‘Lost’ set picketed by writers
They want to be paid when the popular TV show is downloaded
By Katherine Nicholsknichols@starbulletin.com
Members of the Writers Guild of America picketed yesterday in front of the Hawaii Film Studio, which houses the interior set for "Lost," in a display of solidarity with striking writers on the mainland.
Some of the approximately 20 active WGA members residing on Oahu held signs reading "ABC.com = LO$T WGA residuals." Formal negotiations between writers and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are scheduled to resume Monday.
"'Lost' is one of the most downloaded shows on television," said screenwriter Judd Klinger, who recently moved to Hawaii from Los Angeles. "It's a prototype for using new media, and it completely gets around paying writers, and that's exactly what the strike is about.
"Though "Lost" producers and actors filming at the Diamond Head location avoided the small, well-behaved group, visibility has not been a problem on the mainland, where presidential candidate John Edwards spoke to picketers and media in Burbank, Calif., about preventing "big corporate conglomerates from taking over.
"One of the key issues revolves around residuals. Writers are supposed to be paid every time their show airs. But circumventing traditional media outlets -- downloading to an iPod, for instance -- has obliterated a major source of income.
"Now with this alternate media, writers are paid nothing," said Neal Israel, a veteran member of the WGA since 1979, with a long list of hit movies and television favorites such as "Lizzy McGuire," "Even Stevens" and "The Wonder Years" to his credit.
Though studios have minimized the potential of online profits, "we're just asking for a percentage, if there's a profit -- with some fair determination of when a movie is actually in profit," explained Klinger, who noted that studios claimed during 1988 negotiations that people would never purchase a machine to watch videos at home.
Serial shows like "Lost," which people prefer to view in chronological order, are especially popular on DVD and the Internet. Currently, writers earn about 4 cents per DVD sold, against an alleged profit of $25 for the studio. They would like that to rise to 8 cents.
But "Lost" appears to be breaking ground with its new miniepisodes currently available on ABC.com. Led by executive producer Carlton Cuse (also a writer and key negotiator for the WGA), the writers of "Lost: Missing Pieces" earned a specific amount of money for each two- to three-minute short, and will make about 2 percent on residual sales, according to the New York Times. For writers willing to compromise, it certainly looks like progress.
"We are essentially a middle-class union," said Israel. "The average writer makes $60,000 a year. It's very difficult for us to make a living. We just want a fair contract."
Source: tv guide
Showing posts with label Lost. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lost. Show all posts
21 November 2007
Striking Writers Picket 'Lost' Studio Union Members Look For Share To Programs On Internet
Striking Writers Picket 'Lost' StudioUnion Members
Look For Share To Programs On Internet
POSTED: 1:37 pm HST November 19, 2007
HONOLULU -- Striking television and motion picture writers have begun picketing the Diamond Head studio where Hawaii's most popular TV series is in production.
Striking members of the Writer's Guild of America walk back and forth in front of the state's film studio at Diamond Head. Inside, production continued on the ABC show "Lost," using scripts written before the walkout began.
The big issue for the writers is getting a share for programs, including network shows, that are shown on the Internet.
"'Lost' and other shows are seen on the Internet. They're downloaded. They're put onto iPods and the writers get exactly nothing for it," said Neal Israel, of the Writer's Guild of America.
Israel and the union said the majority of TV writers make about $60,000 a year if there is a show that will hire them.
"Most of us are out of work a lot, and so, we're really -- this is a strike for a middle-class lifestyle, not a wealthy one," Israel said.
There are 20 to 25 writer's guild members here in Hawaii, but none of them actually write for "Lost," according to Israel. He said the "Lost" writers, who are also on strike, are in Los Angeles.
Local Writers Guild members are picketing the studio. They are also shooting their own videos on the picket lines to get their story out.
"So we have used the Internet as a tool to inform the public about what the strike is all about because people go to the Internet now," he said.
ABC said "Lost" will return for a new season in February.
How long will that season last if the strike keeps going? According to sources, "Lost" may have scripts for just three more shows for the upcoming season.
Source: www.variety.com
Webisodes of ‘Lost’: Model Deal for Writers?
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 19 — On the picket lines, striking television and film writers adamantly claim that studios are refusing to pay for the use of writers’ scripts on the Internet.
But ABC Studios is doing just that. Over the next three months fans of the hit show “Lost” can go to ABC.com to view weekly episodes of “Lost: Missing Pieces,” a series of new two- to three-minute shorts that reveal background information and previously undisclosed details about the stranded inhabitants of the show’s mysterious island.
The “Missing Pieces” episodes were produced under an agreement with the writers’ union that provides for much of what the writers say the studios have been refusing to offer.
Payment for the use of material on the Internet will be a central issue keeping the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers apart when they head back to the bargaining table on Monday.
But as the “Lost” example shows, the two sides have found common ground before, and both have shown interest in giving some ground on the issue.
The “Missing Pieces” episodes were written by Carlton Cuse, an executive producer of the series and one of its lead writers. They feature the show’s regular actors and characters, including Matthew Fox, who plays Dr. Jack Shephard. Mr. Fox appears in the first installment, released last week. The writers, actors and others involved in the production were paid specifically for their work on the Web episodes and will earn residual income, just as they do for the broadcast show.
In an interview Mr. Cuse said that while it took five months to reach an agreement, he believes the “Missing Pieces” deal could serve as a template for resolving at least some of the dispute over payment for online use of material.
“I think it is a pretty good model,” he said last week. “What it shows is that there is basically room for a partnership between writers and the studios in a new medium. It’s where I wish we were headed instead of being stuck in this standoff.”
People close to the studios say they also see some promise in the “Lost” deal, although they note that it was negotiated with a single producers’ alliance member, ABC Studios, rather than with all of the members of the group. The deal also included a clause specifically stating that it did not set a precedent for any future deals and could not be cited as such in future negotiations.
Nevertheless, the television and film studios offered terms similar to the “Lost” deal in the negotiations that took place before writers began their strike on Nov. 5, said Barbara Brogliatti, a spokeswoman for the alliance.
Charles B. Slocum, assistant executive director of the Writers Guild of America West, said in an interview on Friday that he believed “in general terms” that the “Lost” deal created “the pattern that we are looking for in our negotiations,” although he noted that the guild was seeking better financial terms.
“Lost: Missing Pieces” paid the writers of each short episode approximately $800. For that the studio received the right to run the episodes on Verizon cellphones for 13 weeks. After that period, repeats of the episodes or their transmissions on other media — like the Internet — would generate residuals for the writers of 1.2 percent to 2 percent of the fee the studio received to license the material.
Therefore, the episodes now running on ABC.com, each preceded by an advertisement, are generating for Mr. Cuse a 2 percent residual. In its contract negotiations, the Writers Guild is seeking 2.5 percent for similar work in the future.
The “Lost” deal represents, for the writers, a significant improvement over similar situations elsewhere. On NBC.com, for example, fans of “The Office” can find episodes of “The Accountants,” a series of shorts made for the Internet, scripted by writers of “The Office” and featuring regular actors from the show. A short commercial usually accompanies episodes.
But writers of the “The Accountants” received no specific payment for their work and receive no residuals from their continued play. Writers from “The Office,” including Greg Daniels, an executive producer, have objected to that and refused to work on further shorts without a separate agreement.
There is some dispute over exactly what writers want in such agreements, however. Representatives of the studios, who agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity, said writers were asking to be paid a percentage of the retail price of movies and television episodes downloaded over services like iTunes, and a percentage of the advertising revenues generated when movies or television shows or mini-episodes — like those from “The Office” and “Lost” — are streamed online.
To the studios that is like the manufacturer of a product’s being asked to pay its workers based on the retail price of what it makes, something the manufacturer has no control over.
Mr. Slocum disputes that, however, saying that the guild is only seeking to be paid a portion of the wholesale price of downloaded content, and a portion of the licensing fee that the studios receive for streamed content. In other words, Mr. Slocum says that the writers are seeking what the studios have said, in principal, that they are willing to pay.
The two sides don’t agree on when payments should begin. The studios want a six-week window in which they can replay full episodes of a television series without paying extra. The time is necessary, they say, to “promote” the series, allowing viewers who missed a show’s regular broadcast to catch up. The writers have said they would accept a much shorter window, of about three days.
Another sticking point remains in how licensing fees are measured. Because ABC Studios, which produces “Lost,” is owned by the same company that owns the ABC television network, which operates ABC.com, the Writers Guild questions whether the licensing fee being paid from one related party to another is being negotiated fairly.
The guild argues that the best indicator of what is a fair licensing fee is how much advertising revenue the Web site can earn selling ads for the Internet content. The studios object to advertising revenue being brought into the equation at all.
With the two parties seeming to agree in principle that there can be a way for studios to pay writers when their scripts are used for Internet content, the studios and the writers would seem to have already established some sort of foundation for a settlement.
Perhaps that recognition helped push the two sides to agree to return to the bargaining table in a week. As Mr. Cuse said of “The Missing Pieces” episodes, “It’s ironic that these are coming out and flourishing when this is the crux of the issue in our strike.”
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/20/arts/television/20digi.html?_r=4&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
But ABC Studios is doing just that. Over the next three months fans of the hit show “Lost” can go to ABC.com to view weekly episodes of “Lost: Missing Pieces,” a series of new two- to three-minute shorts that reveal background information and previously undisclosed details about the stranded inhabitants of the show’s mysterious island.
The “Missing Pieces” episodes were produced under an agreement with the writers’ union that provides for much of what the writers say the studios have been refusing to offer.
Payment for the use of material on the Internet will be a central issue keeping the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers apart when they head back to the bargaining table on Monday.
But as the “Lost” example shows, the two sides have found common ground before, and both have shown interest in giving some ground on the issue.
The “Missing Pieces” episodes were written by Carlton Cuse, an executive producer of the series and one of its lead writers. They feature the show’s regular actors and characters, including Matthew Fox, who plays Dr. Jack Shephard. Mr. Fox appears in the first installment, released last week. The writers, actors and others involved in the production were paid specifically for their work on the Web episodes and will earn residual income, just as they do for the broadcast show.
In an interview Mr. Cuse said that while it took five months to reach an agreement, he believes the “Missing Pieces” deal could serve as a template for resolving at least some of the dispute over payment for online use of material.
“I think it is a pretty good model,” he said last week. “What it shows is that there is basically room for a partnership between writers and the studios in a new medium. It’s where I wish we were headed instead of being stuck in this standoff.”
People close to the studios say they also see some promise in the “Lost” deal, although they note that it was negotiated with a single producers’ alliance member, ABC Studios, rather than with all of the members of the group. The deal also included a clause specifically stating that it did not set a precedent for any future deals and could not be cited as such in future negotiations.
Nevertheless, the television and film studios offered terms similar to the “Lost” deal in the negotiations that took place before writers began their strike on Nov. 5, said Barbara Brogliatti, a spokeswoman for the alliance.
Charles B. Slocum, assistant executive director of the Writers Guild of America West, said in an interview on Friday that he believed “in general terms” that the “Lost” deal created “the pattern that we are looking for in our negotiations,” although he noted that the guild was seeking better financial terms.
“Lost: Missing Pieces” paid the writers of each short episode approximately $800. For that the studio received the right to run the episodes on Verizon cellphones for 13 weeks. After that period, repeats of the episodes or their transmissions on other media — like the Internet — would generate residuals for the writers of 1.2 percent to 2 percent of the fee the studio received to license the material.
Therefore, the episodes now running on ABC.com, each preceded by an advertisement, are generating for Mr. Cuse a 2 percent residual. In its contract negotiations, the Writers Guild is seeking 2.5 percent for similar work in the future.
The “Lost” deal represents, for the writers, a significant improvement over similar situations elsewhere. On NBC.com, for example, fans of “The Office” can find episodes of “The Accountants,” a series of shorts made for the Internet, scripted by writers of “The Office” and featuring regular actors from the show. A short commercial usually accompanies episodes.
But writers of the “The Accountants” received no specific payment for their work and receive no residuals from their continued play. Writers from “The Office,” including Greg Daniels, an executive producer, have objected to that and refused to work on further shorts without a separate agreement.
There is some dispute over exactly what writers want in such agreements, however. Representatives of the studios, who agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity, said writers were asking to be paid a percentage of the retail price of movies and television episodes downloaded over services like iTunes, and a percentage of the advertising revenues generated when movies or television shows or mini-episodes — like those from “The Office” and “Lost” — are streamed online.
To the studios that is like the manufacturer of a product’s being asked to pay its workers based on the retail price of what it makes, something the manufacturer has no control over.
Mr. Slocum disputes that, however, saying that the guild is only seeking to be paid a portion of the wholesale price of downloaded content, and a portion of the licensing fee that the studios receive for streamed content. In other words, Mr. Slocum says that the writers are seeking what the studios have said, in principal, that they are willing to pay.
The two sides don’t agree on when payments should begin. The studios want a six-week window in which they can replay full episodes of a television series without paying extra. The time is necessary, they say, to “promote” the series, allowing viewers who missed a show’s regular broadcast to catch up. The writers have said they would accept a much shorter window, of about three days.
Another sticking point remains in how licensing fees are measured. Because ABC Studios, which produces “Lost,” is owned by the same company that owns the ABC television network, which operates ABC.com, the Writers Guild questions whether the licensing fee being paid from one related party to another is being negotiated fairly.
The guild argues that the best indicator of what is a fair licensing fee is how much advertising revenue the Web site can earn selling ads for the Internet content. The studios object to advertising revenue being brought into the equation at all.
With the two parties seeming to agree in principle that there can be a way for studios to pay writers when their scripts are used for Internet content, the studios and the writers would seem to have already established some sort of foundation for a settlement.
Perhaps that recognition helped push the two sides to agree to return to the bargaining table in a week. As Mr. Cuse said of “The Missing Pieces” episodes, “It’s ironic that these are coming out and flourishing when this is the crux of the issue in our strike.”
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/20/arts/television/20digi.html?_r=4&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
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