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Post by Niemmy on Feb 6, 2008 6:14:11 GMT -5
Damn I would have like to seen that, I heard Jon Stewart mention it on his show tonight.
Great Stuff Beatie!
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Post by beatie08 on Feb 8, 2008 21:29:45 GMT -5
The now 3-month-old Hollywood writers strike could enter its final chapter Saturday when guild members gather in Los Angeles and New York to consider a proposed contract. If writers respond favorably, the walkout that has devastated the entertainment industry could end as soon as Monday. Writers were wavering between hope and skepticism as they prepared to learn details of the deal for the first time.
"The feeling is relief and optimism and excitement," said Hilary Winston, a writer for the NBC sitcom "My Name Is Earl."
Still, she couldn't shake her lingering anxiety.
"I hope this deal made this three months worth it," she said.
Writer Erik Oleson, who watched a deal for a TV pilot fall apart during the strike, was reserving judgment.
"I'm not going to drink the Kool-Aid and accept a bad deal. I'd rather continue the strike," Oleson said. "We saw a press release but what matters is the fine print."
If members show strong support for the deal, the union could quickly lift its strike order, allowing dozens of TV shows to return to production and putting thousands of actors, crew members and others back to work.
An end to the strike might also salvage the Feb. 24 Academy Awards show, which is now facing a possible boycott by writers and sympathetic actors. The writers union has given a picket-free pass to Sunday's Grammy Awards.
The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios, have not publicly commented on the proposed contract because of a joint media blackout.
Michael Eisner, a former Walt Disney Co. chief executive, told CNBC the proposed deal was good enough to end the strike.
"It's impossible the writers will turn it down," said Eisner, whose successor at Disney, Robert Iger, was among the studio chiefs who helped shape the proposal with leaders of the writers guild.
The most contentious issue in the talks was residual payments for TV programs and movies distributed on the Internet.
"Within the next five years, most American televisions will be connected to the Internet. The shows and movies you watch on your TV will be downloaded or streamed," the union said in its strike fact sheet.
Some accounts suggest the proposed deal involving the 12,000-member union and the world's largest media companies improves on a contract agreement reached last month by studios and the Directors Guild of America.
Directors won several key concessions on new media, including payments for downloaded TV programs and movies based on a percentage of the distributor's gross.
The writers guild, however, has been seeking 2.5 percent of distributor grosses from Internet-delivered projects — about three times what the directors guild got in its deal.
Writers also balked at the maximum $1,200 flat fee that studios agreed to pay directors for streamed, ad-supported programs.
Writers won't vote Saturday on the proposed contract but will have a chance to voice their support or opposition at the closed meetings.
An e-mail circulated by a strike captain urged pro-deal members to attend so union leaders wouldn't hear only from opponents.
Other e-mails to guild members said a favorable response by writers would be followed by a Sunday meeting of the guild negotiating committee to consider lifting the strike order and scheduling a formal membership vote by mail.
"I hope Monday is when this town gets going again," Winston said. "If it's not Monday, I'll take Wednesday."
Warren Leight, an executive producer in New York for NBC's "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," doesn't think writers will be swayed by high-profile colleagues who have trumpeted the directors deal as a solid template for writers.
"If the deal works, everyone is ready to go back to work. But it has to be discussed by 10,000 people, not by 30 show runners and wannabe A-listers," Leight said.
Among the show runners — industry slang for executive producers in charge of a series — who lauded the directors deal was John Wells, whose credits include "ER" and "The West Wing." He termed it, "Very good. For writers, for directors, for the future."
A quick end to the walkout might result in TV viewers seeing a more new episodes of their favorite shows this season. A script takes about three weeks to write and about 40 working days to produce, so it could take as long as two months for the first new shows to air, Leight said.
But once a production has scripts and is up and running, episodes are worked on concurrently and an hour-long show can be produced within eight days, he said. That could allow an hourlong drama to return with perhaps a half-dozen new episodes, and a half-hour comedy to squeeze in as many as seven new shows for the rest of the season.
Networks, however, are likely to pick and choose among shows, with low-rated newcomers less likely to get deals for more episodes than a series like "Grey's Anatomy," which has a big, faithful audience.
IS THIS THE WRITERS STRIKE GOING TO END??
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Post by Niemmy on Feb 9, 2008 6:25:06 GMT -5
Oooo It's hard to say!Maybe if the terms and conditions are up to scratch there might be a chance that it will end soon,But anyway it won't make much of a differance to Australian writers no matter what happens.
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Post by beatie08 on Feb 9, 2008 21:30:46 GMT -5
GOOD NEWS FROM THE WRITERS STRIKE The Writers Guild of America announced a tentative deal with studios late Friday, which if approved could get striking scribes back to work as soon as next week.
The agreement "protects a future in which the Internet becomes the primary means of both content creation and delivery," guild presidents Patric Verrone and Michael Winship write in a letter to members. It also "establishes the principle that, 'When they get paid, we get paid.'"
Writers began their strike on Nov. 5 after fruitless negotiations with studios over residual payments for streaming video and downloads of movie and TV shows, shutting down nearly all scripted TV production and delaying several prominent movie projects. Episodes of most prime-time series dried up in December and January, forcing the broadcast networks to cobble together schedules of reruns, reality shows and midseason replacements. Ratings have fallen.
The announcement of the deal came only hours before Writers Guild membership meetings in New York and Los Angeles, at which guild leaders will explain the deal and hear from members. The boards of the WGA East and West could meet as soon as Sunday to approve the deal and end the strike, meaning writers could return to their jobs by Monday.
Once writers do return, new episodes of TV series would follow within a few weeks. Sitcoms would likely make it back on the air first, with dramas taking a little longer to ramp up again. Networks will likely pick and choose which series they want back; some new series may be held until the fall.
A deal would also allow the Oscars, set for Sunday, Feb. 24, to proceed without the specter of pickets.
The writers' tentative agreement includes several key points related to streaming and downloads of TV shows and movies, which had been the major sticking point between the guild and media conglomerates during the strike.
Payments for streaming of TV series will initially be a fixed amount of about $1,300 a year for an hour-long show (and about half that for half-hours), which is similar to the deal the Directors Guild negotiated with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers last month.
In the third year of the writers' contract, however, streaming payments will switch to a percentage formula, with scribes getting 2 percent of the distributor's revenue. The percentage ensures that if, as is widely predicted, proceeds from streaming take off, writers will be able to share in the growth.
The deal also includes a slight bump for downloads of movies and TV shows and a 1.2-percent residual in the relatively new market of download rentals, as well as increases in minimum pay each year and guild jurisdiction over projects created specifically for new media.
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Post by beatie08 on Feb 10, 2008 20:57:33 GMT -5
GOOD NEWS FROM THE WRITERS STRIKE THE WRITERS STRIKE IS NOT OFFICALLY OVER YET Leaders of Hollywood's screenwriters union had endorsed a deal to end the entertainment industry's bitter three-month long strike, union officials said today.
Writers Guild of America board members in New York and Los Angeles approved the new contract after meeting today and will now hold a vote of the union's members early next week to approve the decision.
With widespread support for the agreement, writers are expected to be back at their keyboards by Thursday, bringing to a close the most serious labour dispute to hit the US entertainment industry in decades.
Writers went on strike on November 5, forcing the postponement or cancellation of several popular television shows and movies, and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.
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Post by beatie08 on Feb 12, 2008 22:47:05 GMT -5
GOOD NEWS FROM THE WRITERS STRIKE THE WRITERS STRIKE IS OFFICALLY OVER AFTER 3 HEARTLESS MONTHS, 14 WEEKS AND 1 DAY
Striking Hollywood writers are going back to work.
The Writers Guild of America said its members voted on Tuesday to end their devastating, three-month strike that brought the entertainment industry to a standstill.
Writers will go back to work Wednesday after voting in Beverly Hills and New York.
"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," said Leslie Moonves, chief executive officer of CBS Corp.
Moonves was among the media executives who helped broker a deal after talks between the guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers collapsed in acrimony.
One winner in the vote was the Academy Awards, which can now be staged Feb. 24 without the threat of pickets or a boycott by actors that would have dulled the glamour of Hollywood's signature celebration.
The strike's end would allow many hit series to return this spring for what's left of the current season, airing anywhere from four to seven new episodes. Shows with marginal audience numbers may not return until fall or could be canceled.
"It will be all hands on deck for the writing staff," said Chris Mundy, co-executive producer of CBS drama Criminal Minds. He hopes to get a couple of scripts in the pipeline right away, with about seven episodes airing by the end of May.
The combined New York-Beverly Hills count was overwhelmingly in favor of ending the strike: 3,492 voted yes, with only 283 voting to stay off the job.
Writers did not vote on whether to formally accept the tentative contract that already has won approval from the union's board of directors.
The guild will mail contract ratification ballots to members over the next few days. Writers can also vote at meetings. All ballots must be cast by Feb. 25.
The union's board approved a deal Sunday giving writers a share of the growing revenue from programs offered on the Internet and other new media.
Guild leaders say they were fighting for a piece of the future, reflecting the widespread belief that Internet-delivered entertainment fare would inevitably claim an increasing and perhaps even dominant market share.
The walkout stopped work on dozens of TV shows, disrupted movie production and turned the usually star-studded Golden Globes into a news conference.
FINALLY WE KNEWTHAT THE WRITERS SAVED THE OSCARS FROM CERTAIN DOOM. DAMN THOSE 283 PEOPLE WHO DECIDE AGAINST WORK. LOLOL. WELL IT WOULD COST THE FILM INDUSTRY 1 Billion Dollars
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Post by Niemmy on Feb 13, 2008 8:14:41 GMT -5
Beauty! Now us animators can go on strike! ;D ;D ;D "You carn't touch me I'm part union!"
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