WGA authorizes strike with 96% vote | tentative agreement reached at 1am PDT

[Barnack]

@Tele Came Back

 

Little question Tele, when the WGA propose to change the Dvd residual to 0.36 to 0.72% for example, if there is more than one credited writer on a movie does both get 0.72% or it is split among them ?

 

And does non credited writer or those shifted to story by get nothing or less than full credited one ?

 

Because when I try to estimate how much it would have cost to studios that big conflictual measure, it would not have been much, like 3 to 5 million a year for the average studio.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2017 by Barnack

[Plain Old Tele]

2 minutes ago, Barnack said:

@Tele Came Back

 

Little question Tele, when the WGA propose to change the Dvd residual to 0.36 to 0.72% for example, if there is more than one credited writer on a movie does both get 0.72% or it is split among them ?

 

And does non credited writer or those shifted to story by get nothing or less than full credited one ?

 

Because when I try to estimate how much it would have cost to studios that big conflictual measure, it would not have been much, like 3 million a year for the average studio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm hardly an expert in WGA contracts nor do I have any personal experience with them. However, my understanding is that any sums paid out are divided per specific percentage among the various credited writers. ("Written by" means "Story by" and "Screenplay by", so the writer or writing team gets all of it; "Story by" and "Screenplay by" get split up -- I think "story by" is worth like 30-something percent and "screenplay by" 60-something, but I'm not gonna dive into the details listed cuz I'm lazy).  But from the studio's perspective, yes, I believe what they pay out doesn't reflect whether a movie has one credited writer or several. The exception would be if a writer was powerful enough to negotiate a different rate -- the WGA numbers are guaranteed minimums. (At least in terms of fees paid for writing; residuals may be locked into a specific rate regardless of contract). And of course, residuals are not the same as gross points or net points or anything else that the studio and writer negotiate.

[BadAtGender]

30 minutes ago, Tele Came Back said:

^^ Also, despite the numbers getting thrown around, most writers aren't millionaires or anywhere close to it. At a guess, probably a majority of them barely scrape by.

 

I tend to joke with my brother that the dream of a creative career is to have a lower middle-class lifestyle.

[DeeCee]

1 hour ago, DamienRoc said:

 

I tend to joke with my brother that the dream of a creative career is to have a lower middle-class lifestyle.

That reminds me of a line from Veronica Mars. After her dad brings in a big bounty he brings home steaks. 

 

"Tonight we eat like the lower middle class to which we aspire!"

[cheesypoofs]

Didn't they strike like 9 years ago? What are they striking for now?

[Barnack]

1 hour ago, cheesypoofs said:

Didn't they strike like 9 years ago? What are they striking for now?

 

9 year's ago is was an adjustment to new home media reality (dvd being much bigger and profitable than VHS, costing less to do and ship and selling a much bigger volume).

 

Now it is about the new streaming platform and cable tv series, the revenues changed place and the average season has less episode than before and so on, the rules and pay are not adjusted to that new model.

[Goffe]

5 hours ago, cheesypoofs said:

Didn't they strike like 9 years ago? What are they striking for now?

Exactly, 9 years ago. Almost a decade.

[Travod]

I vaguely remember there being a long strike many years ago but I was basically five so I don't know what the consequences actually were. What would a strike today mean? Is The Leftovers going to suddenly stop airing next month? Is this rumored Fincher World War Z movie going to be put on indefinite hold? (BTW I do not like the rumor, ugh what a waste of his time). IDK

[4815162342]

1 minute ago, Travod said:

I vaguely remember there being a long strike many years ago but I was basically five so I don't know what the consequences actually were. What would a strike today mean? Is The Leftovers going to suddenly stop airing next month? Is this rumored Fincher World War Z movie going to be put on indefinite hold? (BTW I do not like the rumor, ugh what a waste of his time). IDK

 

The Leftovers is already filmed.

[lilmac]

On 4/24/2017 at 9:12 PM, Barnack said:

Look like those close together strike are a normal result to how fast the industry changed.

 

Dvd revenues exploded, 2007 had a strike about them, now the industry changed again rules need to be updated to reflect how big some new revenue stream became.

 

 

A big complaint is that due to the trend toward shorter seasons (10 episode orders vs 22), writers are getting paid less for the same amount of work. The same amount of work? How is writing for ten episodes (assuming you're involved in all the scripts) the same amount of work as 22? I don't understand that stance. Also, it stands to reason that there are more opportunities out there now as more platforms are putting out content.  

Edited April 27, 2017 by lilmac

[Plain Old Tele]

16 minutes ago, lilmac said:

 

 

A big complaint is that due to the trend toward shorter seasons (10 episode orders vs 22), writers are getting paid less for the same amount of work. The same amount of work? How is writing for ten episodes (assuming you're involved in all the scripts) the same amount of work as 22? I don't understand that stance. Also, it stands to reason that there are more opportunities out there now as more platforms are putting out content.  

 

The vast bulk of what a writer is paid comes per episode credited to them (which they also get residuals from). Staff writers (lowest on the totem pole) earn a flat weekly rate and that's it. Everyone above staff writers earns a flat rate and a rate per script (which could be 5-10x what the weekly rate is).

 

A 22-episode season probably means 2-4 episodes/writer. A 10-episode season means 1-2 episodes/writer. So most writers are taking a significant financial hit by not having as many episodes/year.

 

As to other opportunities, right now most shows contractually lock their writers in, meaning they can't write for other shows during hiatus. 

[BadAtGender]

40 minutes ago, lilmac said:

 

 

A big complaint is that due to the trend toward shorter seasons (10 episode orders vs 22), writers are getting paid less for the same amount of work. The same amount of work? How is writing for ten episodes (assuming you're involved in all the scripts) the same amount of work as 22? I don't understand that stance. Also, it stands to reason that there are more opportunities out there now as more platforms are putting out content.  

 

What Tele said, also there's a lot more to writing than what makes it on screen. Writing for a shorter season can be less content, but not less work, depending on the nature of the show. If it's intricately plotted and involves a lot of pinpoint character work, a short season can be considerably MORE work than an episodic longer season. The latter might take a bit more time actually banging it out, but that's not the entire job of writing.

[Harley]

JK Rowling is cramming in rewrites. I imagine they all are.

[The Panda]

18 hours ago, DamienRoc said:

 

What Tele said, also there's a lot more to writing than what makes it on screen. Writing for a shorter season can be less content, but not less work, depending on the nature of the show. If it's intricately plotted and involves a lot of pinpoint character work, a short season can be considerably MORE work than an episodic longer season. The latter might take a bit more time actually banging it out, but that's not the entire job of writing.

 

Yeah, look at the writing for shows like Game of Thrones or Stranger Things versus The Big Bang Theory.  More episodes =\= more work

[Plain Old Tele]

4 minutes ago, The Panda said:

 

Yeah, look at the writing for shows like Game of Thrones or Stranger Things versus The Big Bang Theory.  More episodes =\= more work

 

To be fair, there's a huge difference between an hour-long drama and a half-hour sitcom. (And the sitcom has challenges the drama doesn't have, too: turning around scripts within a week during production, for example).

[BadAtGender]

28 minutes ago, Tele Came Back said:

 

To be fair, there's a huge difference between an hour-long drama and a half-hour sitcom. (And the sitcom has challenges the drama doesn't have, too: turning around scripts within a week during production, for example).

 

Besides, that, comedy is fucking hard. Even for lowest common denominator style shows, such as BBT, there's a difficulty in getting enough jokes and being able to make enough of them land that the audience is keyed in. It's not my cup of tea, but it's still not easy to do.

 

I tend to go for Michael Shur's much more cerebral style humor. The writing craft in The Good Place is fucking obscene. Even with its short season, I don't want to know how long and hard they had to work to pull that together. It's even less screen time than a short season drama, and it's still probably more work. It's truly next level shit, writing wise.

[Plain Old Tele]

Yup, sitcoms tend to be broad and vaudevilian, even the great ones. And of course in theory you're pitching jokes for comedians to sell to live audiences. But it's definitely a fine art, even if my personal tastes tend toward a different style of humor. 

[trifle]

The NFL Player's Union has declared its support of the WGA demands.

 

http://www.thewrap.com/jocks-nerds-unite-nfl-players-pledge-solidarity-hollywood-writers/

 

I don't know if that sort of thing is common, but it surprised me.

[aabattery]

With this kind of negotiation, is it the individual studios who agree to the terms or is there another union or something for the studio heads that negotiates with the WGA? Do they all have to come to a consensus or something?

[Barnack]

13 minutes ago, aabattery said:

With this kind of negotiation, is it the individual studios who agree to the terms or is there another union or something for the studio heads that negotiates with the WGA? Do they all have to come to a consensus or something?

 

The AMPTP is negotiating:

http://amptp.org/

 

They represent over 350 entity on the production companies side, tv distributor and so on, including all the MPAA studios.

Edited April 28, 2017 by Barnack