Captain's Blog

So, how come the Contract Captains of the WGA can blog during the strike, but the WGA limits blogs in a strike rule to other members?

Ewww! what’s up with the bold text?

I don’t care what everybody else says. :)

I appresheatecha.

Don’t always agree, but I appreciate your time and your willingness to take a stand. Your posts kept me interested enough to find out more about my soon-to-be union and what we’re up against.

It limits blogs? I guess blogs which one gets paid for… but that wouldn’t be with the AMPTP, and that’s what the strike is about. Any rule that tries to limit the internet, is well, silly. You simply can’t regulate it. Makes no sense to try. Also, being unaffiliated with WGA, I’ve not heard of this limit.

Alec Baldwin chimes in.

AYAAW

And speaking for the other side, I give you John Ridley. Oops, I meant he’s on our side too.

Some gems:

Should the strike happen — the first writers strike in 18 years — the writers will ultimately lose and lose badly. I’m talking Gulf War I, the Republican Guard were sissies badly.

Followed by

I imagine the assumption is that I am anti-strike. I am not. The strike must happen. Among other, lesser points of negotiation an equitable slice of the future pie is too valuable not to fight for.

Say wha—?

AYAAW

I’m glad to see the united hollywood website - And damn glad to see the teamsters stepping up. I also really appreciate Alex Baldwin chiming in. We need more of that. Hopefully such testimony will penetrate the one group wields ultimate power, and who has not been lobbied enough in my opinion — the audience. Almost everyone knows some aspiring writer, most aud members know that writer’s get jacked around. A big e-mail campaign and a pile of letters to studios from middle america vowing not to watch TV or rent DVDs during any walkout would strike fear into the hearts of the fat cats. The Aud is on our side, how do we capitalize on it?

Alex Perez is back with new videos.

It sounds to me from the Variety story (and Nikki Finke’s spin on it) that a shorter version of the “cooling off” period may be in the works. I was hoping for a 30 day period, but it sounds like this will be a week or two at the most. But at least there will be negotiations during that time.

That is, unless a strike is called to begin right away.

The Teamster Captain on my show told me he figured any strike wouldn’t start until at least Monday. We’ll see tomorrow…

BTW the Local 42 ruling means that UPS trucks and other non-Hollywood Teamster vehicles would also honor the picket lines and refuse to make deliveries if they had to go through a picket line to do so. I’m not sure what will happen at the lots where picket lines don’t go up. In other words, if there’s a picket line at Paramount at the Windsor Gate, what about the Bronson Gate and the Van Ness Gate? What about the Sunset Gower lot? And what about all the TV shows that shoot on converted warehouse stages up in Valencia, like NCIS, for example? Are there enough members to picket all of them?

I also saw a note on Nikki’s site about pickets only going from 9A-12P and 1P-4P, or something like that. This wouldn’t be that useful to stop many companies, since many of them have drivers and crew in much earlier and much later. I would think a 6AM-6PM picket would be much more likely to engage the drivers, among others.

Working AD:

The Local 42 ruling doesn’t mean that Teamsters won’t cross the lines.

It means individual drivers can choose not to cross the lines.

Still, the unpredictability factor still applies. Chaos can only help a strike, I suppose.

But I don’t want it to help a strike.

Just the strike threat.

Craig, you’re absolutely right about the Local 42 Ruling regarding it being about individual choices. However, it’s pretty well understood by the Teamsters I’m working for that it’s a Teamster position not to cross picket lines. And I believe that was Reed’s point in talking to his members and posting his statement.

BTW at least one major studio apparently has the thought that the Teamsters may simply refuse to cross the gates that have picket lines in front of them. Under that thinking, you could have a picket line in front of one gate at the front of the studio, and the drivers all go in and out the gate at the back of the studio. I don’t think this will actually work in practice - I think the Teamsters would simply avoid the backlot in question, but it’s interesting that this thought has been voiced. I would think that the only effective picket would be one that covered EVERY gate at each studio from sunrise to sundown, but I don’t know if that’s legal.

The National Board of Directors of Screen Actors Guild unanimously approved a statement of support for the Writers Guild of America (WGA) at its plenary meeting in Los Angeles Oct. 27. The e-mail I received in my inbox this morning (sent to the entire SAG membership) said, “Saturday’s resolution, which is included below in full, sounds a resounding note of support for the WGA from the highest elected body of Screen Actors Guild.” Here’s their resolution…

SCREEN ACTORS GUILD STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FOR THE WGA

WHEREAS the advent of digital production and distribution of content through the Internet, cell phones, and other new media platforms has created a moment of historical urgency for the Guilds that represent creative talent;

WHEREAS our employers sought to change the compensation structures fought for by generations of actors, writers and directors by proposing to pay residuals on a profit-only basis across all media;

WHEREAS our employers have thus far been unwilling to counteroffer the reasonable WGA payment proposal for Internet streaming and instead call such use “promotional” even when whole pictures are shown and new revenue is generated;

WHEREAS our employers persist in equating content downloaded over the Internet with the sale of DVDs despite the complete absence of manufacturing costs and the relatively de minimis cost of digital distribution;

WHEREAS our employers have thus far been unwilling to recognize that the wages, working conditions and residuals provided in our basic contracts should govern work made for any platform, new or old;

WHEREAS our employers have had sufficient experience in new media to make confident, public revenue projections to their shareholders, but nevertheless insist that they must study new media for another three years before they can bargain a residuals formula;

WHEREAS any solution devised for payment of residuals in new media must address the problems of monitoring and enforcement;

WHEREAS our employers have been unwilling to improve the unjust home video residuals formula despite record home video revenues they have reaped since convincing the Guilds over 20 years ago to help grown this market by accepting a discounted residual;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the National Board of Directors of Screen Actors Guild that:

1. The current position of the AMPTP and its members referred to above are unreasonable and would set a dangerous precedent for all creative talent.

2. The Guild supports the WGA and any other Guild or union that seeks to resist the employer positions referred to above and fight for fair compensation and protections for creative talent in the motion picture, television, and new media industries.

Adopted unanimously this 27th day of October 2007 by the National Board of Directors of Screen Actors Guild.

“If I were an actor or a writer in Hollywood, I’d be far less concerned about getting my share of the downstream revenue and much more concerned about whether I’m gonna have any kind of job five years from now.” - Bob Garfield, co-host of NPR’s On The Media

I’m an actor and a writer who walked the SAG picket line in 1981. I had just gotten my first television series and my wife and I were expecting our first child. Days can turn into weeks very quickly on a line. I watched my series wilt on the vine and the birth of my first child - a beautiful girl. She is now an aspiring writer in Hollywood living in a far different world than the one she was born into.

I’m a union guy. My father was a Depression baby and a Roosevelt Democrat. He always said, “it’s about the work.” Pretty simple philosophy but one I’ve never forgotten. “Work hard and it’ll come to you,” he would tell me. And it did. When there were three networks and a built in audience it wasn’t difficult to figure it out. Today, it takes a cadre of $600 an hour attorneys.

So, it looks like a strike is imminent. Believe me, they can be ugly. Careers will be altered and lives will be affected. I would posit that, after the smoke clears, the WGA will settle for something that could have been determined at the bargaining table.

And so, I appeal to those in the room. You’re about to kill the fatted calf once again. This ain’t brain surgery. Check your egos at the door before it’s too late. Get the deal done. The audience has dwindled and actors and writers are less relevant than they’ve ever been. So, they hate us. Take the money and live your life.

I completely lost every ounce of respect for Zucker when he made this comment:

“We know that Apple has destroyed the music business - in terms of pricing — and if we don’t take control, they’ll do the same thing on the video side,”

Excuse me?! Apple seemed to have the vision that the record labels didn’t, and actually brought the music selling business more in line with the present, not the past which is where the labels were living, and then wondering where all their profits were going. Apple is the only one out there that seems to have figured out a model that actually works. Zucker doesn’t seem to understand that if you make it too difficult or too expensive to buy music or video online, people will just do it for free.

Mark, I agree.

It’s noteworthy that SAG’s show of support is based on the internet download and DVD residual issues only. I am hoping that a similar narrowing is happening at the negotiatiating table - that the AMPTP will take any remaining rollbacks off the table as patently unreasonable and that the WGA will take all but the most salient issues off the table. I would suggest that these are a fair and reasonable internet download formula and possibly a revising upward of the DVD formula.

So now the strike has been delayed. Sweet!

“We know that Apple has destroyed the music business - in terms of pricing — and if we don’t take control, they’ll do the same thing on the video side,”

A half dozen years ago, I sat on a business and labor panel at the L.A. County Bar Association. An attorney in a chair to my left got up and said: “The music industry has got to wake up. Selling CDs out of brick-and-mortar stores, one $16 disk to a customer, is over. And the longer they try and hang onto that business model, the worse for them it will be.

“They can’t run around suing sixteen-year-old kids and college students who download pirated music. They’ve got to find a new business model.”

Apple has actually saved the music business from itself. They’ve climbed about Mr. Jobs’ starliner because the only alternative is to cut the price of their little silver disks, and they are generally horrified at the idea of doing that.

Also loved what Alec Baldwin had to say. As for what John Ridley said… What is he saying?

When I see the propaganda in the formerly respectable Variety, I get mad for a second but then I remember that no one is actually going to fall for that nonsense.

And then I see Travis Fields’ post. Ugh.

Anon 19,

First, it must be said that there is a Travis Fields impersonator. Second, it must also be said that the real Travis Fields is genuine in his passion to become a screenwriter. He’s so passionate that he genuinely believes a strike would be fortuitous to his career. So, in his own way, when he says, “Strike delayed… sweet,” he’s swallowing a fatal blow to his career and wishing ours success.

Third, in this instance, with this person, there is little need for, �Ugh.�

So, why don�t you leave Travis Fields and his impersonator alone and go bully someone from your own class, you characterless void of a non-being.

So is a Travis Fields impersonator like a female impersonator? Do they wear the same high heels? And are Cher songs involved?

Ugh. Zucker’s demand for a piece of iPod revenue is nasty, I can’t believe that United Hollywood used that as a centerpiece in one of their posts. It’s like claiming that NBC deserves a cut from every TV set sold. If writers go about making these kinds of arguments, they’ll be thought of as a bunch of out-of-touch money grubbers.

Bai Ling,

“And are Cher songs involved?”

If only… sadly Travis’ impersonator limits itself to soft parody.

The big day…

And apparantly agencies chime in on hyphenates issue:

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/

a reverse spin on “The Professional” from tyro scribe Seth Lochhead.

“Reverse spin.” That’s such a nicer way of saying, “Re-heated unoriginal terd.”

“you characterless void of a non-being.”

Somehow I think a writer should learn how to write a character before they start calling other writers characterless.

I guess you don’t think such trash-talk violates Craig’s request to keep the tone civil. But then again you don’t care about anything except the sound of your own voice. As someone has already pointed out, why do the rest of us have to suffer through every third post on this blog being one of your unfunny, tendentious break-no-new-ground crap-piles. I don’t mind idiots, I mind idiots who not only don’t know that everyone else thinks they’re idiots, but who actually think they’re brillant Noel Coward level wits.

And everyone else on this board is sick of it, too.

Okay, enough. Don’t make me start deleting crap.

Oh Anonymous,

Of course I like the sound of my own voice. Why would I post every three posts if I didn’t?

But only a true wit like yourself has to point it out. And only a true wit like yourself would identify with its unremarkable name and take my literal description of that name personally.

And least you forget, Anonymous, you were picking on someone, who has the balls to use his own name, for being positive. You went out of your way in fact.

And as for “everyone else on this board is sick of it, too…” I’m sure they are, but they haven’t expressed such an illness. In fact, only one has expressed nausea, and that’s you Anonymous (or a name variation there of).

And no matter how many people agree with you or how many people you speak for, I will never know it because you will always be “…a characterless void of non-being.”

Coventry

Craig,

My apologies.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/29/hulu-translates-to-cease-and-desist-in-swahili-oh-the-irony/

(the article goes on to note the subtly of the african translation: “allow, cease, desist, permit, butt”… which goes some way to explaining why everyone in swaliland has aids. hulu, hulu!!)

Ladies, ladies, please. Hopefully, your negotiating team isn’t behaving like this.

After exhaustive research. I see no evidence that the strike has been delayed - it simply has not been called. And I can see no good reason why making such an announcement would be a smart move at this point.

My agent as well as friends’ agents are slammed to the gills at the moment trying to shove projects in under the line. Every day AMPTP gets to round up work in dev gives additional staying power to the studios. Why let ‘em stock up? Seems to me the heat needs to say on, and that a delay in calling the strike should only be on a day by day basis as a reward for moving toward a fair contract.

That’s my two cents, and belive me - this strike climate is absolutely f-ing my sh%$ up.

I am not sick of SML’s posts. Please stay with it.

The AMPTP has a statement on the website. It looks like we are striking.

Anon #11,

Although it breaks from my aloof exterior… thanks.

It’s deja vu all over again. A drink is what I’m gonna have.

I’m trying to read between the lines of the most recent statement at amptp.org, and it sounds to me like maybe the Guild has withdrawn the DVD-residual-doubling demand but is sticking to an increase in the download residual rate. Right?

The statement reads that the demand for an increase in DVD, which also applies to downloading and new media, has not been removed… unless I raad it wrong?

ABIO: No, you didn’t but the way it’s phrased. with emphasis on how online sellthrough = DVD in the AMPTP view makes it sound to me like the WGA may have agreed to not seek as much of an increase for actual DVDs in return for a decent sellthrough rate.

By the way, this WSJ article is worth a read: http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119387297451278325-bHRbmyRKjLJCc6zZy0yUJ0OY20081031.html?mod=rss_free

Mike S.,

It seems to me that the AMPTP is grouping what the WGA believes to be two issues (DVD resids, resids on permanent downloads) into one.

I direct you to this quote from the AMPTP as proof: “In referring to DVDs, we include not only traditional DVDs, but also electronic sell-through — i.e., permanent downloads.”

It’s in the interest of the WGA to separate these issues so that permanent downloads do not fall under the home video formula. If we acquiesce to this issue, we�re screwed. If the AMPTP acquiesces they loose the privilege of screwing us.

Or lose… loose comes after the screwing…

Jeff Zucker’s statement is as absurd as it is stupid as it is transparently desperate.

To suggest that Apple owes him a cut of iPod revenue is to suggest that he’s also entitled to a cut of every TV, VCR, DVR and DVD player sold - and that the record labels are entitled to a cut of every CD player, radio and satellite radio sold.

This is what is known as MADNESS, and will haunt Zucker long past Halloween, as it seriously undermines his credibility.

Memo to Zucker: Apple handed you a new distribution platform on a silver platter, and you got greedy… so now many of us who can no longer watch your shows on iTunes will just grab ‘em off BitTorrent, and you get nothing. Smart move.

I�d just like to let you know that DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com has turned on the �comments� feature for strike-related stories starting tonight and continuing as needed.

We need to be careful about language such as “permanent downloads” most films will be distributated on a membership/view on download basis. Thus a permanent download will leave us out of “on demand” viewing revenue. I’m sure WGA lawyers are smart enough not to fall for a stupid trick like that, but I’m willing to bet that AMPTP is willing to try it. It seems logical to me that if technology makes it possible that the industry will want to move to a place where you can’t own a copy of a movie, but to where you pay for each viewing - sounds good to me, but we won’t be getting a share if we only have residual on “Permanent Downloads”.

I feel like pointing this out makes me sound like a simpleton, but there are a lot of simple ways to get screwed.

According to Variety this evening, the AMPTP refused to negotiate further unless we dropped our proposal to double the home video formula. We said absolutely not. We also are insisting they agree to expanding our jurisdiction in reality and animation. Those issues — the DVD formula, reality, and animation — have become our strike issues, not internet downloads. Looks like we are fighting the last war, not the next war. I’m worried. In fact I’m sick. We really would strike with determination over internet and new media issues, but when members realize what else we’re really striking for, it could get ugly. Dammit.

Anon 19,

But new information has come to light. The DVD formula is tied to the internet battle (or, in the least, the AMPTP wants it tied together).

I’ll quote again: “�In referring to DVDs, we include not only traditional DVDs, but also electronic sell-through � i.e., permanent downloads.�”

AMPTPs post actully could be read in a slightly positive light. As I understand it we were to get nada, zip, nolo on downloads. Now they are saying downloads and DVD are the same thing which means we’d at least get the pennys we get on DVD on downloads. Don’t start yelling yet. I understand that’s piss poor, but at least we are starting to see where they really want to end up.

Now, Craig is right. Downloads cost way less to put out, there’s more profit there. So we should get a bit more of the revenue. They make a little more, we make a little more, everyone is happy. That’s what’s reasonable.

As for the DVD battle, Craig is also right that ship has sailed, besides. DVD is going to be like betamax before long. It’s a non-issue, DVD is going away, or at least way down as a portion of total revenues.

Drop the DVD issue, WGA - don’t let them tie the two together, and focus on getting a reasonable download rate. That’s the future, and AMPTP knows it. This joining the two togther is a smart play on their part, but it also tells us what they REALLY want is to give us the same crappy rate on Downloads.

Our smart play now is to agree to leave the DVD rate where it is, and to move onto downloads, thus placing the concession ball in there court as we narrow down to where the money is going to be in the future.