Finally finished the second part of last Sunday night's HBO premiere of McCullough's JOHN ADAMS mini. I thought it was astounding.
I never read the book, though I'm tempted to check out 1776 in the near future. I love the story of this nation's founding and the perspective offered from Adams is wonderful and enlightening. But it wasn't his happening upon the aftermath of The Boston Massacre, the spirited defense of both the British soldiers involved and the laws upon which this nation's very justification rested, or the evolution of John Adams from private lawyer to revolutionary to President of the country he helped found that struck me the most.
It was the story's portrayal of Thomas Jefferson, reluctant author of the Declaration of Independence. Upon delivering his draft, famously inclusive of language condemning the sale and possession of slaves which would later be excised... poor Jefferson has to sit there and listen to Adams and Ben Franklin pick through his words and offer what amounts to the eighteenth century version of notes.
Jefferson, founder of the Democratic Party and would-be President himself, one day, had to endure the Continental Congress' version of the story meeting with studio executives, producers and marketing seated around the conference table.
I, personally, though the word "self-evident" was the better choice.
And the winter didn't make it any easier. But spring is around the corner. The ballplayers are down in Florida and I've got new creator-owned series', new work for hire comics at major publishers, and some new movie endeavors on the burner.
Daylight Savings has truly ushered in a new day...
As the first week of WGA Strike 2007 comes to a close following the magnificent rally at Fox/NewsCorp on both coasts today, I finally have a chance to sit down and read up on things.
Governor Schwarzenegger is pissed. Mayor Villaraigosa is pissed. You can't blame them. I don't know the effect on the massively diverse economy here in New York City, but this is potentially catastrophic stuff in Los Angeles. Crew members, actors, drivers... as well as dry cleaners, shop owners, restaurant employees, day care workers... anything and everything flows from the tit of the entertainment industry. Very, very bad things will happen for a whole lot of people if the AMPTP doesn't get back to the table and end this thing fairly and soon.
Schwarzenegger said he had urged both sides to reach a deal so thousands of behind-the-scenes workers already idled by stalled TV production could return to their jobs.
"I think that's the sad story, because the studio executives are not going to suffer, the union leaders are not going to suffer, the writers that are striking, they are not going to suffer. Those are all people that have money," the actor-turned-governor said.
He said he had not been invited to participate in negotiations.
Is this man serious?
As a working screenwriter (which essentially means an oft-unemployed one with intermittent flashes of employment and sales success to make it just worthwhile enough during the long fingernail climb up the mountainside), I can tell you that I've lived off the same residual payments we're striking over while chasing my next gig, pounding out my new spec, etc. I've, like, scarcely avoided eviction on more than one occasion in my young life due to the quarterly check the Writer's Guild corrals for me from the studio. I've had "success" in the movie business sense which, I can tell you, can often go hand and hand with being broke between successes.
I'm lucky in that I also have comics. But most writers are in the same boat. We're often un or under-employed. We usually make the absolute minimum amount of money a company can get away with paying us for officially contracted work we do (let alone the extra writing they always try to squeeze out of you before paying). It's what we love to do, what we've aspired to and dreamt about doing our entire lives... but it often doesn't pay very well at all when you consider the time and sacrifice involved.
Not up front, anyway. But, hey, that's show business.
And Arnold is right to point out how devastating this is to the "little guys" (that's said with affection and respect). This work stoppage is potentially tragic for a lot of people. But he's offering up a straw man as he paints anyone who works above the line in Hollywood as some pampered excess-sucking stereotype.
Shit, if I've got all the money we must be fucked.
This is what I marched in today here in New York City, by the way:
Front lines, baby. Three hours ahead and taking the point position as we wade into the jungle on dawn's patrol. The few. The proud. The WGAE.
I've been meaning to post with news and reports from the WGAE picket lines here in New York. Tomorrow, we're down in front of the Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle. God, I hate that monstrosity... I almost want to picket the desecration of the grave of the old New York Coliseum that used to stand on that spot.
It's a very daunting thing, looking up at a massive edifice of corporate permanence and realizing you're striking for what you believe is a fairer share of a tyrannosaurus rex's dinner.
We have to hit these soulless borg in the only place they could ever admit to feeling it... the pocketbook.
Everyone's reposting this excellent, member-made video on just why the WGA is on strike and what's at stake. We're not being the least bit unreasonable. The concept of fairness and sharing simply isn't encoded into the t-rex's makeup.
I love Craig Mazin's blog, THE ARTFUL WRITER. I don't know what the proper 'nettiquite' is for reposting something like this, but I wanted to have this here so friends, family and those I work with could better... if not best understand what's at stake in the current labor negotiations and why this well might lead to a strike after Halloween.
I feel the exact same way Craig does... from the deeply held belief in unions to the absurdity we face across the bargaining table from the powers that be. I don't want this strike to happen and hope the AMPTP will bargain with one eye on reality. This current business terrifies me, honestly... but i do believe we're marching into it for the right reasons and we're doing so, together.
Again, apologies to Craig for reposting this. You can read it at his site here.
October 14, 2007
The Bad Guy
I'm a union guy. I was raised in a union household (my parents were public school teachers), I'm currently a dues-paying member of three unions (WGAw, DGA, IATSE), and if I do one more featured voice-over role, I'll join SAG as well.
I believe in unions.
And I love my unions.
But my first love, my greatest love, will always be the WGAw. I'd like to think that I'll keep directing films, but they have to be written first. I'll always write first, and I'll always be a writer first.
I want to be clear that when I criticize the leadership of my union, it's because I love my union. I want our union to succeed. And there's only one thing that makes me angrier than bad union tactics or poor union strategy or union corruption or union stupidity.
And that's greedy management.
Thus, I thought I'd take a little time today to swivel the barrel of my gun toward the AMPTP. Say what you will about Verrone and David Young (and I do), but the bottom line is that I share their goals.
The AMPTP, however, has been acting atrociously. For those of you who don't know, the proposal they currently have on the table isn't just bad.
It's immoral.
The first offense is their suggestion that residuals be tied to profit. I've already eviscerated that nonsense in another article, so I'll simply refer you to that. If you want the executive summary, it goes like this: residuals are for the reuse of the fruits of our authorship. They must forever be tied to authorship. They are not a reward for the proper or improper work of the cast, the director, the producer, the editor or the marketing department. Period, the end, strike to the death over this if we must.
The second offense is the notion that residuals could be applied against up front money. In other words, if you're paid more than scale, the company could attempt to "recoup" residuals out of your fee for writing.
Hell no.
Once again, residuals are not labor fees, they are reuse fees. It doesn't matter how much you earn. That's why we all get the same residual rate, regardless of how much we make up front. If the companies are serious about this redefinition, then they will need to stop using the word "residual" and start using the word "bullshit."
Because that's what this proposal is. And again...strike to the death.
Third offense--the elimination of separated rights. Our separated rights are already an impoverished version of the rights all American non-work-for-hire authors retain. They were fought for and won in the past, and they are absolutely worth fighting for today. Even if Hollywood weren't currently attempting to turn every feature film release into a musical (thus triggering separated rights for screenwriters of original works), this would be a non-starter.
If they're serious about this...then I'm gonna have to go with...
...strike to the death.
Fourth offense--a proposal that would eliminate the requirement to include the writers' names in advertising, even in situations where the director or producer is included.
Strike.
To.
The.
Death.
But here's the thing. All of that stuff is prologue to the big one. Internet.
Forget jurisdiction over animation, DVD residuals, creative rights (sadly), and everything else that the WGA wants to argue about. The only one that matters right now is finding good reuse formulae for the internet.
Naturally, the AMPTP proposal for the internet stinks. It's horrid.
So...strike to the death?
No.
Here's my basic principle.
I'm a moderate kind of guy. So if I think a proposal is worth the Strike Of Death™, then I'm going to presume that the AMPTP surely isn't serious about it.
And yeah, I called them Shirley.
I think all of the above is hateful, unnecessary, intentionally provocative crap...except the internet proposal, which I hope is just a crappy starting point toward a good, fair-minded, let's-end-this-25-year-war deal.
Now, I've tried to get my union to concentrate on The One Issue That Binds Us, because I think the other issues are distractions.
So now here's my special little note to the AMPTP (and Ms. Brogliatti, hey...I hope you still love me, cuz I believe in you too...gotta be some more level heads like ours on each side of that table, right?)
AMPTP...drop your proposals. Get serious. Bargain in good faith. Silence the fringe voices on your side, and maybe you'll find that the fringe voices on our side start to recede.
If not, you're going to lose the moderates. There's a lot of us. We're active, and we vote. Right now, we're watching and hoping.
But don't mistake our even tempers for acceptance or an inclination to appease.
If you're not serious about your proposals, then please get serious in a useful way.
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