US Strike - Writer's Guild v AMPTP

Writers Deserve Video/DVD/Online Residual $

Late last week the Writer's Guild of America announced they were striking in order to address the lack of residual payments from DVD and Internet distribution. The last strike in 1988 lasted for a staggering 22 weeks.

There were difficult negotiations in 2001 and 2004, but this is the first time 90% of the Guild members voted 'yes' to strike. A studio's accounting can be very creative - 350 million dollars later, they're claiming Forrest Gump didn't make any money. Frasier ran for 11 years and they claimed that they were millions of dollars in the red. Peter Jackson, after finishing Lord of the Rings, had to sue because the studio said it didn't make money despite being one of the highest grossing trilogies of all time.

Several shows have already 'gone dark' because of strike action. The Daily Show and Colbert Report are not doing any new shows and some have ended their seasons early. The Office was planning on closing up shop until the strike is over. Some actors called in sick and managed to close down production for the day.

Some went to remote locations to get there before the teamsters to shut down production. Companies that can't complete their production schedule go the hole. Actors and crew are friends and crews are still paid if they are there and filming is disrupted rather than canceled.

The negotiations started in July, with the Writer's Guild of America 24-point proposal. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers came in with 70 rollbacks. They were going to cut residuals. Writers would also have to fly coach instead of first class.

These grievances affect every writer. The WGA made a deal in 1985, when home video started and nobody knew if it was going to be so successful.The WGA and AMPTP agreed at the time that in order to help the industry grow, the writers would take .03% of revenue.

Once it was proven successful they agreed to revisit this deal and work out a fair number. Twenty-two years later the AMPTP still refuses to honor their promise. DVD has the same poor ratio and though it may be obsolete in 5 years given Internet viewing, the AMPTP insist that there's no business model and that they don't know how anyone is going to make money, despite the fact that they already are.

There are no new negotiations scheduled. The AMPTP and Guild's negotiating committees met on Sunday for a 12-hour session with a federal mediator sitting in.

The AMPTP added language saying that DVD included new media and electronic download, though they are two totally different things. They claim there's no business model, but that's not what they're telling their shareholders. For every dollar of every DVD sales, 65 cents go to the studios, and less than a cent goes to the writer.

They're also streaming video online and making money from commercials that can't be paused or fastforwarded. They're running entire episodes, even an entire movie, online and calling it promotional. Showing a commercial for the movie,or a 30-second excerpt is promotional, but to show the whole thing is giving it away. Writers feel if studios get paid, writers should too.