Tuesday, February 26, 2019

WGA vs. ATA

WGA and why writers need to talk to each other: It was maybe 2014 when I got an urgent call from my tv agent. I was walking through Bushwick at night to check out an apartment. My agent said I should meet these entertainment lawyers. It was strange b/c it was a nighttime call and he was trying to sound casual but there was a tension in his voice that I couldn't place. I asked him why I needed an entertainment lawyer? I had representation (uhh...you!) I was with a major agency. He paused -as if to carefully consider how to phrase things- and then said I might need someone to represent my interests first during certain negotiations. I followed up with a logical question: so you're saying my agency won't represent me during certain times? He backtracked. Nonononono!! There was a delicate dance of words between us. I thanked him, hung up the phone, and continued walking. I remember thinking: what the hell did that mean? Months passed, I finished at Juilliard and got a tv staff writer job. My entertainment lawyer walked me through the contract he had just negotiated. Being a newbie and excited, I was just like 'yeah yeah yeah, sounds great' but he was trying to explain to me that this was a REALLY good contract. I just thought 'yeah it's standard stuff.' The job started and it was cool. At the end of my time at the writers' room, I revealed how much I was getting paid to another writer on my level (at a different show). I could see this other writer's face flush red. They were LIVID. I had gotten paid A LOT more, but it wasn't just that. I got the sense that this writer felt like they had been lied to and betrayed by their reps. I casually revealed to them 'this is actually how much you should have been paid." They fired their agents after their next job was secured.

A few weeks ago, I got a call from a playwriting colleague who had just gotten their first tv contract. They described the terms of the contract and asked for my opinion. The contract sounded AWFUL. A below scale, mini-room for only a few weeks on a show that sounded terrible and unsuited to this person's temperament and talent. Taking this bad job would have meant quitting a professorship that they liked. But their agent was telling them it's a good deal, despite the writer's taste and discomfort. I asked the writer: does this sound like a good deal to you? They said 'no, it makes me uncomfortable.' I said it sounded like an awful contract and it seemed like your agents had some ulterior motives. The writer said they were probably going to turn down the deal. They wanted confirmation of their fears from a colleague b/c it seemed like their agents were talking them into a bad choice.

This is why writers should talk to each other. This is why the WGA is right. This is why agencies can't produce. You can't represent a client and cut production deals with the studio. It is the epitome of the term 'conflict of interest.’ Low-level writers get screwed and showrunners get their budgets chopped.

I have had an unusual trajectory thanks to many auspicious moments and ppl helping me out. My tv agent didn't have to call me and warn me to get an entertainment lawyer. He could've just kept that 'uneasy' feeling to himself. My colleagues didn't have to tell me the inside gossip about certain jobs (which led me to avoid Titanic disasters). I have gotten a raise and promotion every year, and at every job. Not b/c ppl love my personality. I got this b/c it's in my contract, and it's in my contracts b/c someone was actually FIGHTING for me and representing me first. I see some fantastic writers repeating levels or experiencing pay stagnation. I realize that maybe they weren't as lucky as me. They didn't have ppl warning them or protecting them. They trusted the system over the people, and when you do that the system will screw you. The larger an institution becomes, the more money that gets poured into, the more power that gets invested in it, the more individuals get screwed. Always. The saving graces are the personal connections, the tips, the relationships formed that circumvent the system. That's what makes playwrights both so beneficial to TV's golden age and so dangerous to its larcenous business model. We gossip, we trade info, we have an inherent trust in talking to each other over talking to our director or producer. We have not surrendered power to institutions or brokers, b/c we know that the ultimate force is the power of the word...and we have it. We have the power to shape the story, to poke holes in stubborn walls of silence, to dig underneath the mega-agency fortress. Unfortunately, ppl only trained in screenwriting and TV writing first don't think that because they need a crew and director to make their vision come true. It's baked into their equation.

Playwrights don't need anything but words and some close relationships to pull off magic. So we specialize in those two things and it creates great art. And great art and corporate capitalism are not conducive to each other. There is a dance that happens but if you want truly remarkable tv or film, art HAS to win out over power brokers at certain key points. No movie has ever won an Oscar based upon the packaging the agents secured. If we want the golden age to continue then we have to protect talent against the 'evils' of our success. We have created a lot of money and -usually- this is when power destroys the thing it so greedily wants to possess. As keepers of the word, we have to stay true.

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