The Buyers' Long Term Plan, and an Idea for the WGA

The entertainment business, movies, TV, music, is divided between buyers and sellers. The sellers are actors, musicians, directors writers and their agents. The buyers are the studios, the networks, the labels. Over the last fifteen years or more, the balance of power has shifted dramatically from the sellers to the buyers. Once, powerful agencies made astronomical deals on behalf of their biggest clients. The rising tide that resulted lifted all boats. Major stars were paid large fees and their supporting castmates made enviable salaries, as well. In the 1990s, that began to change. Today, the biggest stars are still paid huge salaries, but other salaries have dropped significantly. Roles are cast at a fixed price and the producers find the actor who will work at that budgeted amount.

More changes followed. The quote system died. Actors who never read a script without an offer were being told that producers did not want performers passing on their material and, thus, effecting the industry word on the project. Reading without an offer is the way of the world for many now.

Some of the most prominent names in film and television switched sides. The end of the sellers' market meant big name agents became producers, even executives, as the party was ending for many of their clients. Today, most agencies, one could argue, work for the buyers. Agents realize that their ten percent of their clients' income comes from the studios and networks as a cushion shot. It is banked off of their clients, but it comes from the buyers. When I started in this business, agents went to war with the buyers on behalf of their clients over casting and money. Agents still fight for their clients to get a role, but the money discussion is brief. The buyers essentially fax over the deal and the artist says yea or nay.

The strike may go on for a variety of reasons. On one hand, the writers are cursed because they are right on most issues but they are awful negotiators. They got screwed in 1988 and expect the buyers to make up for that, like some kind of reparations. That will never happen. The time for making that situation right was 1988. The studios have a different problem. They are owned by huge, creativity-deadening corporations and operated by lawyers and marketing executives who lord over the worst creative decline I have witnessed in a long time, particularly in films. In television, companies like GE view properties like NBC the way realtors view square footage. GE does not care what is on NBC. So long as the programming is relatively inoffensive, they want to earn as much per square foot as they can. In the current strike, the writers expect the buyers to have a soul. The buyers, who cannot count a real filmmaker or television programmer among them, view a soul as an impediment to business.

The strike should end now. The writers should go back to work. Continue negotiating, but go back to work. The report in yesterday's New York Times about NBC buying blocks of programming from "outside producers" is a view to our future. Just as MOWs were killed off the networks and original movies became the exclusive realm of the cable broadcasters, one can envision a future where more scripted programming moves to cable. Eventually, HBO and Showtime, et al, may become the place to find the bulk of scripted shows. With these people calling the shots, anything is possible.

In the meantime, the writers, and the other sellers as well, have a different idea they can try. I recall when a popular late night talk show host skewered the head of his own network for a prolonged run, right there on his show. On and on it went and, from what I heard, that network head was apoplectic. These people have bigger egos than even the stars themselves, but without any sense of humor. I want the WGA to set up a website and on that website we can all post stories about every no-talent, idiotic, amoral producer and executive we have ever dealt with. Just like they do to us on shows like Extra and sites like TMZ (owned by Warner Brothers.) Set up a website and tell the entire world, via the internet, your own anecdote about some of the witless boobs you have endured in Hollywood and beyond. The strike will end in a week.

A post script...

Yesterday's New York Times reported the death of David Oppenheim, the former dean of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Oppenheim helped build the modern Tisch school, along with generous members of the philanthropic Tisch family, into one of the most well-regarded and competitive academic institutions in the country. Oppenheim, whose career began as a clarinetist at Tanglewood and the New York Symphony Orchestra, produced records for the CBS Masterworks label and for the programming for the PBS series Omnibus.

I hold a personal debt to Oppenheim, who, in the early 1990s, helped me to return to NYU to complete my own degree. After leaving NYU in 1980 to pursue my career, I graduated with a BFA in drama in 1994. NYU and the Tisch School changed my life and David Oppenheim was a big part of that.

Read more strike coverage on the Huffington Post's writers' strike page.

Comments

[Gratitude101]

The article in TODAY'S LA Times simply underscores my post from last week:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/
la-et-goldstein11dec11,0,4261349.story?coll=la-home-entertainment

All aboard! The train is leaving the station...;o)

[aries2at]

Alec,

As a fellow Arian..(that's Aries folks, not the brotherhood..oh never mind) Anyway, I love it when you write. I also appreciate you taking time to lay out the issues of the Strike.. At least someone is willing to say that the current power structure only real contribution has been "creatively deadening" to the art.

I haven't been to a theater in nearly 3 years..its just one bad movie after another. Ever since Ewan McGregor phoned it in with the last (er, the FIRST) Star Wars, I distanced myself. This has affected my dating life drastically. (not to triviolize, but, I can't catch a break -sheesh!)

I miss good movies. You know, with a plot, a thoughtful dialogue, real acting without ridiculous one liners and product placement.

Kristi in Portland, OR

[crackpot]

The stars do fine, the role players get screwed, same thing in the music biz, where there's no middle class to speak of. Imagine if such a thing were to happen in society at large. Wait a minute...

[loghyr]

Interesting how so many identifying themselves as writers miss AB's main point: it's not Sam Goldwyn or Jack Warner any more. It's not even a semi-creative executive at NBC. The owners of the suppliers of work for WGA members are mega-conglomerates, who make their money by purchasing companies with borrowed money, and then cutting benefits, selling assets, and laying-off employees.

The more and longer the bean-counters prosper while the WGA stays out on strike, the more they will recast the profit model to do without the WGA, and in the worst-case scenario suggested by Mr. Baldwin, cable and independent film will ultimately be the only source of WGA jobs.

It's not fair. It's not right. But it might happen. I think AB is quite astute in his observations.

[blithespirit]

Mr. Baldwin's commentary is - as always - intelligent, insightful, and hardhitting. However, I disagree with both his opening statement (regarding the balance of power between the "buyers" and "sellers") and his recommendation that the writers go back to work but continue to negotiate.
Since the birth of motion pictures, the studios have always been in control. It took Olivia De Havilland's lawsuit against Warner Bros. to end the 7-year contract hold the studios had with actors, and give actors a little more power. Trust me,though, the creative talents have never "run" things in Hollywood. (If they did, we wouldn't have a small percentage of actors making millions, whilst the rest of SAG takes home less than $5,000 a year. Nor would we have so much runaway production).
The problem is that corporations run Hollywood now. Instead of decisions being made by movie moguls, they are made by soulless bean counters. They're not concerned with Art, but with Profit. A famous actress (I forget whom), when asked about the difference between Hollywood when she was a star and Hollywood now, replied "Back then, the studios made movies that made money. Now, the studios make money by making movies!"
The only way to change things for the writers is to end corporate mergers and takeovers. Years ago Media was owned by about 26 corporations. Now just 6 corporations own everything we read, listen to, or watch. Just think. SIX CEOs controlling everything Americans have for news and entertainment. I call that corporate facism.
Barring an end to corporate takeovers and media mergers, the writers should continue to strike. If they go back to work, it will demonstrate that the buyers are still calling the shots. The contracts for WGA and SAG are up for renewal next year. If the "sellers" are ever to have any sway with the "buyers", they must stand firm now. Hollywood cannot function without its creative talents, and the sooner the bean counters realize that the better. Since all they think about is money, the more money they stand to lose, the better our chances of winning.

[luckysun]

So the writers, who are completely in the right here, should blink first and go back to work, and instead of striking write mean things on a blog about the producers..? How about the producers give in to their meager demands or else they continue striking and write a blog anyway: http://lateshowwritersonstrike.com/

[HLM]

Part one of two

Mr, Baldwin, your writing skills seem to improve with every post; kudos for an eloquent and lucid piece.

A few months back I opined on your blog that I thought you had no future in politics, handicapped as you are by conscience and integrity, and obviously lacking the requisite talent for selective cowardice (biting the NBC hand that feeds you takes more balls than anyone not in the biz will ever understand), but I stand ready to be corrected.

I disagree with your suggestion that we writers should go back to work " any display of commonsense would be interpreted as surrender " and although your gossip web idea is cute, it"s hardly practical; any embarrassing anecdote could easily be traced back to its source and vengeance would be swift and serious. And lest we deceive ourselves, Joseph McCarthy never died; his ghost walks the land stronger than ever.

I would also argue the 1988 settlement wasn"t entirely a failure for the WGA (granted, our negotiators were not as strong as they might have been), but the reality is the Producers wound up settling for a worse deal than they could have had on day one of the strike.

[HLM]

Part two of two

There is a better solution to the strike and I offer it to you in view of the fact you are high enough up the food chain (as in you probably have, or could get, certain cell phone numbers), you actually might be capable of bringing it to pass. It is this:

Given that the entire economy of Southern California is teetering on the edge of depression, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger summons the CEOs of all the major Studios and Networks to his office in Sacramento and informs them that they will give the writers what they want or else he will order an industry-wide audit by State Tax Auditors going back seven years.

As we know, if any irregularities are found then the IRS must be called in, and of course, these being publicly-traded Companies, the SEC would be next.

The strike would end the next day.

The only remaining question: Does the Governator have half the balls of Alec Baldwin or is he " as we all suspect " the real "girly-man" in the equation?

Luck

[travy]

back-end consideration is purchased with up-front risk...

[PanFried]

We are dehumanizing everything. It is all about the bottom line. I have worked in the health-care industry and for a major Software company, and I"ve seen it happen before my eyes. The bean counters have taken over the world, as is evident in every sector of our society. Some of the results? Health care costs have skyrocketed [for instance patients are now called "customers"]; it now takes two substantial incomes to provide for a family; and Americans are working harder and longer hours than we did a generation ago - with less job satisfaction.

[Janelynne]

The writer's strike is emblematic of the David and Goliath struggle that divides corporate America from working America. Big companies serve the bottom line only. In the single minded tunnel vision that chases profit, the costs get paid with other people's money, and other people's lives. Companies are not regulated or held to any standards whatever other than fiduciary. America as we used to know it, is not part of the corporate equation. The workers are treated like inanimate objects. Whatever sells, sells, and it doesn't matter if corporations peddle junk to capture the money. Big companies don't want to share the profit with the employees, they don't like healthcare or pensions. Only rare exceptions like Google, treat their employees like respected human beings, and they should be the new role model.

I think the writers are trying to get what is fair, and in turn, are fighting for quality and higher standards. When workers stand up, when Americans stand up, in the service of fairness and quality, I think we all should stand up. We certainly are not benefitting from the downgrading of products, safety, and service that corporations are forcing upon us.

We the workers are also the buyers. If we can't get corporate America to share with us on the front end, I think we should shun the junk they peddle on the back end. It is going to take the solidarity of America to repudiate the greed and cynicism that rules the marketplace. If we keep enabling them to steal from us as workers and as buyers, we will end up regretting what our lack of courage has helped create.

[WorldsGreatestActor]

Mr Schwetty should climb down off his high horse and stick with what he does best...what that is I'm not quite sure but pontificating sure isn't it. A gossip website to spread rumor and innuendo? Check the mirror Pete. You'll see a "boob" staring back at you.
WGA
PS: Loved you in Team America World Police.

[BillW51]

It"s a sad commentary on Hollywood that a famous actor still doesn"t get it. The ONLY "buyer" of the products from the entertainment industry are the ultimate viewers and audience. The real problem is that Hollywood has not looked outside their own little world to notice that America is not buying the junk they"re producing anymore " so there"s less money for the entire entertainment production chain.

How arrogant to leave the consumer out of the Hollywood equation.

[SkimaskBob]

Thanks for speaking about Mr. Oppenheim - I always enjoy it when bloggers on HuffPo give credit to those who helped them get to where they are now. As a Tisch grad myself, I can say wholeheartedly that Mr. Baldwin is dead on in his assessment of both the school, and the man who brought it to the world stage.

[StanQ]

Do the folks in Peoria give a rat's behind about the writers' strike? They can strike forever, for all I care.