WGA Strike: In The Beginning There Was The Word
Writers create characters, conflict, resolution, syntax and whether we consciously intend to or not, morality. Some producers pay writers to feed a known appetite. Other producers are inspired to deliver a tale told as told by a writer they admire, and they will pay.
Being paid before you write implies that someone wants what you have to say before you’ve said it or it implies that producers have something they want said they want a certain writer to write it. In either case producers will pay a writer and at the moment a price is agreed upon a writer almost always relinquishes the historic right not to have a word of his or her creation changed.
Even with that difficult equation the words written are still the writer’s invention and like all inventions when it is used, consumed, appropriated - the writer needs to participate in its ongoing monetary value.
The paradigm of “we pay, you write, we own” is not really the best for the culture. Writers want to move things forward. We are scouts - champions of evolution because each time we create a character that helps to forge understanding, we move us all a little further from the mouth of the cave.
Clearly there are some producers who want to feed nothing but the impulses stuck inside the cave. It’s an easier mark and makes return on investment more likely and there are writers who will join them. And there are certainly producers who want everything a writer wants for the world but can’t put it into words or structure.
However it comes together and whatever the motivations, the words make all things possible. Whoever pulls “local habitation and a name out of airy nothingness” deserves something for that each and every time the words and narrative and characters penetrate the consciousness of a viewer. Yes - when a contract is signed the creation becomes a product but it is still a creation which deserves respect and steady compensation.
Producer and writer are partners in the entity they have called into existence. It’s important to be clear that writer and producer may be employer and employee but they are also partners - in success and failure - in reputation - and in profit.
To be a writer for hire seems contradictory. A writer is already hired and self-employed because a writer needs to write. Still - even with the arrangement of a producer giving money to a writer to steer his talents toward a story that a producer wants to sell - still - the writer exists, or even after committee ‘improvements’ something of the writer remains in the essential DNA of the material and the writer must participate in the continuing yield no matter what new channels of delivery emerge. The new ways of consuming what we create does not alter the fact it is being consumed.
In the beginning there is the word and without the words nothing will happen. The word on the page is the original virtual reality. The negotiation the Writer’s Guild is wanting to have is about residuals and respect.
In new media, conglomerates see a window that is also a black hole where profits can be gained and hidden. With a shrug and wink writers are told, “Sorry. We don’t know what all this new media will mean.” Whoever runs a multibillion dollar entity and does not know what the new media might mean should not be running a multibillion dollar entity.
Writers are on strike because producers say we paid, you wrote it, we own it. But in the beginning was the word - and no amount of money can make a producer an author - and as long as the author’s words reach the ears and eyes of the people and no matter how they reach the ears and eyes of the public, respect and residuals must be paid.
Bill C. Davis is a playwright and a lifetime member of Writer’s Guild East. www.billcdavis.com
I remember watching Al Pacino at the Academy Awards years ago make the statement that without the writers, we are nothing. Considering how few people can do that job (creative scriptwriting) well and what they are paid, writers may be the most underpaid people in show business. Check out this week’s Counterspin segment on www.fair.org for more information.
Some producers pay writers to feed a known appetite. Other producers are inspired to deliver a tale told as told by a writer they admire, and they will pay.
**most Hollywood writing is of the former category. You might find the most moral commentary on the late night talk shows in the form of a joke.
Writers are lucky to get any residuals–some art fields which are “work for hire” are very cut and dry. You get paid a fee for your service and that’s it.
It is perverse that white collar workers are the ones to set up picket lines while blue collar workers cant, or have their jobs in Asia.
Like any industry there are low and high paid employees. The WGA is looked at as any other American labor union. It is getting in the way of Globalization. And therefore it has to be weakened and divided. Workers, in Globalization, are just a resource, like plastic, oil or timber. The cheapest source will be found. American labor has to take a hit, to make America competitive. At least in this Globalized world we are in today.
Hao binh
since1492—you nailed it! Art and its creators in a consumer culture are being watered down to a commdity that will sell. Has it not always been so? Nonetheless, there will always be a core of greatness in spite of it, and even those accustomed to the watery gruel, will know it and appreciate it once they witness it. It’s like trying to keep the Light from being extinguished. It sometimes feels futile and often too much work, but thank All That Is that some will just keep keepin on as if their very soul’s survival depends on it.
“whose likeness is on the coin?”
As an Artist, I hear you. As a Man of the World, I say: Go Write for yourself and take your chances - as I always have - in the open market. These Crooks are ripping you off. STOP writing for them. Simple, ain’t it.
Now folks lets hear them out . If i can find a way to get a “Residual” every time someone opens the drawer on one of my hand made cabinets(often built from a sort of partnership with a client)I’d be willing to explore that.
In the mean time I guess I’ll just have to suffer the respect and compensation a well made peice earns me in the real world.
I gotta admit my best work is when I have no intention of selling it anyway.
I’m sure the writers still have that.
Writers ask yourself : Have I ever chisled another artist out of a few bucks on his or her creation.
Now get back to work so we can download some Daily Show and Cobert this week.
In case you haven’t looked around the planet latly ,there are some people that are more incline to have our simpathitic ear just now.
If I could build a cabinet about them I would.