A Writer's Life

How to Throw the Pitch

I'm going in to a major studio next week to pitch a TV series.  In advance of the meeting, the studio wants you to send them a very short log line of the concept, sort of the equivalent of a TV Guide listing. Assuming that they like the log-line, a few days before the meeting they will send you the "Drama Series Pitch" format that they expect you to follow for your verbal presentation. Here it is:

THE TEASER—Pitch out a tease that grabs your audience, that is visual, gives a sense of the world, tone and set up of our show.

THE WORLD—After you have grabbed our listener, tell us what the world is and why you want to do a show about it.

THE CHARACTERS-Outline our characters in order of importance, allowing what makes each one distinct to shine through (quirks, traits, backstory). Also discuss character dynamics, how each character relates to each other and what their point of views are about each other. Tell us about triangles, rivals, love interests, etc.

THE PILOT—Broad stroke the rest of the pilot. Do not go beat by beat or act by act. This should really just be broad strokes and key plot points which help establish character and set up. Also, your pilot needs to serve as an example of what a typical episode would look like (i.e. an example of a closed-ended story and examples of character conflicts).

THE SERIES—discuss what an episode of your show looks like, where you want to go in series, potential storylines and character arcs and entanglements.

THE TONE—You want to make sure you have clearly established the tone of your show and may want to hit it again in the wrap up at the end. It is often helpful to use shows that people are familiar with.

I've been in the TV business for a while, and I have done hundreds of pitches, but this is the first time anyone has ever given me a required format.  I guess that the studio has been hearing a lot of meandering, unfocused, boring pitches lately.

In general, I have no problem with their format, and would certainly have included most of what they want in my pitch anyway, though perhaps not in that order. 

Doing it their way is fine for me and has actually helped us focus our pitch and tighten it up. But I think there are some cases where rigid adherence to their format could kill a pitch. Not all series ideas are best told with a teaser and the pilot story...nor do all ideas lend themselves to comparisons to previous series ("It's HANNAH MONTANA meets THE SHIELD with a touch of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA").

Also some writers just have a natural, entertaining way of  pitching that suits their personality and thinking that might not follow a template...but still gets the key points across that the studio is looking or. Asking those writers to adjust to a particular template might throw them off and undermine what otherwise would have been a great pitch.

The Drama Behind Drama

Today was the first day of a three-day "International Drama Summit" conference that MediaXChange, in cooperation with CBS, NATPE and Fox, put together here in L.A.  A sobering fact came out of a panel discussion today with Jeff Wachtel, head of USA Network, and David Stapf, head of programming for CBS and Paramount. They were asked point-blank by David Zucker (who heads Ridley Scott's TV production company) if they would ever buy a contemporary TV series set in Europe or South America, written and produced by Americans and starring American actors...and they both answered with a flat-out NO.

The only exceptions Stapf and Wachtel said they would consider would be shows set in the past (ala ROME, THE TUDORS or ROBINSON CRUSOE) or that are science fiction (which are likely to be set on other planets, regardless of what country they are shot in).  They believe that America audiences simply won't accept a contemporary series set in Europe, no matter how big the stars are. They said there hasn't been a successful network show set in Europe since the days of THE AVENGERS, THE SAINT and I SPY thirty five years ago...and they were unwilling to be the ones to try to break that record.

(So, if their views reflect those of other American network chiefs, I was doomed on FAST TRACK as a series before I ever started...though the movie has quite done well internationally as a "one off" and made money)

That said, Stapf and Wachtel said they are very open to buying formats from overseas and setting them in America...as the networks have done in a big way this season LIFE ON MARS, 11th HOUR, MYTHOLOGICAL EX, THE TREATMENT, and NY-LON, to name a few. The key is adapting the format to what they called our "uniquely American sensibility." A BBC exec on the panel said the biggest difference was story-telling...he said British programs tend to meander more, "though there is some pleasure to be had in meandering."

They also talked about how immensely successful U.S. shows are in Europe and that American studios actively consider the international sales potential of whatever they are developing for the domestic networks.

There was also a fascinating panel of executives and content providers discussing the potential for drama on the web. Christopher Sandberg, of the Companyp in Sweden, said the key difference between TV and the web comes is how they view the relationship between content and the audiences. In the broadcast model, the important thing is getting the viewer to click his remote to your program and to stay there to watch it. In the web model, it's not getting the audience to the content that counts, it's what the audience does when they get there that matters...and that is what is saleable to advertisers. Passive viewing isn't enough in the new media world. What the web provider is selling advertisers is the audience involvement, and how people are experiencing, interactin with, & utilizing the content...not simply the audience's eyeballs.

Fascinating stuff.

International TV Drama Summit

The MediaXchange, the folks responsible for all of my European TV adventures, is hosting a "TV Drama Summit" June 25-27 in Los Angeles with some of the biggest names in the industry. They will be offering an invaluable, global over-view of where scripted drama is at today...and where it needs to go creatively and financially in the future.

Fox TV Studios, CBS, the Hollywood Reporter, and NATPE are just a few of the major sponsors of the event, which includes speakers like CBS Paramount Network Television president David Stapf, USA Network topper Jeff Wachtel, Scott Free productions president David Zucker, CLOSER showrunner James Duff, HEROES showrunner Tim Kring, Tandem Communications topper Rola Bauer, and my buddy Daniel Hetzer, VP of programming and co-productions at Fox TV Studios, to name just a few.

If you want to compete in the ever-changing, scripted drama industry, here or abroad, you'll want to go to this summit. I'll be there. For more information, visit the MediaXchange site.

Reviving the Blacklist

Today WGA members received an email from Patric Verrone, our Guild president, regarding the small number of writers who decided to go "financial core" during the strike. I have a great deal of respect for Patric, and I wholeheartedly supported the strike, but I found the wording, intent, and underlying message of the email offensive, particularly this:

[...]there were a puny few who chose to do otherwise, who consciously and selfishly decided to place their own narrow interests over the greater good. Extreme exceptions to the rule, perhaps, but this handful of members who went financial core, resigning from the union yet continuing to receive the benefits of a union contract, must be held at arm’s length by the rest of us and judged accountable for what they are – strikebreakers whose actions placed everything for which we fought so hard at risk.

He went on to include a link to a list of those writers, who number less than two dozen.

Patric's letter, and his rallying cry to scorn those writers, harkens back to one of the darkest chapters in entertainment history for writers -- the blacklist.  In my view, Patric is asking us to engage in that same, despicable behavior... to exclude these writers from work opportunities because of their political views. While I strongly disagree with what those writers did, I resent the Guild asking me to blacklist them because of it.

The writers who went financial core objected to the strike but at least they followed the rules to express their dissatisfaction. I can respect their courage and integrity if not their views. They didn't hide in the shadows, saying one thing ("I support the strike!") and doing another (writing scab scripts for a daily soap). They stood up and were willing to be held accountable for their actions.

I would, at least to some degree, understand Patric's suggestion if he was talking about the people who actually scabbed...who toiled in secret, writing scripts for shows while the rest of us were walking the picket lines and losing our incomes.  Go after the scabs, expose them, fine them, throw them out of the Guild. I am all for that.

But tarring-and-feathering the writers who went financial core, and suggesting that we not hire them, is wrong.  The boards of the WGA West and East should be ashamed of endorsing this wrong-headed action and supporting this offensive letter.

UPDATE: The complete text of Patric Verrone's letter, and a spirited debate about it, can be found at Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily.

UPDATE: WGA members Craig Mazin and John August share their opinions about the letter.

UPDATE 4/22/08: Nikki Finke reports that the AMPTP has filed an unfair labor practices charge with the NLRB over the WGA's letter. The AMPTP statement reads, in part:

By publicly naming names and encouraging people who have the power to hire writers to keep them "at arm's length," and saying they must be "judged accountable" it is clear the WGA leadership is seeking to deny employment to these writers in the future. That is a direct violation of federal labor law, and as the employers of those writers we have a responsibility to defend them and the rule of law in this case.

I don't condone the AMPTP's motives for filing the charges, but their statement is absolutely right and I hope the NLRB slaps the WGA with stiff sanctions for this. For the first time since I joined the WGA, I am ashamed of my Guild and its leadership. The WGA Board needs to apologize for what they have done.

UPDATE 4/26/08:  I have now heard from three board members, two of whom said that they were blindsided by the letter. They told me that the Board had voted to release the names of the fi-core writers, but they had no idea that the membership would be told not to associate with them. I am hoping that there will be a clarification and/or apology to the membership following the next board meeting.

Why Should Authors Care About the WGA Strike?

Michael Connelly, Elizabeth Cosin, and Terrill Lee Lankford were among the MWA many members who have showed up to walk alongside the striking screenwriters on picket line recently. Obviously, there are many authors who are also WGA members (like Paul Levine, Robert Crais, Andrew Klavan, Steve Cannell, Lawrence Block, Eric Garcia, Mark Haskell Smith, Seth Greenland, Elmore Leonard, Donald Westlake, Robert B. Parker, Larry McMurtry, George Pelecanos, and myself, to name just a few). But why should a non-screenwriting author give a damn about how the strike turns out?

The answer is simple. Because we are a community of writers...not just book writers or screen writers. We should be concerned about any efforts to limit the royalties that writers receive from the commercial exploitation of our creative work.

Many of the corporations that own the studios and networks also own many major publishing companies...if they succeed in limiting what screenwriters get from new media, they will only be encourage to seek similar "rollbacks" from authors and other artists who, incidentally, don't have the benefit of being represented by a powerful union. The final deal struck between the corporations and the WGA in those emerging markets could create a template  or how writers of books, computer games, and other media are treated.

SAG President Alan Rosenberg put it best: "This fight is for the rights of all creative artists and our collective future is at stake."

How they think

My friend Jack Bernstein directed me to an excellent article by a former corporate attorney-turned-writer that's full of insights into the AMPTP's negotiating strategy.

Regardless of what camp you fall in, everyone is grasping for an explanation of why the studios are acting the way they are. That’s because with the exception of a few carefully prepared press releases, a trade ad or two, and some supposed “leaked” stories, we haven’t heard directly from any of the CEOs about the strike. We’ve only heard from Nick Counter – their point man. Their lawyer.

I’m here to tell you, as a former litigator who spent several years at one of the biggest corporate law firms in the world, that we’re all in engaged in a huge lawyering game, and things are proceeding accordingly.

Going Too Far

TV Guide's Michael Ausiello reports that VERONICA MARS creator Rob Thomas has considered continuing the cancelled series a comic book...but has been warned off the project by the WGA. Thomas says:

"I had a second meeting with DC comics. I heard that the [WGA] didn't want [TV writers penning TV-based] comic books during the strike as it would promote a network property. We're investigating whether there are similar hurdles for a defunct TV series like Veronica Mars. Naturally, I won't be writing it if the Guild doesn't want me to, but we're hoping that's not the case."

I am a strong supporter of the WGA and of the strike, but if what Thomas says is true, the Guild is going way, way too far. The Guild has absolutely no jurisdiction over any writing that their members do in the publishing industry. It would be a big stretch, legally and ethically, for the WGA to call writing a VERONICA MARS comic book, or a MONK tie-in novel for that matter, an activity that undermines the strike effort in any way. 

In my case, if I used the WGA strike as an excuse not to honor my publishing contract to deliver my next MONK novel, then Penguin/Putnam, which has no ties whatsoever to the AMPTP, would sue me... and win.

(Thanks to TVSeriesFinales for the heads-up and to Aintitcool for the graphic).

A Good Word on the Strike

My friend Gregg Hurwitz, author of THE CRIME WRITER, sums up my feelings on the strike better than I can.  He's also better looking than me:

Coming to Hollywood as an author, I was amazed at the benefits and infrastructure provided to me as a screenwriter. Health care. Pension. Residuals. Minimums. There’s not a day I’ve worked in L.A. that I’m not grateful for these benefits—benefits that provide for my family and that allow me to continue to do my job. These benefits were won by the sweat and courage of men and women who had much more to lose and who took greater risks than those before us now. These benefits were won by the sacrifices others made for future generations, for me.

This membership, this year, cannot dissipate those gains. We cannot cave in to an unfair deal that writers decades from now will be saddled with. This is a watershed contract. Future writers will look back to this year, to this contract, to us, every day as they live with what our resolve and respect for writing yielded. They can look back on us with the same gratitude we look back on those who came before us. Or they can look back with disappointment.

We’d be well served to remember that this contract isn’t just for us.

Crime Scene Picket

I just got back from picketing in the rain with hundreds of my fellow TV crime writers and the casts of their hits shows outside the headquarters of the AMPTP, which we wrapped in crime scene tape. It was a terrific event that once again demonstrated how amazingly unified and determined the Guild is. The AMPTP has greatly underestimated our dedication to our cause. It was also great to see so many supporters from SAG and the DGA, as well as novelists like Michael Connelly from the Mystery Writers of America and Christa Faust from the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers. Celebs included the stars of NUMBERS, CSI, THE UNIT, RENO 911, BONES, and DEXTER and showrunners like Carlton Cuse (LOST), Shawn Ryan (THE SHIELD), Rene Balcer (LAW AND ORDER) and Naren Shankar (CSI). And there were mobs of reporters there as well, so I'm sure we got a lot of press out of the event. (Photos 1. The AMPTP wrapped in crime scene tape. 2. Me and Michael Connelly. 3. CSI's Marg Helgenberger and Rene Balcer read the indictment against the AMPTP. 4. William Rabkin and Robert Patrick from THE UNIT. 5. Striking Writers and actor Keith Carradine listen to speakers.)

Variety Survey

Variety is doing a survey of its readers. Here's most of it (there were a couple of questions that I didn't correctly copy-and-paste...but the browser wouldn't let me go back to get'em. If I recall correctly, one asked if I belonged to a Guild and, if so, which one and the other asked me if I was Hispanic):

Who Says There's Anything Wrong with a Network Affiliate Owning a City's Only Newspaper?

I liked Ken Levine's observation about the Los Angeles Times' coverage of the WGA Strike:

Good news! The LA TIMES has begun its Oscar coverage with a weekly special section called THE ENVELOPE. Meanwhile, strike coverage has been relegated to the Business Section. I somehow can’t see THE DETROIT FREE-PRESS not running stories about an auto strike on page one. But then again GM doesn’t own the DETROIT FREE-PRESS.

The Times is owned by Tribune, which also owns KTLA, one of the major affiliates of CW, one of the TV networks hit by the strike.

Is Variety Publishing Lies?

Nikki Finke posts a brutal analysis of Variety's strike coverage, accusing the trade publication and its reporters of printing total falsehoods.

The trade's Jason Blairs -- oh, excuse me, Josef Adalian and Dave McNary -- keep inventing stories which purport to show that less than 2 weeks into the strike wither the WGA's resolve is withering, and/or its writers are going back to work, and/or even its late show iconic hosts are going to double-cross their teams of scribes. Just one problem: those stories are either totally fabricated or highly exaggerated.

[...]First, there was McNary's article wrongly claiming the WGA was backing off its position on changing on Reality TV. (See my previous,  WGAW Says Variety Scoop Has No Reality). Then, there was Adalian's and McNary's fabricated story about The Young And The Restless soap opera writers returning to work by opting for "financial core" status with the WGA.

Both stories turned out to be totally false. Variety's tiny correction on the soap opera story was buried in the back pages a few days later.

My take on this is that Variety's so-called "reporters" are so used to retyping press releases and passing them off as "reporting" that they have no idea how to actually report a story. So they are simply publishing whatever their studio and networks sources feed them without bothering to do the basic work of a reporter.

But they also have no incentive to do any actual reporting. I know what I am talking about. Twenty years ago, I worked as a reporter for a trade publication. I know the pressure the advertising side exerts on the editorial side. The wall between the two in the trade publication world is very, very thin. By nature, trade publication rely entirely on advertising by the industry they are reporting on, which raises all kinds of ethical issues every single day. The fact is that the editors are under enormous pressure not to piss off the people who keep them in business...and those people aren't screenwriters.

We Are At An Impasse, Jack Bauer.

This strike video gave me a few laughs...

On the Yellow Brick Road

Here are some pictures from the NBC picket line this morning. I'm the yellow munchkin.

A woman writer asked me if it was true that John Edwards was coming to the NBC picket line later in the afternoon. I said that it was. She beamed.

"I love him so much," she said. "I think it's great that he can talk to the dead."

"That's John Edward," I said. "This is John Edwards."
"There's only one  famous John Edward," she said. "And he talks to dead people."
"This John Edwards is running for President," I said.
She gave me a long look. "Does he talk to dead people, too?"

That was an honest-to-God conversation I had. On a picket line with elderly munchkins handing out donut holes. This is a strange world we live in.

Live from the picket line

I am at NBC in Burbank this morning, nearing the end of my shift. At about 8, a guy parked across the street and came over to us. His hands were in his pockets and he looked uneasy.. 
He told us he was an editor and that he, and many other IATSE members, were embarrassed and outraged by the conduct of their exec director, especially by the letter that was released today. I didn't know anything about the letter...I slipped out of the house without reading the paper. He wanted us to know that the editors were with us in spirit and we thanked him.
An hour later, a van pulled up and out spilled three original munchkins, one in her costume from The Wizard of Oz. The three of them must have been in their late 80s and sang the lollipop guild song as they walked with us.

"The lollipop guild is with you," said the lollipop kid and he handed me a donut hole.

John Edwards is coming by later but I doubt that he can top that.  Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

The AMPTP Likes to Buy Pages in Newspapers

The AMPTP took out more full-page ads in national newspapers today in an attempt to cast the WGA as irrational, unreasonable, and greedy. The problem is that the AMPTP can't do that and tell the truth at the same time.  So guess how they dealt with the problem.

Here is how Patric Verrone, president of the WGA, responded to the latest ads:

* They say that technology and the Internet is rapidly changing how Hollywood works. This is true, which is why we need a new formula to determine compensation.

* They say that writers are already paid residuals for digital downloads. It's true some companies are trying to pay us for downloading shows we’ve created at the abysmal DVD rate of a third of a penny per dollar earned by the companies. But we have never agreed to this formula, and we have initiated arbitration.

 

* They say we are asking for a 700% increase over what we currently receive for digital downloads. This is more than misleading. Again, some companies are trying to pay us the DVD rate. And we are asking to receive 2.5 cents per dollar. The only way to characterize our request as a 700% increase is if you accept as a given the low ball amount they’re trying to foist on us.

 

* They say they have offered to pay us a percentage of the revenue from Internet streaming of shows we’ve created. Here’s the truth about their offer. We would get no share of revenue for the first six weeks that our shows air. In other words, they’re offering us a share of revenue after there is little revenue left.

 

* They say that no labor agreement in history has given writers, actors, or directors a portion of advertising dollars. Nowhere in any of our proposals have we ever asked for a share of ad dollars. As with every residual, we are asking for a share of the revenue the corporations receive.

The AMPTP is dealing with the issues by spending lots of money on misleading, full-page ads in national newspapers. The WGA would rather deal with the issues by talking about them over a negotiating table.

The Medium is the Message

Here's my friend writer Diane Ademu-John (back row, second from the left) and the cast of her show MEDIUM on the picket line. She has already logged an astonishing 40 hours of picketing (compared to my meager twelve). That's why she's in such great shape and I'm, um, not.

I'll be out at CBS in Studio City or NBC in Burbank tomorrow.

Dawn of the Dead

I was back on the picket line a CBS at dawn today, though I moved to the Colfax gate this time. The writers were blowing whistles and encouraging passing cars to lean on their horns (which they did). This irritated the guards who made a show of scowling, counting the number of picketers, and making notations on their clipboards. I'm not sure why they were counting us, but I think we were supposed to be intimidated by it. We weren't. I also chatted with my friends Bill Freiberger and Rodney Vacarro, which is one of the benefits of picketing. I keep bringing my iPod along but I haven't listened to it yet.

Finding Middle Ground at MIDDLEMAN

The strike has put my friend Javi in a tough situation.  He was in the midst of producing his pilot THE MIDDLEMAN, a dream-come-true for him, when the strike was called. Now he is in a moral quandry:

i can't be legally penalized by the guild for doing my duties as a producer: but the guild would certainly prefer it if the walkout was complete - if people like myself struck not only as writers but also as producers...because if the paralyzing effect of the strike is felt swiftly and across the board, the producers might be more motivated to settle quickly.

so here i am, given the opportunity to see through to completion the production of a nine year-old dream into a pilot...a dream i self-financed as a comic book, seen through to three volumes and fought to get to this place, into a reality...

...and on the other hand, there's a labor union of which i am a member, mounting picket lines i am required to honor, running a justified strike against a predatory media cabal that has no qualms about taking from creators as much as they can possibly get (while laughably pleading poverty when their entire raison d'etre is to monetize the work of people such as myself) asking me to walk away completely.

I wouldn't want to be in his position. It seems like an awfully cruel twist-of-fate for him.

A Brilliant Video on The Profits Already Being Made in New Media

A YouTube video compiles interviews with Rupert Murdoch, Bob Iger, Sumner Redstone, Les Moonves and others crowing about the huge profits they have already made -- and WILL make -- from TV shows streamed on the Internet, iTunes, etc. (Thanks to Craig Mazin for the heads-up!)

The Upside of a Walking a Picket Line

Back when the WGA struck in 1988, I was a starry-eyed newcomer in television, fresh off having my first couple of freelance scripts produced. Walking the picket line each day was a chance to meet my TV writer idols and enjoy a master class in TV writing.

Nearly twenty years later, I'm pleased to report that it hasn't changed.

Today I got to CBS Radford at 5:45 am and walked the picket line with legendary writer/producer William Blinn.

We share two social connections...when he started out in TV, his writing partner was Michael Gleason, my mentor...and he produced the TV series  "Our House" with the late Ernie Wallengren, who was one of my closest friends. So I'd heard a lot about Blinn over the years from Micheal and Ernie and, of course, was well aware of his successful career in television.

The congenial Blinn and I spent the whole time talking about TV and, for three hours this morning, I was the happiest writer in Hollywood. He shared anecdotes about his early days writing for "Bonanza," "Maverick," "Gunsmoke," and "Laramie"... about writing the epic miniseries "Roots"...about writing & producing everything from "Starsky & Hutch" to little-known shows like "Lazarus Syndrome" and "Heaven Help Us"... and about working with actors like Wilford Brimley, Broderick Crawford, Michael Landon, Lee Marvin and Lou Gossett Jr.  I was almost sorry when our shift ended, though my aching feet where screaming for a rest.

As far as celeb sights go, KING OF QUEENS star Kevin James showed up on the line for about twenty minutes, bought everyone Egg McMuffins and skee-daddled, but we appreciated the support and the vittles.

I had a late breakfast and caught up with the Los Angeles Times, where I was pleasantly surprised to see a very pro-WGA column from Patrick Goldstein, who noted that:

When Tom Freston was fired from Viacom in 2006 he received $60 million in severance pay, more than all of the DVD residuals paid to WGA members that year.

[...]So why are studios playing such hardball? They say they can't divvy up online revenue until they have a better idea of how much money is generated. Of course, when video came along, the studios persuaded writers to take a tiny cut of the profits, so as not to kill an emerging technology. But once they were accumulating windfall profits, did they ever revisit that deal? Not on your life.

And yesterday, the LA Times profiled a soap opera writer living in Sacramento who stands to lose everything if the strike drags on much longer. Perhaps the print media is beginning to finally see our side of the story.

Lee Rae

Maddie and I arrived at the CBS lot in Studio City at 5:30am for the 6 a.m. picket...and we were the only ones there, if you don't count the news crew from KABC. The newsbabe asked me if I wanted to be interviewed for her live report and I declined.  I figured I could only get myself in trouble.

Other writers started showing up around 6 and picket signs were delivered at about 6:15. We walked for three hours straight, back-and-forth in fr0nt of the CBS studio gates. I chatted with a few folks for a bit, but mostly Maddie and I just walked in circles and talked amongst ourselves. She thought the writers we were way too polite to people coming and going to the studio and that we should have been causing more of a ruckus.  There was one actor who joined the picket line -- Julie Bowen from BOSTON LEGAL (that's her in the striped shirt holding the SAG in Solidarity sign behind my daughter) but that was it for celebrity sightings.

We left around 9:30 and headed straight to Subway for an unhealthy breakfast. I must have walked several miles today. My feet and back are killing me, but I figure that picketing is going to be a great way for me to lose some weight and help my fellow writers at the same time.

I'll be back on the line tomorrow.

UPDATE: You can see Maddie and I picketing on KABC.

Heading to the Picket Line

My jet lag is paying off. I was up at 4 am, wide awake, so I will be on the picket like at CBS at 6 a.m. with my daughter. I am bringing my Blackberry, so maybe I will post here from the front-lines, so-to-speak.

Struck by the Strike

It has been interesting viewing the strike from across the Atlantic. For the last week, I have been keeping up on things from Munich by reading the International Herald-Tribune, USA Today, and whatever British newspapers I've stumbled across. The contrast between how the British press is covering the walk-out and our U.S. news media is, well, striking.

The British press, which has no pretense of objectivity, appears to be solidly behind the writers. More than one article portrayed our demands as  reasonable and the AMPTP's reaction as greedy and bewildering.

But the U.S. press, which does pride itself on objectivity, seems to be siding with the networks and studios. Virtually article mentions how highly paid some screenwriters are, or  makes some  snide aside about strikers arriving in their BMWs and Mercedes or going from the picket lines to their Malibu beach homes. An article in the Herald Tribune even portrayed striking writers as espresso-sipping dandies wearing "arty sunglasses" and colorful scarves. It's obvious that more than a few print journalists suffer from an inferiority complex and are  jealous of screenwriters.

On top of that, trade publications like Variety and newspapers like the Los Angeles Times depend heavily on studio and network advertising revenue, so it's hardly a surprise that screenwriters aren't getting a fair shake. L.A. is an industry town, and it isn't screenwriters who are keeping the lights on at the Hollywood Reporter.

I did get a kick out of the article in Variety a week or so back, where their editors whined that the WGA refused to be baited by each and every negative comment from the AMPTP. They warned that we were going to be "swift-boated" if we didn't respond whenever one of their so-called reporters, who don't know how to write without being spoon-fed a press release, asked for a statement from the Guild. I'm proud that our leaders are, for the most part, taking the high road when it comes to responding to the baiting or in characterizing the state of negotiations.

What has also been interesting to me is the feedback I have been getting from German writers, producers, studio execs and network execs regarding the strike. Much to my surprise, they all seemed to be solidly behind the writers. Why was I surprised? Because writers there don't have a guild or a union and don't enjoy the protections, creative writers, standard pay, and other benefits that come from having a strictly-enforced, Minimum Basic Agreement. They also don't have the  financial benefit of residuals (unless they work for the state-owned networks, where they do get some rerun money).  I kind of expected them to resent us. But even more surprising to me was the supportive comments I heard from studio execs, most of whom provide shows to the networks on a work-for-hire basis and don't share in any of the revenues. Considering how immensely popular U.S. shows are in Europe, the execs were shocked that writers are only getting a barely measureable percentage of the windfall profits.

Me, too.

I got home last night. I will be walking the picket line tomorrow.

Why We Are Striking

Here's a short video that explains very clearly one of the big reasons why the WGA is on strike.

I strongly support the Guild, but I was angry when I learned that we'd pulled the demand to double our DVD residuals off the table. I am hoping that doesn't mean that the WGA doesn't intend to seek a meaningful increase of our current rate (which is about 4 cents per DVD).

Why A Strike May Be Necessary

Howard Rodman had an excellent article today in the LA TIMES on the issues the WGA is fighting for...and why we may need to strike to get a fair deal for writers. He says, in part:

First, the companies are still refusing to raise the rate they pay in DVD residuals. [...]That decades-old formula is such a thin slice of a thin slice that on each disc, the companies pay more to the manufacturer of the box and packaging (about 50 cents) than they pay in residuals to the writer, director and actors combined (about 20 cents).

[...]Published reports show that the operating income of the entertainment segments of the nation's media conglomerates has grown at a compound annual rate of 12% between 2000 and 2006, from $8 billion to $18 billion. I guess they just don't have enough to pay the people who made those revenues possible.

[...]What's more, the companies refuse to let writers share appropriately in the revenue stream from material distributed over the Internet. They claim that this torrent is at present only a trickle, that there is no "business model," that this all needs to be "studied." And while they search for that elusive business model, they are offering to pay us at those antiquated fraction-of-a-fraction rates. Never mind that, even now, this unstudied trickle is making them millions: Each studio or network has cited $500 million or more a year in online revenue.

Not That Stupid

I am not a master negotiator by any stretch. I get embarrassed when my wife haggles with antique dealers and I break out in a flop sweat whenever I have to buy a new car. But I'm not as stupid as the AMPTP seems to think I am. I wasn't the least bit surprised by the timing of today's front-page story in the LA Times about how important residuals are to writers …and the AMPTP's subsequent announcement hours later that they've pulled the plan off the table in the interests of furthering negotiations.

Extending an olive branch to Hollywood's restless writers, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers today said it would withdraw a controversial and deeply unpopular proposal on residual payments that had threatened to derail talks on a new contract when the current one expires Oct. 31.

The action does not mean the two sides are much closer to a deal, but it does remove what had been a major stumbling block in negotiations.

"In the overriding interest of keeping the industry working and removing what has become an emotional impediment and excuse by the WGA not to bargain, the AMPTP withdrew its recoupment proposal," Nick Counter, the industry's chief negotiator, told guild leaders this morning.

Aren't they sweet? Aren't they caring? Aren't they so reasonable? All the networks and studios want in return now is for the radicals at the WGA to pull their insane demand for a larger cut of DVD and new media revenues off the table.

Is there anybody who believes for one second that the demand for a complete revamp of the residual system was anything but a negotiating ploy? It was obviously a PR stunt to manipulate the media and play on the fears of the weakest-willed of the WGA membership.

The media may be gobbling it up ("Extending an olive branch to Hollywood's restless writers.." !?), and also a lot of anxious below-the-line crew members who will be terribly hurt by a strike, but I'm not that stupid and I hope the majority of my fellow WGA members aren't, either.

The AMPTP's ploy reminds me of a trick that an old mentor of mine used to pull on the network. He would always add a scene to a script that knew the network would object to. And when they did object, he would fight for the scene as if it was the most important thing in the script to him. But later, when they were arguing over another point in the script, one that really did mean something to him, he would give in on the other, hotly disputed scene. It would appear to the network that he'd given up something very important to him, that he'd made a real sacrifice, and they would relent on the other scene…which, in fact, was the only scene he really cared about. He called those fake scenes his negotiating chips…and the network never caught on to his act.

I hope the WGA negotiating committee has caught on to the AMPTP's…and that they stick to our reasonable demands and don't fall for this obvious and insulting ploy. I see the fight over DVD and new media revenue as nothing less than a fight for the future of our Guild…a fight as necessary as the battles fought to get us residuals in the first place.

Are these issues that I believe are worth striking over? Hell yes.

Do I want a strike? No, but so often in the past when we have caved in to the AMPTP's pleas to cut them a break on "new media" (like video cassettes and basic cable once were) by granting them a "temporary" residual system that gives us pathetically small percentage of the revenue, we have been rewarded by being stuck with that "temporary" system for good. We have been weak, and we have been played for fools, too many times before.

It's time now to take a stand.

The Comedy Pitch

Today Ken Levine, the Emmy-award winning writer/producer and all-around nice guy, gives you the inside scoop on what happens when you go in to pitch a sitcom pilot. Of course, he shares some great anecdotes, too.

Our PA on CHEERS who used to get us lunch became the VP of comedy at a major network. We had to pitch our PA. (No sale. But we were offered drinks.)

The comedy VP (who later became the president of that network) once asked us “What is the opening episode of the seventh season?” Huh??? How the fuck do you answer that? We said “the clip show, featuring all the highlights of the many Emmy winning episodes.” (No sale)