their many supporters could sign a petition asking TV advertisers to add pressure to the WGAs opposition. Of course that would mean we would have to boycott advertisers’ products.

Opinions? Good idea? Bad idea?

Interested — you’re right, a working production employs people. But there is no working production without a script.

There are scripts without working productions. A TON of them. All over.

If you have a script that people love and feel they can make money on, they will put the wheels in motion that create a working production. Until then, there is nothing.

A director, an actor, an electrician, a driver — none of them move until there is a script. When you have an awesome director or an actor…how do you exploit them? You find them a great script.

But this is a very collaborative art where every cog is important. But there are cogs in the machine, and then there’s the engine.

The script is the engine.

And it’s only people like you that force dumb analogies like that which make it seem like writers think they are the only ones with meaning. That’s not true.

But the balance of the value of the script to everyone that works in the industry, compared to the value it’s been assigned by the AMPTP is just wrong.

This is not a fight about who is most important or who can shut down the town or not. It’s about the value of what writers do compared to how they are being compensated.

And it’s a very convenient to lay the burden on writers that says they must continue to be mistreated so that everyone else can maintain their status quo.

Could there be a better slogan for management?

these are quibbles - yes, there would be nothing without writers; and also, yes, without the crew there would just be pretty words on a page. We all need each other. All filmed entertainment is a massive collaberation that doesn’t belong to any one person. We should all be supportive of each others contributions and not try to diminish anyone else’s. That said, the writers are the only ones who get fully paid no matter what. They get paid first and in full, no matter if the script they write ever makes it to production.

So, back to the point at hand - THE STRIKE. What is the end game here? If 1988 taught anyone anything, it’s that a long strike does NOT get the writers what they want. There was absolutely a deal to be made Sunday and Verrone/Young blew it. They had the studios by the short hairs and could have avoided all of this by pushing the strike 24 hours. As Bill Clinton once said to his top Generals - “I can always bomb them tomorrow.” Verrone/Young could have always struck Tuesday morning. Now, what’s the incentive for the studios to go back to the table? For the handful of shows that actually worked this year? For the bloated pilot season? To make Rush Hour 4?

This is insane. GET BACK TO THE TABLE IMMEDIATELY. Does anyone really want the thousands of families in the business (not to mention all the other non-entertainment businesses in LA) to be facing the holidays without paychecks? There is a deal to be made. SO GO MAKE IT. This isn’t about “winning”. We are already past that. This is about negotiating a fair deal. So lock yourselves in a room until it is done.

Ed, Anonymous and I are stating that if you want to be respected as a writer by below the line crew then get your ass out on the picket line now and show us that you are in this to win. If Anonymous is correct about his number count, you writers ought to be ashamed of yourselves. That is insulting to everyone you are affecting. We are willing to support you if you can prove to us that this is a fight we can win. 8 picketers at Paramount suggests otherwise.

Well said, Jimmy.

What I think is happening here — all those who joke about weirdo writers grabbing bagels from the craft table, many of whom are not even allowed on the set during filming of their own work, are now grappling with the reality that those schmucks with laptops have control over their livelihoods.

And they’re in shook. Because they never thought the “engine” as you wisely noted, was that important to their lives.

“Really — I agree that you’ll never get those numbers. That’s why I said the haggling over the final numbers would begin there. But agreeing to step agreement would break the deadlock and save face on both sides. And they can actually talk about numbers.”

We were talking numbers.

The market is so small right now that a step-up plan over three or four years really isn’t going to be enough sweetener to make them budge… unless the final number is still the final number they’re eventually going to give us anyway.

Shaun? Ed you speak of the crazy streak, which I�ve heard of before as the ether talking through you or the compulsion to write. Then just by writing that should be enough for you, why do you need us to also fawn all over you that you provide the enlightenment?

I don’t recall mentioning either. I did mention crazy. But fawn and elightnment? Nope that must be a FOX News quote lol

“And they’re in shook. Because they never thought the “engine” as you wisely noted, was that important to their lives.”

Un-believable.

You can’t stop, can you?

well, 8 was a bit blown out of proportion, it still describes what I saw, and that was pretty lame. people walking off the line is lame.

all told I would say there was about a high school class of 35-40 people out there. my opinion is there should be at least 100 at each gate.

The pickets today seem a bit better organized. Instead of just staying at the Van Ness Gate, groups have swung off to get to the Clinton and Bronson Gates. Well done!

On the other hand, the security people opened up another gate on Van Ness, so that trucks rolled in and out and people entered and exited, mostly out of the sight of the other two gates. The strange part was when two of the picketers walked by the gate, and KEPT GOING. I would have thought they would have had a few people picket the open gate as well.

At the same time, I spoke with the two picketers and told them I supported their cause and would not cross their lines. I also told them that nobody was there when I came to work at 5:30AM this morning. One of them asked me if that’s when the trucks leave the lot. I responded that many times, it’s earlier. I told them the show I work on and wished them well.

Really? — I wasn’t going to be bold enough to actually propose numbers, but if it were .3 /.7 / 1.1 you’d have to think that might be close to something both sides could accept.

I think right now there needs to be a way that both parties can get back to the bargaining table and still save face to their constituents.

I think a step plan might be a way to do that.

I think a lot of tempers are flaring toward the wrong people and for the wrong reasons. The writers aren’t being elitist or condescending when they state (and restate) their importance. They have to keep stating it to remind those who view them as expendable. The script is the spark, the first domino in the line, that makes the rest of it possible. That is simply fact, and in no way meant to imply anything negative about the contributions of the crew. The crew members who will be out of work next week are taking out their frustrations on the writers, when the writers are not to blame. Trading jabs here isn’t particularly helpful for anyone.

Although this is a writer’s strike, it obviously affects more than writers, so please consider directing your bitterness toward the AMPTP, as it is they who have put you here. If you are without a job next week, please consider that your support will get you back to work much faster than your anger.

right Working AD, hardly the Newsie strike against NY Papers at turn of the 20th century, at least they had better choreography.

PARAMOUNT UDATE:

a lot more people now, traffic is not going into the studio, blocked off with police.

keep that up, but it should start tomorrow at 5am.

”I think a lot of tempers are flaring toward the wrong people and for the wrong reasons. The writers aren’t being elitist or condescending when they state (and restate) their importance. They have to keep stating it to remind those who view them as expendable. The script is the spark, the first domino in the line, that makes the rest of it possible. That is simply fact, and in no way meant to imply anything negative about the contributions of the crew. The crew members who will be out of work next week are taking out their frustrations on the writers, when the writers are not to blame. Trading jabs here isn’t particularly helpful for anyone. ‘

amen

SusanC, here’s my point. You talk about scripts employing people, as if scripts and productions are synonymous.

Soooo, how many people have your scripts employed?

How have audiences responded to your films?

Zero and not at all, right? Because when you write a script, you are not creating a film. Now do you get my point?

No, I don’t think you will. You’ve already acknowledged that you think, like many writers, that writers are more important than everyone else. Maybe one day you’ll actually work in the industry and figure out which end is really up.

And Ed, yes, it smacks of narcissism, because it is. And it doesn’t win you any friends. This is a collaborative medium. You, the writer, are nothing without the rest of us. That is a fact, and is just as true as the statement that it all starts with a story. It’s also true that, in filmed productions, the writer is NOT the only storyteller.

But stick with the narcissism, it seems to be working for you.

Out of the Loop, we are not frustrated that there is a strike as much as that the stike so far has been lame. Not much turn out and not much passion. It just doesn’t feel like you really mean it. We can’t turn that frustration on to the AMPTP. They aren’t the ones on strike.

Some of this back-and-forth, chicken-or-the-egg stuff is getting inane. I think writers only mention the whole “no one works without us” thing in defensive response to a widely perceived lack of respect. It’s a succinct way to make the point that their role is an essential one in the industry. I doubt many writers say it to imply “You owe your jobs to me, suckas!” Even the most clueless, unproduced writers understand that a script is just a pile of paper until lots of other people come aboard to make it a movie. And even the least-compensated PAs know the only reason they’re on set is to help realize something that was written. Not sure how anybody’s supposed to “win” this argument.

Jimmy:

I pointed out the need for escalators in the rate in a different thread, which is what you’re suggesting with your gradual raise.

Me:

WGA didn’t walk out of talks. AMPTP did. They refuse to discuss new media residuals. Can’t go back to the table til AMPTP wants to.

That said. A lot of people’s livelihoods are at stake. I hear about this plan of 9-5 to keep the trucks out, but my question is what about day two? Since the trucks have been stuck outside. Or did they somehow get back in?

A strike is supposed to shut the town down. I don’t want to hear about phasing in things. If this strike isn’t settled in two weeks, it won’t be settled until a) DGA makes a deal b) SAG strikes.

So, while I respect the current plan, I would humbly suggest another: SHUT THE TOWN DOWN!

If I’d seen Out of the Loop’s post #178 before writing my own, I’d have just said “Ditto.” :)

It’s a typical management tactic in every industry to turn workers against each other in times of strife. Don’t take the bait. The studios no doubt want to crush all the unions. The WGA is just first in line.

Interested — if writers are so much less important than writers think they are, then you obviously should have nothing to worry about.

Everyone will soon realize that no one really needs writers as much as they thought they did, and we will all be put in our place very soon.

Even though I’m not in the WGA, I’ll go off and maybe write a novel instead. Or maybe become a journalist. Or try to write comic books. Or write for stand up comedians. Or write a bunch of other things that have nothing to do with film. That’s what writers do. They are the starting point. A starting point with many places they could finish.

And you still be on your set. With your actors and your director and your camera full of film, wondering what else a film crew can do without a script, except wait for one.

Brian McCabe is right. Negotiations need to resume and soon. It’s telling that the Governor’s office has put out a statement saying that he won’t get involved. His given reason is that a federal mediator is already in place.

Norman Johnson is right about Howard Johnson’s being right!

REERAR!

Interested?

I am right. But that’s not what I said.

AMPTP must make first move. How to get them to do that is the concern now.

p.s. Thanks for the “Blazing Saddles” reference. Needed laugh

Something worth noting is that every Friday night at the multiplex the studios are essentially attempting to put each other out of business. In every network timeslot they’re trying to cut each others’ throats. These entities couldn’t be more competitively hostile to one another EXCEPT when they’re dealing with labor. Suddenly they present a united front and do everything possible to divide, conquer and impose their collective will while we snipe at one another over which union is more important, how poorly the other conducts its affairs and, it seems, even root for the other to lose a negotiation.

We all better wake the f*#k up and take a lesson from those who’d have every one of us working day to day for minimum wage in a heartbeat.

Interested?

SusanC, here’s my point. You talk about scripts employing people, as if scripts and productions are synonymous.

Soooo, how many people have your scripts employed?

How have audiences responded to your films?

Zero and not at all, right? Because when you write a script, you are not creating a film. Now do you get my point?

No, I don’t think you will. You’ve already acknowledged that you think, like many writers, that writers are more important than everyone else. Maybe one day you’ll actually work in the industry and figure out which end is really up.

And Ed, yes, it smacks of narcissism, because it is. And it doesn’t win you any friends. This is a collaborative medium. You, the writer, are nothing without the rest of us. That is a fact, and is just as true as the statement that it all starts with a story. It’s also true that, in filmed productions, the writer is NOT the only storyteller.

But stick with the narcissism, it seems to be working for you.”

That is so partisan it is laughable. Good luck in your attempt to drive a wedge between people who know the truth.

The great thing about the web is the freedom of expression. Shills can always be refuted for those with ears to hear.

And yeah Craig I think you are a whiney git but still ten times better than whiney gits who don’t stand up and be counted. Myself included.

Unfortunately I’m a baby writer, and am making money by doing travel coordinating for a reality show for NBC/BBC. This just in: we can’t Fedex to NBC Universal because Fedex wont cross the picket lines… they said they don’t get paid enough to get in a fight, ha. And they didn’t think reality would be affected… take THAT, smug reality douchebags.

Yes, the WGA shut this down when they went ahead on strike back east and wouldn’t delay it. That’s the fact. The studios were explicit about not continuing negotiations after they struck.

The federal mediator was a joke. That was just cover to get back to the table friday. Arnold is not getting involved because his party is anti-union but he can’t be seen to be siding with management.

why does everyone keep harping on the hierarchy of importance between writers and everyone else? is that the issue? writers always feel like the beleagered, put-upon, victims who never get their requisite respect. And, probably some of that is justified. That said, bitching about 20 hours of picketing per week? That just comes off as such whiny, entitled behavior that speaks to the cliche of writers.

Oh, and if you don’t think the studios can live without original programming, you are sadly mistaken. Get ready for 6 nights of American Idol and every other reality program. Animals vs. Humans anyone? The networks are not going to have dead air. People forget that reality programming took hold because of the 1988 strike. It is far cheaper and, unfortunately, America tunes in just like they do for original programming. What, do you think people are just going to start reading books? Jobs are going to be lost because of this. Jobs that never come back. Time for Verrone to put his ego aside and pick up the phone and jump start negotiations. How about being the bigger man about this tiny step? Pick up the phone.

Lots of sitcom productions have been shut down as a result of the strike: at WB, “Two and a Half Men” and “The Big Bang Theory.” At Sony, “Rules of Engagement” and “‘Til Death.”

“AMPTP must make first move. How to get them to do that is the concern now.”

Any idea of how the current “backdoor” talks are going?

Read today’s VARIETY and it is very plain why a strike should be a last resort. As time shoulders on in this dispute, and it will very slowly, both sides will dig in. The ‘celebrities’ won’t make as many appearances on the line. The cameras will go away. Factions within the WGA will finally make themselves known and ugliness will prevail. And then, in good time, both parties will sit down and take their sweet ass time to bring a contract to their sides that will make us ask the inevitable: “What the fuck did we go out for?” http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117975460.html?categoryid=1682&cs=1

“Lots of sitcom productions have been shut down as a result of the strike: at WB, Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. At Sony, Rules of Engagement and Til Death.”

Unfortunately, the Sony side would be considered a victory for viewers of quality television.

From what I understand, the reason for the 9 to 5 hours is so that the Teamsters can get a half day’s pay for showing up and not having to face a picket on their first run. Maybe other crew members will also benefit from this strategy, too. If the WGA were more “passionate” and held the strike for longer hours, then Teamsters wouldn’t even get a half day’s pay. I bet the resentment over that would be greater than any jokes around the breakfast table.

Susan

I don’t mean to break the honor embargo. BUT FUCK YOU, Interested. You are clearly a Shill.

Question for the people that think that shooting down scripted TV will only make for a shorter strike.

Do you think it came as a surprise to the AMPTP that the WGA went on strike?

Do you think the AMPTP didn’t know that a strike would have stopped production?

If you think they don’t have a plan already in place you are sadly mistaken.

The strike will last until the DGA will make a deal. Or until next June.

Shooting down the last three episode that the writers RUSHED to deliver so they can be PAID it’s just a little unfair for the crew that doesn’t get the benefit of the last few checks.

See, drying up of shows would have happened in a couple of weeks anyway. But noooo. As long as you get your check, the rest doesn’t count.

But of course we know that writers have no history of being generous with the BTL. Why should they now?

They were nowhere to be seen when the Teamsters went on strike. And they won’t be there in the future either. They aren’t even good at sweetalking. But are excellent at being condescending.

So Working AD, your support is a little misplaced.

Me. My understanding was that — Idol aside which seems to be doing better than ever — ratings were down across the board for most reality shows. Furthermore, AFAIK (and more informed board members feel free to correct me) reality shows don’t have anything like the DVD sales (or downloads?) of scripted shows.

ED, are you the English writer that was contemplating about scabbing?

I bet you tried several times to sell your feature here in the States but they flatly said no to you.

Just being supporting of the Guild doesn’t make you part of it. And never will.

Writing for unwatched British TV shows doesn’t qualify you as part of the elite.

So please, stop drinking and start minding your language.

Interested,

This is an ego-fueled business. Or I should say this is an ego-acting-as-confidence-fueled business. There may be arrogance when a writer says without their script you have no job, but, as Jim Uhls points out in his blog, screenwriting is the only filmmaking profession where others take credit for it. An actor ad libs, a director adds a scene, the producer writes a treatment… and they’re suddenly writers.

It’s not like we’re saying other members of production are superfluous to the success of a film. We’re saying it STARTS with the script. No script, no production.

It’s a fact that all other production jobs fall sequentially behind the writer. Just because we come first doesn’t mean we are first.

Writers have an EQUAL stake in a film’s success or failure. We also have the only job where the rest of the production can and will fuck with us.

Cut us some slack.

Need to correct something I repeated yesterday.

I was informed yesterday that Tim Kring had quit “Heroes” due to excessive rewriting demands by the network. That information was not correct - it was a rumor that was running around Sunset Gower. The rumor got repeated to multiple people, including some on the show itself. It then was repeated to me as fact.

I have no interest in spreading rumors, particularly during these stressful times. The next time I am told something like that, I’m going to get corroboration first. Sorry about that. The reality here is that Mr. Kring, like the showrunner on my series, is honoring the strike, but will of course return to the series when the strike is over.

can’t we all just get along? I mean, seriously, fighting about who strikes harder? why not a forum about whose daddy can beat up whose daddy?

Let’s get back to the issue at hand people - the only thing that matters is to get another negotiating session going ASAP. If this thing drags, it will be 6 months before anyone blinks. The best deal to be made can be made now, but everyone needs to put their egos aside. Isn’t the point of all of this to get a fair, new deal? In EVERY successful negotiation, no one gets 100% of what they want - but both sides can walk away having gotten something that was important to them. Let’s put aside all the mudslinging about who strikes harder - writers or teamsters - and focus back on ideas about how to get this thing back on track before it is too late.

“We also have the only job where the rest of the production can and will fuck with us.”

SML - If the rest of the people, in the collaborative process of filmmaking, were not allowed to “fuck with you,’ as you say, I shudder to think how, even more unwatchable, most of the films and television I see today, would be.

If we have to have unscripted shows, can’t they be more creative than that? They’re not writers, so, no, I suppose not.

I’m waiting for them to announce “Charlie Brown Teachers’ Lounge,” a show that doesn’t have any writing or actors, just muted trombones.

“And you still be on your set. With your actors and your director and your camera full of film, wondering what else a film crew can do without a script, except wait for one.”

well, I could shoot news or reality, or an industrial, or a commercial…..

not that I don’t think you guys deserve what you’re asking for, but you really do need to tone down the self-importance a bit

Nothing against the collaborative process (read as: changes made without the writer’s input or blessing), but not every revision is an improvement.

203 - Bono - “See, drying up of shows would have happened in a couple of weeks anyway. But noooo. As long as you get your check, the rest doesn’t count.”

I’m sure it happened, but I know exactly zero writers who rushed to get scripts in last weekend. It was far from the norm.

“They were nowhere to be seen when the Teamsters went on strike. And they won’t be there in the future either. “

If you mean the Writer’s GUILD, perhaps, I don’t really know. But saying the WRITERS did nothing is total crap.

I’ve never crossed a Teamster picket line in my life, any picket line. I buy union whenever I can, though that is hard to do anymore. I think a huge percentage of writers vote for the Teamster-friendly candidates in every election. The scripts we write are almost always pro-union, even when that’s not particularly popular.

If you don’t think that the people that went on strike yesterday are good for the Teamsters… well, you’re mistaken.

If you want to cross the picket lines, do it.

But do you really want to be so anti-union that you visit a media and industry read blog and bash them on day two of their strike?

You are either a management shill or the worst union guy around.

If you don’t have the stomach for the fight, don’t fight it. But don’t do Murdoch’s job for him, willya?

Mark,

“…the collaborative process of filmmaking…”

In the collaborative process, I can walk up to my cinematographer and make a lighting suggestion and he can take it. But what I can’t do is apply for co-cinematography credit. Why? Because I’m NOT a cinematographer. I’m a WRITER.

This is not true when an actor, director, producer makes a suggestion to a writer. They claim they’re doing our jobs for us. Get it. (This is not always the case, but it happens often enough to make screenwriting the least respected creative position on a film set).

I’m all for collaboration. I’m all for people making suggestions to me, and I’m even for people sharing credit just as long as they sit down in front of a computer, stare at a blank page, and bring that page to life. But, in the meantime, I’d rather not have people fuck with my job title. It’s demeaning.

209- You really think scripts get better when anyone is allowed to screw with them? Or is that just an opportunity to take a cheap shot at some people going through some hard times?

212- teknician - I am a huge fan of deflating people acting self-important… but if there is one time it should be permitted, tolerated, even encouraged is right now.

No one needs to be pompous, but the message has to be the importance of the writer at the moment.

After this is resolved, go back to puncturing egos. I’ll even help.

But like any other union that ever went on strike, teachers, cops, drivers, whatever… the message has to be that they are indispensable.

And honestly, the writers are so historically powerless and unappreciated in this town that it became an actual punchline.

Give us a little slack if you can. Just for a while.

If location shoots, studios and casting sessions are shut down - then, you will see more support for the strike among the crews. Because, while they want to keep working - they all know that the studios can survive for al ong time if there is only a slowdown, but they will move to resolve a shut down.

And most TV series only have a couple scripts left to shoot and then will stop - but the studios have plenty of feature scripts to keep them busy for awhile. TV shows are prepared and expecting to shut down. So stopping the flow of features is key to putting pressure on the Studios to come back to the table and negotiate. and it has to happen now.

That’s always been my understanding of the purpose of a strike: shut down the company’s business so that it feels financial pain, in hopes of making that pain exceed the discomfort of giving the union what it’s demanding.

202: Nice, Ed, nice. Good to see your true colors. Hey, here’s a thought: maybe some here giving constructive criticism aren’t really either AMPTP shills or wanna-bes. Maybe some of us really want the writers to get a good deal, and see the condescending nonsense as unnecessary and harmful.

206: SML, I’ll say it again. As true as “no script=no production” is, “no production=useless stack of paper” is just as true. And your silly statement “We also have the only job where the rest of the production can and will fuck with us.” is stupid beyond belief. Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes in this industry and you’ll see why everyone else has so much contempt for such statements. Get over yourself.

There are a lot of us who want the writers to succeed, but have to hold our noses when we support you because of the entitlement and arrogance and cluelessness of some writers (and of your current leadership).

Interested

ED, are you the English writer that was contemplating about scabbing?

Not in a MILLION YEARS. And I don’t think there were any such posts. But hey, fact has never been high on the priorities here.

SML, you’ve yet to be produced and have a lot to learn. The way you’re going, you might fail at both.

Actors improvise great lines. The director adds something wonderful to a scene. Crew members come up with creative ideas that are thrown into the mix.

Who gets the “written by” credit for those contributions? The actor? The director? The crew?

Marlon Brando improvised a lot during “Last Tango In Paris” and “Apocalypse Now.” Where was his screenplay credit?

Leonard Nimoy came up with the “Vulcan nerve pinch.” Does he get credit for creating “Star Trek”?

Dustin Hoffman claims to have thrown in “I’m walkin’ here” during “Midnight Cowboy.” Where was his Oscar nomination for the script?

Some very secure screenwriters will often tell you a memorable line or scene came from somebody else, but most are content just to say “thank you” and take all the credit.

Wouldn’t you, sonny?

SML - you get paid to write a script. You write it. They pay you. It belongs to them. They can wipe themselves with it if they want. That’s the deal. You then allow those other ‘artists’ to bring your words to the page. What would you rather do? Watch the characters dance on your blank page alone in the dark or watch as filmmakers make them dance? I have the utmost respect for writers. But, please…

Something worth noting is that every Friday night at the multiplex the studios are essentially attempting to put each other out of business. In every network timeslot they’re trying to cut each others’ throats. These entities couldn’t be more competitively hostile to one another EXCEPT when they’re dealing with labor. Suddenly they present a united front and do everything possible to divide, conquer and impose their collective will while we snipe at one another over which union is more important, how poorly the other conducts its affairs and, it seems, even root for the other to lose a negotiation.

You know, when I mentioned “solidarity” on another screenwriting discussion board, someone chided me with, “I’ve seen the WGA headquarters on Fairfax, and it looks nothing like the Gdansk shipyards” — a reference to the Polish Solidarity movement.

But the Polish Solidarity movement succeeded in bringing down an evil, corrupt regime, and in large part because Solidarity had most of the other elements of Polish society (the Church, the peasantry, the middle classes) on its side.

Solidarity is a key prerequisite for success in any labor action. It’s mind-boggling that the WGA leadership didn’t spend the last year (at least) cultivating ties with the other unions, so that the members of those unions would be aware of and in support of the WGA strike strategy, rather than confused, bewildered and suspicious.

Now the WGA is in a position of begging for solidarity from brother unions, and it seems plenty of its own members are unclear on the concept.

SML - are you fighting for the issues at hand, or just for more respect? The former can be achieved through negotiations, the latter through therapy. In every contract negotiation, each side is trying to “win” - the mistake is to think you are being disrespected because the other side has issues that are equally important to them.

This is a business. This is not art for art’s sake. The “evil management” are trying to make money. Last I checked, they put up all the money to go make these things in the first place. They are actually taking all the risk. If you don’t want to work for them and they are so evil, don’t. Write novels. Write plays. Put up your own money and make your own films.

While we are at it, I’m actually astounded at the very concept of residuals. This is the only business in the world that has them. They don’t pay autoworkers (or even car designers) at GM every time a car is resold. It’s a wonderful concept and probably essential for creative people to weather the hard times, but it doesn’t exist anywhere else in business. kudos for getting it in the first place.

And btw, don’t moan about the collaberative process - i’ve seen PLENTY of writers take credit for lines, scenes, scripts that were not theirs. Look at the arbitration process. Ask Barry Levinson how he feels when Ron Bass dines out on his Rain Man credit even though EVERYONE knows that Barry rewrote it from page one (during the last strike). How many actors really put in for credit? On a studio film? Name one who has ever gotten it. That is a specious argument. You just want to be left alone to write your opus. Well, then go write a novel. The very nature of filmed entertainment is collaberative. From the notes you get from the studio, to the interpretation of your masterpiece on the set, a script is a fluid document that gets shaped and reshaped by everyone who comes in contact with it.

In streaming, every viewed segment is countable and (in its present model) every one has a commercial at the beginning which can’t be skipped so both producers and advertisers know exactly how many views are happening. This is even MORE quantifiable than television views.

Unfortunately, this is not true, yet. Nobody has a particularly exact measurement tool for counting streams. Which is one of the uncertainties of the web which is retarding advertising more than you’d think. Even YouTube’s numbers are of questionable accuracy.

unnamed TV show averages 1 million veiwers a week. you get paid for the show broadcast over the air. but if say 10% of the weekly viewers shift to downloading from the internet. wouldn’t residuals from that download essentially be a double-dip? no viewers were gained, you only shifted the delivery of said product and i believe the nets ad sales revenue would be lower since the ratings would only show 900,000 viewers. am i wrong?

No, you are right, and the moderate policy wonk in me suggests that there could be some formula accompanying a decent online residual rate by which, in episodic television, some of a wrtier’s residual from a broadcast repeat could be credited against download residuals over the next several years while broadcast repeats continue to exist.

But since until this weekend, the AMPTP basically even refused to discuss online residual issues, there hasn’t been enough time to explore this kind of scenario. I hope this is the sort of thing both sides are talking about on back-channels now.

Regarding comment 219, I wasn’t the one who asked that, Ed. But keep having those imaginary conversations. ;)

This is insane. GET BACK TO THE TABLE IMMEDIATELY. Does anyone really want the thousands of families in the business (not to mention all the other non-entertainment businesses in LA) to be facing the holidays without paychecks? There is a deal to be made. SO GO MAKE IT. This isn’t about “winning”. We are already past that. This is about negotiating a fair deal. So lock yourselves in a room until it is done.

Sadly, that isn’t correct at this five seconds.

If there was a deal within reach, it could have been reached before Oct. 31. By definition, the WGA’s demands as of the contract expiration still exceeded the utmost the AMPTP was willing to offer in several key areas. On the day before the strike, those several areas crystallized into one issue — new media — and yet the two sides still held positions that could not be made to overlap.

Whether those positions could have been shifted prior to Oct. 31 by better attention to the negotiating process is now a moot point. Right now, the union is committed to using a strike to persuade the AMPTP to modify its offer on new media. Unless and until that shift in position occurs, another across-the-table session will be fruitless — no deal can be made, fair or not, if one side insists immovably on more than the other side will offer under any existing circumstances. The only thing to do at that point is change the circumstances, and that’s what a strike is for.

Only if the AMPTP surveys the landscape of the strike and foresees it causing them more economic harm than the economic cost of giving writers what they’ve demanded (or at least some of it) will they come back to the table with different proposals. Of course, if the strike isn’t hurting them that much, they may have no motivation to shift their offer, and may instead simply wait until the strikers feel so much accumulated pain that they reduce their demands.

“I have the utmost respect for writers.”

Riiigggghhhhht.

That’s why you would go to a website about a group of people that went on strike yesterday and trash them. Utmost respect.

What I don’t get about you or several of the other people posting here the last couple of days is… why is it so important to you to show up here and insult writers at a time when any reasonable person would want to cut them a little slack?

What is it in your character that makes you feel good about doing that?

Hey John -

Last time I checked there was no WGA card required to post on this website. Fact is, I and many others who raise issues you can’t deal with on the second day of your strike, have loads at stake. You’re not in a vacuum here, John. Your union has made a decision that affects thousands. I could care less whether you think I respect writers or not. But my career has lasted 35 years and when I get a good script I know it. It’s a fucking pleasure. A joy for an actor. And when I get a bad one, its my job to make those stinking lines work. And I do. So, take the support while you can. Because you, and your brothers and sisters, are going down a long road.

are you fighting for the issues at hand, or just for more respect? The former can be achieved through negotiations, the latter through therapy. In every contract negotiation, each side is trying to “win” - the mistake is to think you are being disrespected because the other side has issues that are equally important to them.

This is a business. This is not art for art’s sake. The “evil management” are trying to make money. Last I checked, they put up all the money to go make these things in the first place. They are actually taking all the risk. If you don’t want to work for them and they are so evil, don’t. Write novels. Write plays. Put up your own money and make your own films.

It would serve the membership of the WGA well if their leaders set aside any idea of winning respect, emotional validation, fairness or any other prize except a cut of the money that the AMPTP member companies generate. This isn’t a strike about working conditions, workplace safety or other non-economic issues. The focus has to be on the money — and money for its own sake: not a measure of how much or little the writer is respected, but simply how much the writer’s services are worth. And worth in this case is determined by opportunity cost, that is, what it costs the companies when they have to go without those services.

The story about the competition between the parts of the body to see who was to be the boss seems apropos to the situation….

Respect, man. Respect. Everyone in the process is important.

Let’s put the focus back on the AMPTP and the strike at hand.

Apropos of nothing…or maybe not:

I’m a writer, as yet unpaid but not unproduced or unpublished. I was also a member of a film collective where we made each other’s short movies for no pay. Some of the members were professional filmmakers from the tech side (and union members) and they patiently taught others b/c they saw the passion AND the need to collaborate. The rest of us worked any and all positions for long hours and no pay. We got copy (sometimes), credit (sometimes) and meals (always) in exchange for experience, knowledge and often our own first produced work. Here’s what I learned:

I love the excitement of production, but only when I’m busy.

Crewing is hard work, physically demanding and exhausting.

Some people are better at taking colloborative notes on set than others. (On set could also mean during times of stress.)

A good crew can save your ass.

Respect of your crew has to be earned.

Creatives on set should, IMO, work just as hard, if not harder, than every crew person.

**

A byproduct of this film collective was that one of the members often got wind of freelance crew gigs for sports productions. Don’t ask me how or why these gigs were given to non-union types, but it happened. On one such gig, a big football game, a handful of us were hired to crew in certain positions like boom, PA, stage manage and some stats stuff. Here’s what I remember from that day:

We showed up, all of us, on time. And the producer and director were a bit surprised. I was a PA that day and my first task was to walk (around the stadium and across campus and back) to buy DVD tapes b/c the director forgot to bring some. I’m not sure what he expected me to do but he was pleasantly surprised when I managed to bring back the right tapes. I also remember the regular guys treating us, the non-regulars, with a bit of disdain. It was them and it was us. Until meal time. When the pre-ordered meal didn’t show up.

Have you ever seen a crew waiting for food that’s late? Picture the last five seconds before a mutiny and you’re close.

Not that it was my job. And not that I had made the mistake. That was the producer’s screw up. But I took it upon myself to track down someone who could solve our problem. In other words, I went outside what was my responsibility and got the answer (from a woman whose husband was a union techie, no less) and got everyone fed.

After that, it wasn’t so much Them and Us. :-)

Anyway, my point is, I have worked below the line and I have great respect for the folks who do those jobs on a regular basis. I’m also a creative and know how hard it is to create. I also have respect for my job. I wouldn’t compare one to the other or place more value on either. They’re both damn hard.

Carry on.

Suz

Me:

You show an incredible lack of understanding. I just wrote and deleted an intricate response, because I look back at your posts and it seems like you don’t even seem to bother to read what other people are saying. You have a computer. You could easily educate yourself. I can only assume you prefer not to.

John:

Why cut them slack? I understand the importance of what’s at stake. Maybe even better than you. But there is a sense of the cavalier seeping through and that bothers me. I would like to see urgency. I am among the powerless in this fight. I can’t make either side do a damn thing, but I am also caught in the middle. My fate is in the WGA’s hands (along with quite a few other BTL people). Are we asking too much by wanting our fears allayed? This isn’t about writers. It’s about all of us. It would be nice if that were recognized.

“Okay, I am a British writer, and I am due to have a meeting (in London) with an American production company on Monday. There are as yet no contracts etc - and might not be if they don’t like me - and it is not a discussion about an existing show. In your opinion, should I not go to the meeting?

Posted by: Ed at November 3, 2007 7:42 AM”

That’s why you would go to a website about a group of people that went on strike yesterday and trash them. Utmost respect.

What I don’t get about you or several of the other people posting here the last couple of days is… why is it so important to you to show up here and insult writers at a time when any reasonable person would want to cut them a little slack?

Here’s the thing.

The AMPTP has handed the WGA a shit sandwich in the form of a wholly unacceptable offer on core issues. Not feeling hungry for such fare, the WGA has decided to force a shit sandwich of its own (in the form of a strike) on the AMPTP, one the WGA hopes will be bigger, stinkier and more disgusting than the one it was given.

What the WGA leaders and members have to understand is, they’re also asking their fellow unions to take big bites out of that shit sandwich — big, filthy, vomit-inducing bites. The theory is, if all of the union members each eat a little shit now, they’ll all end up with more bread later.

So…

1) If your union brothers in other unions want to complain about the shit they have to eat during the strike, be sympathetic — they’e eating shit for your benefit, because if the strike succeeds, you get your extra bread now while they have to wait for theirs until their contracts are up;

AND

2) When it comes time for manangement to serve up a shit sandwich to one of your fellow unions, and they decide to feed management a strike shit sandwich of their own, do NOT balk at sharing it. Instead, walk up to your brother union with your plate outstretched like Oliver Twist in the workhouse, because only that kind of reciprocity will make your labor struggle against management work.

Because it is a collaborative medium, yes, everyone involved in the process has something at stake. The writers are on your team. It is the AMPTP who will not negotiate (read Craig’s posts). The business model is changing to the internet and they will not address this issue. It must be addressed.

I mentioned this earlier and no one commented or cared, but The Office was unable to shoot today because the actors refused to come into work. The WGA stated that they were unable to shoot yesterday because of teamsters. Not true. There was half a day of shooting yesterday and because Steve did not show, they couldn’t finish. Today, crew was transported to a location (whether by teamsters or scabs I don’t know) but could shoot nothing because none of the actors on the call sheet arrived. It seems to me that the WGA should share this information with all and focus on preventing big profit shows from shooting by encouraging actor’s support. Afterall, their contract is up next. And do you really think all these A list actors will be sued?

234, Stuart,

That’s exactly it. Everyone in labor needs to work together, otherwise management will rollback everything they possibly can.

Patricia Arquette has been threatened with being sued, so she’s going to work. She’s clearly conflicted, but no one blames her.

Despite Marc Cherry picketing and being on the negotiating committee, the cast of “Desperate Housewives” are still on the set. Still, the pickets disrupted shooting today and Julia Louise Dreyfuss was amongst the group.

I suppose this makes “The Office” cast solidatry all the more potent. Everyone needs to hang together against the AMPTP until they treat us with some degree of intelligence.

If I hear one more fellow writer talk about how it “all begins with the story, without which all life would perish,” I’m going to vomit into my keyboard. Filmmaking is a team sport. Period.

Jesus, companies used to have to hire instigators and sabateurs to infiltrate unions and turn them against each other and now it’s just another thing you’re giving them for free.

brian mccabe/232 -

i have full use of the computer and a full understanding of the issues and the unfolding events. on the other hand, your suggestions have been:

1. Shut the town down.
2. The AMPTP should be the ones to return to the table.

2 very constructive and actually useless comments. What are you after? A 6-9 month strike which cripples this business? Do you really think the WGA can outlast the studios? Do your homework. In 1988, the writers completely caved after 22 weeks. Do you know what actually happened? The showrunners threatened to go financial core and the WGA caved on terms less favorable than if they never struck in the first place. Now, every studio is owned by a major conglomerate. You think News Corp - a $70 billion company, or Time Warner can’t outlast the WGA? Really? Go look at the financial statements of any of these companies - filmed entertainment is just one sliver (and a small one) of their companies. They can outwait you.

I don’t have a lack of understanding at all. These studios are run by very smart businessmen. There was a deal to be made in a short window and the WGA failed their membership. Waiting 6-9 months just to get back to this point will only hurt the working people of this business. The corporations will actually get kudos from Wall Street when they get the WGA to accept a less favorable deal.

All I have been saying in every post is that both sides need to get past the rhetoric and get back to the negotiation table. Who cares who makes the first call? Just do it. If that shows a lack of understanding, then you are fighting a different strike than everyone else. #229 had it right. This is about money, plain and simple.

Hope this is not too long, but a fable is needed:

It is another night in Hollywood, California. And that means, it is time to party! Why? Who cares, it’s party time! Thus, the clubs are all a-jumpin’, the music is a-rockin’ the drugs are a-flowin’, and the money is spendin like water.

In the thick of it all are the so-called corporate bigwigs, who aren’t very corporate nor bigwigs. Heck, they’re younger than me, ne’er do-wells who only got into this business so that their parents do have to deal with them. These parents, mind you, are reminiscent of the family from “Skin” (as in, “His father is the district attorney!”), parents that have no time for their children, and mutual feelings from the pond.

These guys can’t take a piss without flaunting it. They cannot understand the law and the economics, entrusting to a consortium of attorneys increasingly bitter about their employess, led by the retiring J. Nicholas Counter. The one thing they are good at (which isn’t even all that good) is partying like there is no tomorrow. They, in their infliated egos, are the party. They supply the drugs, the cocaine, the ecstasy, the sex, the piss, the music, the high of it all.

These youngsters can account for the rise in the drug culture in the town (I, personally, once heard of a party a noted actress hosted in which a whole fishbowl full of cocaine was served to all invited.) They can also attest to churning out crappy works of their emplyers, disguised as male-bonding films. They are mostly male jock types, acting like they are nerds (or the stereotype thereof.) And, of course, they are drenched in eskewed popular culture, ranging from the late-60s through early-00s.

Anyway, this night, a bunch of these guys gather at some office, followed by driving through the town in some fancy Aston-Martin convertible drunk and high out of their minds. As anyone can attest, when you’re drunk and high you go beyond insane. Worse, if a group is this way, they’ll actually listen as if it is gospel! In-between drinking and craving and snorting and pissing and publically urinating (all with the excuse of “I’m rich, beyotch?!”), they plot ideals which may never happen, thank God! But the conservations are like this:

“Hey, you know them writing guys says they strikin’ at us.” “We have writers?” (Massive laughter and mimicking) “Why write when we have manatees?” “You so stupid, dude. That’s South Park. Remember you ejiot?” “Who you calling an idiot, bunghole.” (Petty arguments follow. A while later;) “So like I said, we got writers, see. And they write, see. And we gotta pay them, see. But we don’wanna?” “And why’s that, Bro?” “Cause they don’t partaaaaayyyy!!!” “Parrttttyyyyyy!!!” (More partying and flaunting commences. A short time later:) “These writer’s are pestering us. They tell me, they won’t write the remake to Braveheart…” “We doing Bravehaert again??” “You bet you freedom on it, shithead.” “Freeeeeddddddooooommmmmm!!!’ “Frreddddooommm!!!!” (More quotes from Braveheart are spoken. Later, eventually:) “So they tellse me, we no work for you now, unless we get paid online. You know, the Internets!” “The Internets, baby!!” “Yeah, what do they got for it they we don’t? Oh, look at me, I blog.” “Icash” “Ifridge” “Ipiss” (more words said with the I in front. later, when the well is dry:) “So i’m thinkin’, get some tech-geeks of ours to destroy their accounts!!” “Whoa, dude! Don’t go there, boi.” “Why the fuck not?! We run the world, babies. number One!” “Number one!!” “Haaahahhaha. You said number one.” (potty humor commences. Later, after taking a big dump:) “We gonna take their accounts, and with a click of a wrist, bye-bye moneeehhh!” “Yeah, more for us party people in the world” “Pwned the writers!” “Then, we take our finances to make our own movie. We will piss and give all y’alls the finger!!” “Give-em the double deeuuuccce!!” “Is that a Chaleeeeennnngggeee!!!” (a Homestar Runner quote-o-thon is in the works. In search of new words:) “Hey, maybe we tell them writers to pay us for saying shit.” “What shit do you mean?!” “Like say, shit pickle, my man!!” “How ‘bout monkey cheese?!!” “Monkey Chheeeeessseee!!!!” “Monnnnkkeeeeyyyy cheeeeeeeeesssssseeeeeee!!!” (after quoting and imitating the Angry Video Game Nerd to no end, they stop. And it happens again!!!) “Hey, where’s the coke?” “I dunno. Where’s the coke?!” “I don’t know. Where the coke is at??” (they state variations on the above for a full 10 Minutes. they later find the drug, now called “The Root” and proceed to smeel their own shit; literally. In closing:) “Now let’s do this to them writers. Aaaaarrrrggg” “Naaarrrrrgggghhhhh”

Just then, a much saner, and older man appears. here is the message:

“Sons, we have taken the liberty to send you off this town. You are all going to rehabilitation!” “Nnnnoooooooooooooo. You can’t make us. we gonna tell our folks and make you pay!!” “Well, that will not be necessary, since all of your accounts are suspended indefinitely. How do you like that?” “You are a bad man. Waaaahhh.” “No, I am a writer. And as such, you work for me. As well, I know what happens to all of you. I have seen this before. And yes, I am not high on anyone’s supply!”

The night of partying, therefore, is over. The corporate executives’ parents are not pleased, nor are their attorneys. In fact, some walk out of their commitments to these nitwits. As such, they have ample time to settle disagreements with the writers and others, sanely.

The moral of this fable is, in the words of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, “Drugs are bad, mmkayy? and, you shouldn’t do drugs, mmkayy?” But besides that, the business model for those in management has allowed drugged-out youngsters with their hot cars and hot drugs and hot whatever to essentially run the entertainment industry. These guys are a staple of the dumbing-down of newer educated folks. Whether for good or bad remains to be seen.

You take away their things they think they are entitled to because…well, i’m not really sure; nonetheless, take their excesses away, then they will have to be sane in the face of bettering the industry, especially its creative forces (i.e., writers.) This is not the old guard running things anymore, all evidence to the contrary. So therefore, take away their shit, and to boot give them a massive intervention. Sanity will follow for us all.

In closing, this is fictitional humor, yet it may not be funny if you are around people with drugs. I do think, to be fair, that a deal would be closer to being signed for the writers (as opposed to being tentative in verbal speak right now) if not the older guard of management did not have to deal with these side-issues of these foolish and immaturish young pricks; and there are younger types that are like this in management. Basically, they are the 20-year olds telling 50-year olds with better experience how to do their jobs. That is bullshit, and should be the other way around. Let us all make it that way, for sanity and for wisom and knowledge through experience and humane measures.

With humor and warmth,

Lax24

As that most lowly of creatures, an optioned non-Guild screenwriter (not quite Guild, not quite civilian, held in contempt by both, ha ha ha!), I don’t need a Guild membership to see all the misplaced anger and mudslinging here.

I thought this blog was supposed to be for strike updates and showing solidarity, like Lech Walesa or the anti-Roman rebels in Monty Python’s “Life of Brian.”

Such is the nature of blogs, I guess. They’re like the Dark Side of the Force in waiting. I’m betting even Mother Teresa would have gone off on one of ‘em. None of us are without buttons, and boy, are they getting pressed here!

Humpty Dumpty is over the wall, people. The strike is on. No one likes to strike, as no one loves war, but the fight is on. It’s time for you to all hang together, or you shall most certainly hang separately.

And screw the shills. I think what the Guild is asking for is quite reasonable and fully in line with how the studios, producers, directors and actors are compensated for their creative efforts. Having burned my eyes out the last ten years for a lousy option, I’m Jiggly With It.

On a lighter note, some screenwriting humor:

1. How many screenwriters does it take to change a light bulb?

Answer: Ten. 1st draft. Hero changes light bulb. 2nd draft. Villain changes light bulb. 3rd draft. Hero stops villain from changing light bulb. Villain falls to death. 4th draft. Lose the light bulb. 5th draft. Light bulb back in. Fluorescent instead of tungsten. 6th draft. Villain breaks bulb, uses it to kill hero’s mentor. 7th draft. Fluorescent not working. Back to tungsten. 8th draft. Hero forces villain to eat light bulb. 9th draft. Hero laments loss of light bulb. Doesn’t change it. 10th draft. Hero changes light bulb.

1. There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire to become a great writer. When asked to define great, he said, “I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!”

He now works for Microsoft writing error messages.

1. A screenwriter comes home to a burned down house. His sobbing and slightly-singed wife is standing outside. “What happened, honey?” the man asks.

“Oh, John, it was terrible,” she weeps. “I was cooking, the phone rang. It was your agent. Because I was on the phone, I didn’t notice the stove was on fire. It went up in a second. Everything is gone. I nearly didn’t make it out of the house. Poor Fluffy is—”

“Wait, wait. Back up a minute,” The man says. “My agent called?”

Life’s a laugh and death’s a joke, it’s true…

Thank you “Anonymous because it’s offered” and “me” and “suzbays”. I was tempted to say something grant like, “you’ve restored my faith in writers and respect for the craft” but that’s not true. I never lost it. It’s just some of the posters got my dander up with the lack of understanding of the BTL people. For what it’s worth, you’ve earned my respect for your understanding. Tell me where you’ll be picketing in two weeks and I’ll join you on that line. I’ll have enough saved up to go two weeks without working. I’ve only been out here for a year and was not informed enough to have stored enough nuts for the winter. Well, that’s not true really, even if I knew I was/am living one paycheck ahead.

Interested/#182

I already told you I was an aspiring writer, why ask all those questions when you already know the answer.

However, I will correct one oversight on your part.

When a script is sold, it does, in effect employ people even if it never gets produced.

Certain people in the “collaboration” process make money on unproduced scripts.

234 - “So…1) If your union brothers in other unions want to complain about the shit they have to eat during the strike, be sympathetic — they’e eating shit for your benefit, because if the strike succeeds, you get your extra bread now while they have to wait for theirs until their contracts are up;AND 2) When it comes time for manangement to serve up a shit sandwich to one of your fellow unions, and they decide to feed management a strike shit sandwich of their own, do NOT balk at sharing it. Instead, walk up to your brother union with your plate outstretched like Oliver Twist in the workhouse, because only that kind of reciprocity will make your labor struggle against management work.”

Which is it? Am I supposed to offer them my plate in solidarity or am I supposed to seek them out and complain about them?

Personally, I believe in your second option. And would think less of myself if I had to publicly resort to your first option at the beginning of a labor struggle.

And there is a difference between complaining and undercutting. Just as there is a difference between teamsters and people that pretend to be teamsters on message boards.

232 -Brian- “Why cut them slack? I understand the importance of what’s at stake. Maybe even better than you… This isn’t about writers. It’s about all of us. It would be nice if that were recognized.”

If you don’t understand why writers importance is a crucial issue during labor talks, then there is not much I can tell you. And since that is what the “slack” was talking about, I’m not sure why anything you said has anything to do with what I wrote. Perhaps you meant to reply to someone else?

228 - #228 “Last time I checked there was no WGA card required to post on this website.”

Who said there was? Did you misunderstand everything I wrote?

“Fact is, I and many others who raise issues you can’t deal with on the second day of your strike, have loads at stake.”

You are not raising issues, man. That’s funny. You are insulting and provoking for no good reason. You are trolling. Issues. Right.

“You’re not in a vacuum here, John. Your union has made a decision that affects thousands.”

Do you think anyone doesn’t know that? Do you think that insight adds anything here? And do you think it was all “my union’s” doing?

“So, take the support while you can. Because you, and your brothers and sisters, are going down a long road.”

Support is fantastic. I saw examples of it on the line all day. And if you were out there you would know that writers are extremely grateful for so much as a honk, let alone those risking their jobs.

Don’t confuse showing up here to bitch about writers or take them down a peg as support.

You belittle all the amazing, real support people are giving.

Bottom line to those posting just negative comments about writers in general is this:

I cannot imagine any circumstances in which I would publicly belittle and undercut another union’s strike. I just wouldn’t.

There is no way in living hell that I would go to a teamsters website or a SAG member’s website two days into a strike and bitch about them. Not under any circumstances.

If you feel the need, nothing I can do to stop you. That ship sailed something during your upbringing.

“What are you after? A 6-9 month strike which cripples this business? Do you really think the WGA can outlast the studios? Do your homework. In 1988, the writers completely caved after 22 weeks. Do you know what actually happened? The showrunners threatened to go financial core and the WGA caved on terms less favorable than if they never struck in the first place. Now, every studio is owned by a major conglomerate. You think News Corp - a $70 billion company, or Time Warner can’t outlast the WGA? Really? Go look at the financial statements of any of these companies - filmed entertainment is just one sliver (and a small one) of their companies. They can outwait you.

I don’t have a lack of understanding at all. These studios are run by very smart businessmen. There was a deal to be made in a short window and the WGA failed their membership. Waiting 6-9 months just to get back to this point will only hurt the working people of this business. The corporations will actually get kudos from Wall Street when they get the WGA to accept a less favorable deal.”

You have no idea how right you are. As a matter of fact the next quarter is going to look pretty good on the reports because of all the job cuts.

What the WGA is underestimating is that the young demographics (the one the advertisers craves) are going to sway to the internet (most of them already have).

A territory free and clear for them.

The proof?

The AMPTP FORCED YOU to strike. The NY thinghy was just a loophole.

Don’t come and argue they will need content. Of course they will.

But it will be written by non union writers.

Anon BIO,

Until you can prove to me that you’re not some washed up, old writer with the brain the size of a pea, that your writing experience extends beyond this forum, and that you’re not holding a grudge because I spanked you in some long forgotten argument, leave me alone. You only hurt yourself, kiddo. And if you oblige us with your true identity, I promise, I won’t hold it against you.

Oh, and before I you respond: YOU WIN.

For the rest (I’ll cut and paste to aid my argument and only my argument and ignore everything else as seems the common thing to do):

“In the collaborative process, I can walk up to my cinematographer and make a lighting suggestion and he can take it. But what I can’t do is apply for co-cinematography credit. Why? Because I’m NOT a cinematographer. I’m a WRITER.”

And an example for you: Tom Desanto - TRANSFORMERS. He didn’t win, but he’s an example of a producer trying to take credit where credit ain’t do. Why? Because it’s a common practice. Even the attempt to gain credit is a disrespect to our profession.

Another example: Ron Bass – ALMOST ALL OF HIS MOVIES. Usually a sole credited writer who also produces. He works with a team of writers and I’ve never seen one of their names up beside his. (Thanks for the example ME…)

Another quote for those who missed it the first time round:

“I’m all for collaboration. I’m all for people making suggestions to me, and I’m even for people sharing credit just as long as they sit down in front of a computer, stare at a blank page, and bring that page to life.”

Directors are paid to direct. Actors are paid to act. Writers are paid to write. We’re all EQUALLY IMPORTANT (I’M NOT SAYING WRITERS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANY OTHER POSITION ON A MOVIE SET), but writing is the only profession where it seems the lines blur, where job titles get fucked, is with writers.

Here’s a question for those of you who disagree: How often do actors or producers or even writers arbitrate for directing credit?

Shaun, to the AMPTP we are all below the line.

A television network and studio fired Valerie Harper from her TV show that just happpend to be called “Valerie” because she asked for too much money.

As Gene Roddenberry said on the Paramount lot when they dedicated a building to him: “Paramount has paid me more money than I deserve… but they’ve also made more money than they deserve.”

Actors, extras, writers, editors, key grips, best boys, sound, lighting, PAs, craft services, lead man et al, ad infinitum:

We’re all cogs in the entertainment machine! Some are upfront; some are hidden in the back; some are little and necessary; some are huge and useless; some are just for show.

ALL KEEP THE MACHINE RUNNING!

phew. now I feel better.

This bickering serves no purpose. When it comes right down to it:

we’re all crew.

Me 223,

“are you fighting for the issues at hand, or just for more respect?”

I’m fighting for respect. But I’m not fighting the AMPTP. I’m fighting a comment made by Mark. In this forum. Of debate. With multiple debates going on at the same time.

“I’ve seen PLENTY of writers take credit for lines, scenes, scripts that were not theirs.”

I’m talking literal credits. As in “Written by.” How many writers have you seen taken literal credit for an actors performance (Mel Gibson & Brian Helgeland) or directors direction (Ridley Scott & Steve Zaillian)? How many writers have you seen arbitrate for such credit?

I could CARE LESS if Dustin Hoffman says, “I ad libbed, ‘I’m walkin’ here.” Good on him. He was doing his job as an ACTOR.

What I care about is the guy who says that because he’s doing his job as an ACTOR, PRODUCER, or DIRECTOR he thinks he’s doing the job of a WRITER as well and warrants literal “written by” credit.

SusanC: When a script is sold, it does, in effect employ people even if it never gets produced.

Certain people in the “collaboration” process make money on unproduced scripts.

Susan, you put the wrong word in quotes. It’s the “process” that employs people. The film-making process. Your script, if you’re lucky enough and good enough, is a part of that process. A crucial and necessary part, but only a part. It is the process, and the producer’s money, that employs people.

DLW If I hear one more fellow writer talk about how it “all begins with the story, without which all life would perish,” I’m going to vomit into my keyboard. Filmmaking is a team sport. Period. ”

If I see your weasel wordds again I may chuck up also.

Fellow writer is clearrly anathema to you.

SML, what did the ZAZ directing team have to do in order for all three men to share a directing credit on “Airplane!”?

Why did John Cleese put his name as a co-director on “A Fish Called Wanda” then remove it after production was completed?

Despite the fact that his name is listed as director, why doesn’t Tobe Hooper get full credit for “Poltergeist” when actors and set witnesses keep claiming Steven Spielberg was actually calling the shots? Some video boxes had to be recalled when Spielberg’s name was shown as the director.

“Success has a thousand fathers and failure is an orphan.” Get it, boy?

You don’t hear about collaboration and credit grabbing on “Cutthroat Island,” do you?

Amazingly, Michael Bay didn’t cast blame for the failure of “The Island” on anyone but himself. The producers actually attributed the fact that it didn’t “open” to the low wattage of its two stars. (To which Scarlett J. issued a terse statement.)

You’ve never actually made a TV show or movie, so what makes you an authority on the treatment of writers before, during or after a production?

By the way, there are examples of writers who are on the set every single day and treated with respect. My guess is they’re well behaved and not running around yelling: “My words! My words! What are you fools doing to my words?!”

A wise man said: “If you wanna’ feel good about yourself, don’t get into show business.”

We’re all liable to be treated pretty poorly in this business. Your uniformed arguments just make it seem like writers are petulant brats who somehow deserve it.

The following comment is not meant to be incendiary or critical, but I’m curious: I spent the last two days at my assigned picket spot and I saw trucks coming and going all day long. All this talk about the wga-teamster ‘strategy’ seems like board-chatter bullshit. Does anybody who has been out there know the reality of whether or not any Teamsters are honoring the lines? Ok if they’re not —- I get that everyone has bills to pay. I’m just tired of people repeating ‘strategy’ rumors they read on other boards which seem completely bogus based on what I’m witnessing firsthand.

Interested/#251

You: “It is the process, and the producer’s money, that employs people.”

Me: And now we go full circle. Dare I say the producer does not invest his money in 120 blank pages? Whoops, I said it.

Is it time for make-up sex yet?

Mike S.

As I understand it (and I am at least moderately well versed in the technology and strategy on how to use it), streaming can easily be counted as long as one is counting streams from one’s own site. A smart thing that the studios HAVE done to promote using their own site is they have made high quality streams available with not too annoying (but unavoidable) advertising. The incentive to pirate the streams (even by hackers who do it “because they can”) is incredibly low because the streams are so readily available.

If the studios don’t know how to implement counting their outgoing streams, I’d be really surprised. There are any number of working strategies. Yes, there will always be some jamming on the count by hackers, but again, the incentive for jamming is so low, most keyboard jockeys won’t even bother and average Internet users won’t care.

Youtube uses a different technology and works off a different business model, so it isn’t a fair comparison.

Susan, don’t you know, in this town nobody sleeps with the writer!

And no, a producer doesn’t invest in 120 pages, filled or blank. A producer invests in a film. With actors, director, crew, writer, and all that jazz. They aren’t publishers, they’re movie and TV producers.

ME:

You compared residuals to auto manufacturers. That’s the lack of understanding I’m talking about.

I was here in ‘88. I lived through it. I know what happened. There are major differences between that strike and this. I have discussed them at length in other threads, but will gladly do so again if you’d like.

What do you propose the WGA say when it makes its first step? Say Patric calls Counter, how does that conversation go? There’s one issue on the table, new media. The AMPTP refuses to negotiate on that point right now. Do you have some way that would compell negotiation from the other side? Because I think you have to actually shut the town down to get the other side to pick up the phone. But more the happy to hear alternative plans.

SML, the best way to get some respect is show it to others first. That includes above and below the line.

“Spanking?” Is that the term for what you imagine you’re inflicting on others?

Based on the long gaps of silence between some of your posts, a few people have scored some knockout punches.

Come on guys. We’re all important. There’s no shortage of ways in which we can all be treated like shit. And there are good people in the business who treat every one with respect. There are ups there are downs, lots of downs - for all of us.

Right now there is a strike on. Success by the WGA is good for every single person who really does the work in film. If the industry beats the WGA all the other shops had better grab their asses, ‘cause they’ll come for you next. Let’s quit the bickering and focus on making the strike worth the shoe leather.

And Craig or Ted - We need a new thread. This one is worn to a frazzle.

Another Hyphenate,

My point exactly. Everyone thought the Teamsters would cause this big impact. Which is why I brought up The Office scenario. The actors are the only ones with the true ability to shut production down. No offense to teamsters ( I really do love you guys), but everyone knows how to drive. It is pretty easy to find scabs to drive the crew around. Try finding a scab to fill in for Steve Carell.

Interested/#251

You: “It is the process, and the producer’s money, that employs people.”

Me: And now we go full circle. Dare I say the producer does not invest his money in 120 blank pages? Whoops, I said it.

Is it time for make-up sex yet?

Mmmmhhh. No. Usually it’s because there is a director or a star attached. The same script naked today would be probably worth bapkas.

Gigli anyone?

Susan, good lord, you’re so naive.

Anyway, this is not important.

The real question is: what is the WAG going to do when the Producers are going to hire non union writers for Internet content?

Yes, IATSE… and the directors don’t have a history of striking and when it did happen in the past, it was supposedly one of the shortest in history.

It should be noted that Steve Carell is also a WGA member, as well as a great, down to earth, incredibly nice guy. We’re lucky to have him.

I don’t want this thing to drag out until next year, but I also don’t want to cave like the last time.

IATSE guy — are you kidding? There is no way a production is gonna bring in a scab to drive a truck or location manage or cast. No-one’s gonna mess with the Teamsters! Jesus, they’re the Teamsters! No production manager/UPM would risk this, they’d be out of a job/career so fast… The reason I think the teamster support is not as great is the following — they were given one weeks notice that it was up to them to cross or not. I’m sure the potential strike was barely on most of these guys radar which means, unlike the writers, they didn’t have time to prepare/save for the strike. Put yourselves in their shoes — if they don’t cross and lose their jobs, they can’t collect unemployment, there’s no teamster fund that I know of to help them out — they’re gonna have no income and for what? Personal integrity? This is a white-collar strike, writers and drivers have no interaction. Not a big surprise to me that they’re all keeping their day-jobs.

Nikki Finke has some “breaking news.”

While she’s a whack job in heels, I’m hoping that there’s a gist of truth to what she’s about to report.

Jen G. I’m not so sure of that. I have already heard reports of teamsters being fired and replaced for refusing to cross lines. It doesn’t matter anyway, because if most teamsters are willing to cross the lines, then all you have is SAG to really make a difference.

Copy that “anonymous because it’s offered”. I’m 5X5 on the issue of the AMPTP and their view of all of us. Was it you that posted you have 35 years in? Sir, I’d love to buy you a beer and hear the stories.

The real question is: what is the WAG going to do when the Producers are going to hire non union writers for Internet content?

The corollary to there being all that truly awful writing in movies and on TV is that those non-union writers couldn’t even beat the dregs.

I think if the writing you’re talking about is just that tiresome faux-blog stuff told from the perspective of characters in TV shows, then staff writers might actually prefer that those things be written by someone else as opposed to being foisted on them at no pay.

And the writers who aren’t in the union yet but are talented enough to have a career would much rather wait until the strike is worked out than do any covered work.

I have a question about the teamsters. Since the guild itself is not striking, isn’t it necessary (contractually) for the studios to hire teamsters to replace the teamsters that won’t cross? Can they hire scabs when there isn’t a called strike in other words?

Dear 257 & 262

Feel free to continue your attempts to lessen the value of a script in the film/tv production process.

I won’t debate this with you any further. If you want to claim a win by default, so be it.

And your comments about non-WGA writers instantly filling the void is too silly to consider.

The AMPTP doesn’t need operatives to undermine they have you.

Corporations want to see all unions die a quick death.

That would include yours.

Which is it? Am I supposed to offer them my plate in solidarity or am I supposed to seek them out and complain about them?

Personally, I believe in your second option. And would think less of myself if I had to publicly resort to your first option at the beginning of a labor struggle.

It’s not either/or — you have to do both. If someone on the crew is about to lose his paycheck because your union is on strike, let him bitch and vent some — and then thank him for what he’s doing, willingly or not, to help you by not working during your strike. Then ask him to redirect his anger, fear and frustration at the only target that makes sense at this five seconds: the AMPTP.

And then, when that guy’s union calls a strike, don’t cross his picket lines. Don’t write for the struck companies if you can possibly avoid it. If his strike shuts down your work and cuts off your paycheck from that gig, don’t curse him (even if he cursed you during your strike), but show him that you’re willing to give him the solidarity you asked and expected of him in this strike.

This bickering serves no purpose. When it comes right down to it:

we’re all crew.

I’ll tell you how the conversation goes between Patric and Counter. Over lunch, just the 2 of them.

              Patric
So Nick, howzabout that Torre deal.

              Counter
   What the F---'s a Torre deal?

              Patric

I guess we’ll skip the chit chat and get right down to business, Can you just give me the bottom line on what it’s going to take to make a deal.

After that, Patric has to tuck his testes behind for a while to figure out a clever way to explain to his guild that he underestimated his opponent, and present the offer to the rank and file. After that, you all can decide how much longer you want to be out of work waiting for these huge conglomerates to bend to your will. Ya got a better chance of seeing Jesus! Sometimes someone has to step up to the plate and be the bigger man! That’s a leader, facing reality, realizing that you made a mistake, correcting it as soon as you can so you don’t continue to hurt the very people that you set out to help in the first place.

IATSE - maybe we’re talking semantics here. If the teamsters are getting replaced, I’m sure it’s by other union drivers. I thought you were referring to non-union drivers (i.e. scabs).

Feel free to continue your attempts to lessen the value of a script in the film/tv production process.

Those guys aren’t “attempting to lessen the value of a script in the film/tv production process.” They are pointing out a simple truth: the script is only one of many, many essential parts of that production process. Like the blind men inspecting the elephant, each of us tends to think of the part of the process that he or she touches as being the most important. But if you cut the trunk off an elephant, neither the trunk nor the wounded animal make a serviceable elephant.

Realize that, as essential as writers are to the industry of filmed and broadcast entertainment, those forms of entertainment don’t present the written word to the consumer — everyone in the production process is essential in converting the written word into audiovisual entertainment. If you all keep that idea at the forefront of your minds — if you all keep focused on solidarity and helping one another to present a united front against the AMPTP — the strike will be shorter and the WGA will be more likely to get what it wants at the bargaining table. As a bonus, if you all really, really show some solidarity, the AMPTP will have to take ALL of the unions more seriously in future.

Boy, do you have a shill infestation problem, Craig.

On a separate issue, 245 - I dealt with several teamsters today, and they were fantastic. Both the ones that crossed the line and the ones that refused to cross and sat on the street for hours getting yelled at on the phone.

They are in a really tough position, which is why I do not begrudge them their desires in our strike schedule.

Do not confuse those union guys with posers on the internet that would go to another union’s site and denigrate them at the beginning of a tough strike. No union guy worth a damn would do that.

This has nothing to do with people upset about strategy or people wanting respect. I’m only talking about the people that came on here and elsewhere to undercut the union. So unless you are defending THEM, you and I don’t really have much disagreement.

IATSE guy — are you kidding? There is no way a production is gonna bring in a scab to drive a truck or location manage or cast. No-one’s gonna mess with the Teamsters! Jesus, they’re the Teamsters! No production manager/UPM would risk this, they’d be out of a job/career so fast… The reason I think the teamster support is not as great is the following — they were given one weeks notice that it was up to them to cross or not. I’m sure the potential strike was barely on most of these guys radar which means, unlike the writers, they didn’t have time to prepare/save for the strike. Put yourselves in their shoes — if they don’t cross and lose their jobs, they can’t collect unemployment, there’s no teamster fund that I know of to help them out — they’re gonna have no income and for what? Personal integrity? This is a white-collar strike, writers and drivers have no interaction. Not a big surprise to me that they’re all keeping their day-jobs.

These are not the Teamsters of old. No union is as powerful as unions used to be. The existence of a must-work clause in the Teamsters’ contract indicates that the younger Hoffa’s union doesn’t have the same clout his father’s union did.

However, they’re a real union and they have the traditions and the attitudes of a real union. And that means they understand what solidarity is supposed to mean.

If the WGA is a real union, one that understands labor solidarity and the reciprocal obligations of brother unions, then the white collar/blue collar dichotomy is a false one. Watching from the outside, it seems that the WGA leadership hasn’t done a really good job of orienting its rank-and-file members about what it means to be union labor.

Robert Palmer, sorry, it came out wrong.

I meant that there ARE talented writers that are not in the Guild — content WILL be good.

But what is the WGA leverage?

None.

Again, this is why they forced you to strike, kill TV and switch everybody to Internet.

I don’t know how else to say this.

Regardless if you battle is right or not, unfortunately you’re bound to loose it.

278 — you’re absolutely right. Tom Cruise should come down to support the writers.

Sumner Redstone would never dare to…oh wait.

Do not confuse those union guys with posers on the internet that would go to another union’s site and denigrate them at the beginning of a tough strike. No union guy worth a damn would do that.

This has nothing to do with people upset about strategy or people wanting respect. I’m only talking about the people that came on here and elsewhere to undercut the union. So unless you are defending THEM, you and I don’t really have much disagreement.

I think those guys who are pissing you off, coming into places like this blog and posting comments about how the WGA writers aren’t striking correctly or aren’t real working men and women deserving of support, are a symptom of a bigger problem.

I don’t know for sure, but it seems to me that the WGA hasn’t paid sufficient attention to educating both its own members and the members of brother unions about the status of the WGA writer as a worker. I don’t know how much mutual trust there is between WGA members and other union workers, but you can see a fair amount of DISTRUST in the comments here.

And I am certain that there wasn’t enough pre-strike coordination between the unions so that the rank-and-file members in all of the unions were aware of the rationale for the WGA’s strike strategy.

I won’t defend posers pretending to be union guys when they aren’t. But I would counsel patience with guys from other unions kibbitzing about how your strike should be conducted — they are acting out of fear and frustration, and you should look to redirect that fear and frustration away from the WGA and onto the correct target.

In very broad terms, you need two things to make a narrative feature or TV show:

1. A script
2. A crew

Writer: “This production wouldn’t exist without me.” True. Crew: “Your script wouldn’t be a movie without us.” True.

Both sides are right. You can stop arguing any time now. Damn, if only the negotiations were this simple.

Who the fuck are you to go around spitting righteous? John was addressing posers, fool. He wasn’t addressing members of other unions. Fuck dude. Read it again.

True. Steve Carell did something more substantial than bringing cookies to the writers or picketing for an hour and giving a few interviews. In fact, he issued no statement but managed to be heard loud and clear.

Incidentally, Ray Winstone gave the writers some great support during his “Beowulf” red carpet interviews. His exact words: “Give them all some money.”

I understand your position with all those six figures. But how about taking it down a notch or two? Too reflect most WGA writers ?

Don’t want to? Oh Okay

I understand your position with all those six figures. But how about taking it down a notch or two? Too reflect most WGA writers ?

Don’t want to? Oh Okay

Writer: “This production wouldn’t exist without me.” True. Crew: “Your script wouldn’t be a movie without us.” True.

Both sides are right. You can stop arguing any time now. Damn, if only the negotiations were this simple.”

Yes jbriant, you’re right.

But don’t forget to add this:

(remember that they are both equal but only the writer gets residuals)

Writer: “Hey, loose your job so I can get a bigger piece of the pie!”

Crew:”Oh. OK. But can at least say Ouch?”

In very broad terms, you need two things to make a narrative feature or TV show:

1. A script
2. A crew

Writer: “This production wouldn’t exist without me.” True. Crew: “Your script wouldn’t be a movie without us.” True.

Both sides are right. You can stop arguing any time now. Damn, if only the negotiations were this simple.

#283 280 Stupid Critique:

Who the fuck are you to go around spitting righteous? John was addressing posers, fool. He wasn’t addressing members of other unions. Fuck dude. Read it again.

LOL!

Stuart, I agree with a lot of what you’re saying, but some of the “fear and frustration” we’re feeling IS properly directed at the WGA, or the WGA leaders. And there are writers (not the wanna-bes, but some real WGA writers) who feel the same way.

The WGA leaders have done some really inane things in this process, and made the situation worse than I think it needed to be. Of course that doesn’t let the AMPTP off the hook, or make them the good guys, but those of us working in this town know that the AMPTP is going to do what the AMPTP does.

The big variable is how the WGA approaches things. And some of us aren’t too impressed by the approach of the last 18 months or so, nor of the last few days. But YMMV.

There’s nothing I would like more than for the WGA to get a good deal on internet/new media. It does help all of us. But I don’t like sitting in the back of a bus that’s being driven recklessly.

(remember that they are both equal but only the writer gets residuals)

Writer: “Hey, loose your job so I can get a bigger piece of the pie!”

Crew:”Oh. OK. But can at least say Ouch?”

Writer: “No. Shut up you stoopid plebean”

No idea how I managed to double post there. Sorry.

Anonymous (#287), I was only addressing what I took to be the inarguable part of the argument. :)

You said a lot more than, “Ouch.”

Stuart, 280 - I agree with all of that. And I can only assure you that my dealings with and feelings toward the members of other unions (and those not unionized at all) are pretty much exactly in line with yours.

Stuart,

“And I am certain that there wasn’t enough pre-strike coordination between the unions so that the rank-and-file members in all of the unions were aware of the rationale for the WGA’s strike strategy.”

I think I actual agree with this.

The WGA leaders have done some really inane things in this process, and made the situation worse than I think it needed to be. Of course that doesn�t let the AMPTP off the hook, or make them the good guys, but those of us working in this town know that the AMPTP is going to do what the AMPTP does.

The big variable is how the WGA approaches things. And some of us aren�t too impressed by the approach of the last 18 months or so, nor of the last few days. But YMMV.

I agree completely.

I just read this article in Variety online — quite disturbing, really:

WGA has a failure to communicate: Writers’ demands aren’t being articulated

First of all - To everyone: TV and film production is an integrated process. We all need each other. So, stop fighting over who’s job is more crucial.

Second of all - To the writers: Get out there and picket your asses off. Over 200,000 paychecks are on the line and most of them aren’t yours. Today the numbers looked OK (I drove all over town after my show was shut down), but you have the numbers and the means to make it look horrifying, so do it.

(And very soon you will have thousands of unemployed brethren who may be persuaded to walk the lines with you if you make us believe the fight is for real.)

And Third of all - Ok, someone help me out with third of all. This really should be in threes.

A general observation.

A strike inflicts pain on a lot of people besides just the struck company and the striking workers, yes?

So a major challenge for the striking union, one that has to be at or near the top of its concerns, is how to make sure that the other people feeling pain from the strike understand that the real source of that pain is management’s refusal to accede to the union’s demands.

What does the WGA need to do at this moment in time (the past being past) to communicate that message to the other unions, the vendors, the small businesses that will all feel the pain of this particular strike?

Even an asshole like me can be right once in a while. Astounding, isn’t it?

300…this is sparta!

a lot of you - brian mccabe - have been misinformed. The studios were discussing new media. They made several financial proposals - on both streaming and downloads. The WGA is lying when they said the AMPTP wasn’t negotiating. They were. The WGA then refused to put a pin in the strike. Learn the facts - the studios were negotiating and had made significant money offers on new media. There is a deal to be made, guys. All we have to do is actually set up a time for these guys to meet face to face. I don’t get what the end game is for the WGA at this point. Do they think Nick Counter is going to come crawling to them???

Let’s not mention scriptless, crap movies on the Artful Writer….errrrr. ;)

Oh dear Lord… way back there, the person who said that directors and actors never talk about how important they are…

WHAT planet do YOU live on? I’d like to move there, maybe there’s no strike wherever that is.

ME:

I’ve only seen that statement once. It came from Nick Counter in an article where he states the AMPTP walked when New York wouldn’t delay a strike due to time zone differences. If you know of a different source of this, and more importantly, details of that proposal, I would love to hear it.

Because walking away in the middle of progressive talks on what was the only issue on the table because picket lines were going to go up in New York in 7 1/2 hours makes no sense to me.

Or upon second look is it “me”

Dear Lord, are there two of you?

Me #301:

If some of us are misinformed, maybe you could be more specific. Because we were told by our leadership that as of Sunday night, the Companies were not, as you claim, “making significant money offers on new media”, but rather offering:

• no jurisdiction for most of new media writing
• no economic proposal for the part of new media that they WERE proposing to allow jurisdiction
• Internet downloads at the DVD rate
• no residual for streaming video of theatrical product
• a “promotional” proposal that allows the Companies to reuse even complete movies or TV shows on any platform with no residual (which destroys the concept of residuals altogether)

If you have information that would indicate otherwise — as you seem to suggest — we’d all be interested in hearing it.

Stuart,

“WGA has a failure to communicate: Writers’ demands aren’t being articulated.”

And only you could read an AMPTP flavoured op-ed and find it disturbing. But to be fair to you, Variety is running this AMPTP flavoured op-ed as news. Now, that’s really cause for disturbance.

(And you’re not an asshole. You’re just stubborn and easily hurt.)

Stuart, that Variety article caught my eye, and nose, too. Reading it was disturbing not just for the lack of any semblence of objectivity… It just seemed to be a hammer pounding away at would-be wedges, intended to split and weaken the will of the guild…a shameless bit of management propaganda, ‘tis all.

So I went back up to the top to check the byline and see who the hack was who wrote it, and lo and behold:

The byline is simply “by Variety Staff”…

No one on the writing staff would own it.

Editors, sleeping well, are we?

Any staff writers for the trades walking the line? Give it try. You might, just might, bump into some of that integrity you’ve lost along the way…

From Nicky F:

Deals, Lies & Backchannelling: Why This Is A Bigger Mess Now Than Ever Before For days, only sources within the moguls camp, but not the writers guild, have discussed what really went on at the Sofitel Hotel Sunday. And the Hollywood studios and networks were especially savvy in getting their spin out first and foremost about how the writers were to blame for the bargaining talks breakdown. And they’re still spinning. (Just read the producers-slanted coverage by Variety and The Hollywood Reporter and even the major newspapers which all depend on studio and network advertising while I stay smack in the middle.) But now the WGA leadership is breaking their silence. Top guild sources tell me they were “deliberately duped” by the moguls in a backchannel deal to bring the guild back to the bargaining table Sunday. The lure was a promise by two Big Media CEOs — Peter Chernin and Les Moonves — that, if the writers gave up their DVD residual demands, then the producers would respond by improving the formula on the central sticking issue of Internet downloads for movies and television. My producer sources confirmed to me such a deal was indeed made. In other words, it was truly possible that a settlement might be only days or a week away, with enough progress to induce the writers side to suspend the start of the strike. The writers say they kept up their end by dropping their DVD demands – a huge concession which later puzzled the WGA membership because it seemed to come out of nowhere and had to be explained by WGA president Patric Verrone without revealing the whole backstory. Why didn’t he? Because the WGA was abiding by the “mutual pledge of confidentiality” that applied to Sunday’s session. Today, sources there decided to spill to me because the producers’ heavy spin has gone unanswered. The WGA accuses the producers of not delivering in kind on the all-important electronic sell-through issue all day Sunday. So, according to guild sources, that’s the real reason the 12:01 AM strike wasn’t averted and DVDs were dropped and then put back on the table. As a spitting mad WGA leader put it to me today: “All I can say is, if someone calls me and says, “You do X, and I do Y” and that someone doesn’t do it, then I’ve been lied to and I’ve been played. It’s a complete betrayal. “I just don’t know what the studios’ game is.” So why is this news important? Because now both sides in this writers vs producers fight are further apart than they have ever been, and that’s saying a lot. Both sides believe they have fresh and ample reasons not to go back into negotiations anytime soon. And by soon I mean months and months and months. Both sides believe that, after Sunday’s betrayals, they can’t trust the other side enough to even talk about scheduling new AMPTP/WGA negotiations much less trust any backchannelling again. Ironically, as I was being told the WGA’s side today, moguls like Moonves were briefing their CEO counterparts and being briefed on what went down Sunday inside the negotiating room. But are they being told the whole story? About the backchannel deal? Not that I can tell. About the promise that’d been made? Not that I can tell. About not keeping to the letter or spirit of it? Not that I can tell. Instead, I received a warning from inside that camp today not to report the WGA accusations, or name the two moguls, or repeat what went on inside the talks Sunday. MORE

Because walking away in the middle of progressive talks on what was the only issue on the table because picket lines were going to go up in New York in 7 1/2 hours makes no sense to me.

I don’t think the two sides were nearly close to agreement at 9 PM Pacific Standard Time on Sunday. I’m basing that on the simple fact that they couldn’t agree to keep talking. As easy as it would have been for the AMPTP to keep talking as though the East Coast deadline was the start of picketing and not 12:01 AM, it would have been just as easy for the WGA to put the strike in abeyance for the duration of the negotiating session.

It seems like both sides acted to save face, to be able to point at each other over the end of the Sunday session due to the strike deadline and thus avoid admitting that they weren’t nearly as close on the core issues as anyone hoped.

Further, if they had been that close on Sunday, they could be conducting bargaining sessions right now. That they are apparently not doing so means that one or both sides is going to wait to see how damaging the strike is before reassessing its bargaining position. I have no idea how long that will be: will it be determined by how many productions are shut down by pickets in week 1, or by how many of those restart in week 2, or by how many television productions run out of scripts by weeks 3, 4, 5, or 6?

Only when one or the other of the parties decides that its bargaining position has changed, or estimates that the other side’s position has changed, will it make sense for face-to-face bargaining to resume. Otherwise, it’s just a rehash of the same failed proposals from Sunday.

Does anyone know whether the two sides are engaged in across-the-table bargaining at this moment in time? Or is that an unknown?

Dear Lord, if Nikki is right, we are all doomed. Months and months and months and months…

Me 301:

From Nick Counter:

“But we keep running up against the DVD issue. The companies believe that movement is possible on other issues, but they cannot make any movement when confronted with your continuing efforts to increase the DVD formula, including the formula for electronic sell-through.”

From WGA:

“… the WGA completely withdrew its DVD proposal….”

So we remove one of two AMPTP cited stumbling blocks and it’s the WGA’s fault that this strike occurred? Really?

Shawn Ryan already confirmed that the AMPTP reneged once DVD was removed from the table. These details Finke has given aren’t necessarily earth shattering.

The AMPTP wanted the strike called off or postponed so work could continue, but the WGA made the right decision.

If Finke has kept the fires hot, then that’s a good thing. I’ll be picketing tomorrow.

Stuart, that Variety article caught my eye, and nose, too. Reading it was disturbing not just for the lack of any semblence of objectivity… It just seemed to be a hammer pounding away at would-be wedges, intended to split and weaken the will of the guild…a shameless bit of management propaganda, ‘tis all.

So you don’t agree with the contention that the WGA has done a poor job of communicating its messages to the press, the public, the other unions and even its own members?

Do you think the WGA has communicated well with these stakeholder groups? Do you think they all have a firm understanding of where the union stands? Do you think the union has done a good job of countering the messaging from the AMPTP?

I think the criticism of the WGA’s communications is well-founded.

Anon BIO 313,

“The AMPTP wanted the strike called off or postponed so work could continue, but the WGA made the right decision.”

I agree.

Nikki mentioned that the WGA put DVD back on the table. If that’s true, well, that would suck. Is that true? And if so can somebody point me to an official statement? Thanks in advance.

Stuart, I absolutely agree. For a bunch of writers, the WGA has sucked at communicating. Why are they so tight lipped?

Nikki mentioned that the WGA put DVD back on the table. If that’s true, well, that would suck. Is that true? And if so can somebody point me to an official statement? Thanks in advance.

Wow. You sound like you’re suffering from the WGA’s failure to communicate.

But that can’t be — “the WGA’s failure to communicate” is only an AMPTP meme planted in Daily Variety.

SML - Depends on what you mean. The guild has rescinded its offer to drop its DVD demands because they were dealt with in bad faith.

That puts the dvd issue back on the table. It does not, confusingly, mean that the DVD issue has been tabled.

So there you go. We are no longer offering to drop our dvd demands. Which I do not think sucks. Your opinion may differ.

Stuart:

That’s my take too. I was responding to ME/me’s comment that we were being duped. The only source for that info was partly excerpted by SML above. I was trying to use it as an example of how you can’t take everything Counter says at face value.

I agree with a lot of what you have been saying. I think there’s more of a clock on this, though. In two weeks, it’s Thanksgiving. After that, you have another two weeks til Christmas. If a deal isn’t done soon, the second half of television will be unsalvageable and pilot season a wash. At that point, there will be no pressure on AMPTP to negotiate. They will have already absorbed the hit.

If the other side reneged as was stated, then ostensibly all bets are off and the caveat of DVD automatically returned.

Remember in “Braveheart” when he pulled off the other dude’s helmet and realized he’d been betrayed? Shawn Ryan conveyed that sort of sentiment, because he said our side was literally “desperate” to make a deal.

I believe Shawn Ryan, who has sacrificed a lot, more than Nicholas Counter whose a professional lifelong hatchet man.

I guess we’re in “fool me once” mode.

As far as all those who have urged to “shut the town down,” they’re right.

Re non-Guild writers scabbing during the strike:

I know most of you have bigger fish to fry right now, but the subject came up earlier with some trepidation on the part of a blogger. “Will the AMPTP hire non-union writers for TV shows, or even features, as has happened in the past? Will they just hire non-Guild writers to do the new media stuff and bypass the Guild completely?”

As a non-Guild writer, I can tell you the answer is an unequivocal NO. Times have changed. With the Internet and all of the information technologies that have exploded onto the scene since the last strike (like this blog, for instance), today’s writers, Guild or otherwise, are extremely well-informed on the Guild, the strike and the issues involved, as well as the consequences of writing for a struck company. But make no mistake, it’s not the threat of being barred from the Guild that motivates us. Integrity plays a much bigger role.

I’ve met a lot of incredibly bright and talented aspiring writers online and as a finalist in two big script competitions, one at the Writers’ Guild Theater and one at the CS Weekly Expo last year. I don’t see any one of the dozens of non-Guild writers I’ve met crossing the line to scab.

They would have to scrape the the absolute bottom of the barrel for dark-and-stormy night writers and opportunists like Alex Perez, the infamous hollywooodscabwriter (of whom I made sure the Guild was aware of if they weren’t already). The consensus among other amateur and optioned writers online is that everyone is sitting this one out. They also realize as I do that this strike, in the long run, is in everyone’s best interest. Most important, it’s as simple as this: where the Guild goes, we follow.

We may not be Guild, but we know the story. Don’t expect too many writers out there to jump on the scab bandwagon. That also, I believe, will turn the screws a little tighter when whomever gets desperate, asks around and finds no takers. None that would be any better than having no writers at all, that is.

If any of you are concerned, you really shouldn’t be. I and thousands of other non-Guild writers just like me have put our pencils down right alongside yours. ‘nuff said.

One man’s humble opinion, but it’s based on the best evidence at my disposal. I hope that alleviates any concerns some of you might have vis-a-vis scabs this time around.

One other thought to consider: this isn’t 1988, where you have a few broadcast channels and VHS. With the Internet, cable, satellite, DVD and all the other new media, consumers have developed an insatiable appetite for the entertainment you pros write. Should the strike be prolonged (and I hope it’s not), that will work in your favor when people start calling in to cancel subscriptions because they’re paying to watch the same shit over and over, or when business starts dropping off at the screens, of which there are a hell of a lot more now. Money talks and bullshit walks.

Again, one man’s humble opinion. You all can decide for yourselves if it’s valid commentary or just one wannabe’s eloquent but convoluted delusions. Either way I’m good. Eloquent but convoluted delusions constitute a good chunk of this business, ey wot?

Best Wishes, Johnny Simpson.

No one ever got to be CEO of a major corporation by being an honest and decent person (with the possible exception of CEOs who built their own companies from the ground up). That the studios outried lied to the guild and to the press is no surprise. They want to crush all the unions and marginalize all their workers.

Stuart 314,

The variety article was hateful. They’re reporters. It’s their job to present both sides of the story without slant. And if slant be present, then they should clearly present it as opinion. Variety has failed miserably.

You’re advocating their hateful reporting because it supports your opinion. And your opinion, btw, I agree. The WGA mishandled negotiations. But on Sunday the WGA proved they wanted to make things right. They pulled their highly toted DVD resids from the table. And instead of this being the major headline, we get op-eds on how the WGA fucked up.

Stuart 318,

“Nikki mentioned that the WGA put DVD back on the table. If that’s true, well, that would suck. Is that true? And if so can somebody point me to an official statement? Thanks in advance.

Wow. You sound like you’re suffering from the WGA’s failure to communicate.

But that can’t be — “the WGA’s failure to communicate” is only an AMPTP meme planted in Daily Variety.

Or in other words you don’t know.

Johnny Simpson,

I think — but, you know, could be wrong — that Alex Perez, Scab Writer, is kinda, you know, a joke.

a shill problem indeed. the problem with the much deserved attention that this blog has gotten from the media means its a clear target for planting info and causing unrest. the number of new negative posters since the press for this blog heated up is amazing.

I think the criticism of the WGA’s communications is well-founded.

I do, too, though a lot of slack was taken out of the PR/communication rope by actors, late-night hosts, some news sources, other supporters and writers not in leadership positions.

Nothing about Peter Chernin or Les Moonves is honorable, so I’m frankly not surprised to hear their names invoked in double dealing. They rock their kids to sleep with blood on their hands and sleep well at night, as that’s how they got to their rarified positions and still hold onto them.

Tom Freston’s a decent guy. Is he still around?

We’re gazing at a future where Google might buy a broadcasting network or literally become a new one itself. Alternately surfing between the internet and televised programming is already happening on large screens in many homes.

With new media being so important, then the AMPTP would rather decimate the entire creative landscape and air “Big Brother” 24/7 than pay a single cent on fresh, lucrative digital turf.

If the producers aren’t careful, there might be a full fledged revolution ahead.

If that happens, the AMPTP will wish they paid the writers the extra pennies rather they asked for rather than discover that execs like Jeff Zucker are a dime a dozen.

Alex Perez is a very well done parody of tyros who have speculated that “now may be our chance.” He’s pulling a Stephen Colbert. I thought it was a brilliant way to market himself, and after this is all over, I’m sure he’ll pull more than a few meetings.

If I’m wrong, well hell - we’ll just club him to death.

Seriously, eventually I’m sure the corporate thugs will play the non-union open door policy card, and probably buy a few scab specs to see if they can scare the membership into cracking. It will be a ploy when it happens, as we all know that every writer in town worth a damn gets read. The industry may well pull a few plums, but overall it will be slim pickings without the WGA writers, and would take years to develop a new pool of good caliber.

No need to worry about the tyros, 99% of them are in the fight. They know this is for them as well.

325 - SML - Patrick Verrone confirmed it at the Culver Studios picket today.

As I understand it, the offer was made in good faith with, obviously, reciprocation conditions. Then when we got betrayed, it was leaked in an effort by the AAMTP to keep it off, creating a new starting point without sacrificing anything of their own.

The Guild’s understandable reaction was “F**k that.” And made it clear that our DVD demands were still in place, having never officially been removed.

In a way (I’m just speculating here) the DVD proposal is actually STRONGER now because the AAMTP got to see how negatively the members reacted to hearing it was taken off the table.

Counter is not as good at his job as he’d like to think. This is the second major screw up that we know of. I think they chose poorly.

John,

The WGA pulling the DVD resids is a huge symbolic gesture. I would even say it’s the biggest gesture to date, from either side. And that gesture should be touted and rubbed into the AMPTP’s face.

But if DVD resids are back on the negotiating table, it’s SUCKS because we lose that giant gesture and close the door in the AMPTP’s face. We don’t want that door closed although I’m sure some would argue that a strike closed that door. I don’t see it that way.

Stuart said the WGA has been lacking the ability to use PR to its advantage. I agree with him, but by putting the DVD resids back on the table is like putting a PR gold nugget back in the gold mine.

Craig —

Can you rescue us with some insight from the day? Or, simply start a new thread so we can touch on something fresh? The same old issues are continuing to circle at a high rate of speed.

Thanks

John 331,

Thanks for the update. My 332 response was to your last post, but I think most of it still applies.

Johnny Simpson, I think your post is true and nice but they are not going to hire scab writers. They will make the changes themselves IF they decide to rewrite a project. Remember these are the people who decide to make many of the awful movies Hollywood puts out. They don’t even know what good writing is judging by the content.

They are simply looking for a new business model and believe this is the way to get it. The strike will end in January sometime or it will drag to the summer. I don’t think this is news but everyone should put their hopes for a quick settlement aside. Face the reality and do your best to plan for it. Everyone has a personal decision to make as far as how long they want to fight and how long they can last.

SML - I understand your point, but I disagree.

I think the PR value comes from taking it off in an attempt to stop the strike. I don’t think putting it back after getting kicked in the teeth takes away from that at all.

There are very few people that don’t know what it’s like to really go out on a limb and then be betrayed. If they are the kind of people that recognize the sincerity of taking it off the table, they are the kind of people that understand why they put it back.

Nick Counter is not the guy to run negotiations with writers. He doesn’t understand us at all.

ha ha! Alex Perez is definitely a joke, a spoof. Watch through them all and you will have NO doubt by the time you get to the “isn’t this a nice scene?” with the dogs.

Brian and others, I was wondering about the concept of “absorbed losses” which is usually anathema within corporate circles — but then I was also thinking about the timing of the November Amazon.com sales push for “unbox” (i.e. downloaded) shows I mentioned in another thread. I imagine that sales push is going to bring in a lot of fresh revenue (at very little risk or expense) that they can stand on this month. The outcome of this would be their quarterly bottom-line looks stable to shareholders (since it just counts dollars without accounting where it came from) without being dependent on fresh material.

I don’t mean to be playing devil’s advocate, I just believe it is important to not underestimate one’s adversary and to think about what is at stake on their side.

A question I have is “can studios be offering electronic sell-through without a contract in place? i.e. do they have the rights to be selling this material in this format, at this time?” I don’t know if that is a valid question or not, but if it is, now is the time to pursue it.

334 - Gotcha. And you may be right, who knows?

I do know that things are backfiring on Counter right and left and that makes me happy.

It doesn’t put us closer to a deal, though, and that makes me miserable.

So there ya are. I’m Miserappy.

RE Alex Perez, aka Hollywoodscabwriter:

I had actually written a postscript on him in my last entry when my brain said “lose the scab.” So he got written out. Recent posts dictate otherwise.

I don’t see the humor, certainly not for a Guild member. It’s one thing for Steven Colbert to declare his candidacy for president, but Alex Perez promoting himself VIGOROUSLY all over the net and on YouTube as an available scab writer during a Guild strike is about as close to comedy as joking about tumors in a cancer ward. I guess he missed out on that Kevin Nealon SNL skit about Comedy Killers.

I do have a suggestion for Mr. Perez to improve his comedy skills, though. If you’re listening, scabby, throw on a sandwich board advertising your services and head for the nearest Guild picket line. And make sure you get it on video.

Now THAT would be comedy!

John,

Fair enough. No one likes to get kicked.

John 338,

I’m more hiserable.

SML, what did the ZAZ directing team have to do in order for all three men to share a directing credit on “Airplane!”?

As it so happens, quite a bit.

The DGA turned down their request to be credited as a three-man team, so Jerry Zucker officially changed his name to “Zucker Abrahams Zucker” so that he would be the sole credited director, but all three would get credit.

That convinced the DGA to just give up and let the three guys share credit.

True story, that.

Just a question - are there any plans to try to shut down movie productions? So far it seems to be all about TV, but since that can be replaced by reality (or so they would have you believe), are movies up next?

Thanks, Craig. I knew the answer… but was trying to educate SML that the WGA isn’t the only guild to enforce credit regulations.

From Variety:

“In the past two days, Shonda Rhimes (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “Private Practice”) and Shawn Ryan (“The Shield,” “The Unit”) have come out publicly with statements declaring they won’t help wrap up episodes in the works. It’s a change from the pre-strike conventional wisdom that such showrunners would stay on the job.

“I absolutely believed that I would edit our episodes,” Rhimes wrote in an email widely circulated late Monday. “Until a thought hit me: how can I walk a picket line and then continue to essentially work? How am I supposed to look at myself in the mirror or look at my child years from now and know that I did not have the courage of my convictions to stand up and put myself more at risk than anyone else?”

Okay Craig, so now people are doing what you said they would never do. That means it’s time for you to step up to the plate and walk off the set of your movie. If you really love the WGA as much as you claim to, you will do this to help save our union from destruction.

We await your decision.

Craig,

That’s a wonderful story that I’ve never heard before. It’s like Rodriguez/Miller on SIN CITY (Rodriguez tore up his DGA card so Miller could share credit).

But I’m afraid your endorsement of this quote may lead some to believe that hostile arbitration against writers by actors, directors and producers doesn’t exist.

It may lead them to believe that ZAZ is the rule not the exception.

SML 346,

Like all actors, producers, and directors arbitrate against writers. Jeesh.

SML 347,

Got me there.

This isn’t exactly relevant, but I didn’t know where else to post it.

You probably don’t know it, but you’ve got a community of nearly 35,000 fans trying to organize an internet (or other) support effort. My question is, with the kind of numbers we could get, what would an effective movement look like? What can we do with a group of people this size to actually help?

SML, the fact that you don’t know that well known story is proof you should do your homework when venturing out with thoughts that aren’t necessarily qualified as your opinion.

Fights over credits aren’t consigned just to writers. There was a skirmish over how many producers could have their name on “Crash” as a recent example. So that’s producers pitted against producers who all wanted to be on that Oscar stage.

Do you know about the problem caused on “A Night At The Roxbury” since one of the producers was also acting as a director on that? Do you know how the Guild handled that one?

If you’re going to champion an argument that writers are the only victims of inveterate credit grabbing, then for God’s sake know what you’re talking about.

Name the movie: “Joel, go to school. Go learn something.”

No need to worry about the tyros, 99% of them are in the fight. They know this is for them as well.

As one of the tyros who hangs out at Zoetrope.com and such, I think your estimate is off. Most of the tyros have no real understanding of the WGA — they merely think that when they write a screenplay, someone buys it from them for a pile of money.

It would in fact be a big help for the WGA to conduct some online outreach to aspiring screenwriters to explain why this fight is indeed their fight.

Anon BIO,

First, read 347.

A lot of my opinion comes from Jim Uhls’ blog, David Mamet’s Bambi vs. Godzilla, and an experience with a producer who told me, after giving me notes on my script, that he was going to arbitrate for credit based on those notes (which was an idiotic thing for him to say because I refused to read them and quickly got out of the deal). So I am fully biased.

If you, and not Craig, had been kind enough to relay the ZAZ story to me, I would have been happy and thanked you. But instead you used it as a way to belittle me… again. Good on you. You’re a winner.

It’s not belittling, it’s education.

The tone you always take in your arguments with others makes it feel more like chastising you rather than enlightenment.

I suppose, in all candor, I’m doing both.

And the ZAZ example was three rightful directors fighting against the DGA. Now give me an example where three supposed directors were fighting against EACH OTHER. And if it’s pre-1990, you sure as hell better explain yourself.

They’re reporters. It’s their job to present both sides of the story without slant.

That hasn’t been true of hard news reporting for the last 30 years, much less industry trade reporting. The Variety reporters have deadlines for filing stories every night, regardless of whether those stories are balanced. If one side is handing those reporters spin on a silver platter and the other side isn’t letting any of its members talk to them, which side’s story are the reporters going to use to fill their column inches?

It’s not the job of the media to create the message for one side of the strike or the other. But if our side fails in creating its own message, I’m not going to fault the reporters who never hear our story, I’m going to fault our guys for not telling it.

Think for a minute. If Variety has it in for the WGA and only wants to tell the story as the AMPTP sees it, why bother to run a piece essentially begging the WGA to tell its story? Why not rub their little hands together with glee and say, “Gosh, the WGA is making it so easy for us to do the bidding of our AMPTP overlords”?

Or in other words you don’t know.

How come I don’t know? How come you don’t know?

Could it be that the WGA never bothered to put together any clear messaging on the subject so that we would know what happened and understand why it happened?

I don’t know of three, but I do know of two from 1997.

The film is “Fierce Creatures” and it involved the size of the reshoots performed by one director that came on after a full cut was delivered by the previous.

I believe Fred Schepisi may have gotten final credit, but Robert Young fought for at least co-credit and I don’t think was accorded it or anything at all.

I’ve rewritten quite a few films and have been through many arbitrations. I didn’t request them all as they’re invariably mandatory.

More often than not, the WGA protects the original writer. That would have protected you, BTW, in the case you presented.

Anon BIO,

That was a respectful answer. I appreciate it.

I know it violates your pre-1990 mandate, but did you ever see the DVD director’s cut of “Superman II” from Richard Donner?

Bringing in another director after firing Donner did create a bit of a brouhaha as far as credits, since a great deal of Donner’s footage was still used, but we all know you’re too young to know about what precedents that set.

I agree with a lot of what you have been saying. I think there’s more of a clock on this, though. In two weeks, it’s Thanksgiving. After that, you have another two weeks til Christmas. If a deal isn’t done soon, the second half of television will be unsalvageable and pilot season a wash. At that point, there will be no pressure on AMPTP to negotiate. They will have already absorbed the hit.

That may be so. I don’t know what the strike’s financial impact on the AMPTP companies is going to be, with respect to lost viewers, lost ad revenues, lost box office, and overhead paid out on idle capacity.

With respect to Thanksgiving and Christmas, those are also big pressure points on workers. It’s hard for a family to get through the holidays with its income restricted or cut off. Christmas presents, winter break vacations — not to mention the mortgage and utilities and grocery bill….

Makes it all the more imperative for the WGA to articulate a strike strategy that inflicts maximum pain and pressure on the AMPTP as quickly as possible. I personally don’t think there’s time to waste in gradually ratcheting up the pressure, but if WGA believes there’s a valid purpose for that strategy, I’m willing to listen.

Not a problem, SML. I actually like you, but also can remember what it’s like to be full of fire and wind up shooting yourself in the foot when you’re trying to make a point.

Going on strike is like going to war. And if this strike were a war, it would be the Iraq War. A lot of shock and awe in the beginning. The writers are convinced something good is happening. Our WGA prez will soon be touting, “Mission Accomplished” because productions are being shut down.

But the reality of what we have done will sink in. This thing will become a quagmire. A few writers will recognize this and suggest we cut and run. Others will want to stay faithful to the WGA leaders. But then the tide will turn.

After months of writers out of work and losing money, the majority of the writers will want to get out of this mess that we were talked into, based on false or misinformation. The WGA zelots will cry, “we can’t give up now, we have to wait this thing out”. And by the time it is all over, homes will be lost, careers will be ruined and the WGA will look like a paper tiger. We will get nothing in March or April of 2008 that we couldn’t get by not going on strike.

I agree with much of what you’re saying, Babe… but also wonder whether it means we need to capture Nicholas Counter and put him on trial.

Oh, yes…a fair trial for Mr. Counter is in order…is hanging too harsh a punishment?

Shawn Ryan conveyed that sort of sentiment, because he said our side was literally “desperate” to make a deal.

I believe Shawn Ryan, who has sacrificed a lot, more than Nicholas Counter whose a professional lifelong hatchet man.

Yes, I believe Shawn over Counter — but I wish he hadn’t said what he said in his e-mail.

“I watched our side desperately try to make a deal. We gave up our request to increase revenue on DVDs, something that was very painful to give up, but something we felt we had to in order to get a deal made in new media, which is our future. I watched as the company’s representatives treated us horrendously, disrespectfully, and then walked out on us at 9:30 and then lied to the trades, claiming we had broken off negotiations.”

This gives the other side too much information. The word “desperately” can only make Counter smile. “Desperately” is always how the other side makes its concessions; ours should always be made “generously,” “magnanimously,” or “in the spirit of honest give-and-take.”

Anon BIO,

I’m not talking about legitimate arbitration. I think if you have one writer who rewrites another, arbitration is necessary (formal or informal).

If one director reshoots another, arbitration is necessary (formal or informal).

But if a producer gives me notes, or an actor makes a suggestion, or a director changes a line - that’s not writing, that’s doing their respective jobs. Not all non-writing talent is guilty of this (most aren’t), but that’s not my argument; my argument is that this is a wider, more accepted problem than in any other field.

And to quote David Mamet again (one of my most favourite quotes): “No wonder all writers want to direct: one still has to put up with a lot of nonsense, but even if wearing two hats (writer and director), there is one under which one is not called a thief and then raped.”

“#252 DLW If I hear one more fellow writer talk about how it “all begins with the story, without which all life would perish,” I’m going to vomit into my keyboard. Filmmaking is a team sport. Period. ”

If I see your weasel wordds again I may chuck up also.

Fellow writer is clearrly anathema to you.”

Ed-

Clearly the words of a man who’s never touched sole to film set. And with an attitude so imbued with moronic self-importance that record appears quite likely to remain unbroken.

Carry on.

Based on the sort of semantics Counter has clumsily used in the past, I don’t mind “desperate” because it shows how much recognition there was from our side about the severity of the action about to be taken. It shows the WGA wasn’t “hellbent” for a strike as Counter repeatedly stated… and I personally had felt until the DVD concession took place.

I hope nothing about this strike brings a smile to Nicholas Counter’s lips. He’s already becoming a hated, villified figure for merely doing his admittedly “bad guy” job. The man has totally bungled it this time, as well as his masters.

All I can say is, I hope he isn’t eating out in public where someone like LAX24 might encounter him. Could be dangerous.

Understood, SML. The DGA instituted strict rules and penalties when Clint Eastwood fought to take over the direction of “The Outlaw Josey Wales” and ostensibly booted Philip Kaufman off the film.

There have been well documented struggles between actors trying to wrest a film away from the director, but “Wales” was history making back then and the DGA may have made it legally impossible for an actor to assume official control now.

I’m just showing you it’s not always people encroaching on a writer’s turf.

Based on the sort of semantics Counter has clumsily used in the past, I don’t mind “desperate” because it shows how much recognition there was from our side about the severity of the action about to be taken. It shows the WGA wasn’t “hellbent” for a strike as Counter repeatedly stated… and I personally had felt until the DVD concession took place.

I take your point — I still would have preferred different wording. Diligently, assiduously, in good faith… avoiding even the air of desperation. You know?

Yes, Stuart… I see your point. An “air of desperation” isn’t a great image.

Still, the sight of shows being shut down left and right as well as solidarity for the protestors does that we’re not f**king around.

(Disclaimer: What follows is a stream of consciousness rant. What is written may offend some amateur writers, Tom Desanto, Ed Norton, and/or food fetish pornographers.)

Anon BIO (367) and others,

The Eastwood rule… that’s a brilliant example. Why doesn’t the WGA have a Norton rule? Ed Norton probably isn’t the best example of an actor stealing writing credit (because he actually writes), but it blows my mind how writing credits are fought over, tooth and nail, like no other credit.

The Eastwood Rule drew a line in the sand. It seems like no line has been drawn for writers, so when someone crosses that line (ex. Tom Desanto) it takes a big uproar, Michael Bay, and cost heavy arbitration to point it out.

Writing, above all other industry professions, is one every literate human being thinks they can do.

I don’t presume to understand light temperatures because I have lights in my house. Or to have the physical and empathetic ability to express a character foreign to me because I can do a Scottish accent. My only ability, my only way to express myself, to do my job, is through my words.

Writing is a profession that when you walk up to a complete and random stranger, tell him what you do for a living, he’ll reply, guaranteed, “I write too. On blogs. On the internet…”

This mentality, the fact that one can read and write, makes them believe they can do the job we do. And that belief is disrespectful, that belief assumes anybody can be a writer, and that belief, in the micro, is what has caused this strike.

Okay, maybe it didn’t cause this strike… but it sure as hell is a problem.

I’ve been studying writing officially for 8 years of my life, I’ve been moderately literate for 21 years of my life, and I’ve only been a professional writer for about 2 years of my life.

I’ve never been a photographer, even though I’ve taken pictures. I’ve never been a chef, even though I cook myself dinner. And I’ve never been a food fetish pornographer, even though I’ve taken pictures of myself eating and having sex. So I wish that people would stop calling themselves writers because they have a journal or a blog (no matter how brilliantly, megalomaniacally experimental it is… yes, I’m talking about my own blog… which contradicts my point… but if you haven’t got it by now… well I’m sure as shit in a lot of trouble…)

Good night.

Still, the sight of shows being shut down left and right as well as solidarity for the protestors does that we’re not f**king around.

It’s like the old adage, “the Law must not only do Justice, but it must be seen to be doing Justice.” It’s important not only to apply leverage through a strike, but to be seen to be effective in applying that leverage. Otherwise, the pickets become another Hollywood tourist attraction rather than an effective means for labor to force management to shift its bargaining positions. And forcing manangement to shift its positions in the striker’s favor is (or ought to be) the ONLY valid reason for calling and conducting a strike.

Am I wrong about any of that?

Babe Rozenthal,

careers will be ruined

Are you referring to all of the workers who will ultimately leave Los Angeles (or the Industry as a whole) because they’ll be forced to turn to other fields for their income?

Or do you mean something else that you could more articulately explain?

Stuart, You have no dog in this fight.

Why are you so interested in criticizing a union you don’t belong to?

What could you possibly hope to accomplish by offering opinion or advice here?

Some of us in the WGA, myself included, are out of work and concerned about future income for our families. But i stand by the union.

If you truly want to be helpful, go to LA or NYC and join the picket line. Clearly you have plenty of time on your hands.

Stuart, You have no dog in this fight.

I have a dog in the fight, since it’s my aspiration to join the WGA.

I have no skin in the game, because it’s not my income being cut off during the strike.

Why are you so interested in criticizing a union you don’t belong to?

What could you possibly hope to accomplish by offering opinion or advice here?

I hope that the strike will be very effective, very short and achieve its goals for the WGA with respect to new media. I hope that I can offer advice about union solidarity that will help bring about those results.

Some of us in the WGA, myself included, are out of work and concerned about future income for our families. But i stand by the union.

I bet you want the strike to be as effective as possible so that it doesn’t drag on and so that it wins as much for the WGA at the bargaining table as you can get. If I am wrong about that, I apologize.

If you’re sure that the current WGA strike strategy is as effective as the union can make it, then please excuse my criticisms.

If you truly want to be helpful, go to LA or NYC and join the picket line. Clearly you have plenty of time on your hands.

Wish I could fly down and join you. Would, if I was a member of the WGA — it would be my obligation to do so.

Forbes supports the strike.

Wow.

AYAAW

Tip on email screening:

Change “loan” to “enlargement.”