It took them six days to lock down a contract, but the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the Directors Guild of America now have an agreement:
The Directors Guild of America said in a statement that its negotiators had reached preliminary agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on a new three-year contract, to take effect when the directors’ existing deal expires on June 30 ...
The agreement achieves a breakthrough for union members in several digital areas. It roughly doubles the residuals rate that was paid for decades when films and television programs were resold on cassettes or DVDs. And it requires Hollywood studios and production companies — for the first time — to pay a residual when advertising-supported programs are streamed for free over the Internet,
So now it's up to the WGA to determine if it's willing to shape its own deal to the contours of the DGA's agreement, but I'll make book that the AMPTP isn't going to give them more than the directors.
The $64 question: Will the percentages and terms the Directors Guild achieved be good enough for the scribes? I honestly have no idea, but I'm guessing that various writers will be giving their input to Patric Verrone and David Young.
And I'll go out on a limb here. Based on what I've seen and heard this past week in Orlando, the IATSE will be doing its next contract on the DGA's template.
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Just the other night I spoke with someone who is on the AMPTP negotiating committee. This was before the DGA deal. He did say that the two would come together very quickly.
However, he did say that he did not think that the WGA and AMPTP would come to a decision anytime soon. He didn't have very kind words for the negotiators on the WGA.
he thought Spring at the earliest, but more likely Summer was his guess.
My best guess is the WGA will stay out for at least another couple of weeks. I'm already hearing noise that they feel the DGA settled for too little. But since there's already a schism developing in their ranks they will eventually except the same deal - assuming they're offered it.
Talking to non WGA industry people it seems everyone is coming to the same conclusions. The DGA feels that they get paid plenty for their jobs and the residuals is a nice little extra, but they don't count on it to support themselves whereas the WGA feels that their salary is just a downpayment and that the residuals are the balance of what they're owed and they count on those checks. Maybe they should just negotiate better 'downpayments'.
But then again the directors also understand the nature of the biz as a collaborative medium whereas the writers don't.
IA reps I've talked to think that WGA leadership will want to keep writers out on strike, that -- within the next few weeks -- show runners will start pressuring the WGA's negotiation committee to "make a deal" and then things get interesting.
Is there a replay of '88? Does the strike continue and WGA solidarity shatter? What? I've got no crystal ball.
Now I've seen everything-Blog Spam! Steve, Jeff, delete that creep and his condos.
-SM
Happens more often than you may think, but usually during the week when we can catch it quicker.
"Gee, a post about a strike. What a perfect place to spam about buying real estate ..."
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