Q&A: February 2005 Archives

Q: After a brief spell in LA I moved to New York, where the WGA(W) has been sending me my Guild mail for years. I pay them all my dues and I also vote in their elections. I much prefer to be a member of WGA West than East, but was told recently that I am “automatically deemed” to have applied for a transfer by moving to Gotham. Must I join WGA(E)—even if I’d choose not to—and am I kicked out of West? Have they been sending me my mail by mistake?

A: Oy. Such is the mess created by East and west.

The WGAw and the WGAE have an identical section in their respective constitutions called “Affiliation” that governs these sort of membership issues.

The first rule of “who belongs where?” is easy. If you live west of the Mississippi, you’re WGAw. If you live east, you’re WGAE.

If that were the only rule, life would be simple. It ain’t.

The second important rule is as follows:

Any member of either Guild who shall take up and maintain residence in the geographic area over which the other Guild exercises jurisdiction for a period of three (3) months shall automatically be deemed to have requested transfer of membership to such other Guild at the end of such three-month period.

Easy enough. You move, you get switched. There are two corollaries. First, if you’re a screenwriter and you have to move east specifically for a screenwriting assignment, you don’t get switched.

Secondly, the Guilds haven’t really been doing this. It’s one of the things we’re going to have to get into with this new Board.

Technically, however, your situation leads to an automatic transfer of membership to the East.

Ah, but we’re not done. Here’s the next relevant rule (assuming you are a screenwriter rather than a TV writer), and it’s a doozy.

Notwithstanding the above subsection if a member of Writers Guild, East, shall be employed or sell literary material for a theatrical motion picture, he shall thereupon also become a member of Writers Guild, west. So long as said individual shall remain a member of Writers Guild, East, his dues shall be allocated in accordance with the provisions of Section 4 of this Article.

This is a big one. If you’re a screenwriter who lives in the East (and thus is a member of East), you must also be a member of West. This means that you must now send half your dues to West and half to East.

Alas, East and West have been arguing over this one for a long time. Essentially, East doesn’t like forking over half of the dues they collect from screenwriters living in the east. West has sort of let that slide for a while, but the current leadership of the WGA has been unanimous in their desire to enforce this piece of the constitution.

So here’s where you are. You’ve moved east, so after three months, you get automatically shunted into East, but you’re a screenwriter, so you’re also WGAw. Half your dues should go to East and half to WGAw.

BUT…we’re not done. :)

One last rule that I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

A Current member of either Guild who wishes to transfer his/her membership to the other Guild shall apply to the Executive Director of the Guild of which he/ she is then a member for a transfer card.

Upon receipt of such request, the Executive Director shall prepare a card certifying the member’s status as a member of the Guild.

Upon presentation of such card to the Executive Director of the Guild to which such member seeks a transfer, he/she shall be assigned the same status in such Guild as he/she then holds in the Guild from which he/she has obtained the transfer card.

In short, if you want to just be in West, you apply. Your application must be accepted.

Final analysis: if you want to just be in West, simply call up WGAE and say, “I’m applying for a membership transfer to West.” Call up WGAw at the same time and let them know that you want to transfer. They may even help you with the transfer.

Hope that helped. If you want to read these constitutional passages for yourself, there’s a link in the left column under “Interesting” (an optimistic header, I know). Drop me an email if you need the name and number of a membership staffperson at WGAw to help you with your transfer.

Q: Am I expecting too much of my agent? If a spec is submitted, and nobody buys it, but it gathers compliments, is it wrong to expect him to update me on what exactly happened? I only know that reaction was somewhat positive from his assistant, even though nobody bought it.

As I might like to pitch to the ‘liked the writing but didn’t buy it’ types, am I being hopelessly needy to expect at least some update from my agent? I have heard nothing from him at all since the spec went out, months ago.

A: I’ll keep saying the following until I run short of breath (or get run out of town).

Agents are our employees.

That doesn’t mean we can’t work with them in partnership. I certainly do so with my current agents. Nonetheless, we employ agents to service our careers.

Returning calls is important. I generally allow that my representatives have 24 hours to get back to me. Taking longer than one business day means I’m simply not important enough to them. If I’m not important enough to them, they do not deserve to be my employees.

And I have fired agents before.

It’s common for some agents to avoid calling their clients with bad news. If this is the case with you, I suggest calling your reps and letting them know that you want to hear all news when it occurs. Assure them that, unlike some of their more troublesome clients, you are mature enough to have a discussion about your career without becoming emotional or engaging in recriminations.

Best course of action: call your agent and tell them exactly how you feel. Be dispassionate but firm. It’s in their interest to make you think their feelings are more important than yours.

Not true. You’re the boss. Manage your employees well, and they will serve you better.

A: The U.S. Copyright Office says that, among other things, the following are not copyrightable:

Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring; mere listings of ingredients or contents.

So, can you go ahead and title your latest spec Star Wars? Not a chance.

Titles are protectable in two ways. First, if a title becomes associated with a commercially-exploited product (like a film), it can be trademarked. Trademark protection doesn’t mean you can’t use the phrase “Star Wars,” but it does mean you can’t use it to market your own product.

Beyond that, however, the most common form of title protection is through the MPAA’s title registration service. My understanding is that the MPAA is most concerned with avoiding marketplace confusion. This is why a movie can be released that has the same title as a somewhat obscure film, but never with the same title of a well-known film. Of course, MPAA title registration only services films released by MPAA member companies, but that’s essentially every commercial movie made.

MPAA title registration can be used to reserve titles for planned films as well. My first movie was originally entitled “Space Cadet”, but the MPAA informed Disney that no one less than George Lucas had registered that title with them. My partner and I had to change our title to “Rocket Man”, even though our film was in production, and his was not.

I’m still waiting for George Lucas’ “Space Cadet” to come out. Something tells me I shouldn’t hold my breath…

Anyway, I do not believe individuals can apply for MPAA title registration; the service is only available to its member companies. The only practical advice I can offer is to title your script however you’d like, as long as your title isn’t already associated with something well-known. If it turns out you have to change it during production, all I can say is that any production problem a nice problem to have.