Strike implications

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  • Strike implications

    With a potential strike looming, I've heard twice this week from my manager that a couple of producers just asked to look at my 15 page outline now rather than waiting for the finished spec my manager pitched because there's an urgency with buyers. I mean, I'm fine with that - just curious if this happened the last time around? Any implications here you would be aware of?

    I guess my question is - what's their angle on this? What's the end game? How does just looking at the outline now help them? Let's assume I have a draft by April 1. What did those three weeks buy them with just an outline?

  • #2
    Re: Strike implications

    Originally posted by Satriales View Post
    With a potential strike looming, I've heard twice this week from my manager that a couple of producers just asked to look at my 15 page outline now rather than waiting for the finished spec my manager pitched because there's an urgency with buyers. I mean, I'm fine with that - just curious if this happened the last time around? Any implications here you would be aware of?

    I guess my question is - what's their angle on this? What's the end game? How does just looking at the outline now help them? Let's assume I have a draft by April 1. What did those three weeks buy them with just an outline?
    It doesn't get them anything. "With a potential strike looming" is the prelude to people doing all kinds of crazy sh*t. It's the invocation of hysteria.

    I mean, I guess they're thinking that they can use the outline to tee up financiers/studios, so that when the draft comes in, they can get offers fast and move to close deals quickly. But in the event of a strike, none of those deals matter anyway, since if you're in the WGA, you can't do any steps until the strike is over (and if you're not in the WGA, the strike doesn't affect you).

    And FWIW, the strike talk is premature. No negotiations have even taken place! From what I understand (which-- disclaimer-- isn't a lot), there are a lot of moving pieces this year, with lots of potential for side deals / hold outs / etc. "Strike" vs "no strike" may not be as binary as it's been in past years.

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    • #3
      Re: Strike implications

      Even in 2007 there was scuttlebutt heading into the strike (which felt like a much more tangible threat then, given the newness of online streaming, than I'm sensing today) of "stockpiling" scripts and rushing things into production. At least on the TV side, there is probably some truth to wanting stuff in the can or at least shootable before it's pencils down. Some of it is probably posturing to try and show strength ("look how much material we have to work with if you vote to strike!") going into the negotiations.

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      • #4
        Re: Strike implications

        Originally posted by AnyOtherName View Post
        It doesn't get them anything. "With a potential strike looming" is the prelude to people doing all kinds of crazy sh*t. It's the invocation of hysteria.

        I mean, I guess they're thinking that they can use the outline to tee up financiers/studios, so that when the draft comes in, they can get offers fast and move to close deals quickly. But in the event of a strike, none of those deals matter anyway, since if you're in the WGA, you can't do any steps until the strike is over (and if you're not in the WGA, the strike doesn't affect you).

        And FWIW, the strike talk is premature. No negotiations have even taken place! From what I understand (which-- disclaimer-- isn't a lot), there are a lot of moving pieces this year, with lots of potential for side deals / hold outs / etc. "Strike" vs "no strike" may not be as binary as it's been in past years.
        Thanks for the insight. I'm glad (I guess) that it's not as binary as is being discussed in the trades.

        I'm in a weird spot in that I'm not in the guild yet but will be by, like, May, I guess. Depending on how long these things take and for ink to dry. So...I don't know.

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        • #5
          Re: Strike implications

          Sounds like they want to prospect their best options and have a wish list ready to set up before a strike could begin. They're not stupid, and the fact that you're hearing this now doesn't seem like it's too early to consider a possible strike threat, because clearly some industry folks are.

          If it were me, I'd want to see the progress of specs now, so if there's a clear stand out, they can pressure a writer to get a strong draft (producible) before a strike might hit.

          Seems to me you're in a good position with this buyer, and it could lead to an early sale that might not happen as quickly if there wasn't some threat of a strike.

          Congratulations and good luck with your project.
          "Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy b/c you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say." -- Edward Snowden

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          • #6
            Re: Strike implications

            Originally posted by finalact4 View Post
            Sounds like they want to prospect their best options and have a wish list ready to set up before a strike could begin. They're not stupid, and the fact that you're hearing this now doesn't seem like it's too early to consider a possible strike threat, because clearly some industry folks are.

            If it were me, I'd want to see the progress of specs now, so if there's a clear stand out, they can pressure a writer to get a strong draft (producible) before a strike might hit.

            Seems to me you're in a good position with this buyer, and it could lead to an early sale that might not happen as quickly if there wasn't some threat of a strike.

            Congratulations and good luck with your project.
            Thanks! I think the timing of transitioning to cheap, original, and contained from my usual 50M "adult- true story fare was fortunate timing it seems.

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            • #7
              Re: Strike implications

              welp, DGA has a tentative deal in under 30 days of negotiations. seems kinda fast to me but maybe there just wasn't any substantial disagreement about the terms (sure!). or they just went for their usual quick and not-so-great deal:

              https://deadline.com/2020/03/directo...20-1202875780/

              i know the WGA had a meeting last night and several writers tweeted very positive reactions, though no details about the subject matter (not sure if the negotiation committee members stay in contact with their DGA counterparts to know exactly what's on the table at all times)

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              • #8
                Re: Strike implications

                Variety has a little more insight:

                https://variety.com/2020/biz/news/wg...al-1203526321/

                "multiple sources familiar with the broad strokes of the agreement say the DGA deal includes a significant increase in residuals for high-budget streaming content"

                with the DGA v. WGA, "significant increase" may be in the eye of the beholder and what about non-"high budget" content? but if they are real gains on the backend that will be a good starting place for the WGA's negotations

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                • #9
                  Re: Strike implications

                  "Oh god, here come the terms . . ."

                  DGA board approves their deal with the studios, no reason to think rank and file won't follow suit. Of most relevance to the WGA, an apparent bump in SVOD (streaming) residuals, though I don't have a frame of reference to know how much better these numbers would be over what writers currently get:

                  "Made-For-SVOD: o A nearly 50% increase in residuals for members working on original SVOD series, bringing the three-year residual for a 60-minute series on the highest subscriber SVOD services to more than $73,000. To put the accomplishment in perspective, when combined with the gains from the 2017 agreement, the residual is up nearly fivefold from under $15,000 in 2016, and exceeds the average residuals earned from all markets for the most popular network series. Lower budget made-for-SVOD series will now also be captured under the new contract - expanding the scope of coverage to many more series and ensuring the vast majority of members working in this space benefit from DGA-negotiated terms, residuals and creative rights."

                  https://deadline.com/2020/03/dga-boa...omment-2725980

                  Also, what about stuff that wasn't originally made-for-SVOD? Studios are parking a lot of catalog titles, e.g., Friends, exclusively on their streamers. Would the new residuals formula not apply to those, which would basically mean no backend forever since they would not be rerun in syndication etc.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Strike implications

                    Originally posted by JoeBanks View Post
                    "Oh god, here come the terms . . ."

                    DGA board approves their deal with the studios, no reason to think rank and file won't follow suit. Of most relevance to the WGA, an apparent bump in SVOD (streaming) residuals, though I don't have a frame of reference to know how much better these numbers would be over what writers currently get:

                    "Made-For-SVOD: o A nearly 50% increase in residuals for members working on original SVOD series, bringing the three-year residual for a 60-minute series on the highest subscriber SVOD services to more than $73,000. To put the accomplishment in perspective, when combined with the gains from the 2017 agreement, the residual is up nearly fivefold from under $15,000 in 2016, and exceeds the average residuals earned from all markets for the most popular network series. Lower budget made-for-SVOD series will now also be captured under the new contract - expanding the scope of coverage to many more series and ensuring the vast majority of members working in this space benefit from DGA-negotiated terms, residuals and creative rights."

                    https://deadline.com/2020/03/dga-boa...omment-2725980

                    Also, what about stuff that wasn't originally made-for-SVOD? Studios are parking a lot of catalog titles, e.g., Friends, exclusively on their streamers. Would the new residuals formula not apply to those, which would basically mean no backend forever since they would not be rerun in syndication etc.
                    My read is that these terms are a step forward but don't come close to adequately addressing the loss of income that comes from the ascendancy of streaming platforms and the retreat of linear broadcasting. For one thing, I don't think it gets pay parity for low-budget versus high-budget shows (at a certain budget level, Netflix shows DON'T EVEN HAVE TO PAY MINIMUMS, regardless of how popular the show is). For another thing, it seems the DGA residuals **top out at** $73k. By contrast, if you wrote an episode of, say, Seinfeld, you would have made over $1m in residuals (for that one episode!) over the life of the show.

                    And this doesn't even begin to address the loss of income from reuse markets (since there IS no reuse in a world of vertical integration).

                    The Guild's position, if I understand it correctly, is that residuals should *never* top out-- that writers should be paid whenever a show is replayed, either by programmers at a network or by individuals at home. They want to tie residual payments to # of streams. Obviously, the DGA took a different approach... but I doubt it will be acceptable to the Guild (and frankly, it might not even be acceptable to SAG).

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                    • #11
                      Re: Strike implications

                      Originally posted by AnyOtherName View Post
                      My read is that these terms are a step forward but don't come close to adequately addressing the loss of income that comes from the ascendancy of streaming platforms and the retreat of linear broadcasting. For one thing, I don't think it gets pay parity for low-budget versus high-budget shows (at a certain budget level, Netflix shows DON'T EVEN HAVE TO PAY MINIMUMS, regardless of how popular the show is). For another thing, it seems the DGA residuals **top out at** $73k. By contrast, if you wrote an episode of, say, Seinfeld, you would have made over $1m in residuals (for that one episode!) over the life of the show.

                      And this doesn't even begin to address the loss of income from reuse markets (since there IS no reuse in a world of vertical integration).

                      The Guild's position, if I understand it correctly, is that residuals should *never* top out-- that writers should be paid whenever a show is replayed, either by programmers at a network or by individuals at home. They want to tie residual payments to # of streams. Obviously, the DGA took a different approach... but I doubt it will be acceptable to the Guild (and frankly, it might not even be acceptable to SAG).
                      Thanks!

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