My Countdown to the Abyss series dives into the looming WGA strike, and what’s at stake ahead of the May 1 deadline. Earlier posts, including 62 Days to the Abyss, 70 Days to the Abyss and 55 Days to the Abyss are available to paid subscribers only. Love to hear your thoughts on the coming showdown. Give me a holler at richard@theankler.com.
Yesterday, with 42 days to go until the Writers Guild's Minimum Basic Agreement expires, Guild negotiators sat down with representatives for the producers to begin talking turkey.
The problems on the table are fiendishly complex, even in today's world. But to make things worse, the negotiations not only need to improve today’s working situation for writers, but also try to predict the impact of a fast-moving train: what viewing will look like three to five years from now.
Given that, I thought it time to take a step back from deal points and lock down some basic principles. What are the self-evident truths that should guide any writers' agreement — both today and in the decades to come? What are the principles that should guide the negotiations when they play whack-a-mole with definitions and terms in the streaming mayhem?
The lot of writers in Hollywood has never been one of power and glory. Shafting the writers in every possible way is a tradition as old as the industry itself. But in years past, that shafting had limits, enforced by union rules and a basic, if grudging, recognition that the business of "entertaining" required writing and writers. In today's streaming hellscape, those facts are no longer acknowledged.
Some of these can be attended to fiscally. Others are basic respect for the profession matters that fall beyond the realm of contracts but speak directly to why today's industry feels so unlivable and unhappy for so many. Much of this is about restoring a sense of purpose to today’s industry, without which it is not only a miserable place to work; it is also doomed.
Again, these are general principles that can be expressed contractually in a number of ways (residuals, higher pay — a debate we won’t get into today). But before we get bogged down in the details (and the detail bog is coming, my friends), it's important to remember what this is all for. I hope this list can guide the thinking of the directors, actors and all the craftspeople to follow.
Here then, my stab at The Writers’ Bill of Rights. Many thanks to the writer friends whose thoughts and suggestions guided this historic document, and whose words are quoted here:
The Writers’ Bill of Rights
I. No free work. Ever. Period.
Article 1: Once a writer convinces a company that an idea is worthy, the company will pay the writer to develop and/or write that idea.
Article 2: "Pitches are work. Creating bibles are work. Writing drafts are work. Rewrites are work. Polishes are work. Punch-ups are work. Loglines are work. They all should be compensated. There is no free R&D at Pfizer and the same should go for any money-making venture."
Article 3: If you want a series, you pay for a series. The material that a studio can request before greenlighting a series must be limited to a pilot script, a bible/format, and up to two additional episodes.
II. Studios must contribute to the basic maintenance and support of a healthy ecosystem that allows a broad middle of people to pursue writing as a lifetime career.
Article 1: For instance, studios must contribute to the maintenance of the health funds, not just leave this as a problem for the unions.
Article 2: Any agreement must be subject to basic cost-of-living allowances that take into account the costs of living in this particular city. Keeping up with rising costs should not be the subject of shotgun, to-the-death negotiations, but should be assumed as an automatic part of life.
III. Extravagant time-wasting should be done on your own time.
Article 1: While development hell and development purgatory are ancient and venerable Hollywood traditions, the latest version where creators’ lives are kept dangling while studios dither over decisions has taken what was an annoyance and turned it into an obstacle to writers making a living. Once a studio has the show materials, they must either make a series order or drop the project and let everyone move on with their lives and clear up their positions.
Article 2: A three-month clock on negotiations after a studio buys a script or hires a writer. If the deal fails to close in this time, it is voided.
Article 3: Producers will not solicit pitches on IP they do not own the rights to.
IV. Studios must support their productions.
Article 1: Studios will not order a season of scripts with no intention of producing them.
Article 2: Studios will not summarily dump their entire slates onto the depths of a platform with no marketing, PR or support of any kind.
Article 3: It is understood that sometimes shows or films don’t turn out as hoped, and sometimes a quick, quiet release is the best that can be done. But dumping a show should always be the exception, never the rule for any studio. Dumping everything and seeing what sticks? No.
Subscribed
V. Writers should participate in the success of their work.
Whereas the creators of shows are intrinsic to their very nature and success, they should always have a stake in that success and be rewarded if a series achieves success, particularly if it achieves enormous success. AND not be cashiered out like temp workers manning the front desk.
Insisting that success will be rewarded by “your next job” in this age is no longer a sure bet. None but the very top tier of breakout stories can depend on anyone having that kind of attention span in the absence of hard data. But even so that is no way to compensate people who create projects from thin air and often put years of their lives into ensuring their success.
Article 1: Whether that participation comes in the form of residuals, bonuses or what have you, the authors of shows will not be eternally separated from the results of their creations.
RELATED:
VI. Writers will receive feedback and data.
Whereas entertainment does not exist in a vacuum, but is a constant conversation between creative craftspeople and their audiences, the writers of shows, in order to develop and improve not only the specific creations but the creative project as a whole, must be apprised of the results of their work.
We say this knowing that in the case of many shows, where shows underperform, knowing the data will not necessarily be to our economic advantage (as is laid out here), but nonetheless, such a feedback loop is vital to the creative process, and performing in a vacuum is intolerable.
Article 1: “We are happy” or “Bela is happy” is not sufficient.
Article 2: Writers should be given clear definitions of what are the benchmarks for success and failure on projects on which they work.
Article 3: In the case where executives don’t know what the benchmarks for the success of a show are, that should merit a pretty serious conversation.
VII. Schedules and budgets must reflect the actual time and cost of creating a production at the Hollywood standard of professionalism.
Article 1: Writers should not have to personally “compensate for the lack of resources in budget and manpower,” says one writer. “It costs money, time, energy, and manpower to make a great show. We love our shows, and we give our creative and physical lives to them. Companies use that dedication against us and know we will step up when they offer up less money and time than we need to reasonably make a show. Fair budgets, schedules, staffs and resources need to be put in place when a show is ordered.”
Article 2: “Producer's pass” for either film or TV should be strictly limited to one pass, no more, and no more than a week of work. If it's more than a week, it must be compensated.
VIII. Studios will not require non-paid time commitments and exclusives from writers.
Whereas the studios have spent 30 years developing a whole regime of workarounds of basic WGA protections, finding ways to tie up writers without compensating them, we now need to sweep away this entire system and go back to fundamentals where people are paid for their time. You cannot hold people for free.
Article 1: Span of production schedules, low episode orders, and unreasonable lengths of time before pick-ups and renewals financially devastate writers. Exclusive contracts prevent writers from earning enough in a year to survive. All must be subject to significant minimum payment standards or abandoned.
IX. Executives execute; writers write.
Whereas the streaming era has produced structures that are more hierarchical and dictatorial, studios will take care to prevent their mid-level employees from writing by fiat and show respect for the basic skills of writers and all creatives.
Whereas this era is even more dependent about the skills of creative talent to distinguish a show, respect shall be apportioned accordingly to those who create entertainment.
Article 1: Executives pursuing frustrated dreams of being writers but with a higher and steadier paycheck shall be barred from presiding over shows.
Article 2: Before handing down notes from Mount Olympus, an executive shall be compelled to discuss the elements in question with the writers and listen to their perspective.
X. Posters and crew jackets are a basic human right of all personnel.
Every show and film show produce and distribute said paraphernalia to all employees. It is the least, the very least, one can do to demonstrate you have a modicum of pride in the things you produce.