I don't know how much you've heard or read about the writer's strike, but the first writer's strike since 1988 started today at midnight. If you're interested in what's going to happen to your favorite show, check out this handy grid from the LA Times.
Man, this whole thing is just disgusting. If this goes on very long, half the town is going to be unemployed, and Joe Cameraman doesn't have any royalties to live on when there are suddenly no more shows to work on.
Not to mention, an increase in reality television is not good for anyone.
• INTERNET RESIDUALS. Writers want to be paid larger "residuals," or re-use fees, for movies and TV shows sold over the internet. Networks and studios estimate they'll make almost $350 million dollars this year by selling TV shows and movies online. But right now, if a writer writes a movie or a TV episode—whether it's "Pirates of the Caribbean" or "CSI"—studios only give that writer 1.2% of whatever the movie/episode makes online. That’s it: 1.2%. The writers want to make 2.5%. Studios are refusing.
• STREAMING. Writers want to be paid each time a studio streams a movie or TV show online... just like they’re paid when a network reruns an episode on regular television. But networks and studios claim they don't make any money from streaming TV shows or movies... even though they charge advertisers thousands of dollars to place ads in them.
• HOME VIDEO AND DVD RESIDUALS. Writers want to double their home video/DVD residuals from .3% to .6%. In other words, they'd like a raise from the 4 cents per DVD they currently make (yes, you read that right-- 4 CENTS) to 8 cents per DVD.
No wonder all the writers are so bitchy. They only get 4 cents (!) per DVD sold. Of anyone, they are probably the most personally invested in the DVD. The story is theirs. The lines the actors say, they wrote them. The scenes the director directs, they wrote them.
an increase in reality television is not good for anyone.
True that, yo.
Yeah, I've been hearing some stuff about this. It's pretty weird. And I had no idea that the writers were paid so little. That's kind of ridiculous. Without them, there wouldn't be a show. You really can't say that about any other job--someone else could act the parts & someone else could direct, & it would be different, but the show would still exist. I guess I always assumed that the writers were some of the higher-paid jobs, but I guess the studios just take most of the money, or something.
As for the question posed at me yesterday by Televisionary reader A.J., about how much writers are paid in residuals for DVD sales of TV on DVD box sets, the answer I found from a studio source indicated that they are not paid by sales of the single box sets but their payment is in relation to the number of scripts they wrote for that particular season. To use the example of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Three that was given, Jane Espenson wrote three scripts that season that were produced. She is therefore entitled to four cents per script per DVD box set sold... which amounts right now to a measly 12 cents for every DVD sold.
I'm being swayed more to the side of the writers now. I'm getting the impression that pretty much everyone in Hollywood (including actors, directors, crew members, etc) are supporting the writers despite the problems the strike is causing them. Also, the stubborness and greed of the networks is really frustrating. They aren't even pretending to care anything about their employees or basic fairness. Their entire argument seems to consist of "we want to make as much money off the writers as we can."
Their entire argument seems to consist of "we want to make as much money off the writers as we can."
I know! They (the networks) don't seem to have any reasons other than wanting the money themselves. I don't see how that's a good enough reason to be causing all this trouble.
Elsewhere, faced with a Writers Guild strike, Paramount Pictures said it would produce the second “Transformers” film without a script, “just like the first one.”
The strike may finally be almost over. The producers and studios have made the writers an offer. The writers have asked to have until December 4 to consider the offer. Let's all hope Tuesday brings good news for our favorite shows. Here's the official press release from the AMPTP:
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LOS ANGELES, November 29, 2007 - "The AMPTP today unveiled a New Economic Partnership to the WGA, which includes groundbreaking moves in several areas of new media, including streaming, content made for new media and programming delivered over digital broadcast channels.
The entire value of the New Economic Partnership will deliver more than $130 million in additional compensation above and beyond the more than $1.3 billion writers already receive each year. In response, the WGA has asked for time to study the proposals. While we were prepared to continue discussions, we respect and understand the WGA's desire to review the proposals. We look forward resuming talks on Tuesday, December 4.
We continue to believe that there is common ground to be found between the two sides, and that our proposal for a New Economic Partnership offers the best chance to find it."
The emphasis is mine to show how the AMPTP is still trying to get a barb in that the writers already get plenty but we'll give the babies more to get them to come back to work.
This might be what they're talking about. Some writers are going to produce shows and stream them on the internet. The ad revenue will go to help striking writers and other workers who are having financial problems.
In the idealistic movie version of the strike, the AMPTP would finally break down and accept the WGA's full proposal, and the writers would say "No thanks, we're doing much better without you, actually."
One of the great things about the internet is that it breaks down the need for a middleman.
15 years ago, shooting and editing a movie was cost prohibitive for an individual. The expensive equipment and sets required mandated that there was a giant studio bankrolling the whole thing. Not so any more. A fourteen-year-old can shoot and edit near-professional quality film with a modern digital camcorder and edit it on an average desktop computer.
10 years ago, distributing a movie you made on the internet in a high enough resolution that people would actually watch and enjoy it was cost prohibitive for an individual. Even just now are studios realizing the promises the internet brings and investing in the infrastructure needed to host the terabytes of bandwidth video would consume. Technologies like BitTorrent, the proliferation of high-speed internet, and a reduction in hosting costs, now makes it possible for a filmmaker with a little know-how to distribute normal-length content online themselves.
For some reason, Hollywood has happily plodded along doing things as always and letting the middleman stay in charge. Maybe that is about to change. The middleman (the AMPTP) needs to start listening to its creators or its creators might go straight to the audience cutting them out.
I checked out the MySpace page. It sounds far too similar to be a coincidence (but then again maybe the WGA does have something else coming down the pipeline). The story must be talking about it. I'm surprised they didn't link to it.
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Strike TV will use a You Tube/Google Video channel.
This is the most stupid aspect of the whole venture. Yeah, people will watch your videos for the novelty factor if you put them on YouTube, but it won't draw them away from their TV set. YouTube limits you to a tiny box inside your browser with horrible resolution. That's not how I want to watch TV. I want it to take up my whole screen so I can lean back and relax without any distractions. People will return to the TV unless you give them full-screen, high resolution video. BitTorrent would enable creators to easily distribute DVD-quality video. I don't see this working long-term unless filmmakers use BitTorrent or another distribution method that allows the distribution of DVD-quality video.
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At this point we've amassed a great many WGA members - showrunners, staff writers, screenwriters, you name it - to participate in Strike TV.
Hopefully this is the "A-list talent" referred to in the Slashdot story. Wouldn't an online Joss Whedon show be awesome?
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We're working with the WGA to create an infrastructure to handle our needs (i.e. union contracts, funneling money into the fund, etc.)
I do have a slight fear that rather than cutting out the middleman we're just creating a new middleman. The WGA producing internet video would be like one of those strange combination businesses everyone makes fun of. Lube Shop and Barber. Union and Internet Video Production Company. The WGA needs to stick to what it's good at, which would be...uh...unioning. They could encourage some venture capitalists to get behind some new Internet Video Production Companies and start banging out contracts with them.
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These shows are self-funded and owned by their creators.
This is the most exciting thing about the whole venture if you ask me. Content directly from the creator: artistic vision undiluted by the interests of billion-dollar corporations. The chance for a more personal and direct connection between the audience and the creator. The creator-owned thing seems to be working for some comics, and unlike screenwriters, authors have always retained ownership of the books they write and musicians have always retained ownership of the music they make.
Screenwriters are required to give up their rights to what they've written. A screenplay belongs to the studio it was written for rather than the person who wrote it. It's time for that to change. I don't think we'd even be having this strike if US law was like British law and did provide for the screenwriter maintaining ownership of his screenplay. It is impossible to give up your ownership rights over something you've created under British law. In the UK, a screenplay is the original creation wholly owned by its author. The TV episode or movie is considered a derivative work, and like all derivative works, it can only be created with the permission of the creator and under the terms specified by the creator. In the US, it is possible to sell your ownership rights to any creative work. Studios require that screenwriters sell their ownership rights and consider the screenplay to be a component of the episode or movie rather than a distinct creative work.
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Strike TV videos will not be about the strike. This is a chance for writers to do what they do best - be original and tell stories.
I can't wait! It's not like there is anything new on TV right now.
Yeah, I'm mildly interested in the Strike TV thing, but the fact that it's on Youtube does cheapen it quite a bit. In the short run, though, they probably wouldn't get as many viewers if they did BitTorrent only. Most people 40 and older have never even heard of BitTorrent and wouldn't want to mess with downloading a special program for it.
BitTorrent is definitely the way to go if people start doing this for real, though. Think how fast a legal copy of a TV show with millionsof viewers would download.
Rachel, the negotiations aren't going very well at this point. Actually, they aren't going at all. Earlier in December, the AMPTP demanded that the WGA drop 6 of their proposals before they would even sit down to negotiate. The WGA refused and started working on a counter-proposal, and the AMPTP just walked out. They haven't been back to the table since.
But David Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, just made a side deal with the WGA to let the Letterman and Craig Ferguson writers come back to work under all of the terms that the WGA originally proposed to the AMPTP. It's a controversial decision, but I think it's a pretty good thing. The WGA is hoping other AMPTP companies will start making similar deals with them, causing the AMPTP to eventually just fall apart from lack of support. I guess we'll see.
Here's an alternate idealistic movie version of the strike:
The AMPTP wastes millions of dollars and puts thousands of people out of work for months in an attempt to break up the Hollywood unions, and instead ends up being broken up themselves when the studios leave the alliance to make deals with the WGA individually.
The strike may actually be almost (as soon as tomorrow almost) over. WGA leaders finalized a deal with the AMPTP early (like 3 AM early) this morning. The only thing lacking is a vote of all the WGA members that will be happening tomorrow.
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