Writers return to work tomorrow. Cast and Crew should be right behind them.
Fingers crossed that SAG starts talks really soon. (Like, tomorrow would be good).
I'll post my wrap up of the Strike this weekend. In the meantime, I welcome everyone's comments -- good, bad, otherwise.
Best of luck to everyone. Let's hope the rest of the year is busy for all.
27 comments:
Oh yeah!!! GREAT NEWS!!!
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
Whew.
Just great news! Kinda a shocking one sided approval I thought.
Thanks BTL guy for this place for us to vent.
I really would like to see United Hollywood now used to encourage an actual United Hollywood down the road. I think many lessons were learned by all.
This indeed terrific news.
We just need to see how many of the TV shows actually come back up right now, and how many don't return until the summer. TV Guide has a pretty good yardstick up on this right now.
I'm waiting to hear about my show at this point. I had understood we were coming back as soon as possible, but now I am hearing that the network will let us know. I have friends who work on HEROES and on PUSHING DAISIES. For them, the collateral damage of this strike will stretch at least to June. And now I am reading that this is applying to several other TV series, possibly including the one I work on.
The SAG issue is also still there and remains a large unknown. What is known is that they're unprepared for negotiations or much of anything else. On the other hand, Nikki Finke has ALREADY BEGUN her campaign on that front! This woman may actually be shameless! The wreckage is still continuing to pile up from the just-ended disaster, and she's already rubbing her hands at the prospect of another one...
Still waiting to find out if our show will come back. If so, when? Now? June? August? Will SAG strike? So much damage and still so many unanswered questions. My boss, his boss and his boss left for other productions. What will that mean for me? I'm thrilled that the strike is over. Too bad the waiting and the worrying isn't.
Actually I think the WGA board was wise to let the members decide to vote to call off the strike. If they would have decided it on Sunday without a vote, everyone would be unsure until the ratification vote in a few weeks. 92.5% yes sends a strong note of confidence to resume production. Now all we need is a sign from SAG that they will begin to negotiate soon or as I say:
PLAN to negotiate SOON,
or PLOT to strike in JUNE!
Cheers - TranspoBill
Bill,
Excellent point re the vote. That, plus the showrunners returning to work on Monday instead of today, really adds up to the near-equivalent of the board lifting the strike on Sunday.
I might've jumped the gun on that piece of criticism. Scary -- it's gotten to the point that whatever they do, I assume it's a bad move.
Most important, of course, is that the Strike is actually over now.
C'mon SAG -- get your talks rolling! :)
I have now received official word from the people on my show. No more episodes for this season. We had filmed less than the first 13 of the full order of 22. The remaining eps of the first season are considered a wash.
Now I understand we will have an order of 13 for next season, but production will not begin on those until at least May or June. I tend to doubt that and place the start of production in July, until someone shows me a reason why anyone would begin their season over 2 months early. (And a possible SAG strike doesn't really do it for me there, for the reason that SAG hasn't shown any preparation either way.)
The part that's hard here is that I have just had to call my staff and tell them to take whatever work they can get and that if we're lucky, we'll work together again. I had thought that when the strike ended we could go back to work and pick up where we left off. This was clearly an error. The collateral damage from this strike will likely continue for months, I'm sorry to say.
Kevin said:
"The collateral damage from this strike will likely continue for months, I'm sorry to say."
Perhaps years, brother.
At least there's a 'smart' contingent over at SAG, without the political agenda that the WGA leadership had, floating the idea that only 'working' members get to vote on issues like strikes etc.
Best to all out there, hopefully the work calls will come soon, and be plentiful.
Well, looks like our show isn't coming back this season. Thanks writers!!! Even though the strike is over, we're still out of work, possibly for months. I guess some of you are collecting your paychecks again now. Yeah, thanks alot!
Hey D
Don't shut this site down just yet. The actors are at war with each other. Rosenberg wants to take them out on strike.
He looks like a crazy man on mission and Bateman the Betty Grable of the last war is urging him on.
What a mess
Can anyone explain to me how the WGA deal is anything other than the DGA deal? It sure seems to me that the time, money and manpower squandered over the last 3+ months was for absolutely no gain.
I hate Justine Bateman. Last night I watched "The Kingdom" and I couldn't even stand to look at Jason, just because it made me think of his sister. Just because her career has been a failure she has to make the rest of us suffer.
She's kind of a wingnut, isn't she? Heh.
Well, being in post and having the damage of shows put off until summer, I just found out I have to endure another 12 WEEKS of contract suspension before I get my work back. Thanks WGA!!!!!!
You're not the only one. I'm trying to find a pilot or anything else I can land on. I've been told my show could start up in mid-April (which would already be at least another 8 weeks) but I don't trust the information. I still believe that it will be June at the earliest before we could be filming again. Given the permanent loss of 13 episodes of our season, this strike wound up costing me about 5 1/2 months of steady employment. I don't begrudge the WGA a need for a fair contract, but I really wish that the situation hadn't gone down like this. By the time this is done, I will have lost more than I can make up in the next two years.
Yep, I'm in the same boat too, without a show to drive on right now - and the boat is up to the gunwales in deep water with all of us on it!
I do hear lots of rumors of a crazy Feature period about to start so let's all hope for that. Meanwhile grab a bucket and bail!
TranspoBill
A poster at Nikki Finke's gossip blog just referred to the DGA as "a bunch of picket crossers" while making nasty comments about the AMPTP's statement about the DGA ratification of the deal.
I just posted a response to him that he's simply adding insult to injury now, and that his post is inaccurate. The DGA crew on my show refused to cross any picket line, even when we were faced with one on location at our base camp. And the result of this is we're looking at 5 1/2 months plus of unemployment that could have been avoided. I just wish the loudmouths and the hardliners would stop it already. Have they not seen enough blood yet?
"A poster at Nikki Finke's gossip blog just referred to the DGA as "a bunch of picket crossers" while making nasty comments about the AMPTP's statement about the DGA ratification of the deal."
I really think that these little nasty trouble-making shit-slingers don't even work in this business. I always picture some spoiled pimply faced brat with greasy hair and bad breath behind the keyboard. Maybe some random idiot or failed writer who blames everyone else for his lack of talent or success.
The one in particular that I've been dealing with is "Jake Hollywood", who I had thought was a WGA member. He had also said he was a DGA member in one of his posts. With a simple google check that took two minutes, I pulled up a quote of his on another blog (Ken Levine's) where he said was "a non WGA writer walking the line". In other words, he may not be a member of either the WGA or the DGA. It's amazing to me how people can portray themselves in the anonymity of the internet.
And now this:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080222/media_nm/writers_dc;_ylt=AsmFI2imjh8XpkoObg3tMt6iMhkF
No one wants to be the first to turn in a script that they worked on during the strike - Thanks again writers (cowards)!
TranspBill 399
lets try that agin (close up the spaces when pasting).
http: //news.yahoo. com/s/nm/20080222 /media_nm /writers_ dc; _ylt=AsmFI2imjh8Xp koObg3tMt6iMhkF
Something very odd happened. I confronted that guy "Jake" with the contradictions between his posts. He then tried to deny he was the the person who had posted at Levine's site. (Basically saying that there are somehow 2 Jake Hollywoods) When I then asked him about the blog which is clearly his, which is linked to his comments - including the one he denied making, he didn't answer. But he did delete his blog. As was said in the great movie THE INSIDER, "I'm getting two things - pissed off and curious."
Captain Obvious wasn't a guild writer either. Or so he said in one of his posts to me on UH.
I wish we didn't have to watch writer's strike jokes on every show. They aren't funny, Tina Fey. We've each lost tens of thousands of dollars over it and many people are still our of work! Hardy, Har, Har!
It's truly astonishing to me how many of these guys are out there. I'm not given to name-calling but the word "poser" does come to mind. I have spent my career working with a real job in this business - even in the slow years I always made my medical and covered my basiscs - and I've done so with the simple respect for the people I work with. The writers, the cast, the drivers, the camera guys, everyone.
And then these anonymous guys come in during a strike, make nasty comments and moral judgments and other attacks, and then turn out to not even be in the positions they pretend to have. I honestly wonder if there's some kind of psychological problem where people want to be part of a group, so they simply pretend to be a member. Is that the reason why some of these guys wanted the strike to go on and on?
Regardless, if I catch this guy attacking anyone else, or pretending to have any guild authority, I'll simply remind him and the other readers of his real status.
"I honestly wonder if there's some kind of psychological problem where people want to be part of a group, so they simply pretend to be a member. Is that the reason why some of these guys wanted the strike to go on and on?"
I think there is some of that.
I also think that there are a great many ignorant people who immediately assumed that it was a simple case of David vs. Goliath, with the writers being the little guy. So they flew to their defense, assuming in their ignorance that anyone opposed in any way to the action taken was on the side of the producers. They just oversimplified the matter and it was too late to backtrack.
Then you have another category...Your plain old regular asshole bully.
And of course you also have your snotty nosed adolescents, some of which are the evil spawn of the worlds most selfish writers.
The aftermath of this strike, I fear, will prove more horrible than the costs accumulated and calculated during the strike. This industry is currently sick and was kicked hard by the WGA. I have made a very good stable living consistently for more than the last 11 years. Now I look forward, and have my first real doubts about my viability going forward. I am depressed and scared. I hope this worry goes away when my schedule book fills up in May. It is hard going from taking in 2K - 3K a week to looking forward (yes from NOW) to sometimes nothing, sometimes 500, and wondering if the money spent to produce tv drama will just disappear. And, don't get me started on our useless IATSE local - when I reached out with simple questions all I got was a glib "we're not on strike, what help do you want?" They couldn't even direct me to the Actor's Fund or any other guilds' industry help funds that I had to find myself. I am proud of my skills. I have worked very hard to be good at what I do. It feels very helpless to be this kind of casualty while they joke about themselves and their strike.
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