Writers’ strike: Two weeks down and no end in sight

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As week two of the Writers Guild of America strike came to a close, spirits remained high among TV and film writers on picket lines in Hollywood and New York - even as they acknowledged that their fight for Internet payments would likely drag into 2008.

With the holiday season approaching and no new talks planned between writers and producers, the work stoppage is guaranteed to last at least two months, barring an unexpected development in talks between the WGA and the studios, which are represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). In the worst-case scenario, the strike wipes out the 2007-‘08 season, and is joined by the Screen Actors Guild, whose contract with the big studios expires in June.

If this sobering realization has dampened spirits out on the picket lines, the writers aren’t showing it.

“I think everyone feels we have to be doing this,” said Sarah Fain, one half of the writing team behind the ABC series “Women’s Murder Club.” “We’re optimistic we can get the AMPTP back to the table and hopefully get a fair deal.”

Her writing partner on the show, Elizabeth Craft, volunteered for one of the early-bird pickets that started this week in West Los Angeles. By arriving at 6 a.m., the writers hope to effectively cut off supplies to the studios, at least those delivered by Teamsters, who are honoring the pickets.

“We got a lot of Teamsters honking and wearing (supportive) T shirts,” said Craft, who also noted that “it’s a lot cooler at 6 a.m.”

Spokesmen for AMPTP were eerily silent this week, as they were most of last week. Patrick Goldstein, who writes the “Big Picture” column for the Los Angeles Times, reported Wednesday that he couldn’t get any studio head to speak on the record.

Meanwhile, every writer with a blog was getting the message out and underscoring the determination of the 12,000-member WGA.

“There’s a much greater sense of solidarity in this strike,” said Ken Levine, the veteran comedy writer whose credits include “M(ASTERISK)A(ASTERISK)S(ASTERISK)H” and “Cheers” and whose blog is one of the go-to sites for anyone wanting a little color from the front lines. Levine, a veteran of several writers’ strikes, compared the current situation to the one in 1988, when a fractious writers’ guild slogged through a painful five-month work stoppage that lacked a happy ending.

“In the `88 strike the film people were saying, `Why should we strike for TV residuals?’ and the TV people were saying, `Why should we be striking for features?’” said Levine. “This time it’s something that both sides agree is important.”

That’s because movie and television writers alike are convinced that the Internet is fast becoming the way people entertain themselves. The guild is asking for a residual of 2.5 percent on the profits of new media distribution. Currently they’re paid nothing on downloads, except those that are paid for, such as iTunes purchases. And those residuals are based on what WGA president Patric Verrone has referred to as “the hated DVD formula,” a fat 0.2 percent.

WGA leadership has been savvy with the news media, organizing Friday rallies where strikers picket en masse. The first week’s mass rally outside the Fox studios attracted 4,000 writers and seemingly as many news trucks. This week’s mass rally, held at NBC’s Burbank studios, was to feature a speech by Sen. John Edwards, who has sided with the WGA.

The Internet may not be a great way for the writers to get paid, but it’s proving to be a lifeline as they work the picket lines, offering 24/7 updates and their own network to broadcast their message to the public. Hardly a day passes when a fresh YouTube video concocted by a Writers Guild member doesn’t go viral. On Monday, it was a clip reel of recent interviews with the big studio chieftains bragging about how much Internet revenue they were making.

On Tuesday, the writers for “The Daily Show” taped a clever fake newscast from the streets of New York, complete with a desk, anchor, taped bits and “graphics” (e.g., a Sharpied sign that read, “Winter of Our Dissed Content”). They even mocked their own boss, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone, who claimed to be making nothing from the Internet while simultaneously suing YouTube for $1 billion worth of copyright violations.

The Internet seems to be helping keep the writers not only on message but in line. On Wednesday Variety broke the news that several daytime soap opera writers were planning to cross the picket lines. Within hours a rival publication, Broadcasting & Cable, posted an update on its Web site: The writers in question had changed their minds. Veteran scribes agreed such a rapid sequence of events could never have happened in 1988.

The AMPTP has argued (on its Web site) that paying writers now for Internet streamed TV shows and movies would “inhibit our ability to experiment, innovate, analyze and adapt to the transformative changes confronting us.”

One person who has actually seen how Internet streaming works and how much money it makes is David Rips. He heads up the media and entertainment practice for Deloitte Consulting, one of the big players in the infamous Hollywood accounting system that calculates TV and movie residuals. Rips said he has no fox in this hunt; whatever the payment scheme, his company will have work to do. But he says the writers are making a mistake going out on strike because digital distribution isn’t making any money and won’t for some time.

“People think it’s free to distribute on the Internet. It’s not. It costs a ton of money to set up,” Rips said. “It’s going to take many years for this to turn into something that consumers understand and accept.” He thinks the union should negotiate incremental raises in payments for the Internet so as not to hinder the growth of the system.

The problem with that argument, Ken Levine said, “is that they did that before, in `86, when the producers said, `Well, we don’t know about this VHS format. We need time to study it.’ But” - he laughed here - “they never came back and said, `OK, we studied it, this is going to be a gold mine.’ They never did it. So when they say they need time to study it, for the writers it’s, `Fool me once ...’”

Even writers with a lot to lose believe they stand to lose even more if they buckle under on Internet payments this time. Liz Craft and Sarah Fain just got promoted to showrunners with “Women’s Murder Club,” which began airing this fall on ABC. The show’s 10th episode, which they wrote together, was being produced inside the gates of Twentieth Television in West L.A. while they walked the lines outside. When that episode is done, production will shut down altogether, putting their crew out of work as well.

“So many people, even the flower shop owners, all sorts of people get hurt by the strike,” said Craft. “But this issue is so important and we’re at such a ...”

“Watershed moment,” Fain said, finishing her partner’s sentence.

One estimate has pegged the losses to the TV studios from the strike at $500 million per week. More troubling is the permanent damage that a strike could have on the business, as viewers grow weary of reruns and seek other entertainment options.

“This shouldn’t be a divisive issue,” said Fain. “We’re not asking for anything crazy. I know ABC.com had 100 million Internet downloads last year. If they continue to make money off our work, we should continue to make money.”

Craft, who’s married to a striking writer, added, “Many writers are middle class and the residuals they get are very important. Months can pass between jobs, and these residuals pay for their kids’ college tuition, mortgage payments, medical bills ... they keep them afloat in the tough times.”

By most indications, the tough times in Hollywood have just begun.