Why Sons of Anarchy Feels Real. Or, Kurt Sutter, I Heart You Long Time.

A BEAUTIFUL MONSTER post from Kurt Sutter of Sons of Anarchy fame on his blog reminds me two things I've learned from my time in the TV business:

1. Nothing that's bold or good gets made without somebody inside a network fighting for it.
2. The more silent we stay, the more we convince ourselves that not speaking up, and out, and defending yourself is "better for your career" and that you just have to sit back and take it -- well, that's when the assholes win. And if the assholes win, then what does it matter anyway?

This wonderful, serendipitous post comes just as I've had a shitty twenty-four hours -- with a great heaping bowlful of the worst, dishonorable behavior this business has to offer.

...And you better fucking believe you're going to hear more about it. Real soon.

But for now, let's give it over to Sutter -- and remind yourself that nobody promised you that you were going to be able to get good work made without taking a stand and taking some risks.

I'm clearly an outspoken guy. Just my nature. I have a big personality. I can either fill up a room or suck the life out of it. Honestly, it's all ego. I just assume people need to hear what I have to say...

But my gut-following often leads me into a thrusting closed-fist. My lawyer has a saying -- Don't wound anything you can't kill. Sound advice. I'm trying to take it to heart. At the moment, my world is littered with the bloody and the pissed...

I think it's necessary for people to stir the fucking pot. Too many talented people in this town are content collecting a big fucking paycheck, hooking their fucking collar to the leash and getting in the fucking tow-line...

So what if I ruffle a few feathers, if I get one person thinking, questioning the system, then maybe I've said something worthwhile.

For Sutter's full story of his brush with D-Girl Death Wishes, click here.

The Canadian Translation

H/T for finding this Hollywood Roaster article to the great Wil Zmak, who on my recent L.A. trip steered us to a sushi restaurant that I still dream about at night:

Producer offers screenwriter $0 in exchange for services

Despite making nearly $100,000 a year as an accountant, aspiring screenwriter Josh Pendleton has agreed to write a script for producer Kevin Dernier in exchange for absolutely nothing.

“It’s all about getting a foot in the door. At least that’s what Kevin tells me,” said Pendleton, eager to start work on his first free draft. “The nice thing is that it’s Kevin’s idea, so he’s got a lot of passion for it, and I don’t have to worry about ‘creative rights’ or any of those annoying details.”

Dernier, who was an associate producer on The Adventures of Pluto Nash in 2002, claims this particular project will be a great learning experience for Pendleton.

Now. Anybody care to add a punchline for the Canadian version of this oh-so-painfully-true "parody" story?

The day after this story ran, the producer was contracted by E1 to make 8/10 shows in Canada, and the writer was hired to run a show at one of the Canadian networks.

There. Who's next?

And That's That.

FOR ALL THE fooferal about the CBC News Redesign (Gaaah! Standing! Colours! Tweets! It's the end of the world!) and especially the pique of my good friend, the Gentleman From Newmarket, I think it's that young whippersnapper Mike McPhaden who summed it up best, in, (of course) a Tweet.

Q

ALEX DOES THIS all the time, but I generally stray away from it. But I've got a good one this time. I honestly don't know the answer.

Is there a change -- any change -- of media, culture, hair, style, musical direction, political thinking -- in short, anything that requires thought, reflection, work -- that the Canadian establishment has been in favor of? That got people excited?

It strikes me that I can think of many, many, many American examples of being excited by something new. If they're not the culture that invented "new and improved" they certainly embraced it...

But the only comparable thing I can remember from recent Canadian history that I've experienced or studied is ... Trudeaumania.

And a good bit of the country wishes that had never happened either.

So there it is. Hive Mind (Canadian Edition), the question --

Have you guys ever been excited by anything that changed? Ever?

WGC Agreement Reached

The Writers Guild of Canada sent out an email blast to all 1900 members this morning, about the new contract which was negotiated last week:

We are pleased to let you know that last week the WGC negotiating team reached a deal with the Canadian producers' associations (CFTPA and APFTQ) on a new Independent Production Agreement that, when ratified, will take effect January 1, 2010. Our current IPA is set to expire on December 31, 2009. Given the economic environment and the level of uncertainty in the industry at the moment, all parties arrived at the table with a short list of issues and seeking a workable deal.

The tentative two-year agreement includes an across-the-board Script Fee increase of 2% in each of the two years. The deal also brings "story-editing summits" under the agreement. These sometimes days-long group story breaking and editing meetings (alternately called pitch summits) in both live-action and animation writing will now be contracted under the IPA and screenwriters will receive Insurance and Retirement based on fees paid. Full details will be included in an information and ratification package to follow soon.

At the WGC's request, the bargaining session began with a significant and engaging discussion about current fees and conditions for screenwriters working in animation. A working group of producers and screenwriters was established to meet regularly over the next two years to continue the dialogue.

An information and ratification package will be sent to those members who have worked under the 03-05 IPAs and/or the 06-09 IPA. The package will be sent by e-mail when available, and by regular mail for those members for whom we don't have current e-mail addresses. Please watch for it in the next week or two.

It may not be dramatic -- but I think it's probably the best deal that could have been secured under the current economic conditions, and especially with things in the TV industry being what they are now. (Full disclosure: I served on the bargaining committee that reached this agreement with the two Canadian Producers' Associations, the CFTPA and the AFPTQ.)

A couple of things to ponder as you wait for your ratification packages...

• As is true in the USA, pattern bargaining comes into play. ACTRA settled for 2% bumps in their fees, and nothing else. So securing something over that pattern, once it's established, is very difficult. But ACTRA also locked in a 3 year contract, whereas we got two. This is important, because it means that next time, we'll be up first. And that's where we want to be. Hopefully, the climate and some of the big regulatory questions will be settled by then and we'll be able to vigorously pursue some of the stuff that we need - like animation minimums. But don't kid yourself. The Producers are going to have a long laundry list of stuff next time, too.
• Bargaining dates are set well in advance. So it's just a trick of the calendar that we had to go in and negotiate one week after one of our two remaining private networks filed for bankruptcy. Not auspicious timing.
• This is a perilous time for Canada's producers, as well. There are issues that they need settled, like an ongoing compact with the Broadcasters (commonly referred to as "Terms of Trade") that gives them a baseline of rights that allows them to actually make programs. (Over the last few years the Broadcasters have been demanding -- and getting -- more and more rights for less and less of a license fee.)
• The ongoing uncertainty over the renamed and rejigged CMF, the ridiculous fight between Mommy Broadcaster and Daddy Cable over fees, and the yet-undetermined results of the license renewals of Canadian broadcast groups & CRTC review of the Broadcasting system means, well, nobody knows anything right now about where it's going.

There's no guarantee that when we sit down at the table in two years that all of these issues will be clearer. But they sure as hell won't be murkier.

And that's why I think it's a good deal, and y'all should vote to ratify.

UPDATE: A Hollywood Reporter story has more details, and a quote from both the WGC Prez and Rep from the CFTPA:

WGC president Rebecca Schechter said the latest IPA talks with producers were tailored for hard times as "all parties set aside larger issues in the interests of a unified creative community."

Schechter said a two-year deal, rather than the traditional three years, was done so that the WGC, the CFTPA and other unions and guilds can secure concessions from broadcasters, cable and satellite TV operators during upcoming industry and regulatory negotiations on a new Canada Media Fund, first-time fee-for-carriage revenue for broadcasters and station-group license renewals.

The CFTPA is also involved in terms-of-trade negotiations with broadcasters that will impact on Canadian writers and other creative talent behind indie production.

"The CFTPA believes this deal is a fair one and will bring added stability to the production sector as we enter a period of unprecedented transition," John Barrack, national executive vp and general counsel at the CFTPA, said.

Back To You, Peter...

BILL BRIOUX posts an entertaining review/blow-by-blow of The National's first night with the new format. Like everything at the CBC, predictably, there are dinosaurs who are immediately off the blocks complaining about it -- one must always endure the "everything CBC ever does is wrong crowd..." but for my part, I found it entertaining and fast-paced. At the end of the broadcast I'd felt I'd learned a few things.

These are dire times (I mean, it's always dire times, but still ... ) for CBC News. They've gone through a painful reorganization and numbers have softened this fall.

Sadly, as I age I've taken to a new metric about news engagement -- the flutter factor. One of the reasons I often opt for Jon Stewart at the end of the day is that he makes me laugh. I love Craig Ferguson, too, but staying up to 12:30 to watch TV is a special occasion these days. Reading, yes...but if it's 12:30 on a school night and my kiester's in front of the TeeVee, there better be a guy throwing a ball or something magic going on.

Jon Stewart usually gets me past the flutter factor -- where mind starts to wander and your eyes get heavy. On a bad night I dump out at the guest if I don't find the book they're plugging interesting. Most of the time if it's a movie star, I'll leave unless it's someone who I know always does an odd or good interview, like Paul Rudd.

Already news purists like my friend Howard might be grinding their teeth. (Can't wait to read what he has to say about the new National; as is his fashion, I'm sure he's waiting til it settles in for a few days to post his thoughts.) The teeth grinding is undoubtedly keyed to the fact that I started talking news and defaulted to my reaction to an entertainment show.

But we all need to get over it. Walter Cronkite is dead, and this path of news as entertainment that Murrow warned us about in the early 60's is now a superhighway with Holiday Inns and Stuckey's and Indian Casinos every three miles. The entertainment value of TV news is important for a consumer like me not because I'm a brain-dead ninny who abhors context and can't sit still for a second and a half (though you could make a case for both) -- but because unlike 25 years ago, or even 10 or 15, I've already been consuming news all day.

I start with the paper in the morning. That gets anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes depending on how I feel and what's in it. (More on the Weekend with the NYTimes -- and lately the Globe's brought up its game too, so the weekend Mop & Pail takes longer to read.) Then I sit in front of a computer being fed news headlines in procrasto-worthy bite sizes.

I might learn of a news headline from Twitter or Facebook. If it's a Political story, I'll usually read about it on Macleans.ca (if it's Canadian) or Salon.Com (American) first.

So my news hole is really a picture hole -- I may have read about protestors in parliament -- but I haven't seen the footage. And I might not have followed the story enough to see how it played out over the day.

So if I'm going to tune in a news broadcast, I'm not looking for the voice of God...I'm looking for the goods on the stories I heard about, a couple of stories I might have overlooked, an analytical spin I didn't consider, and a presentation that beats the flutter factor.

Usually, Lloyd and Peter have had me unconscious by about story 3. Last night's National carried me through start to finish without a problem.

It's an interesting mental shift -- away from "we have to be the record because people are depending on us," to "people get their news from many sources... we have to be smartest one that puts it in context."

That's what Jon Stewart does, with a laugh -- and one of the reasons why, probably, there are those studies that show that his audience is generally better informed than the rest of the populace. There's more than enough room for the serious take on that -- especially if you're going to plop your news broadcast in the 10 o'clock hour where everyone else (well, except NBC) is opting for entertainment.

So I'll be going back to the New National. For the first time in a long time, it seems like there's a reason to.

You Have To Admit It's Getting Better...

SALON has an interesting article about Obama's foreign policy successes thus far. What's notable is that I've heard every permutation I ever could have about how he didn't deserve the Peace Prize, but I hadn't thought of any of this in quite the same way -- and I read a newspaper every stinkin day.

Also, I never ever thought I would actually say this ... but it actually looks like Health Care Reform is going to get done in the United States -- with a public option and everything.

It's science fiction time, people.

TV Can Be Taxing

I'll be on Toronto's CIUT's Take 5 program about 8:45 am Monday, giving a bit of perspective on the whole "TV Tax" "Local TV Matters" West Side Story Sharks/Jets smackdown going on between Canadian Broadcasters & Cable Co's.

That's 89.5 FM CIUT Toronto -- I think you can also stream live over the web from their page.