Not A Big Shock, But Still...

...shit.

Just released from the WGA negotiating committee:


AMPTP BREAKS OFF NEGOTIATIONS


Today, after three days of discussions, the AMPTP came back to us with a proposal that included a total rejection of our proposal on Internet streaming of December 3.

They are holding to their offer of a $250 fixed residual for unlimited one year streaming after a six-week window of free use. They still insist on the DVD rate for Internet downloads.

They refuse to cover original material made for new media.

This offer was accompanied by an ultimatum: the AMPTP demands we give up several of our proposals, including Fair Market Value (our protection against vertical integration and self-dealing), animation, reality, and, most crucially, any proposal that uses distributor’s gross as a basis for residuals. This would require us to concede most of our Internet proposal as a precondition for continued bargaining. The AMPTP insists we let them do to the Internet what they did to home video.

We received a similar ultimatum through back channels prior to the discussions of November 4. At that time, we were assured that if we took DVD’s off the table, we would get a fair offer on new media issues. That offer never materialized.

We reject the idea of an ultimatum. Although a number of items we have on the table are negotiable, we cannot be forced to bargain with ourselves. The AMPTP has many proposals on the table that are unacceptable to writers, but we have never delivered ultimatums.

As we prepared our counter-offer, at 6:05 p.m., Nick Counter came and said to us, in the mediator’s presence: “We are leaving. When you write us a letter saying you will take all these items off the table, we will reschedule negotiations with you.” Within minutes, the AMPTP had posted a lengthy statement announcing the breakdown of negotiations.

We remain ready and willing to negotiate, no matter how intransigent our bargaining partners are, because the stakes are simply too high. We were prepared to counter their proposal tonight, and when any of them are ready to return to the table, we’re here, ready to make a fair deal.


John F. Bowman
Chairman, WGA Negotiating Committee
Contract 2007


Nikki Finke shows and tells all from both sides, HERE and THEN HERE.

People who are serious about negotiating don’t walk away from the negotiating table. No two ways about it, the Big Boys want this strike to continue.

Good On You...All Of You

Kudo's to all those Canadian writers and creatives (and others around the world) who took to the streets today in support of our WGA brothers and sisters south of the border.

From cbc.ca, whilst on the line in Toronto, McGrath speaks:

Canadian TV and film writers joined writers in Paris, London, Berlin and other entertainment centres around the world in a show of support for their U.S. colleagues.

"As Canadian writers, what happens in the U.S. desperately affects us," said Denis McGrath, a Canadian screenwriter picketing outside Toronto's Sony Centre.

"We already make a lot less money than American writers do, and we still have it better than writers in other countries," he said. "So all around the world today, in six, seven cities around the world, different members of their national writers guilds are marching in solidarity with the WGA for their deal on internet rights."

Jill Golick posts pics. And then, of course, DMc reports. It's all about the weather indeed.


Well done, everyone...


...even where it was cold.

Fools Gold

First go read the Henshaw's post on ways you can help support the WGA. What I can say is all I've been watching is a lot of sports this past week.

Now, even though Denis has already been posting better and faster and more often, in fact, waaay more often than all of us north of the border combined, I still feel the need to chime in on the WGA strike as 'golden opportunity for Canadian writers or producers' topic.

I can't tell you how much these articles from Playback, Variety, and Canadian Press (which is now a dead link for some reason) about how the strike could mean a boon for Canuck producers/shows/etc. TOTALLY make me mental. It's just such bullshit.

First, any writer with a backbone won't even go there. Count on it. So I don't know what's more insulting...the reporters asking the questions in an effort to spin a story? Or the Canadian producers actually taking the time to answer the questions seriously. Perhaps the reporters don't know any better, but the producers should know better.

Canadian producers are quietly salivating at the prospect of U.S. networks buying their strike-proof shows during a prolonged WGA strike.

"The longer the [writers] strike lasts, the more likely that those kinds of shows will get picked up by U.S. broadcasters. The odds are good, and continue to grow in our favor -- if you develop a show outside the U.S.," says John Morayniss, chairman and CEO of Blueprint Entertainment.

Morayniss insists a producer with the right "strike-proof" property with the right talent can possibly entice a U.S. network to take a flyer on a Canadian show -- but only if it can air on either side of the border.

And then this:

Mary Darling, executive producer of Little Mosque on the Prairie, says a decision to delay a U.S. sale of her series, despite a host of offers from stateside broadcasters, will pay off "now that inventory of quality programming is sure to be in higher demand" in the wake of the U.S. writers strike.

"A prized location has always been our goal for the series," Darling said from New York, where she and fellow producers of Little Mosque on Tuesday night received a Common Ground award.

Sales of existing finished series are one thing (though you'd still be ultimately hurting the WGA's cause), but producing shows to fill the holes? C'mon.

The solidarity and the morality issues aside (though they're important too), anyone who's worked in North American TV for more than 5 minutes knows how seriously Hollywood takes their show business, and how little merit and credibility they give our industry.

It ain't gonna happen...not a chance in hell.

How do I know?

Well, I know I'm not a serious player, but I do have over ten years experience of trying to get major U.S. network execs to read my Canadian-made scripts, or watch my Canadian-made shows, or buy my Canadian-made pitches...and have always been met with indifference, disinterest, and even disdain.

So maybe it's just me. Fair enough. But I also know a lot of way more serious players who have experienced the exact same reaction. Players who went on to be showrunners on U.S. series, but not in any way based on their Canadian work.

For the most part, Hollywood thinks our shows and our industry are a joke.

And if history counts for anything, best I can recollect there's only been one, count 'em, ONE Canadian initiated and made TV series that's aired in prime time on a major U.S. network over the past twenty years. The company was Alliance. The network was CBS. And the show was Due South...in 1994/95.

That's the reality.

But you want to know the real reason why the 'right' Canadian series (that generally take a year to a year and a half to finance) with the right mix of cast and writers (that don't want to offend and insult their striking brothers and sisters in the States) doesn't have a shot at making it onto any US channels in the near future?

They LURVE their own shows.

And they like to make them...lots of them. Take a look at this article from Variety about all the U.S. pilots written or already shooting....

But thanks to the recent trend toward year-round development, webheads aren’t completely lacking in material for 2008-09.

That’s because a few months ago, as a strike became more and more likely, pilot development kicked into overdrive. Nets started handing out put pilot commitments, and even series orders, like they were candy.

The result: All of the networks have completed scripts in hand for projects they put into motion before the scribes skedaddled.

That means the TV studios won’t be entirely quiet over the next few months. As scribes march the picket lines across Hollywood, writers rooms are dark, latenight talker sets are collecting dust, and several series sets have already shut down — with many more to come in the next few weeks.

But there may still be work for TV thesps, helmers and below-the-line crew during the writers strike, as some pilots are ready to be shot (and others already have been).

To be clear, most scripts in development haven’t been turned in yet, or aren’t polished enough to be filmed. But NBC’s Ben Silverman boasts that he’s got more than a half-dozen pilots ready to lens, with big-name helmers attached.

Fox has already started shooting one drama (“The Oaks”), while another (“Hackett”) is wrapped. ABC already has its Cedric the Entertainer sitcom in the can, and CBS has begun production on one of its big hopes, “The Kingdom.”

Other projects could begin shooting within weeks.

They list dozens of shows. DOZENS. And if there's any possible way the studios and networks can force even some of them through the machine, they will put them on air long before they consider getting involved with a 'Canadian' production...even if their shows are shit.

You want a more 'realistic' possibility? Aaron Barnhart at the Kansas City Star posts this fax he received last week for a new reality show pitch: Conjugal Prison Visits.



He jokes about it not having a chance in hell of getting on the air...maybe. Well, take it from me, it'll get on TV (God forbid) before any one of 'our' series makes its way to the American airwaves.

Seriously.

Perchance To Dream, Ay There's The Rube...

No, that's not a typo...the Rube, as in Rube Goldberg machine.

From Wikipedia: a Rube Goldberg machine is a complex apparatus that performs a simple task in an indirect and convoluted way. The term also applies as a classification for a generally over-complicated apparatus or software. It first appeared in Webster's Third New International Dictionary with the definition "accomplishing by extremely complex roundabout means what actually or seemingly could be done simply."

Rube Goldberg's inventions can be seen as a unique commentary on life's complexities. They provide a humorous diversion into the absurd that lampoons the wonders of technology. These send-ups of man's ingenuity resonate in modern life for those seeking simplicity in the midst of a technology revolution.

Rube Goldberg evolves the simplified pencil-sharpener. Open window (A) and fly kite (B). String (C) lifts small door (D) allowing moths (E) to escape and eat red flannel shirt (F). As weight of shirt becomes less, shoe (G) steps on switch (H) which heats electric iron (I) and burns hole in pants (J). Smoke (K) enters hole in tree (L), smoking out opossum (M) which jumps into basket (N), pulling rope (O) and lifting cage (P), allowing woodpecker (Q) to chew wood from pencil (R), exposing lead. Emergency knife (S) is always handy in case opossum or the woodpecker gets sick and can't work.

Stick with me here.

The simplified pencil sharpener...how apropos. You see, I am a WGA member, but I presently live and work in Canada. Fortunately, the work I'm doing now doesn't require me to pick up a pen, or I'm able to put my pencil down, as it were.

So as an insider outside looking in...

Negotiations between the WGA and the AMPTP broke down on Sunday. This week, as scribes were joined by actors on the picket lines, we saw via blogs and the internet (ironically) testimonial after speech after testimonial from writers, performers, showrunners, old pro's, and newbies clearly and succinctly explaining the issues at hand as to what we are seeking with this strike, and why.

"It's all about the Internet, it's the big Kahuna, and both sides know it," says writer/director Josh Pate, whose credits include Friday Night Lights and Surface. "The deal that's made this year is the most important for both sides in decades."

But the studios and AMPTP leader Nick Counter would have you believe we're being completely unreasonable and Sunday's talks breakdown was all the writers fault. And Variety seems to be backing the studios. Though others are calling them on it. Fortunately, via the internet again, opposing arguments and opinions and (gasp) even the truth has been able to gestate, circulate, and hopefully, take hold.

And the solution to this messy contraption is relatively simple. It comes from Artful Writer's Craig Mazin.

When you look past all the whining and posturing and Kool-Aidy yammering from both sides, here’s one unemotional, inarguable, immutable fact.
If they’re saying “We don’t want to give more than .3” and we’re saying “We don’t want to take less than 2.5” then everyone in the world knows what that really means is:
“We’re starting at .3”
and
“We’re starting at 2.5”

There’s got to be a number between .3 and 2.5 that will satisfy both sides.
Right?
Has to be.

He's right you know...when it comes to compensation and residuals for entertainment being delivered over the internet, it's that simple. But like a Rube Goldberg invention, it's all being made way more complicated than it needs to be. The WGA and the writers they represent really aren't out of line with their requests (the studios have to know this) and we would probably agree to 2.0, and the AMPTP probably already has a number in the middle they'd give, let's say 1.5 --- split the diff and we settle at 1.75.

But that's only if the studios want to settle. Now. Today.

The sad thing is, everything seems to point to the studios actually wanting a long, drawn out and potentially devastating work stoppage.

Ay, there's the rub.

Abt Natural Because I Have A Gub...

Watching with fascinated trepidation the WGA/AMPTP negotiations go down to and then past the wire...primarily reading Artful Writer and Deadline Hollywood Daily. The comments are going up as fast as you can read and refresh.

The key stumbling block seems to be DVD and now New Media/Internet reuse compensation formulas (aka residuals) for writers. Scribes got a crummy deal way back when for home video, and it hasn't increased since. They want a minuscule bump in percentage for DVD's, and, anticipating the future, at least the same for downloads.

But AMPTP leader Nick Counter dashed any hopes of a quick resolution with this statement at the end of today:

"…no further movement is possible to close the gap between us so long as your DVD proposal remains on the table. In referring to DVDs, we include not only traditional DVDs, but also electronic sell-through — i.e., permanent downloads. As you know, we believe that electronic sell-through is synonymous with DVD."

Um...yeah. Didn't go over too good with the writers/WGA, as you can well imagine.

So kudo's to Ken Levine for telling it like it is, with lots of his usual vim, wit, and vigor. And he points to the very problem at the root of all this...writers have been generally taken for granted, stepped on, and bullied, getting little or no respect. And as anyone who's been picked on at school knows, once word gets around you're a pushover, it's real hard to make anyone to believe otherwise.

The other problem he notes is the biz tends to only slow down when writers strike, whereas directors and actors striking makes more of an immediate impact. So if the WGA hits the picket lines, expect it to be a long one...at least until some of the other unions and guilds join rank.

What does it mean for us writers up in Canada? Not a whole lot. We signed our IPA deal quickly and quietly last year...and we're a different animal...you know, take our production advances and run. But I do know what it doesn't mean - this Canadian Press 'crock o' shit' article - trying to spin the strike into having a positive effect on the Canadian TV industry.

The spin:

But others suggest a lengthy strike could present golden opportunities for all sorts of players in Canada, from the private broadcasters to CBC and homegrown production companies. Both Global and CTV have long been criticized for a dearth of homemade programming on their airwaves, and some suggest a long strike could provide them with a captive audience for made-in-Canada shows.
"Gosh, do you think they might actually have to start creating some Canadian product?" Ken Ferguson, head of Toronto Film Studios, a film and television production company, said of Global and CTV. "This should be an opportunity - it should be the opportunity for Canadians to produce product that would probably find a ready market in the United States as well.

The reality:

While Global said it had no plans to trot out any Canadian programming in the event of a prolonged strike, Cosentino said CTV had plenty of Canadian shows that were slated to air in the months to come - from "Degrassi: The Next Generation" to "Robson Arms." He added that the network was committed to producing Canadian programming regardless of the strike.

"Is it our intention to run Canadian programming to replace American content? Not exactly. Our strategy with Canadian programming is to run it in the best possible slot we can to deliver it to the right audience," he said.

Not exactly? Try never. There's some other offensiveness in there, but I'll let you find it for yourselves.


Anyway, however it shakes out let's stand by our writing brothers and sisters to the south...and for fun, I present a reason why we (and the studios, and the networks) need to keep scribes happy and pay them what's fair:

Go HERE (if embed is funky)



A producer, director, or actor might have forgotten to hit spellcheck and ended up with the above scene by mistake...but only a good writer can turn misspelling on purpose into comedy gold. That's a talent worth paying for, because it all starts with the words on the page.

Nevertheless, as long as a writer's talent and the value of that talent isn't recognized and respected, negotiating better terms will be a long, uphill battle.

Right now it's like the WGA has a gub...but looks like they might need a gun.