IMPORTANT Strike Update!

[buffysmglover]

Originally Posted at WhedonAge.com:

Strike Update
By: MaidenGreen
Source: TV Guide
Additional Sources:
Deadline Hollywood Daily
Hollywood Reporter
SyFyPortal

I haven't posted anything about the strike for a few days, other than the Associated Press release prematurely stating the strike was over. Obviously, that was a bit optimistic. Rumors have been flying around for the last week that the strike is over, or nearly over. Well, it appears a proposed deal between the Writers Guild of America and the AMPTP could be ready by Friday February 8, 2008, with the WGA's bargaining committee and the boards of its East and West Coast chapters planning to review the proposal before passing it along to its membership at Saturday February 9th meetings in New York (at 2 pm/ET) and Los Angeles (7 pm/PT).

Having this deal ratified would mean the end of the strike and the belated resumption in production of many of our favorite TV shows. Some, like ABC's Pushing Daisies have indicated their 2007-2008 season is over. But many other productions including Bones, Supernatural, Smallville and many others will attempt to push out another few episodes before this shortened television season ends. Stay tuned for further news of the strike and its hopefully-soon end.

[BuffyFanOne]

Amazing news! It's about time the writers get what they deserve!!

[Amanda]

This is amazing news!! I hope it all goes as planned.

[buffysmglover]

I'm so excited. Smallville may go past 15 episodes afterall!

[buffysmglover]

Raycheetah said:

IMPORTANT NEWS!

Assuming things don't go south at the last minute, it looks like there is an agreement, still to be ratified by the WGA rank-and-file:

unitedhollywood.blogspot.com/

"Saturday, February 9, 2008
Letter From The Presidents With Deal Summary

This was sent early this morning to membership. The delay in publishing the deal points, we've learned, was because the companies dragged their feet enshrining some of the final details in an attempt to renege on some of what they had promised. The last-minute fight to keep that from happening took until late last night.

To Our Fellow Members,

We have a tentative deal.

It is an agreement that protects a future in which the Internet becomes the primary means of both content creation and delivery. It creates formulas for revenue-based residuals in new media, provides access to deals and financial data to help us evaluate and enforce those formulas, and establishes the principle that, "When they get paid, we get paid."

Specific terms of the agreement are described in the summary at the following link - mail.citrustudio.com/ct/1843160:2030523191:m:1:92379114:20BFF2AA6AD09D5016D8531C64503D7B- and will be further discussed at our Saturday membership meetings on both coasts. At those meetings we will also discuss how we will proceed regarding ratification of this agreement and lifting the restraining order that ends the strike. Details of the Los Angeles meeting can be found at mail.citrustudio.com/ct/1843161:2030523191:m:1:92379114:20BFF2AA6AD09D5016D8531C64503D7B.

Less than six months ago, the AMPTP wanted to enact profit-based residuals, defer all Internet compensation in favor of a study, forever eliminate "distributor's gross" valuations, and enforce 39 pages of rollbacks to compensation, pension and health benefits, reacquisition, and separated rights. Today, thanks to three months of physical resolve, determination, and perseverance, we have a contract that includes WGA jurisdiction and separated rights in new media, residuals for Internet reuse, enforcement and auditing tools, expansion of fair market value and distributor's gross language, improvements to other traditional elements of the MBA, and no rollbacks.

Over these three difficult months, we shut down production of nearly all scripted content in TV and film and had a serious impact on the business of our employers in ways they did not expect and were hard pressed to deflect. Nevertheless, an ongoing struggle against seven, multinational media conglomerates, no matter how successful, is exhausting, taking an enormous personal toll on our members and countless others. As such, we believe that continuing to strike now will not bring sufficient gains to outweigh the potential risks and that the time has come to accept this contract and settle the strike.

Much has been achieved, and while this agreement is neither perfect nor perhaps all that we deserve for the countless hours of hard work and sacrifice, our strike has been a success. We activated, engaged, and involved the membership of our Guilds with a solidarity that has never before occurred. We developed a captains system and a communications structure that used the Internet to build bonds within our membership and beyond. We earned the backing of other unions and their members worldwide, the respect of elected leaders and politicians throughout the nation, and the overwhelming support of fans and the general public. Our thanks to all of them, and to the staffs at both Guilds who have worked so long and patiently to help us all.

There is much yet to be done and we intend to use all the techniques and relationships we've developed in this strike to make it happen. We must support our brothers and sisters in SAG who, as their contract expires in less than five months, will be facing many of the same challenges we have just endured. We must further pursue new relationships we have established in Washington and in state and local governments so that we can maintain leverage against the consolidated multinational conglomerates with whom we bargain. We must be vigilant in monitoring the deals that are made in new media so that in the years ahead we can enforce and expand our contract. We must fight to get decent working conditions and benefits for writers of reality TV, animation, and any other genre in which writers do not have a WGA contract.

Most important, however, is to continue to use the new collective power we have generated for our collective benefit. More than ever, now and beyond, we are all in this together.

Best,

Patric M. Verrone
President, WGAW

Michael Winship
President, WGAE"

The cement is still setting, but, if the contract meets with the approval of the Writers, then, this may be over, soon.

More as it comes in. For now, everyone keep holding, and, act like nothing's happened. 'Cause, it hasn't, yet.

-Raycheetah =^[.]^=

[buffysmglover]

MaidenGreen said:

Update:
WGA Reaches Tentative Deal with AMPTP
Source: TV Guide

The trades are reporting that the WGA has reached a tentative deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. At 3 am Saturday morning, the union's East and West Coast presidents zapped off emails to their membership stating that a deal has been made through 2011 that "protects a future in which the Internet becomes the primary means of both content creation and delivery."

Key among the new pact's points of interest is the 2 percent of the distributor's gross receipts that writers will receive when their TV/movie work is reused online.

[buffysmglover]

These updates brought to you by WhedonAge.com

[Amanda]

Sooo exciting! Thanks for the updates.

[buffysmglover]

My pleasure!

BTW, found an article from Joss. Kinda looks like he's not happy.

whedon.info/From-Joss-Whedon-Do-Not-Adjust.html

Dear Writers,

I have good news. I have lots of good news. In fact, I have way too much good news.

The strike is almost over. A resolution is days away. Weeks. Friday. Valentine’s day. Two weeks exactly from whenever my manager/agent/lawyer told me. Yes, after talking to writers and actors all over town, I’m happy to report that the strike is going to end every single day until March. Huzzah! All of this entirely reliable information means that at last the dream of the writing community has been realized: the Oscars will be saved.

Let’s step back.

The Oscars seem to be the point of focus for a lot of this speculation. That either they must be preserved, or that the studios feel they must be preserved, and therefore this terrible struggle will end. There is an argument to be made for wanting the show to go on: it showcases the artists with whom we are bonded (there’s no award for Best Hiding of Net Profits), and it provides employment and revenue for thousands in the community that has been hit so hard by this action. Having said that, it’s a f%$#ing awards show. It’s a vanity fair. It’s a blip. We’re fighting (fighting, remember?) for the future of our union, our profession, our art. If that fight carries us through the Holy Night when Oscar was born, that’s just too bad.

And the studios? Well, the Oscars provide advertising revenue and a boost for the films that win. But the studios have shown impressive resolve in ignoring short-term losses in order to destroy us. I don’t hear any knees knocking in the Ivory Towers over that night of programming. Hey, I wish I did. I wish, like a lot of people, I could hear anything from in there besides that weird clicking sound Predator makes.

I ask you all to remember: the studios caused an industry-wide shutdown. They made a childishly amateurish show of pretending to negotiate, then retreated into their lairs (yes, they have lairs) to starve us out. They emerged just before Christmas to raise our hopes, then left in a premeditated huff. They Force Majoured with gay abandon, cutting deals and ’trimming the fat’ (I’ve met a couple of ’the fat’ on the picket lines. Nice guys.) and made every selfish, counter-intuitively destructive move in the Bully’s Bible. They met with the DGA and resolved quickly, as expected.

We have been advised to tone down the anti-studio rhetoric now that a deal might be progressing. Our negotiators have the specific task of forgetting the past and dealing only with the numbers before them. Their ability to do that impresses me greatly, but I maintain that it’s their job to treat the studios like business partners and it’s our job to remember who they really are. The studios are inefficient, power-hungry, thieving corporate giants who have made the life of the working writer harder from decade to decade. They are run by men so out of touch with basic humanity that they would see Rome burn before they would think about the concept of fair compensation. I maintain that they have never revealed their true agenda in the causing and handling of this strike, and to expect them to now is cock-eyed optimism of the most dangerous kind.

I have heard people both in and out of the industry say, "But that’s enough now, right?" I have seen the thing I fear most: that whatever their agenda, they are beating us down. With hope. With rumors. With Time. The mindset seems to be shifting to one of relief and even unspoken gratitude for their return, instead of flaming indignation that they ever (illegally, do you recall?) left the table in the first place. It’s the mindset of the victim. The lethargy of limb that strikes the fighter as he unconsciously lets himself lose. The studio strategists have worked this scenario as carefully as they have everything else. It is so crucial that we outside of the talks remember that, and let them know we do.

This is not over. Nor is it close. Until the moment it is over, it can never be close. Because if we see the finish line we will flag and they are absolutely counting on us to do that. In the room, reason. On the streets, on the net, I say reason is for the ’moderates’. Remember what they’ve done. Remember what they’re trying to take from us. FIGHT. FIGHT. FIGHT.

I have been mugged an embarrassing number of times, even for a New Yorker. I’ve been yelled at and chased, beaten down and kicked, threatened with a gun and the only mugger who still hurts my gut is the one who made me shake his hand. Until there is a deal – the right deal, not the DGA deal – held out, let’s keep our hands in our pockets or on our signs. Let’s not be victims. Let’s never.

In solidarity,

Joss Whedon

And here's an audio interview that I dont have the time to listen to

wgastrike2007.blogspot.com/2008/02/wsc-show-91-interviews-with-joss-whedon.html

[BuffyFanOne]

Some of those Whedon quotes up there make me worry for the future of Dollhouse

[Amanda]

I know I'm so nervous to find out what FOX is gonna prioritize now. I really hope Dollhouse gets a chance.

[buffysmglover]

It's not over.

[BuffyFanOne]

It is as close to over as it has been. The Writers guild has agreed to the contract, now the members have to vote on it.

[buffysmglover]

I guess "Tentative" is bad.

[sagewoman]

Joss's message is so heartfelt and true - the execs are playing a very precise psychological game here and they have the money to buy the talent to plan and deliver it.
Worrying about shows - even dollhouse - is short term thinking. Joss won't lose his touch or his fan popularity. However, if he loses the good fight - we don't know what else this will take from him.
He is seeing the big picture and I hope he can rally the guilds to remember the goal.
It is easy to be vocal in the early stages of righteous indignation are strong - but much harder to sustain over time. Small gives are like small wounds that seep - not really killing anything - but given enough time and enough small wounds, then either an infection sets in or you simply die from blood loss.
Let's be strong supporters of the writers and encourage them to stay strong in the face of the temptations the execs are likely waving in front of them.

And as for the Oscars - it's an award show - let the host actually be more than eye-candy and figure out what to say live - ad lib - great actors can do it. They don't need a show to award the Oscar - someone open the darn envelope and sent them the statue.
I'm all for boycotting the Oscars and watching Serenity (and maybe all of Firefly given how the Oscars run over time).
Just my two cents - but I'm behind Joss 100%

[BuffyFanOne]

I agree about being behind Joss 100% but I really don't see how boycotting the Oscars is going to help. I see what the is saying that it is just an award show but to some (allot) of people, it is much more than that. Think of it as if you were Ellen Page...you have the potential to be the youngest best actress winner ever for your first big movie. That is huge! Or what about Hal Holbrook. He has never been nominated and not at 81 he finally gets the nomination that he so desperately wanted.
These people should be able to have their night.
I also realize that none of the nominees would have even been nominated if it weren't for the script writers but that does not mean that their moments should be taken away from them.

The vote takes place on Tuesday so we will see if it is truely over but it is looking that way.

[buffysmglover]

It's over! or