US News
Tom Short speaks out, connects dots
By Mark London Williams Nov 14, 2007, 21:30 GMT
Patric M. Verrone, Writers Guild of America West president, announces at a news conference at Writers Guild headquarters in Hollywood, California , USA, 02 November 2007. that a strike has been called by the Writers Guild America for 12:01 AM Eastern time on Monday November 5 against television and motion picture producers. EPA/ANDREW GOMBERT
Tom Short, the President of IATSE (the guild that represents stage hands in NY and virtually all crew people in Hollywood), has sent an open letter to Patric Verrone, the president of the Writers Guild West.
"Ever since late last year," the letter begins, "when the WGAw announced withdrawal from its own proposed negotiating date in January 2007, I have warned you and predicted the devastation that would come from your actions. These predictions have now come true."
Short then goes on to reference an LA Times story, noting that while the industry could be facing a loss of over $1 billion in the shutdown, the WGA's chief negotiator, David Young "is quoted in the Times as delighted he's being treated 'like a rock star' at rallies and says 'I just look back at the havoc I've wreaked... I'm not going to apologize for that.' This is hardly the point of view of a responsible labor leader."
A bit of an understatement really, give the pain that crew people -- caught in the crossfire -- are already feeling. How is that wordsmiths choose a negotiator who so poorly manages his words?
Short continues, saying "the Times points out that Mr. Young has never negotiated a contract in the motion picture industry. His incompetence and inexperience are causing irreperable damage."
And this is where Short connects the dots to the Bigger Picture in America today, as the fallout from the havoc-wreakers in the White House, and elsewhere, becomes evident. Short observes that the strike comes "at a time when we can ill afford to ignore the worsening national economy, the unstable international climate, and the crises in health care and the housing market that are affecting many of our working families."
"When I phone you on Nov. 28, 2006 to ask you to reconsider the timing of negotiations, you refused." Short concludes it was Young's intention, all along, that there be a strike.
The letter notes that number of shows that have already been shuttered -- over 50 -- and conludes that "it's time to put egos aside and recognize how crucial it is to get everyone back to work, before there is irreversible damage from which the industry can never recover."
Short to neglects to mention his own IA members, however, who are currently striking against Broadway producers, and who have shuttered the Great White Way. But the stakes for the IA are even higher, here.
And his casting the situation in the larger context of a fragile, imploding world is commendable -- even if he leaves out any analysis of the stakes for the multinationals that own the studios -- and the "content."
Still, real people are being hurt, in and out of the IA. And though we are not quite at Thanksgiving, perhaps Denis Leary's "Merry f*ckin' Christmas" will be the theme du jour in L.A. this holiday season.
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Older Talkback
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...they actually think we are missing their work. How out-to-sea can you possibly be???
(I see that SP4 does not know a damned thing about domestic issues, either)
This strike affects not only the writers, but the crew, cast, extras, and the whole network of suppliers to the industry, including the technical people who put the shows together, as well as agents and managers who earn a percentage of what talent brings in. The strikers will never earn back what they're losing in pay, and the 'normal' actors who are idle 95 percent of their lives now have even fewer opportunities. People who used to watch TV are already finding alternatives, and this may reduce the total audience further. Advertisers will spend their money on directed ad campaigns, since the typical Web 'click-through' ad yields perhaps two-tenths of one percent response. TV ad rates will have to drop, and this reduces network revenue, which affects their news divisions. The 'Tonight' show is a large revenue source.
This is a very large hit to tax revenues in California, amongst other places, and also shuts down production of U.S. shows in Canada and other locales. California is running a new 10 billion dollar deficit, and this is the last thing the State needs, and L.A. as well.
The writers have a point, in that they're not sharing from online revenues and other points of sale. That said, the returns from those venues are meager to begin with as compared to what they earn from TV and residuals, so they're fighting over pennies in the first place, as compared to dollars in their pockets.
The only potential benefit comes to producers ot low-rated shows already on air, as it would be riskier and more expensive to find replacements.
www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/arts/television/15life.html?th&emc=th
“The strike definitely could be a good thing for some marginal shows,” said Preston Beckman, the executive in charge of scheduling for the Fox network. That theory was seconded by executives at the other networks and at several studios, most of whom asked for and were granted anonymity because of a code of silence about strike issues that is in place at the big production companies.
Very soon the networks will begin running low on original scripted episodes of shows. Any new episode will become an increasingly valuable commodity. No network is going to waste bought-and-paid-for episodes. So the marginal shows will stay on until their episodes run out, which, in most cases, will mean sometime between now and the end of January.
news.monstersandcritics.com/usa/news/article_1374052.php/Panavision_to_shut _down_for_two_weeks__strike_related_
We’ve just received a tip that Panavision, one of the largest camera gear supply houses in all of Hollywood is, as our source tells it, “shutting down” from December 17 through January 2nd — a tally which includes 13 work days.
“Many people there will have one or two unpaid weeks during the holidays,” our source tells us. “From the strike.”
The mighty are already wobbling. One wonders what will happen if they all get back to “work” after the new year, and the strike is still raging.
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They'reNov 14th, 2007 - 22:40:46
putting more importance on this than there really is.
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