LUCIDMEDIA

Write Back Where We Started From

Written by Adam A. Donaldson Friday, 15 February 2008 06:27

Let’s start with the numbers: according to some estimates the strike ended up costing the industry $20 million a day with a sum total of $2 billion to the film and television industry. That doesn’t amount to a loss for writers and producers exclusively, it’s the total loss for everyone involved in the industry: from caterers to cameramen and from stores to studios. By comparison, the last great Writers’ Strike in 1988 lasted six months and cost a relatively thrifty $500 million.

How much does $2 billion buy you? The best deal in 30 years, according to WGA West Coast President Patric Verrone. The three-year contract says screenwriters will be compensated to the sum of $1,200 US per year for the first two years for every program streamed over the Internet, then receiving two per cent of ad revenues collected by the distributor in year three. Also, the contract offers increased residuals in areas like Pay TV and DVD sales, although the primary stumbling block was always the money from Internet and New Media. But the one lingering question is, what has it cost?

TV was the realm that was immediately and most profoundly impacted by the strike. Obviously for films, scripts could be completed in advanced and shot during the strike, or otherwise could wait it out and be completed afterward. Among the former was the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace, while future pop corn fare like G.I. Joe, Transformers 2 and George Miller’s Justice League movie suffered as a few in that latter category.



In television, the November to February time period is prime time. Established shows are working on their “back nine” and scripts and pilots for the next TV season begin to be worked on for the announcement of fall schedules in May. Obviously, kiss some of that goodbye, TV fans. It’s previously been announced that some old and new favourites like Chuck, Heroes and Pushing Daisies will be taking the spring off and re-launching in autumn. Meanwhile, other shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Lost and the CSIs will attempt to wrap about four or five episodes by seasons end.

I think it can be guaranteed that a lot of people are going to back to watch these programs when they start airing new episodes, the real casualty though is going to be new programs. Even before the end of the strike, the major American networks were talking about stifling some of their development, avoiding pricy pilots and production deals in favour of reality programming and the foreign produced shows. Already both NBC and CBS have purchased series produced by Canadian broadcaster CTV for airing in the fall. Admittedly for the WGA, tt’s pretty hard to earn residuals from TV shows that you don’t produce, write, or have any say in.

Also don’t thing that revenues already lost will simply be written off lightly. Deadline Hollywood reported Wednesday that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and Dick Clark Productions, they who are behind the annual Golden Globes ceremony, were contemplating legal action against the WGA for refusing to grant a waiver allowing the broadcast to go forward as scheduled.

A rumour was put forth that the two had approached NBC to co-sign their lawsuit, which an inside source at NBC said they had no intention of joining, but were not above not taking some kind of legal action of their own. Further Dick Clark Productions said that they are not planning any litigation, with or without, the HFPA who seem to be proceeding with court motions anyway.

In my honest opinion, this is symptomatic of the kind of politicking that stopped the strike from being resolved before it even began. The deal currently being voted upon by the WGA membership has nothing so utterly groundbreaking, but rather appropriate compensation as per the union’s original request. How did it take the parties and negotiators so long to come to this? Why did it take intervention by three studio CEOs that weren’t involved the negotiations in the first place, to get everybody back to the table talking?

Say it with me – “politics.” On the one side, the WGA was terminally obsessed with not just earning better residuals, but with bringing animation and reality show writers into the fold. Meanwhile the AMPTA refused to budge on residuals saying that they had no idea how much internet revenue would be worth, if anything, despite a) consistently saying that the internet’s the future of distribution and b) not recognizing that a percentage of nothing is still nothing.

First of all, the animation writers are represented by another union, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees local 839. This stems from the old Disney method of creating animated features through storyboards and storyboard artists, but progressively a lot more feature and TV animation writing work is being negotiated by the WGA. Secondly, in regards to reality, that’s going to be a tougher fight than anything that has to do with residuals. It’s sometimes seem like the dirty, little secret of the entertainment industry that reality has writers and acknowledging that not only bursts the bubble, but raises the cost of this relative cheap form of programming. And reality, by its nature, is a finite source of revenue.



And as for the Golden Globes… Well, I’m not a fan of hard line actions that seem to punish a lot of people unnecessarily. Here, I’m thinking more of the first time nominees who have never been (and may never again) be invited to the ceremony. But the gambit worked didn’t it? Sources say that it was the forced boycott of the Globes that made the desire to get back to the table stronger than ever. So in Hollywood, I guess, nothing gets stuff done faster than the threat of missing a good party. The Oscars are now saved, life goes on.

The mechanism of Tinsletown will grind to a halt if its established traditions are threatened with cancellation and clearly that’s why a settlement was reached. That’s one the things that made me mental about this strike, the illusion that everything was still going well. When a car factory goes on strike, the whole factory goes on strike; it isn’t just the guys that build the frames that walk out leaving the dashboard guys and the seat installers waiting for a new batch of frames.

The appearance of normality was important. Even the public, who were aware of the strike and predominantly in support of the writers, had little negative reaction to it because it took this long to notice there was no new material or episodes from most of our favourite series. And even though we now have our shows back, despite the fact some of them are waiting for fall, it remains to be seen what share of the network TV audience has been lost. In 1988, millions of viewers walked away and never came back, which is something that the networks can barely afford in a day and age when network viewers are slipping away regardless.

Being a writer myself, I supported them through this ordeal, especially after watching them over the years as they shot themselves in the each foot over concessions they’d make. In the 80s the studios convinced the writers that home video was never going to make a lot of money, and then in the 90s they sold the union on the notion that no one would ever buy an entire season set of a TV show on DVD. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me; fool me three times and clearly I’m gullible enough to buy magic beans and the Brooklyn Bridge with an extended warranty at factory direct prices.

But in the end, what can I say? I’m glad it’s over? Duh. It shouldn’t have happened in the first place? No kidding. Both sides were equally intractable and utterly childish. Harsh but true. And if the past 14 and a half weeks of threats, name-calling, infighting, pettiness has been the good, old fashioned labour-management struggle of the century grudge match, it ain’t nothing compared to what might go down with a potential actors strike this summer.