WGA Offers a One Year Respite?

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  • #46
    Re: WGA Offers a One Year Respite?

    Originally posted by Bono View Post
    My first managers asked us to give our spec script that they didn't have any notes how to make better to one of their bigger client to pitch. And we asked what we get out of that? Story by credit they can't even give? Co write script with him? They said nothing but we should do it.

    These are legit managers FYI. This is the business.
    Shady, maybe the WGA should get writers to fire their managers as well.

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    • #47
      Re: WGA Offers a One Year Respite?

      Originally posted by GucciGhostXXX View Post
      Geesh! I don't GET this industry whatsoever.

      We all should start our own agency. Why not? This is the time to make a power move. I'm dead fukkin serious! I've sold sh!t for millions, it's not as hard as THEY pretend. Who's with me? Let's bounce. WTF is this mess? It shouldn't be this hard. IMO.

      May God bless all of our scripts. The market is absurd right now! Fukking absurd!! I'm on OUR side! Ride or die, BRUH!

      That's what I said, a writer's co-op, do what youtube and netflix is doing to the studios, get rid of the middle men - they're not doing their jobs properly.

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      • #48
        Re: WGA Offers a One Year Respite?

        Originally posted by Bono View Post
        Well half the managers started as agents...
        Fo REALziez...

        True story: My ex waz a CAA agent. Fired for using a Hello Kitty pen (I ain't making this sh!t up). Trades said she "left to pursue other opportunities." Nope, truth is she was fired for not fitting in. I told her "fukk them, use the pen, who cares! It's a fukkin pen!" She was fired for that. Swear to God! From there we started our own management firm. My last name. That year we sold MORE sh!t for MORE money than anyone in the industry. 2 films in one year up for best picture. Seriously? You've got to be friggin kidding me.... When a stupid-azz writer steps in, you suddenly sell more sh!t for more money than anyone in the entire industry? IDK... you do the math on that sh!t. 15 years she was an agent, the only time in her career she had 3 movies going at the same time was when I stepped in "lemme drive, bruh! Watch!" Later she said "Maybe we should keep our company even though we split up, that's the most successful I've ever been." YA THINK??

        Point: We (writers) failed by ALLOWING suits into the picture. I'm an idiot writer, true, but I know how to sell sh!t. And I ain't backing off of the price when I know what it's worth.

        My new chick is a doctor. She just got a new job. Guess who made the deal. Me. I hardballed these fools. Guess what they did. They took the high offer she was scared to ask for "Trust me, bruh!". I knew that wasn't their real number. I'm like "we can get them to go higher, I swear! That ain't their real number. Watch!" I got her a huge raise. Me... some idiot writer who doesn't know how to sell sh!t. Or do I?

        Point: I don't believe writers are stupid.
        Last edited by GucciGhostXXX; 07-08-2019, 02:28 AM.
        Bruh, fukkin *smooches*! Feel me? Ha!

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        • #49
          Re: WGA Offers a One Year Respite?

          Originally posted by lumous View Post
          That's what I said, a writer's co-op, do what youtube and netflix is doing to the studios, get rid of the middle men - they're not doing their jobs properly.
          TRUTH!
          Bruh, fukkin *smooches*! Feel me? Ha!

          Comment


          • #50
            Re: WGA Offers a One Year Respite?

            Gucci -- now I'm even more confused by your backstory. You're a writer now or always? Or were you also on the agent/rep side as I think your posts said?

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            • #51
              Re: WGA Offers a One Year Respite?

              Originally posted by Bono View Post
              Gucci -- now I'm even more confused by your backstory. You're a writer now or always? Or were you also on the agent/rep side as I think your posts said?
              I fell into writing super late. I read scripts and gave notes on them for years for my agent wife. Yup, a lot of those notes were mine. Still it didn't occur to me to try writing my own script. Not for 10 years of doing that. I was a film composer at the time. I had a meeting with a composer agent at ICM (I was agent-less as a composer, main gig ghost writing for other composers). During that meeting we got off topic and discussed screenwriting and how much easier it was to break in. Epiphany. Maybe I should try to write my own script. My ex (CAA agent at the time) was adamant that I not write a script and "stay in my lane." I wrote it anyway. 16 days later I had a script. She read it. Liked it, a lot. But was worried she may have a bias. She gave the script to head of lit at CAA with me using a fake name in case they hated it. Loved it. Handed me down to a mid level who also loved it. A couple weeks later I'm repped. And I admit my real name, because I already know this agent.

              I sell a show etc.

              Fast forward a couple years I almost die and my ex is fired. We then started a management company. It was her face, but I was doing the dealings and notes etc behind the scenes. Accidentally became a manager for 3 years. My W2s say "manager" so I suppose I can legally claim I was one. We had a pretty great run. Made a lot of money. Seemed like everything was selling. So, I wasn't writing. That company dissolved and now I'm back to being a loser writer. LOL. Any heat I had as a writer was long gone. So I had to write new stuff and rep up a second time... which was WAY harder this time.

              Out of the new stuff I've written, I haven't sold anything. Only generals. I'm out with a show right now. Fingers crossed!
              Bruh, fukkin *smooches*! Feel me? Ha!

              Comment


              • #52
                Re: WGA Offers a One Year Respite?

                when i read this article and the offer of a respite, i thought it was a mistake to go backward and not stick to their guns. i understand why the WGA might have thought it would be a good idea, but this is exactly what i thought would be deduced from it...


                In its demurrer, ICM cited this offer as proof that packaging is not illegal. "After filing this lawsuit, in June 2019, the WGA publicly offered to extend packaging for one calendar year to any agency willing to sign onto its other terms and conditions. The WGA's offer is squarely at odds with its stated litigation position that participation in packaging is illegal ... something it would hardly do if it actually believed packaging violated federal law or harmed writers.-
                ICM Seeks Dismissal of WGA Packaging Lawsuit, Calls Guild's Legal Theories "Absurd."

                https://deadline.com/2019/07/icm-see...ta-1202649428/

                when does this hit the courts? i'm not even sure how all this works. are we in the middle of some process where the parties involved have deadlines where they can challenge the validity of the suit or something?

                curious that no one is making any moves toward reconciliation.
                "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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                • #53
                  Re: WGA Offers a One Year Respite?

                  This is one of the dumbest things I've seen in Hollywood. I super DON'T GET these "negotiations."
                  Bruh, fukkin *smooches*! Feel me? Ha!

                  Comment


                  • #54
                    Re: WGA Offers a One Year Respite?

                    motions to dismiss at the pleading stage are rarely successful, absent a clearly poorly-pleaded complaint, because the court has to construe all factual allegations in favor of the plaintiff at this point, i.e., assuming the truth of everything alleged in the complaint, does it at least state a claim for which relief can be granted. although i have not read the pleadings or these motions, i'll presume that WGA counsel are not dum-dums and would not file anything that could be summarily knocked out on a motion to dismiss. so all the back and forth in the litigation at this point is largely posturing and defining the actual scope of the case for purposes of discovery (where, if it proceeds that far, then you'll really see which side has the actual balls to go through with things like opening their books to the other side)

                    the ATA line appears to continue to be "well, they're writers and we know they will eventually fold because they always fold." not really a strategy i would want to bet my entire business on but there it is:

                    https://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...no-end-in-site

                    "The protracted standoff has wider repercussions for Hollywood because it could impede the staffing of shows and disrupt the flow of projects next year. Some analysts believe it could also portend a wide labor conflict next summer when contracts for all three major talent unions expire."

                    I'm not sure where this idea that firing the agents has either impeded staffing (all the shows on the air are fully and competently staffed, afaik) or disrupt the flow of development (it's just gearing up for next season but i continue to read about plenty of deals and sales in the trades on a weekly basis). magical thinking is magical, i guess

                    and i'm still waiting for just one of these doomsday articles to be written from the agency side. never do we hear about the fired agents' anxiety about when/if they're actually going to get back to their jobs -- which actually have been disrupted in the way that everyone keeps predicting the writers' will be. but i would not be surprised if things continue on this current path through the end of the year to wake up sometime after Xmas, when all the pilot orders will have been made by the networks and studios, for there to be a "Black Monday" event when the non-Big Four agencies are forced to cut their lit departments down to the bone.

                    reading the CAA history "Power House" recently gave me a greater appreciation for the origins of TV packaging and the extent to which it built these mega-agencies far beyond their 10% foundations. and i'm more convinced than ever that they'll never ever ever give up that paradigm except upon pain of death or a court decree along the lines of DOJ forcing Lew Wasserman and MCA to choose between agenting and producing. as the LAT article suggests, the risk to WGA leadership is that time isn't on their side to resolve that question before they have to renegotiate the MBA with the studios. the appetite for two big fights in one year is probably not there for the same 95% who approved the ATA resolution.

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                    • #55
                      Re: WGA Offers a One Year Respite?

                      Originally posted by JoeBanks View Post
                      and i'm still waiting for just one of these doomsday articles to be written from the agency side. never do we hear about the fired agents' anxiety about when/if they're actually going to get back to their jobs -- which actually have been disrupted in the way that everyone keeps predicting the writers' will be. but i would not be surprised if things continue on this current path through the end of the year to wake up sometime after Xmas, when all the pilot orders will have been made by the networks and studios, for there to be a "Black Monday" event when the non-Big Four agencies are forced to cut their lit departments down to the bone.

                      reading the CAA history "Power House" recently gave me a greater appreciation for the origins of TV packaging and the extent to which it built these mega-agencies far beyond their 10% foundations. and i'm more convinced than ever that they'll never ever ever give up that paradigm except upon pain of death or a court decree along the lines of DOJ forcing Lew Wasserman and MCA to choose between agenting and producing. as the LAT article suggests, the risk to WGA leadership is that time isn't on their side to resolve that question before they have to renegotiate the MBA with the studios. the appetite for two big fights in one year is probably not there for the same 95% who approved the ATA resolution.
                      I agree with everything you're saying except maybe the part about the ATA fight hurting the MBA negotiations. If the perception is that we're winning the agency fight-- if Paradigm, Gersh, Kaplan Stahler, etc. come to terms and/or the current leadership is reelected-- that will immensely increase our perceived power when it comes time to battle the studios. If nothing changes except that there are more dumb agency-planted articles in the Wall Street Journal (and/or if the Cave Caucus gets elected to the Board), then yeah... that will definitely make the MBA fight tougher.

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                      • #56
                        Re: WGA Offers a One Year Respite?

                        it's amazing that agents are so tight lipped. i mean, nothing that i know of, has come out fear in the middle-earth of agencies. i would've thought there's be something.

                        like, someone break, give us some juice!
                        "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

                        Comment

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