What Can You Do if You're Outside the US?

OVER THE LAST week or so, I've gotten periodic emails and seen various message trackbacks to this blog that basically ask the same thing, "What Can We Do?"

Some are fans, looking to show support to striking WGA writers. Some are Canadians who wonder if writing a letter to our networks here would do any good.

There have been incredible fan-run initiatives set up, like Fans 4 Writers. There, too, people are saying things like, "I'm not in the U.S., I'm in Canada," or "I'm in the UK, what can I do?"

Well now we've got a bit of an answer. The Writers' Guild of Canada sent out this advisory this morning:

This week, the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG) met in Montreal. With the meeting held in Canada, it is an excellent opportunity for the WGC to be well represented – participating in the discussions are WGC president Rebecca Schechter, executive director, Maureen Parker, director of industrial relations, Laurie Channer and WGC council member Jill Golick. Given the current situation of our sister guild in the United States, it is a particularly important moment for the guilds internationally to come together on issues and show support.

This morning, the group issued a joint communiqué in support of the WGA – and announced an International Day of Solidarity on Wednesday, November 28. You will find that release attached and pasted in below. We will give you more details about how that Day of Solidarity will take shape on the WGC side in the days to come.

You know too well that it is a rare moment when screenwriters are in the spotlight and attention is being paid to the work that you do and the conditions within which you do it. It is the opportune time to remind the public that entertainment is big business and that writers deserve to share in the revenues generated by the content they create – no matter how that content may be delivered.

And here is the release that went out this morning:

“Their fight is our fight”

International Affiliation of Writers Guilds Supports WGA Strike

For immediate release

Montreal – November 15, 2007 – Leaders of major writers’ guilds from around the world – representing more than 21,000 screenwriters internationally – pledge to take action in support of the WGA strike against multi-national media conglomerates.

At the annual International Affiliation of Writers Guilds’ meeting in Montreal, Canada, screenwriters announced an International Day of Solidarity on Wednesday, November 28, 2007.

Writers will demonstrate in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, English and French Canada, United Kingdom, Mexico and France.

“Their fight is our fight,” asserts Rebecca Schechter, President, Writers Guild of Canada. “Screenwriters around the world are entitled to receive their fair share of revenues from the internet, and that is what our American colleagues are fighting for.”

Katharine Way, Chair, Writers Guild of Great Britain, argues that “The future of our industry is shifting toward new media. Writers have always had to fight for a small share of the revenues generated from their work and this case is no different.”

Audrey O’Reilly, Chair, Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild, added that “Our solidarity means that no self-respecting screenwriter in any country will undermine the US strike. The overwhelming majority of our members will never take work from striking American colleagues because the fight now taking place in the US is a fight for screenwriters across the globe.”

Tim Pyre, President, Australian Writers Guild, says that “the IAWG urges the international corporate giants to share just a few more drops from their buckets of money with the creators – without whose work their TV shows, movies, webisodes and downloads would not exist. The networks and studios must return to the negotiating table without delay.”

The International Day of Solidarity on Wednesday, November 28, 2007, will demonstrate the resolve of the worldwide screenwriting community.

The International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG) is an international body representing guilds of professional screenwriters. The IAWG works to further the cause of screenwriters worldwide by lobbying governments to adopt writer-friendly legislation and through collective action, mutual support and common representation internationally. The IAWG includes representatives from the Australian Writers Guild, the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild, the New Zealand Writers Guild, the Société des auteurs de radio, télévision et cinéma (SARTEC), the Writers Guild of America, East, the Writers Guild of America, West, the Writers Guild of Canada, and the Writers Guild of Great Britain.

The Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) represents more than 1,800 English-language professional screenwriters across Canada who create the distinctly Canadian entertainment we enjoy on our televisions, movie screens, radios and computers – such as dramatic TV series and movies, feature films, documentaries, animation programs, comedy and variety series, children's and educational programming, radio drama, corporate videos and digital media productions.

So there you have it. If you're in the U.K., or Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Mexico, France, or Canada -- Quebec and TROC (the rest of Canada. I swear, that's an acronym that gets thrown around here) and you want to show your support for the WGA, circle that date. November 28th.

And yes, I have heard from WGC members who point out that the WGA has not exactly been helpful in the past to the WGC in supporting Canadian writers' issues. That's true. But this is not the time for that discussion.

I'll post details here for the Canadian protests as they become available.

The Daily Show, Picket Line Edition

AH, THE DAILY SHOW. Sniff. Jason Ross, Daily Show Writer, does a not-too-bad job stepping into Jon Stewart's chair in this Strike Line video. This was obviously worked on by all the writers, and it's interesting because it actually does really remind you of the construction of the show: it's funny, it goes somewhere, the jokes develop. Jeez, it's almost like you have to be skilled to somehow come up with this stuff. Watch til the end for the cameo by John Oliver.

Two Out of Three!

As originally reported in the L.A. Times, and in this morning's Globe:

According to the L.A. Times, a survey by Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business and Management indicates that the public in the U.S. is overwhelmingly in support of the striking writers. Apparently 63 per cent of those surveyed said they were "more inclined to side with writers" in the labour dispute with broadcasters and major studios. And the survey indicated that 47 per cent thought writers deserved the largest share of residual payments, compared with 26 per cent for actors, 25 per cent for producers and 2 per cent for directors. The writers are winning the PR war, obviously.

Q on the WGA Strike

THE Q PODCAST featuring my conversation with Jian and Colbert Report Senior Wrier Barry Julien is now available on Itunes, or you can click right here.

What if NOBODY Could Figure It Out?

North of the border, an article appeared in the Globe and Mail this morning showing huge faultlines between the Canadian Producers Association and other members of the technology/new media sector.

A rift has erupted in Canada's new-media sector, highlighting the growing tension over emerging technologies that stretches from Hollywood to Ottawa.

After feuding with other members of the Canadian Interactive Alliance, the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) walked away from the alliance Tuesday, vowing to set out on its own.

The breakdown comes at a crucial time for new-media issues. The Alliance was formed five years ago at the request of the federal government, which called on the fragmented sector to provide a single voice to Ottawa on industry issues.

Phil Alden Robinson is right. This is simply a generational issue -- a once in 20 years fight. It's a fight that's happening, or going to happen everywhere...which is why foreign writers in the Writers Guild of Canada, and the Writers Guild of Great Britain (who are all meeting in Montreal this week) stand with you -- we don't oppose you, and we're not looking to cadge any work as scabs.

Anyone who does is not part of my industry, and is not someone I will work with in the future. More immediately: there are Canadians walking the line down in L.A. every day.

To anyone who heard me on CBC's Q yesterday, I apologize for being a little 'off.' I did think that the interview should probably, you know, feature the guy who was actually out walking the picket line more.

I don't know if it made it to air, but the last thing I said was, "Good Luck, Barry." And I meant it. Barry Julien, Colbert Report writer, shared his experiences.

By the way -- I do get paid every time I appear on Q. Not a lot, but a little.  But since I'm Calvinist in every way about this strike -- I will NOT make money off this situation, I want you all to know that I'm going to be making another donation to the Actor's Fund, equivalent to what I'm paid for my appearance.  The Actor's Fund is a fund that can help any of the other people hurt by this strike -- below the line crew people too -- writer's assistants, etc. It's an organization with a long history, if you want to show you care. Check out their page here.

I'm cooking up a post with some further thoughts on Jim Henshaw's what you can do opus.  I don't know if I'll get to it today.

Meanwhile, everywhere's posted this video. But just in case you're the one person who hasn't seen it. Here's what this is about. It's a four minute history of the WGA and their strike actions:

Wow.

THIS IS JUST too freaky, even for me.




They're picketing in Second Life.

Brrrr.

Ten Ways You Can Make a Difference

MAYBE YOU'RE CANADIAN, or maybe you feel you have no conduit into the fight. You're 1000 miles from the nearest picket line. What can you do to show your suppport for the WGA? How can you stand up to the Big 6?

Go read Uncle Jim. He's got some very cagey things to say, and some concrete suggestions too.

You're welcome.

Huju callin' a Producer, man?

WOW. THIS is unbelievable.

Today, a group of over EIGHTY independent Hollywood Producers sent a letter to Variety complaining about one key editorial choice in this strike.

Specifically, they don't want the AMPTP to be referred to as "producers" anymore.

November 12, 2007

Dear Editors,

The public has been led to believe that we independent producers are sitting opposite the writers at the bargaining table (or across the picket lines). It is not true.

We respectfully ask that your publications and reporters cease referring to the ongoing negotiations between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers as between “writers and producers.”

The Alliance represents the studios, the networks, and the international conglomerates that own them, not working producers. Creative producers are not directly involved in this dispute: we do not receive any residuals, nor are we stakeholders in the studio profits (excepting where some powerful producers do have back-end holdings in particular studio shows and films, just as do powerful actors, writers, and directors). We do not dispute the need for residuals, including those from DVDs and new media. Residuals are important and significant revenues. It is only fair that the creators of films and television share in the proceeds from all of the ways the product they create may be exploited. We support our wonderful writers, directors, and actors. We are also happy to pay benefits to the fantastic tradespeople on our films.

It is entirely inaccurate to equate us with the entity (or entities) in negotiations opposite the writers. Stories and opinion pieces in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, on television, and on NPR have almost all referenced “the producers” when they should, in all accuracy, refer to the studios, networks, and conglomerates. Independent producers have been inaccurately referred to as represented by AMPTP (by almost all publications, television, and radio outlets). We have been further characterized as “greedy” (a letter in the Los Angeles Times), and even “Scrooge-like” (a reputable columnist in The New York Times. These last characterizations are particularly galling. The work of independent producers is typically a creative endeavor that is widely understood to be an enormous financial gamble.

It serves the studios’ interests to pretend to represent individual producers instead of corporate entities. We would ask that you, as responsible members of the media, stop abetting this charade and call upon your reporters to cease equating independent producers (who are not negotiators or direct stakeholders in this process, and the vast majority of whom side with the writers) with international conglomerates.

Sincerely,

etc etc.

It's official. The studios are losing the P.R. war, and they are losing it badly. First the showrunners, then the public. The AMPTP took out full page ads in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter today, trying to make their case. This, while polls show public sympathy in Los Angeles and elsewhere starting to shift dramatically to the writers. Sixty-nine percent support the writers in a town that's going to be hardest hit by the strike. That's astounding.

TV blogs call for a "Dark Tuesday Day of Action" support. There it is -- the new medium everybody's fighting over is taking sides. And surprise surprise, it's not with the big media conglomerates.

But while a lot of the house organs like Variety and the L.A. Times try to float stories about the below the line crew who are starting to feel the pinch, other stories leak out about blackmail tactics the conglomerates are trying to use -- like threatening Jay Leno with the layoff of his whole staff if he won't cross the picket line and return to work.

NBC is trying to strong arm Jay Leno back to the “Tonight Show,” the very same program they are basically forcing him to leave against his own will in a year and a half.
The funnyman with the heart of gold has been supporting his writers by walking out in solidarity and not crossing the picket line.
But NBC has informed all non-writing staff that they will be fired at the end of next week if Leno doesn’t return.
“I talk to Jay every day, and he will not be the first [late-night host] to cross the picket line,” said Tonight Show head writer Joe Medeiros, a strike captain for the Writers Guild.
So, in an attempt to save people’s jobs and lure Leno back, NBC is “looking into” the possibility of having guest hosts fill in while Jay is gone.

Nice. Nice. (Remember, if you want to help below-the-line people hurt by the strike there's a way to do that.)

But to my mind that little bombshell of a letter above is a watershed moment. If you can't hide behind the "producer" title -- if, in fact, even the Producers think the writers are getting a raw deal -- then who's left on your side?

Oh sure, there's batshit Joel Surnow. Look what he said to the Washington Times:

"Hollywood's not being held hostage," Surnow told the Times. "I think (the studios) are going to break the guild.

Ohhhh, I get it. It's about Union Breaking! Wow, way to make the subtext text, with that usual 24 style subtlety. Well, Joel, your fellow Producers don't have your six on this one. And your show has sucked balls for two whole years now, so pipe down.

Who else? Well, I guess if Joel and the AMPTP want real producer-cover for support, they could always turn to all those Canadian producers who see nothing but opportunity in the strike. Though, uh, I wouldn't advise it. (Guys, seriously, Just stay out of it. You don't have to give a quote every time.)

So, if Variety goes with the request, and starts talking about "The Alliance," instead of "the Producers" is that really the best image? Oh, sure, if you're a Star Wars fan, maybe you think Rebel Alliance and not, you know, fascism. But FOX looks a lot less like Luke Skywalker and a lot more like, well, NewsCorp!

Heyyyyy.

You know what, the hell with it. I'm not calling them "the Producers" anymore -- the Producers' Guild is right. And the Alliance definitely doesn't work, either.

Let's call them the Axis. You know, the 6 big powers. The..Axis. It's got a nice ring to it, don'tcha think?

No?

Okay, okay. Hey shareholders, Ad agencies -- you like the way this is going? Pick up the phone. Tell the AMPTP (NOT the producers) -- to get back to the table and start talking real.

Q Roo Koo Koo, Q Roo Koo Koo

SORRY. LONG DAY. I'm punchy.

Well, it's happened. I've started to get the emails from the snarks asking, "could you please write about something other than the damn strike?"

And the answer, mostly, for now anyway, is "Sorry, Chester. I really can't."

Since last Monday, I haven't watched any over-the-air TV. I did rewatch the pilot for My So Called Life -- which, if anything, seems even more perfectly constructed now than it did years ago. I've also been catching up on 2nd season eps of How I Met Your Mother and a bunch of movies I have on DVD. Hey, they're already bought.

Tomorrow I will be on Q, on CBC Radio. I'm going to be paired with a Senior Writer for The Colbert Report. I'll be talking about the impact the strike could have on Canadian writers -- and why WGC-only writers have a dog in this hunt, too.

Here's a sneak preview: I won't be framing the strike as a "golden opportunity" for Canadian writers or producers.

The Big Ten and The Big Lie

REMEMBER WHEN The Big Ten referred to college sports? Now it refers to where you get your news. That's right. Just ten companies control most of what you see and hear every day. Wonder why you're not maybe hearing the full story on Global Warming or Iraq or even this little strikey here? Big Ten.

Marc Crispin Miller takes you behind The Big Ten.

*now here's the punchline: that article's five years old. It's gotten worse.

Oh, and when it comes to the WGA strike, there's really 6 companies that matter. You know, all the ones who can't pay writers for the Internet because they can't figure out how to make any money yet, right? Watch and learn, skeeziks. Watch and learn.

Don't Forget the Lipstick and the Chapstick

IN AN AP ARTICLE reprinted today's Globe and Mail about how writers are handling their sudden downtime, Deuce Bigalo: Male Gigolo (I know, I know) writer Harris Goldberg has this pithy piece of advice:

Not all writers have their complete attention on striking. Besides jamming with his band, a group called Oliver Twist in which he plays guitar, Goldberg said he's funnelling some creativity into scoping out a future wife on the picket lines. "I've eyed a few," Goldberg said. "But it's hard to throw on the charm while you're holding a picket sign."

Come on. Get working on those residuals.

Your Monday Morning Reading

FIRST OF ALL, John August has a very clear, very straightforward take on "Why Writers Get Residuals." I'm not even going to excerpt any of it. You just need to go and read the whole thing now. We'll wait.

Okay. That was good, huh?

Secondly, House writer Doris Egan has a lovely long essay up about writing in Hollywood today:

There is one place left in the world where some writers can make a decent living, some of the time. That place is Hollywood, California, and the Hollywoodesque enclaves of film and TV around the world.

It hasn't always been easy. Bob Carroll and Madelyn Pugh wrote the first four seasons of I Love Lucy. As you read this, that show is playing somewhere in the world, but Carroll and Pugh never saw a dime of residuals from the huge amount of money their scripts made. That money still rains down today on a huge conglomerate, where no one in the executive offices has any connection whatsoever with the series, let alone contributed to its success. It's simply free money for them, forever and ever. This is one reason I would go back in a time machine and stop Hollywood writers from giving up copyright, for with copyright went respect and fair treatment; but you can never wrestle from the hands of a corporation that which they now believe is theirs. Carroll kidded an interviewer, before he died at the age of 87: "If I had residuals, would I be here?" But this was a business where Jack Benny didn't give his writers credits on his show, because it was believed the audience thought actors and comedians made everything up on the spot. It was a business where, one ancient director told me, when a movie stopped for the night, the crew could be locked up in a barn till daylight.

A lot of people went through hard times getting the WGA and IATSE and the other unions together, and putting an end to horror stories like that. The horror stories now are coming from a different angle: from the age of giant conglomerates. The AMPTP is often referred to as "the producers," but they are not. They are huge corporations which own many different things. And the executives the Guild is striking against are not the executives we work with on films and TV shows. This all basically comes down to six CEOs and a corporate culture that seeks to maximize profit as though those profits did not emanate from people actually making things. There is a big disconnect between the people doing the making and the ones keeping the books, and there's little incentive to run things reasonably in a world where the salary of a single CEO surpasses the entire amount of DVD residuals paid to the entire Guild. And where none of these companies will open their books so their accounting can be examined.

The companies are both answerable to no one and wildly bloated; it's not unusual, in launching a TV show, to get notes from twelve or more executives, some of which are mutually contradictory, but all of which must be obeyed. (There was a day when notes were few, and left to the discretion of the executive producer. That day is no more.) The result, as I have personally witnessed, is often incoherence. Then too, when twelve or more people read something, anything non-generic will "bump" one of them. This is a simple statistical fact, not a reflection on the executives involved -- give a script to any twelve people, including other writers, and the results will be the same. It won't be the same person bumped each time; but by the time your script is ready to shoot, it will have been smoothed down, like a rock under a waterfall, till all that's left is what's expected. (And yet, it's still incoherent. This is not an easy result to achieve: it takes the work of many people.) I'm lucky in that I work on a show that's up and running, whose executives go out of their way to give us space to create, and trust that our mistakes will mostly be small ones. But after ten years in this business, I can tell you that it's by no means something you can count on. The structure of this contraption is just too unwieldy.

Here's something else you should know: writers are not famous for their self-esteem. I'm sure there must be some out there with a sense of entitlement, but I haven't met them. I have never heard a discussion of salary, on any show, that didn't have writers pointing to average compensation across the country and saying we were lucky people, at least this year. (Just as I've never heard writers discuss actors and casting without sympathy for what the actors go through.) Writers are very, very aware of what the world is like -- what's more, we tend to be vaguely grateful to be paid at all, because it's for writing, and we've been beaten down by the world to think that isn't a serious and valuable thing. (By the way, I'm not at all sure this understanding goes up to the CEO's office; how can it, when that CEO can be handed sixty million dollars just for quitting? Someday I must tell you the story of the famous exec who said, "Why not make this character middle-class? Let's say he makes $300,000 a year -- " and the writers all stared at him.)

Egan points out something that you should remember, and remember well. All of the unreasonable money we're talking about here, the total money it would cost to give writers what they're asking for on DVD and the Internet, is less than the salary of one of the six CEO's of the mega-conglomerates who have forced this strike. One salary, or an entire community of creative professionals who get to be middle class and who create things you love.

What will it take to embarrass the Peter Chernins et al to do the right thing? Are they capable of shame anymore?

(H/T to DeeKay for the links)

No. It Doesn't.

VARIETY, the house rag of the AMPTP, snuck a doozer up late Friday afternoon:

Strike grants opportunity for Canada

Producers scurry to fill the union gap

By BRENDAN KELLY

MONTREAL -- Some Canuck producers have seized on the WGA strike as an opportunity while stations are trying to figure out how to fill holes left by U.S. shows that have gone dark. If the strike drags on, it will also put a damper on Yank shooting.

"There are obviously some opportunities for companies that can develop and produce programming outside the American guild system," says John Morayniss, CEO of Canadian prodco Blueprint Ent.

"The longer the strike lasts, the hungrier the U.S. buyers are going to be for alternative types of programming. And the Canadian companies have the best opportunity of anyone outside the U.S., because we speak the same language, we have a similar culture and we're close to the U.S."

Morayniss says his company has already had preliminary discussions with several American networks about developing shows using Canadian writers.

Let's unpack this a bit. First, to the striking WGA members, I say this: don't worry. Brendan Kelly has it wrong. Very Wrong.

And unless I miss my guess, Blueprint Entertainment, being based both in L.A. and Toronto, is, in fact, a struck company. So no WGC member looking to stay in good graces with our union is going to consider this kind of work. Canadian producers can be as clueless about this as they want - but the WGC has been clear: Don't work for struck companies.

Second, every Canadian writer should well know that scabbing during this strike means being blackballed forever when it ends.

That's persona non grata in the U.S. I frequently tell young talent here that the chronic instability of the Canadian system means that they should consider relocating to the U.S. before they have the encumbrances of wives, kids, houses, and dogs. But this is not the way to do that. I have a hard time believing that any Canadian writer with a soupcon of true talent wouldn't also have the smarts to realize that this "opportunity" comes wrapped (in Variety?) with Dead Fish.

Yeah, there's a possibility that some Canadian shows that are already made might sell, but I'll believe that when I see it. I don't need "my profile raised" that way.

If anything, Variety misses the point entirely when they talk of the "opportunities," to come out of the strike. The article goes on to run down how Canadian Nets are revamping their schedules. But yet to be made? The point that anywhere else in the world, this would be at best a minor disruption, because broadcasters would turn to their own programming. In a way, the strike merely raises the uncomfortable truth that Canadian channels mostly merely duplicate the American channels -- channels that are, in fact, available on cable in this country.

Canadian writers stand with you. I hear reports on the line every day from Canadians -- some not even dual WGC/WGA members -- who have walked the line. If I manage to get down to L.A. or NY before Christmas -- which is entirely possible -- I'll be volunteering myself.

And if you guys need a picket set up in Toronto, well, we'll see what we can do.

Despite what Variety says, we are all united.

Helping

DIANE KRISTINE...oh sure, she's a pill sometimes with her, "why do you whine so much" this, and "why should we care about" that's ... but she's also one smart cookie.

Yeah, the whole "rich writers" thing is bullshit, and yeah, it's not like IATSE stagehands who are striking Broadway shows are any less culpable than writers for throwing people out of work -- but the fact remains that there are a lot of crew people, office workers and non-writers who are going to start feeling the heat of this strike very, very soon.

If you're a person with a conscience, and you love tv, and maybe you're feeling a little bit like maybe those writers are a bit...I don't know, hard to love, Diane passes along a solution today:

From CSI's David Rambo:
The WGA currently has a $12 million strike fund. However, the people who will need assistance as this drags on longer are those in film and TV who don't have access to the strike fund: the office assistants, crew members and actors. They will really need the help to be able to continue in support of our strike, and there's no fund for them. There is, however, a wonderful 125-year old nonprofit organization that provides direct, confidential assistance to all entertainment professionals in need, such as those I just mentioned. It's called the Actors Fund, and you can find out more or make a donation through their website.

If you do donate, let the Actors Fund know that your contribution is in support of those affected by the writers strike.

What a fine idea. I just made my donation. Take a bow, Diane, you delightfully prickly so-and-so.

Sacrifice

I MISSED 11AM, but still.

There are things more important, even to me, than a bunch of striking tv and film writers.

There are sacrifices made that are worthy, and just. And even when there's doubt about the cause, there is still the unassailable integrity of the loss.

For those who put themselves through hell and the great failure of human compassion, there is the countervailing virtue: sacrifice.

Thank you for incurring a debt we will never repay.

May we have the courage to pick up the torch.

May we find the wisdom to avoid the flame.

EW Explains the Plumber and the Water

THE HARDEST THING about the current strike for many writers has not necessarily been getting the word out, it's been crafting that word in such a way that the public will give a damn.

The problem with screenwriting, and screenwriters, of course, is that we don't deal in direct political or policy ideas very well. When you write about an issue in TV drama and comedy, the training says to tack away from it. To be elliptical, or to use a metaphor that comes at it from the side. We're all about trying to go for verisimilitude, and rarely in life do people make concise, easy-to-understand and relate-to arguments. The guy who came closest in the last few years is probably the early Aaron Sorkin-era West Wing, and even he had disappeared entirely up his own colon by those sad, dying, last days of Studio 60.

The theater allows for a bit more polemic. But even there it's a delicate mix. This past summer, I took in a performance of Saint Joan at the Shaw Festival in Niagara on the Lake, Ontario. It was enjoyable, and compelling -- but even then, the Shavian point and counterpoint does go on a bit, doesn't it? One of the clever things Shaw does in Saint Joan is to make the most small-minded, eager to burn, fundamentalist judge the first to show the horror and remorse when the burning of Joan of Arc doesn't conform to his early, hardened, hardly-thought-about positions.

But in the theater of the absurd this strike has become, it's doubtful that Nick Counter is going to have a 3AM moment when he realizes what utter, unconscionable asshattery he's been spewing. So let's just take the theater part of this strike off the table.

What does that leave? Print.

Ay, there's the rub. For the most part, print reportage of the issues behind the strike has been lacking. The studio's propaganda claims have been posted and reposted -- to paraphrase Twain, they've managed to flit around the world while the WGA side hasn't even got its boots on.

Part of this is probably some sort of corporate lethargy -- people writing the management line because that's what America has become in our cowed, "dont' call me a liberal" age. And part of it might be the uncomfortable animus held by print scribes toward their picketing brethren. In honor of Russell Smith, let's call this the "gold buillion" problem.

Well, now a fine scribe name of Mark Harris has gone and fixed all that with a pithy, excellent article on EW.com. Harris runs down the catalogue of mistakes made by the WGA in getting their side out, pre-strike (he also manages to make a very apt comparison between the WGA and the Democratic Party.)

It's a shame that the WGA so neglected its own image in the weeks leading up to the strike, since it has led too many observers to embrace the laziest kind of neutrality — a position that sneers at the hyperbole of both sides, and in so doing suggests that the writers and producers are somehow equally far from reason — that a magical midpoint of compromise could be found if everyone would just calm down. That's not what's going on here. The writers may be conflicted and prickly, but they're also right. The studios and networks are wrong. And yes, when you strip everything else away, it really is that simple.

Complaints about tactics, timing, and the problematic personalities at the negotiating table shouldn't obscure the fact that the position of the AMPTP (the producers' negotiating alliance) has been, and remains, ethically indefensible on the two issues that matter most — residuals and new media. Let's look at residuals first. Currently, for every dollar spent on a DVD, writers receive about one-third of a penny. They would like, instead, to receive about two-thirds of a penny. The AMPTP's first response to this was to waste weeks by advocating a complete abolition of the residual system. Why, they argued, should writers get paid anything for their work after it's released? Studio chiefs who are smart enough to know better even hauled out a tired old maxim attributed to the late MCA titan Lew Wasserman — ''My plumber doesn't charge me every time I flush the toilet'' — and repeated it in perfect Karl Rove everybody-stay-on-message lockstep.

Ugh. Lines like that give you a taste of what the entertainment world will be like if management ends up doing its own writing. Not to belabor an already disgusting analogy, but writers — and directors and actors, who have their own renegotiations coming up — aren't the plumber: They're the water. Without them, nothing goes anywhere, and you end up with a toilet full of...well, let's just say ''reruns.''

In making this why-should-we-keep-paying argument, the AMPTP blithely ignored a century of copyright law that grants creative writers in every other field — novelists, composers, lyricists, playwrights — ongoing income from their work based on its sales. The studios and networks claim that the difference is that writers for film and TV don't hold copyrights to their own work. That's a fair legal distinction, but a morally illegitimate one, since writers for movies and television do the same kind of work, face the same kind of chronically unsteady income, and depend in the same way on income from good years to tide them through bad ones.

It's also an irrelevant distinction -- in Canada writers do hold the copyrights to their scripts, and it changes nothing. We don't earn residuals, either.

Lordyloo how I wish the WGA had gotten something that straightforward out on Day One. But there you go. And the whole, "I'm mad at both sides" thing IS intellectually lazy. Yes, this is about TV. It's not about getting food to market, or making sure that workers don't die in industrial accidents. But it's also about something that the average North American does for over 28 hours a week. That's a big chunk of your life, not just mine.

Oh, look at me, going on and on. Better to give a little more of the floor over to Harris:

If you run a company that produces written entertainment, you either believe that writers have value, or you don't. If you do, the only decent thing to do is to recognize the legitimacy of paying writers a percentage — yes, a whole two-thirds of a penny — as long as the companies that own their work continue to derive income from it. What's not decent is to have spent valuable negotiating time floating a specious theory of big-picture bullcrap about how the residual system is ''antiquated'' without offering any alternative compensation in its place. (Since the producers abruptly dropped this idea, one has to wonder if it was ever raised as anything other than a thuggish scare/stalling tactic in the first place.)

Oddly, the same executives who speak with absolute authority about the horrifying injustice of paying residuals seem to turn into bewildered children, lost in a fogbound forest and helpless to see even two feet ahead, when they confront the other big issue: income from streaming video, new media, and the Internet. Writers, like everybody else with a brain and a computer, have figured out that this is where a large chunk of the future of movie and TV revenue resides, and they want a piece of it. To which the producers have essentially responded: What's this newfangled Interweb you're talking about? We don't know how it works! Are you sure there's a way we can make money from it? What a silly thing to even talk about! What next, flying cars?

Never mind that these same executives have, for years, vigorously pursued deals to put their content on the Internet, acquire websites, and sell advertising for both original and repurposed programming. (Why? To make money, in case anyone is unclear.) Suddenly, when the people who write that material ask for a share, they go all fuzzyheaded. One of AMPTP's demands has been a three-year period to study the economic viability of new media. You read that right: three years. If any studio honcho can keep a straight face while uttering the phrase ''three-year study,'' I'll fork over...at least two-thirds of a penny. What's the breakdown — one year to figure out the cash flow, one year to count the money, and one year to decide which lie to tell the writers?

The problem with this position is that writers deserve a share of revenue for material they help to create. Not a share only if the revenue is really, really a lot. A share, period. If it turns out that streaming video is a goldmine, then both sides will get a lot of money. If it turns out not to be, they'll get less. Corporations are fond of reminding their employees that they're all a ''family'' during tough times. But when families sit down to dinner, Dad doesn't get to say, ''I'm gonna eat until I decide I'm full, and then we'll see if there's anything left for the rest of you.'' The right of a writer to earn money from work that continues to generate revenue cannot be dependent on how comfy studio and network heads are with the fullness of their own coffers.

The rest of the article continues in the same vein. It's clear-headed, well thought out, and refreshingly free of wonkery. I suggest that if you're one of the people who are on the fence about the whole strike, or pursuing the "pox on both their houses" strategy of thinking, that this is one of those articles that -- if you have any modicum of an open mind left at all -- should tip the balance in the writer's favor for you.

And it took a print reporter to do it. Writing on a website, but still.

See, dead tree media? You are still relevant. Give us a scrunch! High-Five!

The full Harris article, "Why the Writers Are Right" is available here.

An Appreciation for Norman Mailer's Trumpet

NORMAN MAILER IS DEAD. And we are all the poorer for it. He brawled. He made brash statements -- sometimes laughably so. He championed causes both worthy and foolish. He lived hard, drank hard, and loved hard. He left behind broken marriages and children, and finally mellowed in his twilight years to a kind of literary elder statesman.

If you are a writer, you cannot ignore Mailer. He is some sort of essential template. The man lurched through life -- intellect and ego fighting one another. He turned a phrase that could strip paint. If you read The Naked and the Dead or The Executioner's Song, you simply cannot deny the power of his gift -- and the sometimes astonishing way he wielded it.

Mailer was a writer and he lived. He pronounced, declaimed, lectured, hectored, forgave, accused, and remembered. He moved thinking along, sparked discourse and disgust and outrage. Who among us would not like to have that said about them when they're gone? Who dared more to make sense of the great struggle of this life?

I have a fear that stalks me sometimes at night. I fear that the age when a literary life, the age where thinking and thought and discourse was popular -- I fear that this has eluded us, finally. The days where Kurt Vonnegut or Mailer might appear as a guest on a talk show belong to a different time. A time when rigor and thought engaged people across the sphere. Whether your cultural touchstone was high, or low or somewhere in between, lions like Mailer demanded your attention. They demanded to be heard, considered, dealt with.

What we have now is the pale sheen of celebrity. Causism. Activism of a type, yes. But it's all so much product, isn't it? I fear we're slipping past the point where we can have any conversation, because we all retreat to sources that tell us what we want to hear. No one takes us by the head, points us in a direction and commands -- shames us to look.

We are losing our provacateurs. And I fear for what comes next.

I encourage you to read the full obituary of Mailer in the New York Times, by Charles McGrath. (No relation, and while we're at it, that photo above was taken by Tyler Hicks.) Then, when you're done, go out and say something bold and stupid and real to someone. Speak a truth that you know and that no one will tell.

Norman Mailer, the combative, controversial and often outspoken novelist who loomed over American letters longer and larger than any writer of his generation, died today in Manhattan. He was 84.

Mr. Mailer burst on the scene in 1948 with “The Naked and the Dead,” a partly autobiographical novel about World War II, and for the next six decades he was rarely far from the center stage. He published more than 30 books, including novels, biographies and works of nonfiction, and twice won the Pulitzer Prize: for “The Armies of the Night” (1968), which also won the National Book Award, and “The Executioner’s Song” (1979).

He also wrote, directed, and acted in several low-budget movies, helped found The Village Voice and for many years was a regular guest on television talk shows, where he could reliably be counted on to make oracular pronouncements and deliver provocative opinions, sometimes coherently and sometimes not.

It's a little early, but tonight, tonight I'll raise a whiskey to you, sir. Thanks for Executioner's Song and Harlot's Ghost and The Naked and the Dead. Thanks for it all.

“It’s such an odd notion, particularly in this technological society, of whether your life is justified by being a novelist. And the nice thing about getting older is that I no longer worry about that. I’ve come to the simple recognition that would have saved me much woe 30 or 40 or 50 years ago — that one’s eventual reputation has very little to do with one’s talent. History determines it, not the order of your words.”

Shaking his head, he added: “In two years I will have been a published novelist for 60 years. That’s not true for very many of us.” And he recalled something he had said at the National Book Award ceremony in 2005, when he was given a lifetime achievement award: that he felt like an old coachmaker who looks with horror at the turn of the 20th century, watching automobiles roar by with their fumes.

“I think the novel is on the way out,” he said. “I also believe, because it’s natural to take one’s own occupation more seriously than others, that the world may be the less for that.”

The title of this post comes from one of my favorite Mailer quotes; one that I think sums up his attitude -- and the measure of the loss of him, quite well:

"With the pride of the artist, you must blow against the walls of every power that exists the small trumpet of your defiance."

Rest in Peace.

Still Feel Like a Rube about the WGA Strike?

IN WHAT I hope will be my only strike-related post today, I point you to the inimitable Will Dixon, who's got a funny/sad roundup of links that suggest this strike is just the biggest Rube Goldberg Story Ever.

Sadly, the punchline Will comes to has the ring of truth. And unlike a Rube Goldberg machine, there's no smile to be had from this particular machine in action.

Blood Ties: The Devil on Lifetime

A LITTLE OVER a year ago now, I was sitting comfortably in my little condo, taking a last pass on one of my freelance Rent-A-Goalie scripts. In the back of my head I wondered what I was going to do next. I'd finished my work for Across The River To Motor City and the series had wrapped shooting. I wasn't going to be involved in the post. I had expectations of trying to develop through the winter and try to take things from there.

Then I took a call from Peter Mohan. Peter had been one of the Exec Producer/Showrunner mentors when I went to the Canadian Film Centre. We'd seen each other around and about for several years at various events. We'd talked about working together maybe a couple of years earlier, when Peter was trying to get a series off the ground based on the Vicki Nelson vampire books.

I knew the books, had even read a couple when I was a producer at the Canadian Space Channel. Tanya Huff wrote vampire books set in my Toronto. And the novelty value of that was enough to make me dip into them. And they were a lot of fun. I'd read a few of Peter's development scripts and got excited. This could be a really fun show to work on. But the funding didn't come through, and the project wobbled and went away. Which bummed me out a little.

Cut to a year or so later, when the late CHUM announced its production slate. ATR got six eps, and lo and behold, Blood Ties was back with 22. But this time, the aggressively Toronto-set series was going to be shot in Vancouver. WTF?

Canadian TV, man. The product is sometimes wobbly, sometimes sublime -- but the story of how it gets made is always a tale or two.

The timing and my comittment to ATR took me out of the running for consideration on Blood Ties, which bummed me out slightly.

So that late November (may have been early December) call from Peter Mohan was fortuitous indeed. One of the BT writers -- a friend of mine -- had decided to leave the show at the Christmas hiatus to come back to Toronto. Would I be interested in replacing her?

Well, hell yeah!

So it was that in the weeks leading up to Christmas, I immersed myself in early cuts of the show, and a few scripts here and there. I met with Peter when he was back in Toronto, and he got me working on my first outline. When I went back, we'd be shooting episode 13. There were outlines for 14 and 15, and a vague idea for 16. The episode I was assigned was Episode 17. And it was a doozy.

Without spoiling too much, I got handed the opportunity to introduce a major character from Henry Fitzroy's past. It was a kid in a candy store moment, and also a big gulp -- because I knew this would be one that was pored over and pored over by fans because of its significance.

It also allowed me to play with one of the vampire tropes that Tanya had added to the lexicon that I found most interesting: the concept of vampire territoriality. And I also wanted to introduce a little interesting contrast into the mix. The vampire on Blood Ties isn't broody; Henry's comfortable with what he is. A great departure from the dominant Anne Rice view of the genre. Anyway, I thought some sort of nod to that more delicate and dominant interpretation would be fun to tweak.

In those heady days over Christmas, as I was getting to know the characters a bit more, I dove further into Tanya's original work -- re-reading the first book and blasting my way through all the others. I found myself really liking the Short Stories in particular. Because we'd optioned the books and the plots in the books (except the character of Tony) we could use details from them as we saw fit. When I got stuck on my outline, I found a neat plot twist courtesy of one of the Tanya stories. So big shout out to Tanya Huff - thanks again.

My outline changed a lot before we went to draft, and the draft changed a lot from First to Second and then Production. The amazing thing about a good Showrunner like Peter Mohan is that it's fairly easy to see where he's going in terms of notes. He's clear about what he wants, and the tone adjustments to some key scenes really made my script a whole lot better. (I don't want to say what those adjustments are, because that's really spoiler-y. Suffice to say that I think Peter was right. The episode's way better because of the direction he took it in.)

The usual production things changed the script too. Having to write for the venue changed some scenes. But we wound up with a great guest cast, and a really satisfying shoot. And most of my words survived, and the moments that were my favorite are there in the cut -- so, yay!

The last part of the puzzle came into place for me when I met and started working with Andy Mikita, the Director. Mikita's a veteran of Stargate. He's a great actor's director and really wonderfully collaborative. He'd come to my office and be excited about how he wanted to stage a scene and he'd get me excited about it too -- the enthusiasm was way infectious. Andy's staging suggested triggered some rewrites that made the scenes even better. I remember thinking during the shoot for this show, "wow. this is the way the whole thing's supposed to work, and feel!"

Finally, I simply can't say enough good about Kyle Schmid, the young actor who plays Henry. Ep. 17 is a big Henry show. I sat in Peter's office and worked through concerns he had about one scene, and saw the intensity in his face, the concentration. It's an amazing thing when you see an actor work through, get a scene, and realize and decide how they can play it. When they're at their best, and they ask for a few tweaks to this, or to that -- a lot of writers roll their eyes, and sometimes the objections are indeed rollworthy. But somtimes, a couple of small changes, and you can suddenly see the scene lock into place -- right there on their face. And that moment is awesome, and makes me realize why I love actors. (Within reason, I mean.) In its own way, this was a different show for Christina, too. And her concerns led me to a last minute, extra-special plot twist, that's actually a callback too. Christina plussed the show! How great is that?

Everything about my Blood Ties experience was like this. I learned from a fantastic showrunner. I had a mountain of laughs. I got to discover Vancouver, rain and all, and even start to nurse a certain fondness for the place (though there's a couple of people I'd appreciate you not telling about that.)

My time there changed my life -- socially and professionally. I made new friends. I had good times. I broadened my horizons, made an incredible connection and I laughed more than I ever have when I was working. Ever. It was a happy time. I think that shows through the work.

Thanks to Peter, and Tanya, and Eriksen and Heaton and McDonald and the wonderful crew and everybody else that made my time there possible.

So, Lifetime fans, I hope you enjoy The Devil You Know.

I'm very proud of it. It's a whole lot of fun.

Am I Next, or Just Hot?

Across the River To Motor City, my six-part miniseries, gets some love from Playback:

HOT

Game shows
Global has a good thing going with redos like its Are You Smarter Than a Canadian 5th Grader? Expect more of the same if the WGA strike goes long

NOT

Wealthy jerks
The Darlings and the Desperate CEOs are slumming on the A-Channels these days, after Dirty Sexy Money and Big Shots failed to click on CTV

NEXT

Across the River to Motor City
The beautiful and fascinating six-part mystery by Devine Entertainment and Jonsworth Productions arrives on Citytv stations Nov. 20 and 22.

Harlan's Sharp Teeth: "There Is No Publicity Value."

WORD from the crankiest, awesomest writer of them all. Hat tip to Karen Walton.

From "Dreams With Sharp Teeth: A Film About Harlan Ellison."

Context

THE CURRENT STRIKE by the WGA is not happening in a vacuum. It's the result of years of regulatory and corporate moves that have changed the fundamental nature of the American Television business. For a good backgrounder on how that business has changed -- and many think, been damaged irreparably, take a gander at this article from top TV Exec Producer/Writer Marshall Herskovitz. Herskovitz and his partner, Ed Zwick have overseen many programs over the last decades, including the seminal 80's dramedy thirtysomething, Once & Again, Relativity, and My So Called Life.

This is not about how we were treated but rather something much larger: How a confluence of government policy and corporate strategy is literally poisoning the TV business.

It started in 1995 when the Federal Communications Commission abolished its long-standing "finsyn" rules (that's financial interest and syndication, for those unfamiliar with the term), allowing networks for the first time to own the programs they broadcast. Before that, under classic antitrust definitions, the networks had been confined to the role of broadcaster, paying a license fee to production companies for the right to broadcast programs just two times. The production companies owned all subsequent rights. In the mid-1990s there were 40 independent production companies making television shows. If a particular network didn't like a show -- as famously happened with "The Cosby Show" many years ago -- the production company could take it to another network.

But not after 1995. The abolition of the old rules set in motion an ineluctable process, one that has negatively affected every creative person I know in television. Today there are zero independent production companies making scripted television. They were all forced out of business by the networks' insistence -- following the FCC's fin-syn ruling -- on owning part or all of every program they broadcast.

The most profound change resulting from that ruling is the way networks go about the business of creating programming. Networks today exert a level of creative control unprecedented in the history of the medium. The stories my friends tell me would make me laugh if the situation weren't so self-defeating. Network executives routinely tell producers to change the color of the walls on sets; routinely decide on the proper wardrobe for actors; routinely have "tone" meetings with directors on upcoming pilots; routinely give notes on every page of a script. (When we did "thirtysomething" in the late '80s, we never received network notes.) And by the way, they have every right to do these things. As owners, they have a responsibility to satisfy themselves that their product is competitive and successful.

The problem, of course, is that these executives often have little background or qualification for making creative decisions. They are guided by market research and -- they want to believe -- a learned intuition about what the public wants. This season's new shows have been a good indicator of how successful that strategy is: Even before the current writer's strike, virtually every new show was struggling.

I actually wanted to go and quote more here but in going back over the article I had a hard time figuring out what to leave out. Herskovitz touches on a lot of interesting points: how the abolition of the "Fairness Doctrine" in 1985 killed TV news and left Americans less informed (and I think added to the generally poisonous state of American political discourse today,) why creator's rights actually do benefit people as a whole, and how the six media conglomerates are overreaching on the internet. It's very readable.

The impetus for the article is this. The new Zwick/Herskovitz series, Quarterlife, is going to MySpace and its own place on the net. That's what's interesting about this strike too. If the big congloms alienate all their talent, there may just come a time down the road where the talent does an end run against them. The coverage points to the unasailable position of the studios and nets -- how they can laugh off a shutdown of the season. Don't be so sure. That ivory tower is built on some pretty shifty mud.

The Office is Closed

IT'S THEME DAY here on Dead Things on Sticks. From My office, we go to The Office. Specifically, the volley from the writer/producers of that popular NBC show. And since everyone knows that people like to hear from actors not writers, as a bonus, you know, some of these writers are actually both.

"You're watching this on the internet. A thing that pays us zero dollars."

If you still feel you don't understand the issues in this strike, let them explain it to you. Specifically, what it's like to be told that the show that's airing online, right now, making money -- is really just "promotional."



See? There, slowly, the truth starts to wend its way out, as the communicators start to communicate. The very thing you're taking such a hard line on, AMPTP, is the thing that's gonna turn sentiment against you, and expose your greed.

As Mr. Burns would say, "exxxxcellent."

Of course, then he'd release the hounds. Wonder what's next from the megamillion corps? Please, not Peter Chernin.

(H/T to Sean Reycraft)

Obsessed by the Window

I HAVE JUST over two weeks left on The Border. So it's probably time to talk about my little office. I love my office. It's small and it's not ideal -- the writer's office is down the hall from the production office proper, and frequently they forget about us. Which can sometimes be good (lack of drama, privacy) and sometimes bad (call sheets, coffee runs, lunch.)

Couriers, actors, and the generally illiterate frequently miss the nineteen signs on the door directing them where to go, and come in and ask directions or try to drop off resumes, packages, and, you know...uh..whatever...hate literature. And I'm the first person they come to.

It's a small thing, to be sure, but at least ten times this summer people barged in and interrupted me in the middle of a run on a script, and kind of pooched my train of thought. Not cool. Here's a helpful hint: if you ever see a sign saying, "writer's office," or "story department," and you go in, and the first thing you see is somebody with brow furrowed like a pounding on a keyboard -- make sure you're in the right place before you interrupt. Just saying.

My office has also got this weird thing with ventilation. There are four offices in a row down the hallway. The offices on either end get all the heat or cold -- so in the summer I was freezing all the time and now that the weather's turned cold I sometimes feel myself losing consciousness as I sit at my desk, before I realize that's probably due to the fact that it's ninety-two degrees in here. (I maintain that's also the thing that finally killed my plant, Bob. Bob died a couple weeks back. Sorry, Bob.)

What my office does have is a window. It looks out into the parking lot. I can see the sky (important) and also when the really good parking places become available (also important.)

I love having a window. Writers need windows. When I'm not at home and working at home, I usually set up my computer in my solarium and can look out on the Gardiner Expressway (ugh) and Lake Ontario (yay!) Sometimes in the summer at night I can even see fireworks from my window. It makes me happy, cause, hey, free explosions.

When I was on Blood Ties, my office had no windows. I found myself desperately coveting Dennis Heaton's office, or Showrunner Peter Mohan's office - with their sexy views of the trailers and the occasional view of the guy dumping toxic shit into the parking lot. The best view of Maple Ridge was out the boardroom windows where we'd punch up story. On clear days you could see the mountains. They were pretty. They really got you in the mood to write stories set in the decidedly non-mountainous city of Toronto.

So it's with some sadness that I report that there won't be another writer loving up my office when I leave. Nope. The Filmport, the sexy big new studio hoo-ha that's being built, is eminent domaining The Border writers' offices pretty soon after I leave. That's sad. Oh well.

There's one thing I left out about the awesomeness of the window situation in my office. There's actually two. That's right, bitches. It's an embarrassment of windows. The aforementioned window looks out on the parking lot. But the second window looks in to the hallway and atrium. I get to watch as people enter and leave the building. People frequently stop by and look for keys, take cell phone calls, adjust clothing and take notes --right outside my window. It's like a really low budget public access channel, just for me. It's nice. Like videotapes for specially made for cats, the hallway window and the parade of humanity it offers writers a low level procrastination tool that breaks up the day rather nicely, all while offering kind of an interesting rolling social experiment: how long can people stand in front of a window and do all this stuff like they're, you know, not standing in front of a window?

A few times, I've just looked up and stared at people as they adjust, or gab, or do whatever nasty thing they're doing in my direct line of sight. And occasionally when they catch my eye, they get kind of a pissed off look. Which is hilarious, because, um, you know -- window!

I'm sure the clever will have jumped way ahead by this point, to the one downside of this arrangement. As you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares into you.

A couple of months ago I posted a little sign, very small, about halfway up on my window. I reproduce it here for your enjoyment.

One More Quickie...

ONE FUN THING from a Canadian angle...and I promise I'll post something non-strike related soon. (Though I don't know exactly what - I'm not going to write about struck shows.)

Today, the WGA supposedly is going to marshall a bunch of showrunners to march the line in solidarity together. One unintended effect of the coverage has been, I think, more exposure in the last three days than ever before to the term, "Showrunner," and the fact that the most important thing all these people in charge are is writers.

Here in the frozen north where quarters of the industry have recently woken up to the term -- there's all sorts of non-writing producers looking to glom onto it as a sort of claim of legitimacy. All part of the ongoing power struggle about who should have a vision for a series. If you need a "head writer" - you may be a producer, or an executive producer, but you aint a showrunner.

There are certainly other ways to organize the show -- and it's not like in the U.S. the girl who comes up with the show always gets to run it. But as long as we're throwing language about, we should be clear about what it means. Writers are sticklers for that stuff.

All those stories about the difficult choices showrunners face now help to put forth the truth. It's not show-runner or show runner -- it's showrunner. One word.

It means, "writer."

Heh heh.

WGA Strike: The Canadian Angle

THE GLOBE AND MAIL today has an article about the WGC's reaction to the work stoppage south of the border:

Canadian writers told to down pens on U.S. work

GUY DIXON

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

November 7, 2007 at 4:31 AM EST

The Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) is telling its members not to accept work from U.S. producers looking to replace striking American writers.

"Their fight is our fight," the WGC said in a notice to its members. The notice went on to explain union rules on how the strike by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers effects WGC members. The strike in the United States mainly revolves around the amount of payment writers receive for sales of films and TV shows on DVD and other types of digital distribution. The Canadian guild said that "the issues the WGA is addressing will affect every professional artist seeking compensation for their work in the digital age."

Under Canadian rules, writers who belong to both the Canadian and American guilds and who live in the U.S. have to abide by the American strike rules. Dual members of both unions who reside in Canada can work for Canadian productions, but a WGC member in Canada cannot accept work from U.S. producers.

That last paragraph is the really important one. I've had people ask me, and email over the last few days trying to figure out if there were opportunities here. Some were innocent, don't know any better inquiries and some were actually serious. The bottom line is that if a producer is doing work for a struck company -- you can't go with them. Morally, and if that argument doesn't work for you -- legally by the rules of the WGC. If you do take work, you're a scab and you'll certainly never be able to join the WGA once the strike ends. (And it will end.) But the reality is that you probably won't be able to join the WGC either, if they get wind that you worked for a struck producer.

There's a larger question which comes into play if the strike goes on a long time, and the U.S. nets start looking to fill their airwaves with foreign-produced programs. Alex Epstein wrote about this yesterday:

There could be a silver lining. If the strike goes for a long time, then the US networks will be needing content to fill their schedules. (Hell, CTV and Global will be needing content to fill their schedules. Isn't the CBC laughing now?) And there are only so many cool Brit shows they can air. Will they look to Canada?

I think they'll have to at least look. A few Canadian shows are airing in the States: DE GRASSI, SLINGS AND ARROWS, CORNER GAS, WHISTLER. My show NAKED JOSH aired on Oxygen. I think these shows ought to have put to bed the notion that Canadian shows are all poor-quality low-budget rip-offs of American shows. There ought to be a home for DURHAM COUNTY. There ought to be a home for TRAILER PARK BOYS. And how about LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE?

I'm developing a show for The Movie Network that might be right for HBO. Would they buy a Canadian show? Unlikely. Would they buy a Canadian show if they have nothing else to air? Hmmmm... HBO can't exactly survive on reruns and reality shows.

My fond hope is that at some point media in the States will notice that we make a lot of good stuff here and start talking about the Canadian New Wave, the way they talked about the Australian New Wave when Peter Weir was shiny and new. That'll happen faster if there no US content to yak about.

Alex and I are good friends, and we're both American transplants to Canada -- though he's of a more recent vintage than me. I've lived in Canada for thirty years. And one of the things about good friends that keeps life exciting is the way that sometimes you can see things so very differently.

I don't see Alex's silver lining. First of all, I defer to my current co-worker, the inimitable David Barlow, who's been writing and producing TeeVee in Canada roughly since Jesus was in sandals. (I love that joke.) Barlow recounts that in the 1988 strike, the phone started ringing immediately looking for completed Canadian product...but those phone calls immediately dried up at the whiff of a settlement.

Caroline dropped this gossip in a comment on Alex's piece:

I have it on good authority from parties involved that a network that shall not be named is looking very seriously at both Durham County and Billable Hours ... hate to say this and not support my own countrymen on this score, but these two shows are being distributed by big international (read: non-Canadian) companies that had the clout to get them in the door in L.A. in a serious way.

Interesting. But I'm still going with Barlow on this one. I think Alex underestimates the insularity of Americans. I think it's far more likely that if U.S. Channels started showing replacement, Canadian-made shows, that would generate resentment. Not just from the striking writers -- from the viewers too. Whistler is not Gossip Girl.

But what I'm trying to figure out is where the line is for taking future work in Canada while a strike's on. Shows that I've worked on, that I know were made primarily for a domestic audience with a faint hope of getting U.S. love, well, if they get sold, I guess that's a reasonably good thing -- product is meant to be sold. I'm not against capitalism.

Where things get dicey for me is in projects going forward. If this turns into a lengthy strike, there's a possibilty that a Canadian show in development could get greenlit from the Canadian network, and go into production fast because it has a U.S. sale that it might not have gotten if there was alternative American product. To me, that's kind of like working for a struck company.

There are shows that are made here that already have U.S. sales. Blood Ties, Degrassi, Instant Star, The Best Years. Since those existed and those deals were in place before a work stoppage, I can't see why anyone who works on those shows should feel loogy about going back.

But a script sitting in development at one of the Canadian nets that suddenly gets elevated because of a whisper down the mojo wire from L.A.? That might be something else entirely. I think that would be worth a call to the WGC for advice.

And all of this is said with the knowledge that Canadian TV writers, WGC members, do suffer a kind of chauvinism every day from the WGA. I was surprised by how nasty someone got when I asked if there was any way I could get access to the Writer Action board the WGA runs -- though I'm not a member. I asked because I noticed five or six threads that were linked from this blog tracking back from WA. (They're still doing it, BTW.)

But now's not the time to consider hurt feelings or jurisdictional whoozits and what nows. Writers down south are in a death-cage match. I feel very lucky right now to be finishing up work for a show that's designed and written to be Canadian -- The Border.

If there's no U.S. programming on the air in January, we might even benefit from that. Nothing I can do about it. But when it comes to taking the next job, I think WGC members have to think long and hard about where it's likely to end up -- and why.

Nobody likes to win because the other team can't take the field.

At least, I don't.

Strike Flashpoint, Rashomon Edition

IF YOU'RE LIKE me and you've been a little puzzled by the serious AMPTP bias in all the media about what kicked off the strike, well, Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily has the antidote -- the first reported account of what really happened in the room on Sunday. It's fairly illuminating:

Top guild sources tell me they were “deliberately duped” by the moguls in a backchannel deal to bring the guild back to the bargaining table Sunday. They say the lure was a promise by two Big Media CEOs -- Peter Chernin and Les Moonves -- that, if the writers gave up their DVD residual demands, then the producers would respond by improving the formula on the central sticking issue of Internet downloads for movies and television. My producer sources confirmed to me such a deal was indeed made. In other words, it could have been possible that a settlement might be only days or a week away, with enough progress to induce the writers side to suspend the Monday start of the strike.

The writers say they kept up their end by dropping their DVD demands – a huge concession which later puzzled the WGA membership because it seemed to come out of nowhere and had to be explained by WGA president Patric Verrone without revealing the whole backstory. Why didn’t he? Because the WGA says it was abiding by the “mutual pledge of confidentiality” with AMPTP that, for the first time in all the negotiations, applied to Sunday’s session. Today, sources there decided to spill to me because the writers’ side of the 11th hour talks story has gone untold. The WGA accuses the producers of not delivering on the all-important electronic sell-through issue all day Sunday. And the producers confirm to me that, no, their negotiators did not offer anything on "EST". So, according to guild sources, that’s the real reason the 12:01 AM strike wasn’t averted, and their dropped DVDs demands put back on the table.

As a spitting mad WGA leader put it to me today: “All I can say is, if someone calls me and says, “You do X, and I do Y” and that someone doesn’t do it, then I’ve been lied to and I’ve been played. It’s a complete betrayal. I just don’t know what the studios’ game is.”

So why is this news important? Because now both sides in this writers vs producers fight are further apart than they have ever been, and that’s saying a lot. Both sides believe they have fresh and ample reasons not to go back into negotiations anytime soon. And by soon a worst case scenario of months and months and months. Both sides believe that, after Sunday’s betrayals, they can’t trust the other side enough to even talk about scheduling new AMPTP/WGA negotiations much less try backchannelling. Ironically, as I was being told the WGA’s complaints today, moguls were being briefed on what went down Sunday inside the negotiating room. But are they being told the whole story? About the backchannel deal? Not that I can tell. About the promise that’d been made? Not that I can tell. About not keeping it? Not that I can tell. Instead, I received a warning from inside that camp today not to report the WGA accusations, or name the two moguls, or repeat what went on inside the talks Sunday. But, to stay smack in the middle, I can't do that -- just as I can't favor the other side when reporting about this strike and its issues.

Dictionary definiton of "Good Faith" is what, exactly?

And There You Have It...

ALEX WROTE ABOUT this the other day, but doesn't it make it so much better-er when you hear it from a (I'm so sorry) Big Fish?

From John August's blog:

Since most readers will probably (hopefully) never go on strike, I thought I’d share some observations.

• I can advise while walking. I spent half an hour on the line answering questions from a young comedy writer who was going though the development process at Warner Bros. I’m happy to do it for blog-readers, by the way, if you care to join me at Paramount. I’ll be picketing afternoons there all this week.

• Anyone can do it. WGA members need to sign in when they get there, but anyone interested can pick up a picket and start marching. If you fall into the “aspiring screenwriter” demographic, it’s a good way to get to know some working writers…while they’re not working. If you’re an aspiring actor, well, there are a lot of showrunners hitting the pavement.

I feel loogy about a lot of emails that come to me...stuff the blogging starts shoving your way -- endless come-ons for screenwriting seminars and fooferal and this-or-that tome or dubious competitions that I think mainly just suck the green out of your pocket.

But walking the line -- availing yourself of this opportunity -- is kind of like investing in your future with the people who are trying to make sure that maybe you'll havve one. And it's probably going to be way fun. If I was in Cali, you better believe I'd do it. If you're in New York or L.A, go down and pick up a sign.