Eclectic Views

    
Hey, Fawn!

Thanks for your post on Tasini et. al., which was a brave and useful
case.

Studios try all the time to get us to negotiate with ourselves, to
undercut others.  What the WGA has --  and the NWU doesn't --  is the
MBA, or Minimum Basic Agreement, which sets scales, regulations, rules
of engagement.  It's a 400-plus page document, and it protects the
newest and least powerful among us even as it forms the basis for the
best leveraged among us to build upon it.

They companies have often tried in the past to do an end-run around
us, particularly with "reality."  It sometimes works in the short run. 
It seems never to work in the long run.
  

    
Yeah, the WGA is a real union, and the NWU isn't. So you've got that
going for you.
  

    
Howard, what do you think of Eisner's diss of the strike in today's
NYT interview with Deborah Solomon?

<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/magazine/18wwln-Q4-t.html?ref=magazine>

DS: [A]ren’t television networks already making money from programs
that appear on the Internet, which is what the striking writers want a
piece of? 

ME: No. The areas in which they are making money, which let’s call the
reuse areas — the movies to be downloaded, or television series to be
downloaded — are areas in which I believe the producers have agreed to
make a deal. The area where they cannot make a deal is original
production for the Internet, which is neither profitable nor is it
clear in exactly what direction it’s going to go.

DS: But there is a growing revenue pie. 

ME: Not a profit pie.

DS: So you’re saying you don’t have a crumb to spare for writers at
this point? 

ME: It’s not writers. You make it sound like it’s some sort of
hostility here. There’s not a crumb to spare for anything. The shows
that I made for “Prom Queen” cost like $3,000 for 90 seconds. The
entire arena is in this tiny version of it until we have a shake-up of
the reality. 
  

    
So, what's the problem with developing those markets against a realistic
cost basis rather than an abusiv one?
  

    
Eisner is, let us remember, the man who hired Mike Ovitz, and then,
five months later, when that wasn't working out so good, paid north of
$90,000,000--some say as much as $185,000,000 if you count options--to
shitcan him.

First of all, the "area where they cannot make a deal" is very much
work downloaded or streamed via the internet--something even he
concedes is profitable.

Second, if there's really no profit pie in made-for-internet, why are
they doing it?  

No crumbs to spare?  That's like Bush saying there's no money for
children's health but somehow billions available for tax cuts for the
rich and oh, by the way, this trillion-dollar war in the middle east...
  

    
So, apparently today, the studios are out there saying that writers
=do= get paid for online downloads, as opposed to new material streamed
online only.  I've seen their claims, but nothing at all that backs it
up.

Are there any writers being paid for online downloads of shows at this
point?
  

    
Also, we read news that negotiations will resume soon-- what's the
skinny there?
  

    
Negotiations will resume on Monday.  Various intermediaries convinced
the companies that their interests were not being well-served by
staying away from the table.

As for online downloads, we assume we're being paid at the old .003
rate.  I say assume because the companies refuse to give us an
accounting, refuse to break out the figures for how much of what
they're paying us for theatrical royalties is from DVDs, how much from
downloads.  (They regard this information as a state secret.)

If they are paying us at the old fraction of a fraction rate, consider
this: the rate was devised for videocassettes, for which the cost of
the medium, the inventory, the shipping, the warehousing, the
rackjobbing, the returns, all were substantial.  They're now
maintaining that rate when their fixed costs in all the above respects
have disappeared.

We're not saying they're giving us nothing (except in the case of
"promotional" streaming, where they are giving us literally nothing). 
We're saying that they are paying us as if they had substantial
manufacturing, packaging, warehousing, inventory, distribution costs
when they no longer have those costs.

Every study I've seen suggests that they can afford what we're asking.
  

    

What everybody's wondering is how long can either side stand losing money,
of course. Strikes are such a huge game of chicken, and it has to be hard to
on writers to be out for the holiday season.
  

    

yeah but the television watching public wants their raymond, or whatever. 
and the advertising dollars are going to be drying up, and the companies 
that wont negotiate are at risk of being found negligent by their 
stockholders if they refuse to play ball. 

this makes me SO MAD. Beyond the gross unfairness, its bad business 
practices. 
  

    
Any update on the strike?
  

    

Yeah, and what kinds of things are the picketers doing to bring attention to
the issues you're wrangling over, Howard?
  

    
Here's an update of sorts.

Negotiations resumed on Monday, shepherded by Bryan Lourd of CAA.  

We had been assured by various CEOs, speaking through backchannels and
through Mr. Lourd, that we would get this round what we did not get
the last round: a real response to our taking DVDs off the table.  We
had been told last time that we would get a "real" proposal on internet
downloads--  And of course, when the AMPTP walked out of the
negotiations, none was proffered.

On Monday, though, instead of that response, we got a laborious
restatement of the AMPTP position.  There was minor movement in one
area very far away from the core of our concerns, but nothing in new
media, nothing in internet, nothing in streaming...

Tuesday likewise.  Wednesday likewise.  Those who recall The Fugs may
remember Tuli Kupferberg singing, "Monday, nothing/ Tuesday, nothing/
Wednesday and Thursday/ Nothing..."

Well, on Thursday, the AMPTP pulled out of its back pocket--  A
proposal!  They called it the New Economic Partnership, a phrase, I
guess, supposed to invoke the New Deal (although frankly to these ears
it sounds more like the Clean Skies Act, or No Child Left Behind).

The Partnership contained nothing on internet downloads.  It proposed
a flat $250 fee for a year's internet re-use of television episodes (as
opposed, say, to the current $20K or so for a network rerun).  It
proposed unlimited streaming of features and entire episodes, with
advertising, with revenues, for exactly $0.00 --  as long as it was
termed "promotional."  (The decision as to what is and what is not
promotional remains, of course, at the discretion of the companies.)

Needless to say, the New Economic Partnership is not going to end the
strike.  "Partnership" is one of those words like "collaboration" that
means something to most of us, but something very different--a term of
art--when used by the companies.

As David Mamet--who turns 60 today--once said, "Filmmaking is a
collaborative medium.  To screenwriters, that's only half a sentence. 
The second half of which is, 'so bend over.'"
  

    
We're doing all kinds of things to bring attention to our cause.  The
blog of strike captains at http://www.unitedhollywood.com has done a
fine fine superfine job of getting our message out.  There was, this
week, a labor solidarity rally in Washington Square in NYC, with
representatives from the teachers, the SEIU, etc.  In Los Angeles, the
SEIU is putting up billboards supporting our struggle.  And on
Wednesday, there was an international solidarity day, with members of
writers guilds in Paris, in Italy, in the UK, all demonstrating on our
behalf.

In the meanwhile, advertisers are asking for their upfront money back;
several tentpole movies are being indefinitely postponed because the
scripts aren't ready; and the companies are suffering far more loss
from the strike than they would have to pay for a settlement (what ever
happened to enlightened self-interest?).

The cost of _everything_ we're currently asking for is roughly $50M a
year--about the cost of the overage on one runaway blockbuster, and
less than one CEO's severance package.  

The picketing will continue.  The shutdown of episodic television will
continue.  In the meanwhile, the negotiations will continue (they pick
up again on Tuesday) while we wait for the AMPTP, in the room, what
the CEOs, out of the room, have repeatedly told us they will do:
respond with a serious proposal on internet downloads and other central
matters.

Wish us luck.
  

    
I wish you all the luck in the world!  Please keep us posted.  

BTW, is there anything that we non-writers can do to help?  I've
signed the petition on the United Hollywood website and recommend that
everyone else do the same.  Under "comments" on the petition, I was
going to write, "Dear Executives: Please treat your writers the way you
would want to be treated," but then I realized that you aren't asking
for golden parachutes, just reasonable compensation for your work.  The
way Hollywood has traditionally dealt with -- and continues to treat
-- you guys reminds me of that wonderfully satiric television show
"Action."
  

    
How about a boycott of Internet movie/TV downloads on iTunes and
elsewhere, until writers (and for that matter, all the other industry
unions) get a fair share of the take?
  

    
Those not in our Guild can certainly help out in many ways.  Come join
us on the picket lines--it's fun, aerobic, and wildly collegial. 
Write the CEOs and execs of the Big Media companies, telling them to
treat the creators and writers of your favorite shows fairly.
  

    
If I was anywhere near LA, I would bring you donuts and coffee. Can we
order donut-and-coffee deliveries?
  

    
Thanks, Fawn.  I don't know of a donut delivery, but you can certainly
write to the CEO of the company that owns your favorite show/movie and
give him/her a piece of your mind.  

A longer and more cogent version of the jeremiad in post 38 can now be
found at
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-a-rodman/the-new-economic-partners_b_74816.html

It was on the splash page for a day or so (thank you, Arianna!) and
I've been receiving many kind words about it...
  

    
That was one terrific jeremiad!  Loved your quote of Hyman Roth...
just saw Part II last week and actually thought of you guys at the
time. For the first time in my life, I wish I lived in a studio town,
just so I could march and bring donuts.

Writing letters to the CEO's as suggested.
  

    
WJ, don't you think there should be a writers strike in Second Life? 
How would we go about it, if we wanted avatar solidarity?
  

    
Heh, that's totally doable, just need to create some signs for avatars
to hold.  As it happens, the writer's strike *is* affecting Second
Life-- several production companies have partnerships with TV/movie
studios (most prominently CSI, which has a spinoff in SL), and that's
caused a slowdown.
  

    
> Come join us on the picket lines--it's fun, aerobic, and wildly
> collegial. Write the CEOs and execs of the Big Media companies,
> telling them to treat the creators and writers of your favorite
> shows fairly.

I live in the dregs of Texas, so no chance of the first. Tell me where
to write for the second (primarily the makers of The Big Bang Theory,
How I Met Your Mother, The Office, My Name Is Earl, Aliens in America,
Everyone Hates Chris, Smallville) Some of those haven't quite hit
repeats, but I can get ready. I can go quite ballistic over The Office
right now. Is there any way to write Steve Carell and tell him I
support him and that his company sucks donkey balls?
  

    
The best way to write the production executives and CEOs of your
favorite shows is to use the Widget, which is currently up on
FireDogLake, and will soon be up on DailyKos and Digby and a number of
other progressive blogs.  For now, go to

http://firedoglake.com/wga/index.php/write/compose

and fire away.

This will let you let Steve Carell's company know you think they suck
donkey balls.  It won't let you tell Steve Carell you told 'em that,
alas.
  

    
Can you create some Second Life picket signs?  You can grab stuff off
of wga and unitedhollywood.com

My favorite button of this week:

WRITERS - Without us, there's nothing but reality.

Thanks, WJA!