The Strike May Soon Be Over . . .
. . . But Hollywood is still at war with itself.
“It is not all that we hoped for, and not all that we deserved,” Writer’s Guild of America West President Patric Verrone admitted in a press conference yesterday (Sunday,
February 10). But he still counts the tentative deal that the Guild has worked out with Hollywood’s producers (the AMPTP) as a victory. Why?
For starters, WGA members did at least gain some of what they wanted, that is acknowledgment that writers do deserve compensation for the use of their work in “new media” such as downloads and streamed content from the Internet. Though not as much as they had hoped — and the producers get a 17-day free “promotional” window for content. But, as Verrone says, “this strike was about the future, and this deal assures for us and for future generations of writers a share in the future…”
He is right to be happy. The Guild, by clever shows of strength — including getting most of the Hollywood acting community, represented by SAG (the Screen Actors’ Guild), to rally around their cause and boycott the Golden Globes and the Oscars — put fear into the moguls’ hearts. The separate deals the WGA made with companies such as David Letterman’s World Wide Pants, the Weinstein Company and United Artists was also a bold move – a move worthy of creative, business savvy and powerful artists – which is not what the AMPTP wants them to be. No, the AMTPT clearly would have preferred writers to be meek, submissive and obedient wage-slaves.
Which is what writers were when the Guild was first founded back in the 1930’s. In the fight to get writers a chance at better working conditions, fair contracts, and health benefits, the Guild acted as a real labor union. But somehow in the process, their creative independence went by the wayside. One important sign of this is that the writers agreed to give up copyright of their works to the studios. Yes, that’s right: all work done by writers for the WGA is work for hire, and when aspiring screenwriters finally sign that Hollywood deal, they give up ownership of their work; this means that the studio can drop the original writer at any time and have the whole script rewritten by someone else – or five or ten other people. And the writer has no legal recourse.
This is very unlike the theater, where playwrights always own their own work, can make sure that not a single line of it is changed, have the final say on when, where and how it is performed, and are in full control of the royalties they receive. Hollywood producers have long claimed, of course, that the enormous expense of motion pictures makes the studios’ ownership of content necessary – but then Broadway plays are about as expensive as most top-level independent films nowadays (I’m not an expert, but I would say that this would be those in the $1-2 million range). And if playwrights can maintain control of these all-important creative rights, why not film writers? In the many online comments by WGA writers I’ve read over the last few months, several indicated regret that writers ever gave up this and so much else to the studios.
In short, while the Guild has won a temporary victory, not much has changed. The war is still not over. And the writers are finally realizing some of their true power. And this, is no doubt causing the moguls to shake in their boots. After all, in a world where anyone with an Internet account and a URL has a potential media empire of their own at their fingertips – with their own radio station and TV network available through online podcasting and videocasting, YouTube, and hundreds of other outlets – is clearly a world where writers “don’t need no stinking moguls.” Writers can be their own producers and distributors, at the fraction of the cost of a $100 million (or even $1 million) Hollywood film. The many clever “Speechless” videos developed by Hollywood actors and writers in support of the strike over the past three months, and available to the public on the Internet, are proof enough of that.
The real question in this war is: how long can the Guild and the studios themselves keep going with the present structure, which is quickly becoming antiquated? The producers and moguls, now feeling threatened, will grab onto all the power they can. They will still want to give writers as little as possible, and still want to treat them like labor, while the writers themselves are potentially tomorrow’s powerful self-producers. This whole structure is going to have to give somehow.
Verrone hinted at this coming change when he said at yesterday’s press conference:
“The legacy of the ‘88 strike was the ability of the companies to develop content without writers and creators. The legacy of this strike will be the ability of writers and creators to develop content without the companies. We are making deals, and we will continue to make deals, with Google, Yahoo, and others beyond just the 7 conglomerates.”
It’s the wave of the future. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. For my part, as a potential film writer, it will be especially important for my own future. And somehow I feel it will be a bright one.
(You can read more on the strike news of the last few days at Deadline Hollywood Daily (a really killer blog with hundreds of comments by writers) and at screenwriter and Act One screenwriter Janet Batchler’s blog. And don’t forget the WGA blog, United Hollywood)
