Strike!

It may have come to your attention that in the US at the moment there is a writers strike on. Now equally this may well have passed you by, but if you don’t know much about it then ponder the fact that a few months down the line and the effects will be felt by all. Currently all members of the WGA (writers Guild of America) are on strike, they will produce no writing during this time. Of course this has led to productions being shut down of many of TV’s big shows, 24 has already announced it has been postponed indefinitely and will not start in January as usual, writers also from Lost and nearly every major TV drama have joined in meaning that while the companies may have a certain amount of materials stored up, if the strike continues for a while this will soon run out and the lack of programming on TV will be all too obvious during much of next year.

So what’s the fuss all about? Why are the writers striking? Well many much more knowledgeable bloggers than myself have answered this very question eloquently and I shall link to a number of articles on this subject in a minute. But in layman’s terms, and from my limited understanding, it comes down to the subject of residuals and the internet. Currently a writer is paid in two ways, they get an initial fee for a piece of work and in exchange for signing the work over to the studios (so they become the recognised legal authors) they are entitled to residuals. These are basically royalties, the same as what artists get for music and authors get for books. So every time a TV episode is repeated on TV, or bought on DVD the writers gets a small share of the money (currently 0.3%). The systems works well because the media is an uncertain beast, when writing a pilot for a TV series or a screenplay both the writer and the production company have no idea how big (if any) a success the finished product will be. Consequently a better received, and thus promoted, watched and sold, product leads to more money both for the studio and the writer, the risk of the new remains but it is now shared. After all if there was simply a set fee it would unfair for a studio to continue to make millions from the property years later and have the writer lumped with nothing.

The internet is where the problem lies. You see the future will see convergence between TV and the internet and eventually the two will become one. Already stations are streaming whole episodes and series on their websites and even offering them for download from places like iTunes, and yet the writers have no residuals when it comes to the internet. The production companies claim these streaming broadcasts are merely ‘promotions’, and yet they feature adverts (which make the studio’s money). The strike has happened now because writers got stung a few years back with the proliferation of DVD sales, whereby the studios were very reluctant to negotiate a residuals deal. Rather than make the same mistake twice the guild has decided to sort out internet residuals now, rather than down the line. You see already it is costing money, by streaming episodes or offering them for download the networks don’t need to repeat old shows anymore, in realty they’ve found a way of bypassing the writer and keeping all the profits to themselves. The studios argue that they don’t make any money off of the internet, an argument that is irrelevant especially as residuals deal with a portion of the profits made from a property, hence if the studio makes a loss, the writer doesn’t get anything. The trouble is neither side wants to budge and in the long run it is the viewers who will pay. Writers get a rough enough deal as it is sometimes, they also have pretty amazing jobs, but anyone who views them as whining spoilt rich kids needs to get acquainted with the way things really work. It is a justified and long established idea that creative artists are entitled to royalties and for the muti-billion dollar networks who already control so much of the media and even the production of that media to play the innocent victim in all this is unacceptable.

A deal will be done, and at the end of the day the writers probably will get slightly screwed over once again, but the strike is as much about the result as it is taking a stand. It is heartening to see so many actors and producers supporting the writers, they are the lifeblood of the entertainment industry and are so easily overlooked. If someone asked you to name 10 TV writers could you? I think even I might struggle. Writers fade to the background, many intentionally, but they deserve the proper credit and reward for the job they do. From these people come all the thousands of hours of free entertainment we enjoy every year, some of which affect us in real and life changing ways. Without the writers there would be no TV, and if things continue the way they are, the executives are going to find this out sooner rather than later.

If this story interests you at all then do read up on the stories below, I frequent some of the blogs and they are always entertaining and insightful and, being an (aspiring) writer myself something to look up to and learn from.

The Artful Writer – Blog of Craig Mazin screenwriter of Scary Movie 3 and 4, his site is a veritable goldmine of info on the WGA and the strike and is well worth reading.

John August – Screenwriter of Big Fish and Go details more about residuals and the strike on his blog.

John Rogers – Screenwriter and TV writer whose blog constantly makes me laugh has a lot on the strike as well.

Ken Levine – Legendary writer of shows such as Cheers, Mash and Fraiser keep daily updates of the strike amongst his other humorous posts.

Josh Friedman - Elusive scribe has his own unique take on events, read if you dare.

Article by Damon Lindeloff, one of the key writers from Lost on the strike.