No Industry For Old Men

As the Writers Guild strike has ground to its current impasse, I have started to see the negotiators from the AMPTP as the boardroom equivalent of Anton Chigurh, the implacable, single-minded killer brought to indelible life by Javier Bardem in No Country For Old Men. The producers might have allowed the WGA to jabber on as long as they wanted, pleading their cases earnestly, but it didn't really matter; in the end, the networks and studios were going to do whatever they had planned all along.

Oh, sure, if the whim struck them, they might take pity on their victims. Chigurh gave a shopkeeper the chance to live or die, depending on the flip of a coin. The AMPTP's equivalent: tossing the writers $250 for a year of internet streaming of a one-hour program (that is, after a six-week window for which they'd have to pay the writers absolutely nothing). And, in each case, they seemed baffled why such a consummate act of generosity was not thoroughly appreciated.

The AMPTP are in a snit - or are posturing that they are in one -- because the writers have not succumbed to their bullying tactics and did not immediately fold once Friday's ultimatum was issued. All the lousy deals the WGA has accepted in the past must not have prepared the producers for the defiance and solidarity they're encountering this time around. Seeing that they have not gotten their way, the AMPTP has opted to take their ball and go home (or, more likely, to St. Bart's).

No one that I'm aware of on the "talent" side of this battle wants the strike to continue one second longer. And no one begrudges the companies which produce, distribute and air movies and television programs the financial gains which they derive in exchange for the enormous risks they take by allowing us to create our art. To paraphrase Sally Brown in A Charlie Brown Christmas, all we want is what we have coming to us; all we want is our fair share.

Friday's collapse of what might laughably be termed "negotiations" is deeply disheartening to those of us with hearts. Although the rewards for steadily-in-demand scribes can be enormous, many if not most keyboard pushers are less consistently employed than the below-the-line personnel who have become the collateral damage of the strike. Writers' kinship and empathy with these less-heralded workers has led to such charitable endeavors as the live SNL and 30 Rock shows at the Upright Citizens Brigade theatre in New York or this Friday's all-star Write Aid concert at UCLA's Royce Hall. Sadly, recent developments suggest that this worthy cause will remain worthy for the indefinite future.

So far, the most charitable gesture from the studios and networks toward the crews of halted productions has been to free many of them up to pursue other employment.

This must have seemed like another of the AMPTP's brilliant tactics: "We'll lay off the other workers, which will make them really mad at the writers!" But wouldn't the true masterstroke to ally the rank-and-file workers with the studios have been to keep them on salary? "See how nice we are? Even though those bastard writers are shutting down the business, we value you so much that we'll continue to pay you. Now go talk some sense into those ingrates." Instead, these layoffs are likely to have the opposite effect. By indicating such disdain for ALL who toil to create the programming which keeps the studios and networks functioning and profitable, the Scrooge-like producers may have solidified the unity of the writers with their crews, with hosts - and WGA members - like Dave and Jimmy and Conan playing Santa by stepping up and paying the wages of those innocent employees caught in the strike's crossfire.

You would think the producers might be unnerved by the drop in ratings for the first programs slammed by the walkout, the late-night comedy schedule, and see it as a preview of coming subtractions. But for now, the AMPTP's simplistic strategy seems to be to sit on their piles of cash and wait for their opponents to crack.

If that doesn't work, perhaps Nick Counter will try waterboarding Patric Verrone.

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

Comments

[unidentifiedman]

First, I sincerely hope that the strike will end soon and that it'll end well.
Now, while I believe in the power of laughter and value humor almost above all things, the wit and sarcasm on display in writer's blogs and on their picket signs have only hardened positions on both sides. There's not going to be public referendum on this contract. The players who will eventually settle this thing are seated across the table from one another (alright, not currently, although they should be), and not in the audience.
I would suggest that the creative community work more creatively creating a solution than in trashing the competition. That's a little too on the nose, don't you think?
The majority of people being hurt by the current stalemate don't stand to gain a penny when and if a new deal is struck. They are collateral damage and will never recover their losses. Frankly, I'll be surprised if anyone does.
There's not even a guarantee that the "business" will be the same when the strike is over. The OJ trial permanently wounded soap operas, the last WGA strike accelerated the growth of basic cable (which pays a lot less than network), I just gave birth to my own (incredibly attractive) avatar on second life, etc.
The DGA's just announced that they are prepared to negotiate their contract after the first of the year, having delayed for months out of consideration for the WGA's efforts. Despite preemptive potshots taken by some in the WGA, the DGA shares their interests, goals and finally, their side of the table. They should be welcomed. Perhaps fresh eyes and common interests can find a way through this impasse.

[thetvdecider]

the "ultimatum" from the amptp was to concentrate on the real issues -- digital, not the smokescreen reality, animation and sympathy strike bs the wga put up.
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http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/dec2007/db20071212_368829.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_businessweek+exclusives

The Writers Guild Is Losing Ground

BUSINESS WEEK

By Ron Grover

December 13, 2007

(excerpts.­..full story at link above)

The problem is the issue really isn't what has been advertised—the sharing of whatever money the studios will one day make from distributing TV shows and movies over new digital methods such as the Internet or cell phones. In a surprise to just about everyone but the WGA leadership, the writers offered up a series of demands more likely to change their relationship with studios than to get the 3.5% pay hike they're seeking. The key demand: allowing the WGA to extend its membership to cover people who "write" for reality shows such as ABC's (DIS) Extreme Makeover or NBC's (GE) Biggest Loser.

"I don't believe the WGA ever intended to bargain in good faith," IATSE President Thomas Short says. The talks, he adds, won't continue, "until the WGA leadership starts behaving responsibly, which is unlikely."

IATSE has its own issues with the WGA: The writers on reality shows are mostly editors, who are covered by their union. The WGA tried, and failed, to organize them in the past. But the attitude of the WGA, as outlined by Short, is beginning to splinter the WGA leadership and some of its rank and file. "I want unity, I want progress, I want a good deal," writes Scary Movie 3 writer Craig Mazin on the Artful Writer blog. "I just think [the WGA leadership] is hurting us now, and hurting us in a fashion that could leave permanent scars." Mazin, and I suspect a growing number of writers on strike, would just as soon scrap the reality writer provision and concentrate on getting a piece of the action from new media, which he rightly says is "the stuff that matters."

[thetvdecider]

ask the "other workers" who they're mad at. you can bet they're not going to say "the huge multinational corporate pigs." they're going the blame the writers for the lumps of coal in their stockings. (don't believe me? ask one.)