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Metropolis Reality Forums Ť Strike over, Hollywood writers head back to work ť

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   Strike over, Hollywood writers head back to work

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Topic: Strike over, Hollywood writers head back to work (Read 476 times)

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Strike over, Hollywood writers head back to work
« on: Feb 13^th, 2008, 10:41am »

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LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Striking Hollywood writers will be back at their keyboards Wednesday after voting overwhelmingly to end a 100-day walkout that essentially shut down the entertainment industry.

More than 92 percent of the Writers Guild of America members who cast ballots Tuesday in Los Angeles and New York voted to end their work stoppage over residuals for writing in the digital age, including new media and the Internet. The new deal is for three years.

"The strike is over. Our membership has voted, and writers can go back to work," said Patric Verrone, president of the WGA's West chapter.

Michael Winship, president of WGA's East guild, said, "The success of this strike is a significant achievement not only for ourselves but the entire creative community, now and in the future."

WGA members walked off the job November 5 after talks broke down over how writers are paid for the use of their material on the Internet and DVDs, among other issues.

"It is not all that we hoped for, and it is not all we deserve," Verrone said when a tentative deal was announced Saturday.

Leslie Moonves, chief executive officer of CBS Corp., told The Associated Press, "At the end of the day, everybody won.

"It was a fair deal and one that the companies can live with, and it recognizes the large contribution that writers have made to the industry."

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents production companies and media conglomerates, has had no comment on the agreement.

The vote meant that the Academy Awards ceremony on February 24 will be the usual scripted gala, the AP reported.

"I am ecstatic that the 80th Academy Awards presentation can now proceed full steam ahead," without "hesitation or discomfort" for the nominees, Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which stages the Oscars, told the AP.

As long as the strike continued, the traditional Oscars spectacular was in doubt since many Hollywood stars would not cross WGA picket lines.

It's unclear how soon new episodes of scripted programs will start appearing, because production won't begin until scripts are completed, the AP reported.

It will take at least four weeks for producers to get the first post-strike episodes of comedies back on the air; dramas will take six to eight weeks, the AP said.

Verrone said the WGA achieved two of three goals through negotiations with the studios. Watch Verrone explain what he thinks the strike accomplished ť

The first goal relates to writers' "jurisdiction" in new media, Verrone said, meaning that any content written by guild members specifically for new media, such as the Internet or cell phones, will be covered by their contract.

The second goal relates to reuse of content in new media, Verrone said.

The agreement bases payment for reuses on a distributor's gross formula for residuals, "so that when they get paid, we get paid," he said.

It is the "first time in our history that a new delivery system pays on a residual formula superior to the prior existing system," Verrone said.

The third goal, which Verrone said the guild did not achieve, was to shore up writers' shares of the revenue from animation and reality television.

"Giving up animation and reality was a heartbreaking thing for me personally," he said. "But it was more important that we make a deal that benefited the membership, the town as a whole, that got people back to work and that solved the biggest problems in new media."

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Re: Strike over, Hollywood writers head back to wo
« Reply #1 on: Feb 13^th, 2008, 1:28pm »

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They definitely had no right to reality shows if you ask me, how is that written?

I'm glad the strike is over though. Grin

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Re: Strike over, Hollywood writers head back to wo
« Reply #2 on: Feb 13^th, 2008, 1:48pm »

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There's a lot of writing involved in reality TV: Most of what hosts say is scripted; bumps, previews and teases are usually scripted; and in many cases, writers are involved insomuch as they work with producers to determine what material tells the 'story' they want told in that episode...they call themselves Story Editors, but in many cases writers are doing that work. And as a TV writer myself, I was once asked to 'write' a reality show as a freelance gig. We may not write all the dialogue, but many times we write what the situations are going to be.

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