Where's The 'Fallout' Shelter?

Honestly, I didn’t think that it would happen so quickly—the fallout from the WGA Writer’s Strike, now in its 2nd week.

Granted, I’m not a WGA writer, but here in Hollywood, that’s been a good thing lately. Would I have to surrender my keyboard or hide my favorite fine-point pens? Would I be barred from blogging? That would be a shame.

However, as a talent manager’s assistant, my “bread-and-butter gig,” the effects of writers on the picket lines of both coasts and (now stagehands in New York) has rapidly changed the landscape of my normal, day-to-day work. It’s the unfortunate ‘trickle down effect’ of industry labor strikes, that in effect, will strike both above and below-the-line talent. We’re used to the slow and steady decline of work as the holidays approach, but not the rapid origami-folding of our industry where it hurts most (and at a time when it hurts most.)

The majority of my job as a talent manager’s assistant involves submitting our actor clients for available roles that are released by casting companies, who in turn, receive the go-ahead to release these roles from production companies and overseeing studios.

Within days of the WGA strike, the dregs of the entertainment world had risen to the surface with their projects, which have only gained prominence in the last few days because there’s literally nothing left. A few SAG Features, commercials, and TV shows that are still up-and-running are releasing roles, here and there, maybe…from the stockpiled scripts they have, but it’s becoming increasingly dismal with each passing day. Enough so, that Breakdown Services sent talent managers a memo the other day stating that from December until the end of the strike, they will not be charging current subscribers the usual fee for subscriptions to breakdowns. They feel bad for us, they don’t want to lose all their subscribers for an scarily, unspecified period of time. They know….it’s gonna get worse.

This week, Breakdowns are evaporating quicker than L.A.’s water supply. What’s left behind is a growing ghost town of deferred pay, non-union, copy/credit/meal, student films, reality shows, game shows, webisodes up the yazoo (offering mostly, you got it: no pay), and creepily questionable ultra-low-budget projects that are forced to disclose that yes, they will contain nudity. In turn, actors in those projects will have to question their morals, the ‘tastefulness’ of said nudity, and just how desperate they are in an even more competitive entertainment climate than ever.

It’s the classic, “If…then…,”cause-and-effect premise. If there are no suitable projects (namely scripted, fictional material), I cannot submit our actor clients. If our actors aren’t submitted, they don’t get called in for auditions. If they don’t get called in for auditions, they get nervous and self-conscious.

Not fun for them and not so much fun for the talent manager either, I might add. I’m finding myself with less and less to actual manage and an overall job that’s hanging on by a thread. However, at least I have a job. I know storyboard artists and location scouts and craft services professionals—even gift basket companies whose phones aren’t ringing as much as they should be these days.

I fight for the writers (and the writer in me) in this era of uncharted territories and media galaxies, and of course, I want what’s fair. Yes, writers should get residuals. Yes, they should be paid if content they wrote is streamed online or downloaded by users. No, studio execs should not be able to weasel their way out of payments by saying that streaming video constitutes entirely promotional material.

Writers spin hay into gold, words into dollars…there is a high level of demand for the imaginary worlds they create. Alas, writers should not have to settle for what the studios choose to put in the collection plate.

That said, I also want the picket lines to go away because I know just how many of us in the industry are, and will be, affected by this before it’s all over. We all deserve a happy holiday season.
Copyright © 2007 Kendra Liedle
*Illustration by Unknown Screenwriter/flickr

A Not-So-Lucky Strike

Like bowling balls, producers have been knocking over writers and finding ways to screw them over since the beginnings of Hollywood.

In the last few years, the internet has brought forth a new generation of writers (and ways to exploit them royally.) Producers grumble about losing money to all those crappy, bootlegged, recorded-on-a-camera-phone copies of their new theatrical releases, but at the same time suggest that perhaps writers don’t really need residuals when the shows and films they write for are downloaded off the internet.

Alas, the used and abused bowling pins have risen, united in their cause, to overtake the bowling balls of Hollywood and make them play fair again. But, as anyone knows, it’s much harder to bowl a perfect game than it seems like it should be and when it comes to labor strikes, no one really wins in the end.

Both writer and producer union reps have stared each other down with crossed arms, deadlocking on key issues in lengthy round-table discussions for long enough. With the failure of playschool-style contract negotiations, the writers and producers have brought in the big guns (No, not the Teamsters, at least not yet), but an official federal mediator. But so far, even with third party involvement, members of the Writer’s Guild Of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers aren’t exactly making nice. WGA members accompanied by some high-profile SAG actors smart enough to know they can’t act without good material, officially went on strike, as of Monday.

For the first since 1988, the year of the last widespread writer’s strike, daytime and late night talk shows have been immediately thrown into re-runs. There will be no more Headlines from Leno (at least not current ones), no hope of another public sob story from Ellen, and no more Top Ten lists from Letterman.

So on this momentous occasion, to which I certainly understand the dilemma between producers, writers, and the quandary of new media compensation, I, as a non-union writer toiling daily "on spec" here in Hollywood, will provide a Top Ten List of my own.

For both producers and writers, I offer hope and creative interjection on how to manage during this questionable time of spitball negotiations, and I hope that both sides can come to a solid agreement (sooner, rather than later.)


TOP TEN THINGS WRITERS CAN DO DURING THE WRITER’S STRIKE

10. Stare out the window blankly and contemplate the hopelessness of humanity.
9. Drunk-dial Producers Guild of America members and pitch your very worst script ideas.
8. Learn calligraphy and practice the art of writing without really writing.
7. Stalk the local library and count how many people walk out with FREE DVDs and CDs.
6. Search for your own name on imdb on as many different computers as possible to “up your star meter” (so you’ll be a hotly pursued writer when the strike ends.)
5. Schedule as many medical appointments as possible. You don’t know how long this health care plan is gonna last.
4. Hack into Netflix accounts and rearrange the DVD titles in peoples’ queues.
3. Volunteer to help decorate Beijing’s controversial float entry for the Tournament of Roses Parade, just for the helluva it.
2. Formulate a reality show staged on the front lines of picketing and put all your writer friends on the payroll.
1. After your picketing shift at the studio is over, mosey over to the set of the TV show you formerly wrote for and pocket all the good stuff from the craft service table.

TOP TEN THINGS PRODUCERS CAN DO DURING THE WRITER’S STRIKE

10. Actually read that stack of quality, character-driven scripts that your assistant’s assistant shelved upon arrival.
9. Enroll in that community extension boot camp screenwriting class. After all, how hard could it possibly be?
8. Jump on the sudoku craze so you can keep those number crunching skills healthy.
7. Take the whole family to Aspen. The official “federal mediator” will take care of everything. Might as well get some quality skiing in.
6. Re-watch The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Try to decipher the thematic elements.
5. Host a back-lot studio BBQ. Appoint Michael Moore as host and have him invite all the documentary and reality filmmakers he knows.
4. Cook you own Thanksgiving dinner for the first time since ’88.
3. Have your assistant search and destroy any bootlegged copies of movies that may be lurking in your office.
2. Bed all the hot, young ingénues while you still can--since SAG and AFTRA contracts expire in June 2008.
1. Remove all writers from the company Christmas list.

Copyright © 2007 Kendra Liedle
Associated Content

*****

"We write alone...So to come together like this is to feel a sense of unity. That you're part of something bigger than you."

~Writer-Director, James L. Brooks, as told to The Los Angeles Times)

Photo Caption: Members of the Writers Guild of America walk a picket line outside CBS studios in Los Angeles.
Photo Credit: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times, November 5, 2007
For more information about the current Writer's Strike, click here