What a day, what a day -- I barely know where to begin!
I spent a lot of time out on the picket line today, way more than my standard 3-hour shift.
Why? Because there were SO MANY DANG PICKETERS OUT THERE! Every time I decided to pack it in and head home I would run into someone I knew and end up walking back and forth for another half-hour.
I went according to plan, parked on the far side of the freeway and walked to the studio lot.
On a normal day, at my little gate, we get somewhere from 3 to 10 people on the picket line.
Today we had from 30 to 50.
More than a month ago I sent an e-mail to the WGA letting them know that the security guards at Warner Bros. were counting how many people we had on the picket line every hour on the hour, or thereabouts. I thought it was important, not because there was anything nefarious about it but because I saw it as hard and fast proof that the companies -- or at least the company of Warner Bros. -- was paying attention to how many of us actually showed up to walk the picket lines every day.
Today, when the security guard came out, he had a hard time using his hands to communicate back to his colleague in the guard-house exactly how many of us were out there -- in fact he had to use one hand as a multiplier for the other.
And not one incident -- at least at the Avon Gate -- of tension or confrontation of any sort between Warner Bros. studio employees and the picketing writers.
There were two high points of the day for me...
The first involved a family of tourists from Australia, whom I spoke with a little while they were headed in on the studio tour, as I try to speak with any and all tourists headed in on the studio tour. When they came back out an hour or so later they walked over and asked what the strike was about. I did my best to explain it. The dad talked about how he and his family -- he was traveling with a group of 14 -- were kind of shocked by the extreme income disparity here in the USA, by how little some people, like the guy who had driven their stretch golf-cart and given them their studio tour, earned. I said that the USA has always been a somewhat extreme place, with more people at the bottom and more people at the very top, when compared with places like Australia or Western Europe, which have much stronger "labor" or democratic-socialist traditions. I said something about how the issue of internet residuals is about trying to preserve the "vast middle class" of the WGA, small as it may be.
Then the father asked what I wrote. When I talk to the tourists I don't say anything about my own credits unless they ask me. It isn't because I'm humble or shy. It's because -- despite having done a lot of work I consider to be incredibly good -- nothing my partner and I have created for TV or written for the movies has been a commercial triumph. Successful, yes. Blockbusters, no. At least not yet. Chances are the people I'm talking to won't be familiar with the stuff I've created or written. But when someone asks it's impolite not to answer. So I told the dad from Australia that my partner and I had created a show called "Sleeper Cell."
His face lit up like it was "Australia Day" and he started jumping up and down -- turned out "Sleeper Cell" was his favorite TV show ever. He was so happy and excited it was hard to believe. He gave me his phone number in case I ever visit Australia. Needless to say, it made my day.
Then the actress pictured to the right arrived to show her solidarity with we writers and the Warner Bros. employees who may face lay-offs as the week goes on.
I know this strike has caused a great deal of pain and suffering for a great many people -- including myself. But it would be dishonest for me to claim my mind was burdened by any of that during her visit, which comprised highlight number two.
Tomorrow it will be back to the normal scheme of the picket line.
Tomorrow may also bring news of a DGA deal with the AMPTP.
If so, let's hope that deal contains real profit participation for the internet.
But if it doesn't, let's hope we can stick together and leave it on the table. The same way I left the picket line and came home to my beautiful wife.
Temptation is a powerful thing -- but only as powerful as we let it be.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Strike Day 69 - 71
Well, tomorrow will be another big day at Warner Bros.
The WGA has called for a solidarity rally in sympathy with the Warner Bros. employees who may be layed off this coming week.
Personally, I'm not really a big fan of the idea of gathering several hundred to a thousand striking WGA members outside the studio where a bunch more people may be about to find out they are about to be let go because of the strike. Many of those people are very sympathetic to our cause and some actually do see it as their own cause as well. But some of them are not so sympathetic to our cause. Some of them are downright angry and pissed off at us in particular.
Now, I think those people are wrong, even from an objective standpoint -- but that doesn't change the fact that they have the right to their opinion.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe showing up in the hundreds bordering on a thousand will just impress on all the people still working at Warner Bros. how much we striking writers sympathize with their difficult circumstances. To be honest, I think some of them will take it that way and others won't. I don't really think tomorrow's action will make us any more friends in the non-WGA Hollywood working man and woman community. But like I said, I may very well be wrong.
On the other hand, tomorrow's action may get us on the local news in a good way, talking about how much we do sympathize with all the other people being impacted by the strike.
I'll be there, doing my daily picketing routine, probably at the same old gate. My guess is parking will be impossible, so I plan to park in a supermarket lot just on the other side of the 134 Freeway and take a 5 minute walk to my post.
Meanwhile the Weinstein Company deal became official on Friday, which is pretty good news. Again, not because the Weinstein Company is big and powerful, since we all know it is not, but because it continues to show the world that the WGA is serious about making deals with companies, so long as they have any interest in making a deal with us -- and I think it really does help morale, if only by providing something POSITIVE for all us writers to talk about while we continue to march back and forth and back... and forth... and back... and forth. And it's good for the feature people -- the movie screenwriters -- since it will directly impact a small handful of them.
I shouldn't really say "them" since my partner and I are one -- or two -- of them, but we also work in TV and have been picketing outside our TV studio, so I guess I think of us as TV writers first in terms of this strike -- despite the fact that the strike has shut down a movie script we were writing for another studio.
The other day one of the new faces at our gate happened to be an animation writer -- which meant he is one of the very, very few WGA members still working, despite the strike. He pickets and he works. Double duty. On the bright side he is still getting paid.
As I see it there remain THREE POSSIBLE SCENARIOS for the strike's "End Game" and they are as follows:
(1) The DGA makes their deal with the AMPTP some time in the next few weeks and it contains numbers regarding internet profit participation which are good enough for we at the WGA to accept, so we do accept them and the strike ends.
(2) The DGA makes their deal with the AMPTP some time in the next few weeks and it does not contain such numbers, so we don't accept them and the strike goes on until July 1st, when SAG joins us on the picket lines, finally forcing the companies to come to an agreement regarding internet profit participation for writers AND actors -- or, in a slightly rosier version, the companies actually get along to doing that some time before the end of March, because once the end of March rolls around all further feature film production will otherwise have to shut down due to the looming threat of SAG walking out when their contract expires at the end of June. Studios won't be going into production on schedules that they are not absolutely confident they can get "in the can" before July 1st.
(3) Somewhere between now and July 1st, the WGA collapses from within. Dozens, then hundreds of us pull a "JR" (for "John Ridley") and go "Fi-Core," leaving the guild a hollow shell of its former self.
To be honest, I really don't think (3) is going to happen and that is pretty much all that matters to me. One way or another this strike will end. At one point or another we will go back to work -- back to writing movies and back to creating and running and writing for TV shows. The landscape -- particularly in the television world -- may well be a bit different from the one we left behind but the work will remain. There is simply too much money to be made by the companies for it not to.
Whether the strike ends thanks to a good DGA deal or thanks to the solidarity of SAG come March or July, it will end.
But until the day that it does end, the membership of the Writers Guild of America needs to stick together -- which is why I will be over at Warner Bros. tomorrow, along with several hundred of my fellow WGA members who will have taken all my potential parking spaces.
Sometimes the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
Or the opinion of one.
Let's hope for a great rally and some good coverage on the local news tomorrow night!
The WGA has called for a solidarity rally in sympathy with the Warner Bros. employees who may be layed off this coming week.
Personally, I'm not really a big fan of the idea of gathering several hundred to a thousand striking WGA members outside the studio where a bunch more people may be about to find out they are about to be let go because of the strike. Many of those people are very sympathetic to our cause and some actually do see it as their own cause as well. But some of them are not so sympathetic to our cause. Some of them are downright angry and pissed off at us in particular.
Now, I think those people are wrong, even from an objective standpoint -- but that doesn't change the fact that they have the right to their opinion.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe showing up in the hundreds bordering on a thousand will just impress on all the people still working at Warner Bros. how much we striking writers sympathize with their difficult circumstances. To be honest, I think some of them will take it that way and others won't. I don't really think tomorrow's action will make us any more friends in the non-WGA Hollywood working man and woman community. But like I said, I may very well be wrong.
On the other hand, tomorrow's action may get us on the local news in a good way, talking about how much we do sympathize with all the other people being impacted by the strike.
I'll be there, doing my daily picketing routine, probably at the same old gate. My guess is parking will be impossible, so I plan to park in a supermarket lot just on the other side of the 134 Freeway and take a 5 minute walk to my post.
Meanwhile the Weinstein Company deal became official on Friday, which is pretty good news. Again, not because the Weinstein Company is big and powerful, since we all know it is not, but because it continues to show the world that the WGA is serious about making deals with companies, so long as they have any interest in making a deal with us -- and I think it really does help morale, if only by providing something POSITIVE for all us writers to talk about while we continue to march back and forth and back... and forth... and back... and forth. And it's good for the feature people -- the movie screenwriters -- since it will directly impact a small handful of them.
I shouldn't really say "them" since my partner and I are one -- or two -- of them, but we also work in TV and have been picketing outside our TV studio, so I guess I think of us as TV writers first in terms of this strike -- despite the fact that the strike has shut down a movie script we were writing for another studio.
The other day one of the new faces at our gate happened to be an animation writer -- which meant he is one of the very, very few WGA members still working, despite the strike. He pickets and he works. Double duty. On the bright side he is still getting paid.
As I see it there remain THREE POSSIBLE SCENARIOS for the strike's "End Game" and they are as follows:
(1) The DGA makes their deal with the AMPTP some time in the next few weeks and it contains numbers regarding internet profit participation which are good enough for we at the WGA to accept, so we do accept them and the strike ends.
(2) The DGA makes their deal with the AMPTP some time in the next few weeks and it does not contain such numbers, so we don't accept them and the strike goes on until July 1st, when SAG joins us on the picket lines, finally forcing the companies to come to an agreement regarding internet profit participation for writers AND actors -- or, in a slightly rosier version, the companies actually get along to doing that some time before the end of March, because once the end of March rolls around all further feature film production will otherwise have to shut down due to the looming threat of SAG walking out when their contract expires at the end of June. Studios won't be going into production on schedules that they are not absolutely confident they can get "in the can" before July 1st.
(3) Somewhere between now and July 1st, the WGA collapses from within. Dozens, then hundreds of us pull a "JR" (for "John Ridley") and go "Fi-Core," leaving the guild a hollow shell of its former self.
To be honest, I really don't think (3) is going to happen and that is pretty much all that matters to me. One way or another this strike will end. At one point or another we will go back to work -- back to writing movies and back to creating and running and writing for TV shows. The landscape -- particularly in the television world -- may well be a bit different from the one we left behind but the work will remain. There is simply too much money to be made by the companies for it not to.
Whether the strike ends thanks to a good DGA deal or thanks to the solidarity of SAG come March or July, it will end.
But until the day that it does end, the membership of the Writers Guild of America needs to stick together -- which is why I will be over at Warner Bros. tomorrow, along with several hundred of my fellow WGA members who will have taken all my potential parking spaces.
Sometimes the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
Or the opinion of one.
Let's hope for a great rally and some good coverage on the local news tomorrow night!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Strike Day 67- 68
I'M BACK!!!
Again.
I was gone because I've been picketing all week without having really fully recovered from being ill this past weekend.
I passed out yesterday without making a Blog entry.
But if the Blog must suffer in order for another warm body to be out there on the picket line, then so be it my friends -- SO BE IT!!!
These past 2 days have actually been quite eventful out in my little corner of "WGA picket line" world.
Yesterday -- Wednesday -- we were visited by a couple of actors from the last show my partner and I did, who marched in solidarity with us for our entire 3-hour shift and then some.
This was good news for us -- and for the tourists, whose ranks happened to include some big fans of our show.
We were also visited by some unexpected guests -- including a father and son welding team from Oklahoma who were driving around looking for Mann's Chinese Theater.
I gave them directions, which were not that difficult from Warner Bros.
We were also visited by a larger-than-life (physically as well as personality-wise) furniture-liquidator from Northern California who grew up in Burbank and was related to William Wellman, director of 1927's "WINGS," the first movie to win an OSCAR for Best Picture. He was there to take the Warner Bros. VIP Tour but ended up grabbing a picket sign and walking alongside us for about half-an-hour. He called up his girlfriend -- a cop in Louisiana -- and asked her to guess what he was doing. Then he passed his cell-phone to my strike-buddy, who chanted across the country: "ON STRIKE, SHUT 'EM DOWN -- HOLLYWOOD'S A UNION TOWN!" The lady cop proceeded to tell him about a cartoon that recently ran in her local newspaper. It showed a guy getting his new 60" HDTV delivered. The delivery man dropped it off, had him sign for it and told him: "Enjoy the re-runs." She finished up by telling us to: "Give them hell."
Well, I don't know if we're really doing that but we were back on the line today -- Thursday -- and today's best guest was a TV sports cameraman and member of IATSE Local 600, who was driving by Warner Bros. on his way to visit his father's grave at Forest Lawn cemetery and decided to stop by and join us. He picked up a picket sign and asked how things were going with the strike. We did our best to fill him in. He told us that after a decade-ago strike, his union had accepted the companies keeping scab cameramen who had started working as replacements for union members during that strike. The union had even accepted taking those scab cameramen on as new members.
To be honest, that kind of blew me away.
Luckily for us writers there really is no way for scabs to do our jobs in the world of television, where intimate knowledge of characters and their world are prerequisites for being able to do even a remotely decent job. With a handful of incredibly-talented exceptions, people from outside the belly of the beast of a current TV show would have no chance at writing an episode.
However, in the land of movies, things are a little different. There it is easier to hunt down non-union but high-talent writers, either in schools or from the stacks of "new submission" spec scripts or from English-speaking lands overseas (and in Canada!). Of course, most of those English-speaking foreign lands have their own writer's guilds which have relationships with the WGA that are supposed to make it impossible for their guild-members to do things like scab work during a strike.
Anyhow, scabbing is not a major issue for this strike -- at least not yet. And that is a good thing.
For the 4th day in a row I was happily surprised by the turn-out at our Gate -- after the Holiday hiatus we seem to have come back to the picket lines without missing a beat.
Of course I don't know how the numbers are holding up anywhere and everywhere else but I certainly hope we are the rule and not just an exception.
Overall, I would have to rate this as a good week on the WGA side of the strike.
On the plus side we got the UA deal. On the minus side, John Ridley went "Fi-Core."
I suppose you could argue that makes it pretty much a wash -- but I would have to say that the United Artists deal is a bigger gain than John Ridley is a loss. Plus now we seem to be on the verge of a similar deal with the Weinstein Company. I don't like to talk about this stuff before it becomes REAL but both sides are discussing it in public so I imagine it will become real some time during the next week.
There was also the beginning of the end of this year's Award's shows. Ah, well. Maybe the DGA will get a deal before the Oscars and that deal will include reasonable profit-participation for New Media. Otherwise... I wouldn't get my hopes up for this year's Academy Awards working out too well.
A lot of people going in and out of work at Warners stopped to talk to us today and to tell us they support us and to tell us to "keep hanging in there" -- and this on the same week that Warner Bros. announced their Studio Services department, which provides all kinds of maintenance for physical production, will probably be laying-off large numbers of employees starting next week.
One woman on her way out of the studio actually apologized to us. I told her it wasn't her fault.
To be honest, it always makes me feel a little better when the studio folks are supportive. It reminds me that I'm not crazy and that we are not being unreasonable and they we in the WGA really -- REALLY -- didn't want for this strike to happen.
As I keep telling every tourist who stops to ask:
It is all very simple. It is all about ONE THING: profit participation when stuff we wrote is delivered to the audience via the INTERNET.
That's all we want. And that's what the companies -- so far at least -- refuse to even seriously discuss making provisions for.
And so the strike goes on.
Somewhere over the hill, over the mountain of months which lie before us -- months worth of weeks and weeks worth of days -- somewhere over that mountain lies the First of July. And on the First of July, whether the AMPTP likes it or not, we in the WGA will be joined on our picket lines all over Los Angeles by the "Big Battalions" of SAG.
Again I ask the question: how long will the companies hold their line when there are not only no scripts... but no actors -- be they bit-players or above-the-title movie stars -- as well...?
Not too f*@#ing long.
Hopefully it won't take until then for the strike to be resolved.
But if it does... it does.
Until then, just keep putting one foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other...
Again.
I was gone because I've been picketing all week without having really fully recovered from being ill this past weekend.
I passed out yesterday without making a Blog entry.
But if the Blog must suffer in order for another warm body to be out there on the picket line, then so be it my friends -- SO BE IT!!!
These past 2 days have actually been quite eventful out in my little corner of "WGA picket line" world.
Yesterday -- Wednesday -- we were visited by a couple of actors from the last show my partner and I did, who marched in solidarity with us for our entire 3-hour shift and then some.
This was good news for us -- and for the tourists, whose ranks happened to include some big fans of our show.
We were also visited by some unexpected guests -- including a father and son welding team from Oklahoma who were driving around looking for Mann's Chinese Theater.
I gave them directions, which were not that difficult from Warner Bros.
We were also visited by a larger-than-life (physically as well as personality-wise) furniture-liquidator from Northern California who grew up in Burbank and was related to William Wellman, director of 1927's "WINGS," the first movie to win an OSCAR for Best Picture. He was there to take the Warner Bros. VIP Tour but ended up grabbing a picket sign and walking alongside us for about half-an-hour. He called up his girlfriend -- a cop in Louisiana -- and asked her to guess what he was doing. Then he passed his cell-phone to my strike-buddy, who chanted across the country: "ON STRIKE, SHUT 'EM DOWN -- HOLLYWOOD'S A UNION TOWN!" The lady cop proceeded to tell him about a cartoon that recently ran in her local newspaper. It showed a guy getting his new 60" HDTV delivered. The delivery man dropped it off, had him sign for it and told him: "Enjoy the re-runs." She finished up by telling us to: "Give them hell."
Well, I don't know if we're really doing that but we were back on the line today -- Thursday -- and today's best guest was a TV sports cameraman and member of IATSE Local 600, who was driving by Warner Bros. on his way to visit his father's grave at Forest Lawn cemetery and decided to stop by and join us. He picked up a picket sign and asked how things were going with the strike. We did our best to fill him in. He told us that after a decade-ago strike, his union had accepted the companies keeping scab cameramen who had started working as replacements for union members during that strike. The union had even accepted taking those scab cameramen on as new members.
To be honest, that kind of blew me away.
Luckily for us writers there really is no way for scabs to do our jobs in the world of television, where intimate knowledge of characters and their world are prerequisites for being able to do even a remotely decent job. With a handful of incredibly-talented exceptions, people from outside the belly of the beast of a current TV show would have no chance at writing an episode.
However, in the land of movies, things are a little different. There it is easier to hunt down non-union but high-talent writers, either in schools or from the stacks of "new submission" spec scripts or from English-speaking lands overseas (and in Canada!). Of course, most of those English-speaking foreign lands have their own writer's guilds which have relationships with the WGA that are supposed to make it impossible for their guild-members to do things like scab work during a strike.
Anyhow, scabbing is not a major issue for this strike -- at least not yet. And that is a good thing.
For the 4th day in a row I was happily surprised by the turn-out at our Gate -- after the Holiday hiatus we seem to have come back to the picket lines without missing a beat.
Of course I don't know how the numbers are holding up anywhere and everywhere else but I certainly hope we are the rule and not just an exception.
Overall, I would have to rate this as a good week on the WGA side of the strike.
On the plus side we got the UA deal. On the minus side, John Ridley went "Fi-Core."
I suppose you could argue that makes it pretty much a wash -- but I would have to say that the United Artists deal is a bigger gain than John Ridley is a loss. Plus now we seem to be on the verge of a similar deal with the Weinstein Company. I don't like to talk about this stuff before it becomes REAL but both sides are discussing it in public so I imagine it will become real some time during the next week.
There was also the beginning of the end of this year's Award's shows. Ah, well. Maybe the DGA will get a deal before the Oscars and that deal will include reasonable profit-participation for New Media. Otherwise... I wouldn't get my hopes up for this year's Academy Awards working out too well.
A lot of people going in and out of work at Warners stopped to talk to us today and to tell us they support us and to tell us to "keep hanging in there" -- and this on the same week that Warner Bros. announced their Studio Services department, which provides all kinds of maintenance for physical production, will probably be laying-off large numbers of employees starting next week.
One woman on her way out of the studio actually apologized to us. I told her it wasn't her fault.
To be honest, it always makes me feel a little better when the studio folks are supportive. It reminds me that I'm not crazy and that we are not being unreasonable and they we in the WGA really -- REALLY -- didn't want for this strike to happen.
As I keep telling every tourist who stops to ask:
It is all very simple. It is all about ONE THING: profit participation when stuff we wrote is delivered to the audience via the INTERNET.
That's all we want. And that's what the companies -- so far at least -- refuse to even seriously discuss making provisions for.
And so the strike goes on.
Somewhere over the hill, over the mountain of months which lie before us -- months worth of weeks and weeks worth of days -- somewhere over that mountain lies the First of July. And on the First of July, whether the AMPTP likes it or not, we in the WGA will be joined on our picket lines all over Los Angeles by the "Big Battalions" of SAG.
Again I ask the question: how long will the companies hold their line when there are not only no scripts... but no actors -- be they bit-players or above-the-title movie stars -- as well...?
Not too f*@#ing long.
Hopefully it won't take until then for the strike to be resolved.
But if it does... it does.
Until then, just keep putting one foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other...
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Strike Day 66
Happy New Hampshire primary day!
I'm in a good mood thanks to John McCaine's not unexpected victory in the Republican primary.
I spent the morning picketing at my old stomping grounds with my writing-producing partner.
I suppose if I am the "Strike Hawk" then he is the "Strike Dove."
Not in a weak, surrender-prone way but in more of an open, understanding, sensitive and perhaps even poetic way -- HAH-HAH-HAH!!!
Gotta' love the Dove!
On the "Brooklyn Bowl" football front, well... I received some correspondence which took issue with some of my descriptions of the game. The way I described the adult competition which my 7 year-old daughter faced as "halfway-decent grown-up football players." I thought I was being charitable but others take exception -- and have threatened to leave me "face-down in the mud" next year.
Hmmm. Very interesting indeed!
It was also pointed out that I had forgotten to mention that one of those halfway-decent grown-up players happened to beat me for 2 touchdowns. Well, that certainly did happen -- during the course of the opposing team's LOSS to the team I was on, together with a trio of girls aged 7, 6 and 5 -- and my 6 year-old teammate just so happens to be the daughter of the guy lobbing these complaints!
Maybe I should bring a football to the picket-line...? We certainly have enough sign poles to use as goal-posts.
On the picket line today things were not too bad, with a good turn-out once again and some nice spirit being shown by those present, including a couple of new faces. We had some nice little conversations with tourists on their way in and out and I ran into a friend of mine -- an accounting/financial executive whose son and daughter are friends with my kids. We're supposed to have lunch some time next week. I guess he can come down from his office and pick me up at the picket line when I finish my shift. Oh, well, that's what sometimes happens in strikes and civil wars -- people who know and like each other wind up on opposite ends of nasty confrontations.
The now infamous John Ridley published a so-called Op-Ed piece in the LA Times today which really made me wonder what the people who run that newspaper are smoking when it comes to editorial decisions regarding WGA strike-related matters.
Don't get me wrong -- everyone with every opinion has a right to be heard regarding the strike, no matter what they think of the WGA. My problem is... in his entire essay, Ridley pretty much says nothing of note other than to toot his own horn, so to speak. The punch-line comes at the very end when he basically wishes a pox on both our houses (that of the WGA and the AMPTP) and declares that he is not for either of us but only for... "SELF-DETERMINATION."
So I guess this means John Ridley is now forming his own nation-state.
My question is... will he call it "Johnsland" or "Ridlesia" or maybe something really good like "The United Kingdom of John Ridley" or "USR" for the "United States of Ridlerica"?
I suppose in the fight between the Union and its foes, we know which side he is on. No one's but his own.
Here's the rub. The problem I have. The reason I have to say just a bittttttttttt more...
And I've had this conversation with a couple of folks on the picket-line over the past weeks -- of course, none of them went "fi-core" -- at least that I know of, but their side of this argument annoyed me nonetheless.
Saying that "both sides are equally to blame" and damning the WGA and the AMPTP with equal damnation and declaring a pox on both our houses... just doesn't cut it in my book. It's like back in the Eighties when most people I knew would say the US and NATO were just as bad as the USSR and the Warsaw Pact -- and then I would always have to get into a fight with them.
Like hell they were.
I grant you, during the course of the Cold War the US did many, many immoral, unethical and very, very bad things to a great many people in countries all over the world. Chile, Greece, Vietnam, Iran. I know something about it -- not everything, mind you, but some things. I could list more highlights of our nefariousness but it's already getting late. I don't argue the point. But it doesn't change the fact that the Soviet Union did a hell of a lot worse to a hell of a lot more people on a hell of a lot more occasions.
Just because one side isn't perfect does not mean it is just as bad as the other.
Ridley says he's in favor of the Guild's objectives but against the Guild's strategy.
Hmmm... so he thinks we were right to go to war but that we are not conducting the war properly.
Then shouldn't he try to impact our war-fighting from within the ranks of OUR SIDE IN THAT WAR -- which said war he claims to believe in...???
Ridley says the WGA leadership has left no room in its "tent" for any disagreement or dissension. I attended the same membership meeting in Santa Monica he talked about and I heard a bunch of speakers take issue with our leadership and our strategy. People didn't applaud those questioners enough for his liking? No one was shouted down or prevented from speaking -- except for one fifty-ish guy who kept making hard-to-follow football analogies and whose overall opinion of the leadership was that they were doing a GOOD job!
He got SHOUTED DOWN because after about 6 minutes of him attempting to remake the same point, it became physically painful to keep listening to him drone on. He was the only one -- and I should know since I stayed until the very last person at the very last microphone was done. There were other people whose comments were met with unhappy remarks or cat-calls but no one else was "prevented" from speaking -- in fact, no one at all was prevented from speaking since that one wacky "football" guy actually ended up talking longer than almost anyone else who asked a question.
In my opinion John Ridley has succeeded in turning the 2007-2008 WGA strike into a personal step-ladder from which he can be seen by a wider audience. I say you go, John Ridley. More power to you. I used to know you as the guy who created and ran the TV version of "Barbershop" which debuted on Showtime around the same time "Sleeper Cell" premiered -- but now you have made yourself into the WGA's own George McClellan, the Union General who commanded all Lincoln's armies early in the Civil War and led them to a rather ignominious record of defeats and draws against significantly weaker opponents.
After being relieved of command and replaced by Lincoln, McClellan left the army and gained a national platform as the anti-war Democratic party's candidate in 1864, an election in which he was defeated by Lincoln almost as badly as he had been defeated by the Confederates.
To be honest, personally, I don't really get John Ridley -- how can you be FOR an ongoing strike and DESERT the ranks of the union engaged in it, no matter what you think of its "strategy" for winning...?
But this puts me in rather good company, since no less a man than Ulysses S. Grant himself -- General of the Union Army and 18th President of these United States -- when asked his own opinion of George McClellan, replied: "McClellan is to me one of the mysteries of the war."
I'm in a good mood thanks to John McCaine's not unexpected victory in the Republican primary.
I spent the morning picketing at my old stomping grounds with my writing-producing partner.
I suppose if I am the "Strike Hawk" then he is the "Strike Dove."
Not in a weak, surrender-prone way but in more of an open, understanding, sensitive and perhaps even poetic way -- HAH-HAH-HAH!!!
Gotta' love the Dove!
On the "Brooklyn Bowl" football front, well... I received some correspondence which took issue with some of my descriptions of the game. The way I described the adult competition which my 7 year-old daughter faced as "halfway-decent grown-up football players." I thought I was being charitable but others take exception -- and have threatened to leave me "face-down in the mud" next year.
Hmmm. Very interesting indeed!
It was also pointed out that I had forgotten to mention that one of those halfway-decent grown-up players happened to beat me for 2 touchdowns. Well, that certainly did happen -- during the course of the opposing team's LOSS to the team I was on, together with a trio of girls aged 7, 6 and 5 -- and my 6 year-old teammate just so happens to be the daughter of the guy lobbing these complaints!
Maybe I should bring a football to the picket-line...? We certainly have enough sign poles to use as goal-posts.
On the picket line today things were not too bad, with a good turn-out once again and some nice spirit being shown by those present, including a couple of new faces. We had some nice little conversations with tourists on their way in and out and I ran into a friend of mine -- an accounting/financial executive whose son and daughter are friends with my kids. We're supposed to have lunch some time next week. I guess he can come down from his office and pick me up at the picket line when I finish my shift. Oh, well, that's what sometimes happens in strikes and civil wars -- people who know and like each other wind up on opposite ends of nasty confrontations.
The now infamous John Ridley published a so-called Op-Ed piece in the LA Times today which really made me wonder what the people who run that newspaper are smoking when it comes to editorial decisions regarding WGA strike-related matters.
Don't get me wrong -- everyone with every opinion has a right to be heard regarding the strike, no matter what they think of the WGA. My problem is... in his entire essay, Ridley pretty much says nothing of note other than to toot his own horn, so to speak. The punch-line comes at the very end when he basically wishes a pox on both our houses (that of the WGA and the AMPTP) and declares that he is not for either of us but only for... "SELF-DETERMINATION."
So I guess this means John Ridley is now forming his own nation-state.
My question is... will he call it "Johnsland" or "Ridlesia" or maybe something really good like "The United Kingdom of John Ridley" or "USR" for the "United States of Ridlerica"?
I suppose in the fight between the Union and its foes, we know which side he is on. No one's but his own.
Here's the rub. The problem I have. The reason I have to say just a bittttttttttt more...
And I've had this conversation with a couple of folks on the picket-line over the past weeks -- of course, none of them went "fi-core" -- at least that I know of, but their side of this argument annoyed me nonetheless.
Saying that "both sides are equally to blame" and damning the WGA and the AMPTP with equal damnation and declaring a pox on both our houses... just doesn't cut it in my book. It's like back in the Eighties when most people I knew would say the US and NATO were just as bad as the USSR and the Warsaw Pact -- and then I would always have to get into a fight with them.
Like hell they were.
I grant you, during the course of the Cold War the US did many, many immoral, unethical and very, very bad things to a great many people in countries all over the world. Chile, Greece, Vietnam, Iran. I know something about it -- not everything, mind you, but some things. I could list more highlights of our nefariousness but it's already getting late. I don't argue the point. But it doesn't change the fact that the Soviet Union did a hell of a lot worse to a hell of a lot more people on a hell of a lot more occasions.
Just because one side isn't perfect does not mean it is just as bad as the other.
Ridley says he's in favor of the Guild's objectives but against the Guild's strategy.
Hmmm... so he thinks we were right to go to war but that we are not conducting the war properly.
Then shouldn't he try to impact our war-fighting from within the ranks of OUR SIDE IN THAT WAR -- which said war he claims to believe in...???
Ridley says the WGA leadership has left no room in its "tent" for any disagreement or dissension. I attended the same membership meeting in Santa Monica he talked about and I heard a bunch of speakers take issue with our leadership and our strategy. People didn't applaud those questioners enough for his liking? No one was shouted down or prevented from speaking -- except for one fifty-ish guy who kept making hard-to-follow football analogies and whose overall opinion of the leadership was that they were doing a GOOD job!
He got SHOUTED DOWN because after about 6 minutes of him attempting to remake the same point, it became physically painful to keep listening to him drone on. He was the only one -- and I should know since I stayed until the very last person at the very last microphone was done. There were other people whose comments were met with unhappy remarks or cat-calls but no one else was "prevented" from speaking -- in fact, no one at all was prevented from speaking since that one wacky "football" guy actually ended up talking longer than almost anyone else who asked a question.
In my opinion John Ridley has succeeded in turning the 2007-2008 WGA strike into a personal step-ladder from which he can be seen by a wider audience. I say you go, John Ridley. More power to you. I used to know you as the guy who created and ran the TV version of "Barbershop" which debuted on Showtime around the same time "Sleeper Cell" premiered -- but now you have made yourself into the WGA's own George McClellan, the Union General who commanded all Lincoln's armies early in the Civil War and led them to a rather ignominious record of defeats and draws against significantly weaker opponents.
After being relieved of command and replaced by Lincoln, McClellan left the army and gained a national platform as the anti-war Democratic party's candidate in 1864, an election in which he was defeated by Lincoln almost as badly as he had been defeated by the Confederates.
To be honest, personally, I don't really get John Ridley -- how can you be FOR an ongoing strike and DESERT the ranks of the union engaged in it, no matter what you think of its "strategy" for winning...?
But this puts me in rather good company, since no less a man than Ulysses S. Grant himself -- General of the Union Army and 18th President of these United States -- when asked his own opinion of George McClellan, replied: "McClellan is to me one of the mysteries of the war."
Monday, January 7, 2008
Strike Day 62-65 - Back to the Line...
Man am I beat. But I do have some strike-related stuff to talk about so I'll have to stay awake a while longer.
I was sick over the weekend, then returned to the picket line at Warner Bros. this morning and afternoon, which accounts for my exhaustion.
Need to catch up on some things left over from my trip back East:
First, the big "Brooklyn Bowl" football game was a huge success. For everyone involved but especially for my family, since my 10 year-old son played QB on the opposing team, throwing to all grown-up receivers, and did a legitimately good job, while my 7 year-old daughter caught THREE TOUCH-DOWN PASSES thrown by me. These were real passes with a real football. Also, my 5 year-old daughter made one very short but clean reception which she then ran for more than half the distance to the end-zone, simply because she was so short no one on the opposing team could get a hand on her! The final score was 28-21, with myself, my best friend from childhood and 3 little girls winning over my son and 2 halfway-decent grown-up football players. Needless to say, I am very proud!
Second, on the flight back from Newark, I sat next to a Set Dresser from a one-hour network drama who's out of work due to the strike. He's probably got a gig coming up on a feature but no way to be sure. We talked for much if not most of the 5-1/2 hour flight and he didn't have anything bad to say about the WGA or the writers from his show. He lived through the '88 Writers strike and seemed to think it was natural for the companies to do whatever they could in order to not have to share profit derived from new technology, whether it was VHS or the internet. Needless to say, I was happy he got the seat next to my son and I (my wife and daughters were in another row). Of course I know not every out-of-work set dresser shares his opinion but it was good to hear.
Now on to newer developments...
By now we all know about the UA deal, making United Artists the first big production company -- it might be too much to call them a studio -- to agree to a new contract with the WGA.
In my humble opinion this is pretty good news, if only for WGA internal morale reasons and because it directly impacts feature film writers in a positive way. I know chances are only about 4 or 5 screenwriters will actually end up leaving the picket lines and going back to work thanks to this deal, but that's 4 or 5 more than were gainfully employed under a Guild contract yesterday.
The weather behaved as I hoped it would in my last entry, written during the big storm on Friday night. Today was one of if not the single clearest day I have ever seen in greater Los Angeles, with mountains and clouds and blue sky visible for as far as the eye could see in Burbank. In fact it was kinda' beautiful, if you kept your eyes up towards the horizon and away from the buildings below.
On my neck of the picket line at Warners there were some very familiar faces and some fresh ones as well. We actually had a bigger turn out than I was expecting, though I don't know if that was the case at the main gate or any of the other smaller gates.
As often happens at our Gate, we were visited by a college class that was taking the Warner Bros. tour, about 20 kids from Virginia. The teacher and students asked us about the strike and we did our best to tell them what is going on and why. Of course, as far as I'm concerned, it's all about one very simple thing: profit participation in New Media. Always has been, always will.
Later there were some girls from a Yeshiva who were all surprised when one of my fellow picketers read one of their Hebrew names from where it was inscribed on her necklace. They said they wanted their TV shows back -- and when we asked them they said they all watched TV on their computers.
Generally speaking it was a pretty good day as strike days go, what with the official news about the UA deal and the clear blue skies -- true, the wind was pretty blustery but compared to the temperature in NYC, picketing in Gale Force winds would not be all that bad.
But the biggest thing to hit me about the strike didn't hit me until I was talking with a very good friend on the phone earlier this evening. He's a pretty successful actor and his sons are Cub Scouts with my son. He asked me how my New Year was and I told him it was... awesome. Despite the strike, which is keeping me from earning a penny and bleeding me white, it was, inarguably awesome. He said his Holidays had been fantastic as well -- and then he explained why: BECAUSE WE'RE NOT WORKING.
That's right.
Because we're not working.
It gave me a moment's pause and then I realized... he's a genius. He cut right to the heart of the matter.
If I wasn't on strike, this past New Year's I would have been obsessed with what the Network executives who were reading the 2 pilot scripts my partner and I would have delivered thought of them -- and I would have also been obsessed with what the Studio executives at the movie studio that had hired us to write a script for them thought about it. I would have enjoyed my time with my family back East but... not with the same absolute abandon that I did over the past couple of weeks. To be honest, I don't know if I've ever enjoyed a family vacation that much in my entire life. This past Summer I had my first chance to go on Summer vacation with my family in 4 years. I had a great time -- but in the midst of it I caught a cab to the airport and flew back to LA so my partner and I could pitch for a job we had been trying to get for the prior 2 months.
Don't get me wrong -- I'm not complaining. I'm an adult and it's my life and it has its upsides and its downsides and I don't want to trade it with anyone. It's just kind of strange to suddenly realize that the reason I had such an absolutely enjoyable trip with my family is that I happen to be in the midst of what many would call the biggest crisis of my professional career.
By the way, that actor dad from the Cub Scouts is also the one who built the storage shed which was too small to handle all the Raingutter Regatta stuff, which is why that stuff is still at the edge of my driveway (that's for the benefit of any loyal readers who have been following since the earliest days of this Blog). He's a great guy and he did a great job building that shed -- but I wish it was BIGGER!
Anyhow, the LONG WALK goes on. We walk until someone gives us a fair deal on New Media profit participation. One step at a time, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month --
Don't worry. We will not reach "year after year" before July 1st reaches us.
Gotta' go get some sleep, because it's back to the picket line tomorrow...
I was sick over the weekend, then returned to the picket line at Warner Bros. this morning and afternoon, which accounts for my exhaustion.
Need to catch up on some things left over from my trip back East:
First, the big "Brooklyn Bowl" football game was a huge success. For everyone involved but especially for my family, since my 10 year-old son played QB on the opposing team, throwing to all grown-up receivers, and did a legitimately good job, while my 7 year-old daughter caught THREE TOUCH-DOWN PASSES thrown by me. These were real passes with a real football. Also, my 5 year-old daughter made one very short but clean reception which she then ran for more than half the distance to the end-zone, simply because she was so short no one on the opposing team could get a hand on her! The final score was 28-21, with myself, my best friend from childhood and 3 little girls winning over my son and 2 halfway-decent grown-up football players. Needless to say, I am very proud!
Second, on the flight back from Newark, I sat next to a Set Dresser from a one-hour network drama who's out of work due to the strike. He's probably got a gig coming up on a feature but no way to be sure. We talked for much if not most of the 5-1/2 hour flight and he didn't have anything bad to say about the WGA or the writers from his show. He lived through the '88 Writers strike and seemed to think it was natural for the companies to do whatever they could in order to not have to share profit derived from new technology, whether it was VHS or the internet. Needless to say, I was happy he got the seat next to my son and I (my wife and daughters were in another row). Of course I know not every out-of-work set dresser shares his opinion but it was good to hear.
Now on to newer developments...
By now we all know about the UA deal, making United Artists the first big production company -- it might be too much to call them a studio -- to agree to a new contract with the WGA.
In my humble opinion this is pretty good news, if only for WGA internal morale reasons and because it directly impacts feature film writers in a positive way. I know chances are only about 4 or 5 screenwriters will actually end up leaving the picket lines and going back to work thanks to this deal, but that's 4 or 5 more than were gainfully employed under a Guild contract yesterday.
The weather behaved as I hoped it would in my last entry, written during the big storm on Friday night. Today was one of if not the single clearest day I have ever seen in greater Los Angeles, with mountains and clouds and blue sky visible for as far as the eye could see in Burbank. In fact it was kinda' beautiful, if you kept your eyes up towards the horizon and away from the buildings below.
On my neck of the picket line at Warners there were some very familiar faces and some fresh ones as well. We actually had a bigger turn out than I was expecting, though I don't know if that was the case at the main gate or any of the other smaller gates.
As often happens at our Gate, we were visited by a college class that was taking the Warner Bros. tour, about 20 kids from Virginia. The teacher and students asked us about the strike and we did our best to tell them what is going on and why. Of course, as far as I'm concerned, it's all about one very simple thing: profit participation in New Media. Always has been, always will.
Later there were some girls from a Yeshiva who were all surprised when one of my fellow picketers read one of their Hebrew names from where it was inscribed on her necklace. They said they wanted their TV shows back -- and when we asked them they said they all watched TV on their computers.
Generally speaking it was a pretty good day as strike days go, what with the official news about the UA deal and the clear blue skies -- true, the wind was pretty blustery but compared to the temperature in NYC, picketing in Gale Force winds would not be all that bad.
But the biggest thing to hit me about the strike didn't hit me until I was talking with a very good friend on the phone earlier this evening. He's a pretty successful actor and his sons are Cub Scouts with my son. He asked me how my New Year was and I told him it was... awesome. Despite the strike, which is keeping me from earning a penny and bleeding me white, it was, inarguably awesome. He said his Holidays had been fantastic as well -- and then he explained why: BECAUSE WE'RE NOT WORKING.
That's right.
Because we're not working.
It gave me a moment's pause and then I realized... he's a genius. He cut right to the heart of the matter.
If I wasn't on strike, this past New Year's I would have been obsessed with what the Network executives who were reading the 2 pilot scripts my partner and I would have delivered thought of them -- and I would have also been obsessed with what the Studio executives at the movie studio that had hired us to write a script for them thought about it. I would have enjoyed my time with my family back East but... not with the same absolute abandon that I did over the past couple of weeks. To be honest, I don't know if I've ever enjoyed a family vacation that much in my entire life. This past Summer I had my first chance to go on Summer vacation with my family in 4 years. I had a great time -- but in the midst of it I caught a cab to the airport and flew back to LA so my partner and I could pitch for a job we had been trying to get for the prior 2 months.
Don't get me wrong -- I'm not complaining. I'm an adult and it's my life and it has its upsides and its downsides and I don't want to trade it with anyone. It's just kind of strange to suddenly realize that the reason I had such an absolutely enjoyable trip with my family is that I happen to be in the midst of what many would call the biggest crisis of my professional career.
By the way, that actor dad from the Cub Scouts is also the one who built the storage shed which was too small to handle all the Raingutter Regatta stuff, which is why that stuff is still at the edge of my driveway (that's for the benefit of any loyal readers who have been following since the earliest days of this Blog). He's a great guy and he did a great job building that shed -- but I wish it was BIGGER!
Anyhow, the LONG WALK goes on. We walk until someone gives us a fair deal on New Media profit participation. One step at a time, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month --
Don't worry. We will not reach "year after year" before July 1st reaches us.
Gotta' go get some sleep, because it's back to the picket line tomorrow...
Friday, January 4, 2008
Strike Day 60-61 - Back to Hollyrock
Hello out there in television, movie and -- most importantly -- INTERNET land!
Well, I left home to come back home and so here I am, back in sunny Los Angeles -- only it's not so sunny.
My wife and I just collected all the flashlights, battery-powered lanterns, candles, candlesticks, firewood and Duraflame logs in reaction to the growing rainstorm currently raging outside. We've also got a good supply of batteries on hand.
My guess is this can't last all the way through the weekend and into next week but if it does... I imagine there won't be much picketing on Monday.
Hopefully the clouds will spill their fill over the weekend and we will return beneath the gleaming blue skies that usually follow such storms.
I suppose we are weathering a storm of our own here in the movie/TV industry.
The past couple of days have been filled with a number of developments on the strike front.
Amongst these are:
the emergence -- or pseudo-emergence -- of the "Super-Successful Screenwriters" squad, a group of approximately 30 "A-list" feature writers and/or writer-directors, said to be holding a secret gathering some time this weekend, at which they will strategize on bringing pressure to bear on the WGA leadership to accept the deal that they believe is about to be hammered out by the AMPTP and the DGA;
the announcement that WGA member John Ridley has chosen to "Go Fi-Core" -- or "financial core" -- thereby freeing himself to return to work for struck companies which full-fledged members of the WGA cannot work for;
the continuing controversy over whether or not WGA West president Patric Verone gave Jay Leno the go-ahead to write his own monologues when his show returned to the air without its writing staff (other than Leno himself), who remain out on strike;
and the connected controversy over how the WGA should respond to Jay Leno continuing to perform services for his own show which his WGA membership prevents him from performing.
Well, ha-hah... where does one start?
It's getting late and to be very honest I'm going to approach all this stuff the way I think it truly deserves -- the way it merits -- by simply saying:
WHO GIVES A FLYING F*&%# ABOUT ANY OF THIS S@#$*???
If there is a group of very successful screenwriters who wish to convince the WGA leadership to sign on to whatever deal the DGA ends up getting from the AMPTP, let them strategize in secret about how best to go about it and then let them emerge from their shadowy realm and do their utmost best convincing job. I highly doubt they will succeed -- at least until anyone knows what the DGA deal comprises. If it turns out the DGA got something real on the internet residual front, the WGA will be signing on whether or not the "Super Successful Screenwriters" squad exists. If the DGA deal doesn't have any real profit participation for New Media, then I find it impossible to believe that such a "special interest lobbying campaign" will lead to the WGA accepting a bad deal. After all, doesn't the membership have to vote before we accept the deal they bring back -- just like we had to vote on whether or not to give the leadership the go ahead to call a strike...? Those thirty men and/or women may vote to go back for $250.00 a year worth of internet residuals but I don't think a majority of their fellow guild members will.
I don't know John Ridley personally -- other than through third parties -- so his personal behavior is pretty much meaningless to me. He is one writer. The only way his decision to "Go Fi-Core" will be of any significance whatsoever to the wider world of writers at large is if a huge chunk of the membership of the WGA suddenly chooses to do the same, following in the footsteps of said Mr. Ridley.
Personally, I don't expect that to happen.
As far as the Tonight Show/Jay Leno issues go... well, I'll admit, if it turns out the president of WGA West really did tell Jay Leno he could go ahead and write his own monologues... well, it would piss me off. It would count as a pretty serious dropped ball. But as I have said before: in any game that lasts more than a few minutes THERE WILL BE DROPPED BALLS.
No one is perfect. That includes the current leadership of the WGA.
Right now there is no way for anyone who was not there personally to know what really happened between Leno and Verone or whoever else was on the WGA side of that conversation.
But what we do know is that we are still on strike because the AMPTP still refuses to sit down and negotiate a remotely-fair deal with us regarding profit participation on scripted entertainment delivered over the internet.
I admit, whatever the WGA ends up doing to penalize Leno for breaking the strike rules -- if anything -- will make for compelling reading on websites and dramatic chatter over phones and on picket lines... but guess what?
IT WILL NOT MAKE ONE IOTA OF DIFFERENCE TO THE FINAL OUTCOME OF THIS STRIKE -- UNLESS WE, THE MEMBERS OF THE WGA, ALLOW IT TO.
Unless we allow this petty crap to sap our determination, weaken our resolve and distract our focus.
None of this matters now.
Some day in the future when this strike, like every strike, comes to an end, there may indeed be an opportunity to address some of these issues -- but focusing on them now will lead to one place and one place only: DEFEAT.
This strike is not a war of maneuver. It is a trench-grind, pure and simple. It is about who can last the longest.
I know the AMPTP has lots more money.
I know the AMPTP has an easier job keeping all the members on its side of the dispute on the exact same page all the time, no matter what they may individually think about the situation.
Nonetheless, the timing can work for us.
If we can keep pulling together we can win.
If the DGA deal doesn't include real profit participation for the internet and therefore the WGA does not choose to sign on to it, we will simply have to wait until July -- when SAG will join us on the picket lines and the AMPTP will be left without any scripted film or TV in its future.
How long do you think the companies will continue to hold their line once that happens?
July 1st is the deadline for the AMPTP, with emphasis on the word "dead."
I know July 1st is a long way away.
Half a year in fact.
But that's how it is.
Unless you want to slink back to your studio or network provided office knowing you just wasted 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 months of your productive professional existence for absolutely nothing, you will find a way to stick it out until July hits and the actors join us.
All the theorizing and all the plotting and all the scheming are absolutely MEANINGLESS.
All that matters is one thing: HOLDING THE LINE.
I realize it's difficult for thousands of men and women who tell stories for a living to just accept the simple, somewhat boring, perhaps even soul-deadening reality that we are now in the midst of -- but if we can accept it, we will all be better off.
Personally, I suggest putting all that spare brain-power into something useful -- like writing a play or a memoir or a novel or brushing up on web-design or getting a job at McDonald's. Whatever.
Just so long as it doesn't mean walking away from the impressive unity which the WGA has heretofore been able to present to the AMPTP throughout this strike.
It may be simple, dull and painful but I'll say it once more anyway...
The only thing that matters is that we:
HOLD -- THE -- LINE.
Well, I left home to come back home and so here I am, back in sunny Los Angeles -- only it's not so sunny.
My wife and I just collected all the flashlights, battery-powered lanterns, candles, candlesticks, firewood and Duraflame logs in reaction to the growing rainstorm currently raging outside. We've also got a good supply of batteries on hand.
My guess is this can't last all the way through the weekend and into next week but if it does... I imagine there won't be much picketing on Monday.
Hopefully the clouds will spill their fill over the weekend and we will return beneath the gleaming blue skies that usually follow such storms.
I suppose we are weathering a storm of our own here in the movie/TV industry.
The past couple of days have been filled with a number of developments on the strike front.
Amongst these are:
the emergence -- or pseudo-emergence -- of the "Super-Successful Screenwriters" squad, a group of approximately 30 "A-list" feature writers and/or writer-directors, said to be holding a secret gathering some time this weekend, at which they will strategize on bringing pressure to bear on the WGA leadership to accept the deal that they believe is about to be hammered out by the AMPTP and the DGA;
the announcement that WGA member John Ridley has chosen to "Go Fi-Core" -- or "financial core" -- thereby freeing himself to return to work for struck companies which full-fledged members of the WGA cannot work for;
the continuing controversy over whether or not WGA West president Patric Verone gave Jay Leno the go-ahead to write his own monologues when his show returned to the air without its writing staff (other than Leno himself), who remain out on strike;
and the connected controversy over how the WGA should respond to Jay Leno continuing to perform services for his own show which his WGA membership prevents him from performing.
Well, ha-hah... where does one start?
It's getting late and to be very honest I'm going to approach all this stuff the way I think it truly deserves -- the way it merits -- by simply saying:
WHO GIVES A FLYING F*&%# ABOUT ANY OF THIS S@#$*???
If there is a group of very successful screenwriters who wish to convince the WGA leadership to sign on to whatever deal the DGA ends up getting from the AMPTP, let them strategize in secret about how best to go about it and then let them emerge from their shadowy realm and do their utmost best convincing job. I highly doubt they will succeed -- at least until anyone knows what the DGA deal comprises. If it turns out the DGA got something real on the internet residual front, the WGA will be signing on whether or not the "Super Successful Screenwriters" squad exists. If the DGA deal doesn't have any real profit participation for New Media, then I find it impossible to believe that such a "special interest lobbying campaign" will lead to the WGA accepting a bad deal. After all, doesn't the membership have to vote before we accept the deal they bring back -- just like we had to vote on whether or not to give the leadership the go ahead to call a strike...? Those thirty men and/or women may vote to go back for $250.00 a year worth of internet residuals but I don't think a majority of their fellow guild members will.
I don't know John Ridley personally -- other than through third parties -- so his personal behavior is pretty much meaningless to me. He is one writer. The only way his decision to "Go Fi-Core" will be of any significance whatsoever to the wider world of writers at large is if a huge chunk of the membership of the WGA suddenly chooses to do the same, following in the footsteps of said Mr. Ridley.
Personally, I don't expect that to happen.
As far as the Tonight Show/Jay Leno issues go... well, I'll admit, if it turns out the president of WGA West really did tell Jay Leno he could go ahead and write his own monologues... well, it would piss me off. It would count as a pretty serious dropped ball. But as I have said before: in any game that lasts more than a few minutes THERE WILL BE DROPPED BALLS.
No one is perfect. That includes the current leadership of the WGA.
Right now there is no way for anyone who was not there personally to know what really happened between Leno and Verone or whoever else was on the WGA side of that conversation.
But what we do know is that we are still on strike because the AMPTP still refuses to sit down and negotiate a remotely-fair deal with us regarding profit participation on scripted entertainment delivered over the internet.
I admit, whatever the WGA ends up doing to penalize Leno for breaking the strike rules -- if anything -- will make for compelling reading on websites and dramatic chatter over phones and on picket lines... but guess what?
IT WILL NOT MAKE ONE IOTA OF DIFFERENCE TO THE FINAL OUTCOME OF THIS STRIKE -- UNLESS WE, THE MEMBERS OF THE WGA, ALLOW IT TO.
Unless we allow this petty crap to sap our determination, weaken our resolve and distract our focus.
None of this matters now.
Some day in the future when this strike, like every strike, comes to an end, there may indeed be an opportunity to address some of these issues -- but focusing on them now will lead to one place and one place only: DEFEAT.
This strike is not a war of maneuver. It is a trench-grind, pure and simple. It is about who can last the longest.
I know the AMPTP has lots more money.
I know the AMPTP has an easier job keeping all the members on its side of the dispute on the exact same page all the time, no matter what they may individually think about the situation.
Nonetheless, the timing can work for us.
If we can keep pulling together we can win.
If the DGA deal doesn't include real profit participation for the internet and therefore the WGA does not choose to sign on to it, we will simply have to wait until July -- when SAG will join us on the picket lines and the AMPTP will be left without any scripted film or TV in its future.
How long do you think the companies will continue to hold their line once that happens?
July 1st is the deadline for the AMPTP, with emphasis on the word "dead."
I know July 1st is a long way away.
Half a year in fact.
But that's how it is.
Unless you want to slink back to your studio or network provided office knowing you just wasted 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 months of your productive professional existence for absolutely nothing, you will find a way to stick it out until July hits and the actors join us.
All the theorizing and all the plotting and all the scheming are absolutely MEANINGLESS.
All that matters is one thing: HOLDING THE LINE.
I realize it's difficult for thousands of men and women who tell stories for a living to just accept the simple, somewhat boring, perhaps even soul-deadening reality that we are now in the midst of -- but if we can accept it, we will all be better off.
Personally, I suggest putting all that spare brain-power into something useful -- like writing a play or a memoir or a novel or brushing up on web-design or getting a job at McDonald's. Whatever.
Just so long as it doesn't mean walking away from the impressive unity which the WGA has heretofore been able to present to the AMPTP throughout this strike.
It may be simple, dull and painful but I'll say it once more anyway...
The only thing that matters is that we:
HOLD -- THE -- LINE.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Strike Day 54-59 - East Coast style
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
I've been off-line for almost a week, due to internet-challenged friends and network-challenged hotels -- but somehow my hotel slipped up and enabled my connection, so I'm back, if only for a moment.
Times Square on New Year's Eve was an amazing event, first time for me with children present, as well as wife, friends and in-laws.
Before that the big football "reunion" game was terrific, with the kids playing up to the adult level. Of course the adults hadn't really done much playing for about a decade but still, it was impressive.
On the Strike front the big news is the separate deal with World Wide Pants, enabling David Letterman's writers to return to work. To make a long story short, my comment on this is: good for them and good for us.
Yes, I understand all the arguments against this deal specifically and any such deal that doesn't allow for every writer to go back at the same time in general. I don't begrudge anyone who holds that opinion the right to their opinion -- but please don't use it as a crutch to whine and complain and belly-ache to the world at large about the WGA and its leadership. As I said some time ago in response to a reader's COMMENT:
In any game that lasts more than a few minutes there will be some dropped balls.
If you are someone who considers this deal a "tactical error" then I sympathize with your plight but I repeat what I said on that earlier occasion: WE SHOULD NOT LET TACTICAL ERRORS DISTRACT US FROM OUR STRATEGIC GOAL.
We elected these guys. They are in charge. The moment we start to seriously second-guess their leadership we will be DONE, FINISHED, OUT-OF-THE-GAME.
We will fall prey to the end-game which finished our predecessors off THREE TIMES DURING THE NINETEEN-EIGHTIES: we will EAT OURSELVES ALIVE -- and guess who will be left standing to clean up the slabs of writer-flesh littering the streets of Hollywood, Burbank and Culver City...???
The AMPTP.
That's who.
I've got to go get ready for dinner. If I'm lucky I'll be able to continue "BLOGGING" when we get back later tonight.
Hang tough in '08!
I've been off-line for almost a week, due to internet-challenged friends and network-challenged hotels -- but somehow my hotel slipped up and enabled my connection, so I'm back, if only for a moment.
Times Square on New Year's Eve was an amazing event, first time for me with children present, as well as wife, friends and in-laws.
Before that the big football "reunion" game was terrific, with the kids playing up to the adult level. Of course the adults hadn't really done much playing for about a decade but still, it was impressive.
On the Strike front the big news is the separate deal with World Wide Pants, enabling David Letterman's writers to return to work. To make a long story short, my comment on this is: good for them and good for us.
Yes, I understand all the arguments against this deal specifically and any such deal that doesn't allow for every writer to go back at the same time in general. I don't begrudge anyone who holds that opinion the right to their opinion -- but please don't use it as a crutch to whine and complain and belly-ache to the world at large about the WGA and its leadership. As I said some time ago in response to a reader's COMMENT:
In any game that lasts more than a few minutes there will be some dropped balls.
If you are someone who considers this deal a "tactical error" then I sympathize with your plight but I repeat what I said on that earlier occasion: WE SHOULD NOT LET TACTICAL ERRORS DISTRACT US FROM OUR STRATEGIC GOAL.
We elected these guys. They are in charge. The moment we start to seriously second-guess their leadership we will be DONE, FINISHED, OUT-OF-THE-GAME.
We will fall prey to the end-game which finished our predecessors off THREE TIMES DURING THE NINETEEN-EIGHTIES: we will EAT OURSELVES ALIVE -- and guess who will be left standing to clean up the slabs of writer-flesh littering the streets of Hollywood, Burbank and Culver City...???
The AMPTP.
That's who.
I've got to go get ready for dinner. If I'm lucky I'll be able to continue "BLOGGING" when we get back later tonight.
Hang tough in '08!
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