i’m out of it for a little while…

I stayed offline (mostly) over the weekend. So much so that I just found out this morning that a possible deal has been drawn up for the WGA, the strike may end Wednesday, and the contract may be approved within two weeks. All of the usual suspects have posts up and information about it. Being at work I don’t have time right now to break it all down for you here. In short though, it appears to be well received and, while not ideal, may be livable (and reportedly even covers online streaming of library titles (i.e. older shows and movies)).

I am of course not a WGA member and likely will never be as my recently crystalized intentions for my filmmaking lead me in a different direction (that’s a post for another day). As a filmmaker though, particularly one who writes most of his own scripts, I strongly support the guild, but I do hope this ends soon as to support them I have steered clear of all online video and really want to test out the iTunes rental service.

Oh, and I also just found out about Roy Scheider’s death too.

one deal down, two to go

Back before Christmas, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or NAMBLA, put forth half of an offer for the WGA, never delivered the second half, and then walked out of the talks when the writers refused to accept the rather insulting New Economic Proposal. Since then, the WGA has made deals with several production companies since AMPTP wouldn’t talk to them anymore and called the WGA’s deal points ludicrous (the same points to which those production companies agreed).

Now the Directors Guild has made a deal with AMPTP and, well, let’s look first at some of what AMPTP offered the writers as their final take-it-or-leave-it offer:

• No coverage for writers creating content exclusively for the internet (i.e. no residuals, rights to the work, or health benefits)
• No residuals for a show streamed online if it’s declared to be promotional (even if it’s the entire show)
• No residuals for a show streamed online for the first 42 days
• After the first 42 days, a writer will earn a flat fee of $250 for a year’s streaming of a one hour show (compared to ~$20,000 for a year’s reruns on TV)
• No residuals for streaming movies.
• Paid downloads pay out at the same 0.3% as DVDs (a number established 20 years ago when the studios said it needed to be low because they weren’t sure if this “home video” thing would take off)
• The payout for downloads is based on the producer’s gross (which, thanks to clever accounting, is usually nil) not the distributor’s gross

The offer that the DGA and AMPTP worked out however says:

• Directors creating content exclusively for the web will be covered (if the production cost is greater than $15,000/minute)
• Only the first 17 days count as promotional streaming (upped to 24 days for a first season show)
• No residuals for the first 17 days that a show is streamed online.
• After that window, directors receive a 3% residual for the first 6 months and an additional 3% for the next six. After that first year the percentage drops to 2%
• Downloads pay out 0.3% for the first 100,000 of a TV show or 50,000 for a movie. After that, residuals on TV shows increase to 0.7% and movies to 0.65%
• Payout for downloads will be based on distributor’s gross with access granted to review the accounting data
• Additionally, a sunset provision is included (though details aren’t yet available on what it provides beyond the usual end of a contract negotiation)

So all in all, the directors received just about everything the writers wanted (including yearly increases in wages and health benefits instead of the rollbacks the studios offered the writers) that the studios said was impossible and would bankrupt Hollywood. (My information is all taken from the deal summary and analysis available on United Hollywood.)

3 strike updates

First up a very important bit of information from Mark Evanier about residuals.

Secondly, following on the heels of the agreement that United Artists signed with the WGA, The Weinstein Company may have made a similar deal, showing that if these smaller production houses can afford the terms the WGA wants, why can’t the multi-billion dollar giants?

And finally, at the CES conference in Las Vegas this week, the studio executives in charge of digital distribution held a panel discussing the future of that arena. While they may still be telling the writers they’re not making and it’s only good for promotional use…. Well, here’s what they had to say:

While all agreed that digital media revenue won’t match income from traditional distribution in the foreseeable future, they were quick to react to an audience member’s question about when they would start making money from their businesses.

“There is revenue being created today,” said Paramount digital prexy Tom Lesinski. “It’s not a lot, but we’re not losing money.”

new demands from the writers

Quite busy as I’m back at work and the deluge has resumed, but this top 10 list (from one of the only two late night shows to be returning with a WGA deal) is worth a look. Also, given the above, if you must watch a late show, please pick Letterman and Ferguson, especially given this little factoid:

One sticking point that had to be resolved: the fact that CBS owns the digital rights to both shows. When asked how that issue was dealt with, WGA spokesman Neal Sacharow said Worldwide Pants assumed “full responsibility for all economic aspects of the agreement.” [Rob Burnett, chief executive of Worldwide Pants, Letterman's production company] said the company would pay its writers residuals for downloads and Internet streaming, even though that use is controlled by CBS.

the money pit

Sad news today about NBC. They’re about to lose a lot of money by making their TV shows available through SanDisk’s video download service (I knew, who knew they had one). As we all know from what NBC has been telling the WGA, they don’t make any money selling videos online so clearly they’re going to go bankrupt by doing this. Said SanDisk President Sanjay Mehrota,

SanDisk is committed to providing consumers a vast collection of legitimate content [for promotional purposes only, coughed studio executives], while protecting the rights of content owners [who will then screw content creators out of any money made] with technology solutions such as watermarking.

So let’s all have a moment of silence for those poor executives at NBC who will likely soon be shivering in the cold as we all know burning fifty dollar bills doesn’t generate as much heat as burning one hundred dollar bills. Thank goodness they’re standing up to the writers or they might even have to settle for heating their homes with forty-nine dollar bills.