Battle Fatique Just Watching

I wasn't sure if I should say anything about the WGA strike, but since my mind is aflood with thoughts, I figured I should get it down in writing so I can move on. It's been difficult to really put it all into words since this whole strike is overwhelming in its scope. As a writer, I know that the commerce of words is not a lucrative endeavor. Very few can make a living off it. Those that do should feel blessed—as it takes just as much talent as it does luck to truly make a living. And I agree that writers should be paid for the work that they do. However, my confliction about this strike arises from whom the strike is actually hurting.

When a factory union decides to strike, it is the employees versus the employers, generally fighting for higher wages, health plans, and retirement security. When they strike, a product is no longer being made. Because of this, the employer is faced with caving in in order to get profits back, or the employees must cave in so they can feed their kids and pay their mortgage. We, as consumers, notice the end product does not exist. We are affected in that way, and that way only. The ones who suffer are those striking, gambling their livelihood, and the employers who also could lose their livelihood.

But who really is going to feel the pinch of the writer's strike in Hollywood? If newspaper journalists went on strike, there would be no news. We'd have to get our news from amateurs like me, on blogs. The journalists would suffer as would the papers (which already suffer due to the changing technologies of information sharing). Yes, every strike affects the economy as a whole, but I'm scaling it down some.

If writers of books decided to strike, there simply would be no more fiction, and those affected would be the publishers, the overhead staff, the printers and distributors, as well as the writers. But let's face it—how would they strike? They make their own deals, their own contracts. Certainly 80 cents for a $10.00 book is ludicrous, but that is the sad reality of what authors make. If you sell a million books, you're good. If you sell 5,000 copies, perhaps that year of your life you took to write it doesn't seem worth it.

But what about television and feature films writers? First off, let's break it down since there are two very different writers—both of which are covered by the WGA. A feature film writer pens a script and sends it to the production companies. The studio or company may option the script, meaning he can't sell it for the next six months or year. He might receive a $10,000 fee for that—but that too, might be overstating the amount. If the movie is made, that $10,000 may or may not be deducted for the actual purchase. How much does he make on that purchase? Depends what he agreed to, but the minimum for a script is somewhere in the range of $100,000-$200,000. If that is the only script he or she writes in his lifetime, that's not much. Which is where residuals come in. Even actors have learned to play this game, taking less money up front for actually doing their job, and instead taking a chunk of the profit when the movie does well. Writers probably could agree to the same, although there's not much precedence in that. So, after the release of the movie, he is going to need to get some money off the sale of DVD's.

For the television writer, there are two kinds. You have your staff writer, whose basic scale wage ranges from $1000-$5500 a week. There could be one writer or ten writers. They work together to come up write the words that the actors speak. There is also the writer who comes up with the plot and idea of the episode—they get an additional amount of money for that. Then there are the show runners or producer-writers. These are the writers that are more involved with the end product. Their salary is the scale staff writer wage plus maybe $1000-$6000 more a week. Not only do they write the words, but they participate throughout the entire process from words to screen and onto the editing process.

There was not an issue before television started heading toward DVD sales. It was only full-length feature films for sale, and the piece of the pie the writer received was pretty minimal. Why? Well, look at what it takes to make a DVD—or even the production to begin with. A budget can be $100,000 or $5 million. For movies, it may be $100 million. That does not include the making of the DVD. Those people who receive residuals on the movie or TV show are producers (if written into their contracts), members of the DGA (directors and assistant directors), and SAG (the actors). The rest of the money is the for the actual making of the DVD, who edited it together (Editors receive no such 4 cents per DVD), the marketing, the publicity, the packaging, the distributors, the store in which you bought the DVD, and finally the production company or investors in the original project. That's a lot of people getting the piece of the pie. Writers want 8 cents instead of 4 cents—that's what we're told. But my question is: who gets the 8 cents? What if five people wrote that episode? And then what if you only had one actor in the episode, instead of 15…are actors allotted 20 cents, but then divided by the number of actors in the movie? I honestly don't know how it works. But the point is this: the writers are not asking for more money up front of better wages; they're asking for aftermarket money.

As for the internet sales, if the producers are selling ad space on the webpage that airs an episode, then it's a product being sold and thereby the writers should get a piece of the pie. No doubt about that at all. But it's a bigger issue than just the writers. One newspaper journalist even said he doesn't get more money when his article is on the web. Maybe that's wrong too. It's a huge issue—how to deal with this new technology. The DGA is going to begin negotiations soon. SAG is scheduled to start in the early part of next year. Since the guilds are the only ones receiving residuals, why did they not all band together? Well, because the contract end dates differ. SAG can't strike until their contract is over—in July. If the writers held a strike in July, no one would notice. They wanted the biggest devastation possible for the shortest strike. Makes sense. But who are they hurting?

Any feature film script that is complete and has been bought can be made. No problem there. But television—that's what is being hit. So here's why the producer's aren't terribly concerned: they're not being hurt. In fact, if it's residuals that are the problem, even the writers aren't being hurt except by forgoing their weekly wage. But once the new shows are all broadcast, the producers will run re-runs. And who gets paid for re-runs? The writers, actors, producers. They get residuals every time it airs. Oddly, those people striking outside the studio will be getting money while they aren't writing anything new. Granted it's not much, but it's something. And that really is what this is about—getting money for reselling the same product. So who does it hurt?

The make-up artist, the grip, the gaffer, the production assistants. For IATSE members, once there is no new television to be made, they will either go to the limited films to be made, to non-union shows, or just be unemployed. How does that affect them? Well, first off they won't have a paycheck. Secondly, they also can lose their health insurance. Unlike the guilds' health insurance plans which are paid for by how much money they make per year, the crew and staff's health insurance is based on hours. Depending on when they became union, they have six months to accumulate a certain number of working hours to get health insurance for the next six months. There is a bank of hours one can have, but only enough to cover you an additional six months. But it doesn't end there. The IATSE retirement plan is based on employer contributions. For every hour worked, money is put into their fund. They also receive money in their retirement fund based on their wage scale. So with no work, their retirement funds suffer. Not only are union employees who don't even get residuals have no weekly paycheck, but they also are losing money in the retirement funds (which is not stock-optioned—it's all in one account to get the most for everyone) and possibly health insurance for their families.

And what about the non-union productions assistants, the PA's who have the important job of making everything run? Without them, coffee would not be made; the film would not get to the processor, and all the little things that make people happy would not happen. Well, now they'll be out the $600 a week they make. They don't even get health insurance. Some payroll companies offer it, but you have to be consistently employed in order to get it. Once they are out of work for a time, they too, will lose their health insurance.

And the studios? They might layoff some development people for a spell. But they're still selling DVD's, and running internet programming, and even have some shows for the airwaves. The television screen will not go blank. And Hollywood has always maintained that the public will take whatever the public gets. You give us 12 hours of shit, we'll take shit. Or we'll read a book. Or talk to friends. Or get a hobby. But most likely, we'll just take the shit. And the producers will still make money.

Residuals is an important debate. It's a battle worth fighting for. But it's a battle for those receiving the residuals to fight. I have yet to meet anyone not in the guild who is angry about producer's not caving in. I meet more people who are angry about being heckled when they got to work because their contract says they have to work. They're mad that they have to lay off their own PA's. They're mad that the hundreds of thousands of people will be unemployed, without health insurance and suffer a decrease in retirement funds because writers want to make some money on the back end. They're not fighting for the little guy. The up and coming writer who just sold a pilot isn't getting residuals. He got his 35 grand or whatever they made on the one episode, and it's done. The studio lost some money there, but the writer gets his money as did the rest of the staff and crew. So this strike isn't helping them. It's fighting for a cause much bigger than most people care about—how we treat intellectual property to begin with.

Is it worth it? Well, not to those not in the intellectual property game probably. And if the producers do allow the WGA the piece they want, are they leaving enough for SAG later next year? I will always have books, so as a consumer, so I don't care whether or not more television gets produced. I'll be bummed since this actually was a decent scripted television season. But I'll live. If necessary, I'll use my imagination and make up my own stories. As someone who works in the industry, I work in features mainly so I really just need to stockpile money before the actors strike. But as someone who has always supported the working class hero, I'm annoyed that those working class citizens have to suffer to gain benefits they will never receive. The prop department doesn't receive residuals. The PA doesn't even have a retirement plan.

I'm not saying the battle isn't worth fighting. Intellectual property value should be worth as much as land. But it's not. So I don't question what they're fighting for—I only question the way they went about it and how many civilians will be homeless by the end of this. First foreclosures, then fires, now a breakdown of the economy. California doesn't have to fall into the ocean—we're burying ourselves quite nicely now. In every war, a few civilians are caught in the cross-hairs. But this isn't about being caught in the cross-hairs—it's being within a ten-mile radius of where the explosive went off. That's the casualties you'll end up with.

I suppose what I'm saying is that just as one can support the troops without supporting the war, I support the battle, but not it's warriors—the negotiators. We don't know how negotiations work. We don't know if they really tried. All we know is that the writers WANTED to strike (not every writer, but the people in charge). They wanted to let everyone know just how important they are. Yes, the script is the foundation in which the house is built. And I bet the crew understands that. Too bad all those people who side with the writers, the ones who will not reap financial benefits but merely agree with the idea, are the ones that will end up with the most severe casualties and may not ever recover.