Now in its seventh week, the rhetoric in the ongoing film and television writers strike is heating up faster than a Yule log in a stone hearth. From the Writers Guild of America come the charges of irresponsibility and intransigence on the part of the major studios: that they are extending the strike by walking away from the bargaining table, and of spreading rumors and misinformation. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers counters the Guild engages in an unreasonable, inconsistent and impractical strategy and tosses back at lead Guild negotiator David Young his boasting of “the havoc” caused by the strike. The Guild files a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board that the Encino-based Alliance was not negotiating in good faith and the Alliance responds the charge is baseless and the Guild’s strategy achieves nothing for the writers. The Alliance jokingly nominates the Guild for “worst supporting union,” which leads the Guild to facetiously call the Alliance’s Nick Counter “the best negotiator ever.” All this tit-for-tat makes one wish for a return to the short-lived media blackout the two sides adhered to when still talking earlier in the month. All the while, the pickets continued outside the major studios. Every morning and early afternoon, the writers and their union and non-union supporters march outside the gates of The Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros. Studios and NBC in Burbank; the CBS Studio Center in Studio City; and Universal Studios. (Note: The pickets are on hiatus until Jan. 7. What’s the point of picketing if no executives are there to see it?) And all the while the writers stay out of work and others making their living from the entertainment industry have lost or face losing their jobs as the television and film production work dries up. Those below-the-line workers staged a rally of their own Dec. 9 in Hollywood urging a settlement. “We’re at the point where on the other side of Christmas people will be financially strapped,” said Brian Hartt, the strike captain outside of Warner Bros. Studio Gate 2. The financial situation differs from member to member of the Guild, added Patti Carr, a strike captain at the Radford Gate of the CBS Studio Center complex. The membership isn’t so nervous about their financial straits because with no offer on the table there is no option of working versus not working, Carr said. “There really is nothing to choose between,” said Carr, whose television writing credits include “Til Death” and “Boy Meets World.” The issue at the heart of the stoppage is residuals, the payment for continued use of television shows and movies. So it’s not like the writers are asking for something they are not already receiving. What is not in agreement is the amount paid for online and mobile distribution of their work. Having been burned in a previous contract over the amount received from DVD sales, the Guild wants to make sure to get its share of revenues from new media as more viewers turn to the computer or mobile devices to watch their favorite series or film. In that attempt to get fair compensation from the studios, the writers opened up a rift with the rest of the entertainment industry. The Guild calls its membership middle class earning middle class wages, and that does describe the average scriptwriter. Hartt described the work stoppage as a labor strike and not an “elite” Hollywood strike. The Guild membership mirrors society as a whole, with an upper class bringing in the large paychecks but with a larger percentage bringing in less and some writers holding down second jobs, said Hartt, who lives in Burbank and has written for “Mad TV” and “Kids in the Hall.” Not everyone sees it that way, especially when the strike jeopardizes their livelihood. “It’s not a blue collar fight,” said Jim Elyea, of History For Hire, a North Hollywood prop house. “It’s the white collar putting blue collar people out of work.” Elyea survived the 22-week writers strike in 1988 and was prepared this time around by cutting expenses, paying down debt, and eliminating over-time for his dozen full-time employees. The six part-timers have already been let go. To raise additional capital, Elyea and at least other eight other suppliers to film and television productions scheduled a sale Dec. 22 of their props, flowers, plants, clothing, and other items. Everything is priced to sell. Elyea hopes the sale in the parking lot of History for Hire will also raise awareness with the public of the extent of the strike. “This is not a corporation,” Elyea said of the prop house he opened after working as a television news graphic artist. “This is regular people who decided to do this rather than open a sandwich shop.” The thing is that the writers are regular people too, with more in common with Elyea and other vendors than they do in the executives running the studios they are disputing with. A Saturday morning rummage sale means survival for History for Hire and the other suppliers. A reasonable share of new media revenues is connected with survival of the Guild itself. “There will be no wavering in that,” Hartt said. Pixar Documentary Computer animation is common place in movie theaters these days with “Shrek,” “Toy Story,” and “Finding Nemo” earning record box office receipts. No studio is more associated with this tech-heavy type of storytelling than Pixar Animation, the upstart studio that opened the door for DreamWorks Animation, Aardman Animation and Animal Logic (“Happy Feet”) to make similar films. The history of Pixar and the three men who made it possible, John Lasseter, Ed Catmull and Steven Jobs, are the subject of a new documentary by Leslie Iwerks that made its Los Angeles premier Dec. 11 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. Iwerks worked for three years on film, taking a two year break at the time talks took place that led to the acquisition of Pixar by the Disney Co. in January 2006. Catmull and Lasseter gave Iwerks “carte blanche” to scour the Pixar archives for footage. “Out of all that research it became the human interest story; the underdog story,” Iwerks said. Discussions are taking place with Disney to release the film on DVD, Iwerks said. Staff Reporter Mark Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or by e-mail at [email protected]. Go Illini!
