An Appreciation of the Writer-Director Hyphenates

The strike is over. The WGA contract has been ratified. SAG and AFTRA are now center stage and there is still a lot of work to do before the town gets back to normal. At this moment it's useful to look back at our own history. There are lessons to be learned about how the process can move forward even against what seem like overwhelming odds.

There are many who labored behind the scenes to support the writers' strike. At United Hollywood we worked with people who put their energy on the line but wanted to stay off the media's radar. Not content to just talk a good game, these are members and supporters who knew that if they wanted to make a difference, they had to work at it.

One group in particular came of age during the early part of the strike: the writer-directors. Nicknamed the WD-40, forty writer-directors met to search for ways they could help facilitate the negotiation.

From the beginning of the strike, most journalists accepted the AMPTP's lead and described the DGA and WGA as antagonistic to one another. Nicholas Counter was frequently quoted in the trades as preferring the DGA as a negotiating partner. The writer-directors objected to that characterization and felt that the AMPTP was doing what it always did in positioning the Guilds against one another to diminish each union's power.

There were many issues discussed during a first meeting in early December, chief among them the fact that the WGA and DGA share 1,400 members. That struck everyone as a surprisingly large number. The group realized that they were uniquely qualified to speak to both Guilds, since they are the embodiment of the two unions' shared interests.

The objective of the group was to promote closer ties between the WGA and DGA. That effort took many forms. First and foremost, a letter was drafted during the meeting that announced the solidarity of the signatories in their support of the WGA's demands. It was decided that everyone in the room would call 10 writer-directors and ask them to add their names to the letter. Within 24 hours, the letter had been signed by over 375 members. The letter was hand-delivered to the DGA leadership by four of the group. The delegation then met with Patric Verrone, David Young, and John Bowman. At the same time, hundreds of phone calls were made to fellow DGA members, explaining the strike issues, arguing the importance of the internet for the future of all the Hollywood unions.

The hyphenates also walked the picket lines, their signs proclaiming themselves as "Writers-and-Directors". Hyphenates picketed in New York and Los Angeles, participating in video interviews that were posted on Voices4Action! In those interviews they spoke eloquently about the creative values shared by writers and directors. They explained that the strike issues were important to both groups. And, most importantly, movies and television shows cannot exist without the collaboration of both.

Contrary to the press' characterization of Guild antagonism, just before the holiday break, Michael Apted, the President of the DGA, issued a letter to the DGA membership, acknowledging with respect that the WGA was a "sister guild," not an adversary.

The significance of hyphenates is becoming increasing clear as Hollywood looks to exploit the opportunities of New Media. Already we can see that the internet is a place where hyphenates are the order of the day. Writer-Directors. Actor-Directors. Actor-Writers. Writer-Director-Actors. Looking to the future, the writer-directors who came together at that first meeting will become an important voice in the next contract negotiation. In three years their numbers will be even larger.

SAG, AFTRA, and the AMPTP will sit down soon and negotiate their new contract. Ultimately, a deal will be worked out, but as with the writers, the actors have to resolve their differences and find common ground with one another so they can face the companies with one voice. We can only hope that there are players like the writer-directors who are working quietly, behind-the-scenes to forge a consensus and move the negotiation to a speedy resolution.

Paul Haggis: The Reality of Reality and Animation

This post was written by the writer-director Paul Haggis. Paul is the first person to write two back-to-back winners of the Oscar for best picture ("Crash" and "Million Dollar Baby"). -JA

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of talking to Patric and some of our negotiating team. Here is what I walked away with. On Friday, before their walkout (or is it lockout?), the AMPTP demanded we take six issues off the table or they wouldn’t ever talk to us again. Two of those issues, our demands to cover animation and reality writers, have stirred up some controversy. The AMPTP is sending out its professional spin-minions, calling agents and lawyers and managers, painting us as labor radicals.

Now there are guys like me for whom the label might fit – not that I am a great and good friend of the downtrodden, but I have been fairly accused of being less than moderate and measured at times. I know radical behavior when I see it, and our team’s proposals and tactics have been so moderate and reasonable that one could easily believe they were hoping to be recruited by the Canadian diplomatic corps.

The problem is that the other side’s spin is working and some writers are actually buying it. Some writers are saying we ought to take these two issues, animation and reality, off the table.

Now, the last time we were told to take something off in order to make progress, we did and absolutely nothing happened. We took off DVDs – which was a very, very painful give – and we got nothing for it. So we should trust these people now?

Paul Haggis,
originally uploaded by gwhitta.

But let’s say we did trust them. Let’s say we didn’t mind being bullied. Well, there’s one thing you should know because we know it for sure: Their ultimatum wasn’t about reality and animation. It was an insincere attempt to get us to give away the whole negotiation. They knew our negotiating team couldn’t accept it, and here’s why.

First of all, they insisted that we take all six issues off the table. Not one or two… all six. And the sixth issue on their list wasn’t even a demand. Rather, it was a concept embedded deep within our most important demand (you know the one: coverage for the Internet). They insisted we remove from the table any reference to “distributor’s gross” instead of “producer’s gross.”

We all know this was a vital issue on DVDs. They pulled a bait and switch there, paid us “producer’s gross” instead of “distributor’s gross” and we ended up getting only a quarter of the residuals we had bargained for. But this distinction is even more vital on the Internet, where distributor’s gross is relatively easy to monitor and producer’s gross is (as before) much smaller, and, more significantly, impossible to monitor. If we accept a piece of “producer’s gross”, we’ll be taking whatever they decide to give us… and you know what that means.

So, they knew we wouldn’t and couldn’t accept their ultimatum. They placed a gun to our heads and asked us to pull the trigger on ourselves, or else. The upside on that one is hard to figure.

I believe it is important we cover animation and reality writers. But let’s say you don’t care a whit. Guess what? The Companies don’t much care about them either. They’re attacking us on this issue because they know it is a potentially divisive one. That’s what their much-touted PR men were brought in to find – our “hot buttons.” They want to create wedges. They want us to take all of our issues off the table except the big one. And then we’ll have no room to horse-trade in any direction.

What does this mean? In really simple terms, it means they planned to do exactly what they did: walk out, mount a PR campaign against us, and hope we would (again) bargain against ourselves.

Now let me address these supposed wedge issues directly. First of all, the people who write reality and animation are like us. (In many cases, they are us.) They’re writers. They ought to be in the Guild, they ought to be covered. The absence of coverage for animation writers has cost them a ton of money in residuals. The Lion King, Shrek, Monsters Inc., Ice Age – you name it – no residuals.

And as for reality writers, they are working sweatshop hours – 12, 14, 16 hours a day on a flat salary with no overtime. What these companies are doing to them is illegal. They know it’s illegal. And, thanks to the Guild, the State of California now knows about it too. We’re not just talking about fines here; we’re talking possible felonies. The state is investigating, and these abuses could cost the companies millions and millions of dollars in penalties. They may well decide that it’s cheaper to let the writers join the WGA than to pay huge penalties and risk going to prison.

Think for a moment about what it would mean if reality writers were in the union as they deserved to be. During a strike, there’d be no American Idol, no Fear Factor or Amazing Race or whatever the big thing is today. No shows to stick in to replace dramas and comedies from striking showrunners. No network season period. All that would be left is commercials and reruns, and we know how well reruns are doing, don’t we. In normal times, reality employers would be paying into our Health and Pension funds, and that would benefit us all as well.

If the companies can divide us on these issues, they can divide us on the Internet too. They could craft proposals that appeal mightily to our screenwriters but not to our TV writers or vice versa.

Anyone remember the 88 strike? If you weren’t there, trust me, it wasn’t pretty. Management’s friends, lawyers and managers and agents and folks who surely had only our best interest at heart convinced television writers that they shouldn’t fight for revenue for this new fangled video tape thing because it was going to amount to pennies, and anyway, their TV shows were never going to end up on video tape. And so the guild cracked in two, we gave up a fair video and DVD formula we had hard won, and in so doing gave away millions and millions of dollars – screen and TV writers included.

I managed to fail my way to the top in television. I did this by following two rules. 1. Negotiate from strength. 2. Trust my negotiator.

In my 25 odd years in the guild I have honestly never seen it more united. That is our great strength and we all know it. Now if we want to get a fair deal we need to use it. We need to be smart enough to act dumb: shut up and keep walking. We need to stop inspecting every move and wondering why our negotiators aren't doing this our are doing that. They are doing a great job. We put our trust in them, we need to support them. If they tell us the best thing we can do is walk in circles, that is what I will be doing, every day. Until we win. And we will.

See you on the sidewalk.

Union Solidarity - We're All on the Same Page

Why this is so important

In the clip below, screenwriter (FIELD OF DREAMS, SNEAKERS) and WGAw board member Phil Alden Robinson recounts turning points in Guild history and why the strike of 2007 is this generation of writers' watershed moment.

A Brief History of Strike Gains

Writer Richard Maxwell sent us this essay, a bit of history demonstrating that not only are we all in this together, we've always been in it together. -JA

As a member of the Guild, I’ve often heard two pieces of conventional wisdom:

1) The WGA is the tip of the spear. When there are important issues being negotiated, we end up having to go on strike first so the other guilds and unions don’t have to.
2) Nothing has ever been won in this town without a strike or threat of a strike.

The first statement, like most conventional wisdom, is only partially right.

Let’s take residuals, which, in one incarnation or another, have been at the center of every strike since the 50s. The right to get paid for the reuse of material was actually first won by the AFRA, the American Federation of Radio Artists, in 1941. That’s the group now called AFTRA. Then as now the situation involved new technologies. Prior to 1941, radio performers did the same show twice each night – once on New York time, then again for the West Coast. When new recording technology became available, management was able to record and rebroadcast the show. Performers demanded and got compensation.

The American Federation of Musicians won the first residuals paid for the reuse of films on television in 1951. Having just gone through a long and costly ASCAP strike, management wisely didn’t want to risk another musician’s strike and settled.

In 1952, it was SAG’s turn to step up. Under the leadership of Walter Pidgeon, the Screen Actors Guild called their first-ever strike against Monogram Pictures to get residuals for films shown on television. In 1953, the WGA struck and received residuals as well. But the amount agreed upon was very small.

It was dual strikes by the WGA and SAG in 1960 – separate but coordinated – that built the Hollywood in which we have all been working. The WGA stayed out for 22 weeks. It won substantial residuals for the reuse of a film on television, establishing the principle that when an artist’s creative content is reused in a different medium it requires new compensation. (Sound familiar?) By showing tremendous solidarity, staying behind the negotiating committee and staying strong on the picket lines, the Guild also won the current health and pension plans, which no one at the time thought was possible.

During the strikes of the 1980s, the WGA was the first creative union to see the potential of home video. Ironically, that worked against us. A-list players like Lucas and Spielberg started using “as defined by the Writer’s Guild” language in their contracts concerning home video sales, and the influence of the Guild agreements mushroomed. When management unilaterally (and possibly illegally – we’ll never know because we withdrew our legal challenges as part of 1988 settlement) decided to redefine what “profit” meant and got caught with its hand in the cookie jar, the total amount owed by the studios to talent was truly enormous. For the good of the industry, the WGA backed down. That is how the current DVD formula came to be. We helped management out of a difficult bind, but you’ll notice they never returned the favor.

So is the WGA always the tip of the spear? Sometimes it has been. Sometimes the lead has been taken by SAG. Someday it might be the DGA’s turn. But whichever union takes the lead on an issue, we all benefit because we are all in this together.

And that second piece of conventional wisdom? That nothing has ever been won in this town without a strike? Well, that is TOTALLY true. You can take that to the bank.

-Richard Maxwell