On Sunday (2/10), the Writers Guild of America (WGA) board and negotiating committee unanimously approved a tentative contract reached on Feb. 1 with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). And now the deal is no longer tentative as WGA members who cast ballots overwhelmingly voted in favor of returning to work. Some 93 percent of the 3,775 who voted gave a thumbs-up to ending the strike.
The new writers’ contract is modeled to some extent on the agreement reached earlier between the AMPTP and the Directors Guild of America (DGA), which included an accord on the key issue of compensation for content running on the Internet.
As reported in SHOOT, the WGA strike–which began on Nov. 5–has had indirect and direct impact on the advertising and spotmaking communities. For example, the direct impact on the visual effects biz has been profoundly negative, according to then Visual Effects Society (VES) chair Jeffrey A. Okun (SHOOT, 12/7/07).
Beyond the industry, the strike has hit the economy at large quite hard, particularly in Greater Los Angeles where assorted businesses depend on revenue generated by feature and TV production. Estimates run as high as the L.A. economy losing some $22 million a day because of the work stoppage.
Hopes now run high that at least part of the primetime TV season can be salvaged. Also high on the wish list is that the agreements between the AMPTP and the WGA and DGA, respectively, will make upcoming negotiations with the actors proceed smoothly and yield a contract sans any strike action. The actors’ unions agreement with the AMPTP is set to expire on June 30. But there’s some acrimony already on just one side of the bargaining table as the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) has broken ranks with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).
AFTRA’s board of directors voted on Feb. 2 to separately negotiate its upcoming primetime TV contract with the AMPTP–without SAG being party to those talks. If that AFTRA decision holds, it will conclude a longstanding joint partnership between the two actors’ unions in negotiations with the major feature/TV studios.
And keep in mind that the extension to the commercials contract for actors is set to expire at the end of October. It remains to be seen what bearing, if any, AFTRA’s split from SAG on the primetime TV contract front will have on prospects for reaching an agreement with the ad industry.
Writers of “Conclave,” “Say Nothing” Win Scripter Awards
The authors and screenwriters behind the film โConclaveโ and the series โSay Nothingโ won the 37th-annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards during a black-tie ceremony at USCโs Town and Gown ballroom on Saturday evening (2/22).
The Scripter Awards recognize the yearโs most accomplished adaptations of the written word for the screen, including both feature-length films and episodic series.
Novelist Robert Harris and screenwriter Peter Straughan took home the award for โConclave.โ
In accepting the award, Straughan said, โAdaptation is a really strange process, youโre very much the servant of two masters. In a way itโs an act of betrayal of one master for the other.โ He joked that โYou start off with a book that you love, you read it again and again, and then you end up throwing it over your shoulder,โ crediting author Robert Harris for being โso kind, so generous, so open throughout.โ
In the episodic series category, Joshua Zetumer and Patrick Radden Keefe won for the episode โThe People in the Dirtโ from the limited series โSay Nothing,โ which Zetumer adapted from Keefeโs nonfiction book about the Troubles in Ireland.
Zetumer referenced this yearโs extraordinary group of Scripter finalists, saying โprojects like these reminded me of why I wanted to become a writer when I was sitting in USCโs Leavey Library dreaming of becoming a screenwriter. If you fell in love with movies, or fell in love with TV, chances are you fell in love with something dangerous.โ
Special guest for the evening, actress and producer Jennifer Beals, shared her thoughts on the impact of libraries. โIf ever you are at a loss wondering if there is good in the world,โ she said, โyou have only to go to a... Read More