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sleekymag (m)
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Currently there is a writer's strike going on in Hollywood, as declared by members of the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) and it has started affecting productions. They are asking for reviews in their royalties amongst other things. I'm not sure i know of any Nigerian movie where a writer gets a percentage of the gross or net profits, not to talk of royalties over sales of internet movie downloads, etc.
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Seun (m)
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I find the writer's strike very hilarious. I hear it's affected shows like '24' and 'Desperate Housewives' The battle is between the Writer's Guild Of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), a similar body representing the big studios. The writers want to be paid each time a movie based on their work is purchased online. Personally, I hate unions. I really do. A union dominated industry is not robust. Can't we all negotiate our contracts individually? Having said that, only a union can fight a powerful union like the one the producers have! For more information, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Writers_Guild_of_America_strike Cool! |
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sleekymag (m)
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@Seun
[quotePersonally, I hate unions. I really do. A union dominated industry is not robust. Can't we all negotiate our contracts individually? Having said that, only a union can fight a powerful union like the one the producers have!]
Seun, unions are present in vibrant industries, outside of which professionals in the particular field are not really useful. Take for instance PENGASSAN or NUPENG, let them go on strike, Nigeria's economy will halt! If their rights are not protected, who will fight for them. Havent you heard the saying that "United we stand, divided we fall"? The banking industry have unions, insurance industry have their unions, same goes with others like COREN, NSE, ICAN, NAICOM, CIIN, MAN, etc. In fact every sector of the economy have their unions and guilds. Unions allow for regulations of laws and harmonisation amongst practitioners etc.
In Nollywood, we have the DGN, AMP, SWGN and the NSE. We also have ITPAN and INTARRPAN. The SWGN (Screen Writer's Guild of Nigeria) is one that needs to be more active and encourage the influx of new members. I don't know if Ekenna Udo Igwe is still the president of the union (he has been the president for up to five years now, i think). It must place emphasis on training its members more. For the industry to grow, there must be conscious efforts aimed at changing the way things presently are, else, Nollywood would remain a joke.
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Seun (m)
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Ookay. As long as the local unions don't go on strike, I am happy with them.
So how can we take advantage of this strike? Is this a good time to hire an American writer on the cheap? Is this a good time to sell a script to an American producer (since their own writers are busy striking instead of working?)
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jideosik (m)
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On the contrary, there is nothing hilarious about the strike. It is serious business. Hollywood is run by unions and that is why there is some sanity here. If writers and other professionals are left to the whims of Corporate America or those media owners, Hollywood will decline fast. The unions set work conditions and pay structure. To work and succeed in the system, you must belong to a union. Can you imagine writers, directors and producers negotiating individually with studios without a mandatory set of rules? That will set Hollywood back 100 years. What you are advocating is what exists in Nigeria right now where everyone makes his own rule of engagement. That is a recipe for chaos. If you would like to take advantage of the strike, then you need an agent. Once you are represented by an agent, and your work is accepted, you are required to join the union, see? Of course you may opt not to join the union, in which case you are working out of the loop and if someone cheats you, there is no union to fight for you. In fact, if you are not union, no one in the mainstream will deal with you. Nice talk though.
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Seun (m)
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Ookay. Still, I wish to know how we can benefit from the opportunity since we are not involved with their unions.
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jideosik (m)
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Seun,
If I understand you correctly, it seems to me that you are really interested in breaking into the Hollywood market. It is tough, but doable. One way to achieve this goal is to decide who you want to write for and then zero in on that program. Watch the program to study their style and nuances, write a spec script and get an agent. The agent will make the initial contact with the production company. Remember that no legit company will deal directly with you without an agent. On the other hand, if what you mean by “benefit from the opportunity since we are not involved with their unions.” is your wish to sell your finished situation comedy to an American outfit, forget it, because they are not at all interested in foreign programs-talk less of African. My honest advice is that you produce your work and sell to a multi-national pay channel, and I understand there are many of them operating in Nigeria now. In addition, you can stream your sit-com on your website and rake in a lot of money—from those buying your DVD or downloading directly from your secured dedicated server. As a matter of fact, your program may get picked up by an American distributor, based on the sales volume from your website. Watch out though for crooked distributors—there are tons of them out there. Good luck.
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hafees (m)
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writing is an engagement that tasks all your faculties, and those who engage in it should be adequately compensated. with out a script people should realise that there would be no production, what would the artiste act out or the director direct!
Nigerian writers should learn from what is happening over there in hollywood and begin to fight for their rights instead of being treated like the lazy or the unimportant sector of the production/film/television industry.
it is a known fact that writers are owned huge amount of money and that production people don't want to pay you until the script has been done and you probably see it on air accidentally, right here we are not even asking for percentage on viewership, distribution etc, but just to get the money for your sweat.
in any case i would advise writers not be desperate and to have a sense of worth, it is how you present yourself they will treat you. Always remember that without you there can be no them
Wake up
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Seun (m)
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I’d like to write a simple open response from a unique perspective, as I am highly effected by this strike, and it is difficult to put emotions to the side.
I am in the group of nearly 250,000 non-WGA members that will be hurt financially and career-wise by this strike. I am an aspiring director/writer who works on a network television show doing digital promotions like webisodes. A lot of what I do is at the core of issues of the strike.
I see a divide between the youth, like myself, who come from an open source world. We embrace technology, creativity, the internet, and any tool we can afford to get our hands on to let our images be seen and heard.
We are the dreamers, the seekers, the ever-believers that truly fight to express ourselves. We make very little, if no money, from what we do - but we do it because we love it, and now we are crushed. We are the Romantics crushed by petty Realism.
And now, everything I have done is going to come to a crashing halt. Everything I have achieved in my young career is stalled. My new manager, excited by my digital work, can’t take my TV pitch out, my potential agent wont answer his phone. I’m toasted.
Here in the offices I see sad faces. People afraid of how they are going to pay their mortgages. People looking for retail jobs. People hoping that when this is over, they will be re-hired.
The ego, greed, selfishness, and privates-lengths of the few, on both sides, is driving the deprivation of the many. It’s not high school 12,000 members of the WGA, its real life for the 250,000 losing their jobs. And for the so many more who are trying to be creative.
You’re arguing for what? The difference between 4 cents on a DVD sale? For what, the 200 or so writers, like yourself that actually have high profile enough projects to sell enough DVDs to make it matter?
Cesar Chavez fought for freedom in the fields, for people being beaten making 4 cents a day - not 4 cents a DVD.
I’ve read the issues, I know the details, and it’s easy to get into semantics and argue specifics, but on a whole, NOTHING in these arguments warrants the historical weapon of a strike. A strike, a tool that is supposed to speak for inhumanities against the masses, not an elite few.
I’m not on the producers platform. They are greedy, money-grubbing, all the same. Of course they are. But nothing, NOTHING in this situation couldn’t be accomplished with professionalism and diplomacy.
So thank you, WGA members, for your selfishness. Thank you for making me aware that there is a monopoly on writing in this industry.
I hope, with all my heart, that the dreamers out there, the talented youth, will use now as a sign embrace the internet and all other mediums they can use to entertain, educate, and open imaginations world wide. And hopefully educate WGA members on the fact that there are a lot more people out there with hearts and souls and skills, who simply want to work.
Again, this is simply my opinion. Take it or leave it. I’m glad you can pursue all your fun projects while I go work at Starbucks. http://johnaugust.com/archives/2007/pencils-down#comment-111300 |
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Seun (m)
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What he is saying in a nutshell is that out of the 12 thousands union writers in Hollywood, only about 200 make enough money from residuals (the cause of the strike) to benefit substantially from the strike. The lucky few.
(Residuals depend on how many copies of your product are sold. Unless they've written a hit movie or hit TV show Like 24, they don't make much. So for those in the less glamorous segments of the industry, it is all nonsense.)
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