Writer's Strike - Affects People Outside WGA?

Haha, its all about the underpants.

And, you got me, I'm narrow minded. I have no idea what I am doing...

Usually agents find you. They won't pick you up until you can show you can make them money. They work on percentages. So they don't get paid till you get paid. :) Just FYI

So they won't take you unless you show you have skill. The vast majority of the WGA signed on to the strike. I know people who have to cross the line to go to internships to graduate from college. They all feel like crap. But I guess the line doesn't matter. And yes, there are other unions on the block too. DGA and SAG are next. If the writers don't succeed. SAG will strike or DGA, or someone else.

So yes, I think you have something pretty solid here.
 
Blaine said:
Thanks, guys, for providing me a great laugh to start the day...:grin::grin::grin:
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I still can't believe the dude thought I was serious...

...You can't write stuff like that (you could, but if you submitted it anywhere, you would be breaking union rules).

As for the OP, why submit to an agency blindly? Go to the Paramount lot, ask a person with a picket sign who represents them, and then buy that person a coffee to say thanks.

Follow up by asking them to get you a meeting with their boss regarding you taking over their writing job...
 
Undermining WGA only undermines DGA, SAG and eventually IATSE. If the business needs to change, it isn't likely to come in the form of a goodwill gesture from the studios or networks.

The working conditions, rate standards and larger collective agreements you see in place today are the product of workers leveraging their ranks against those that have classically driven the free-market.

What is confounding is that you rail against the union(s), but then suggest starting a... union? We are all suffering as a result of the work stoppage, but this isn't the time to break ranks.

If you're not already a contributing guild member (professionally affiliated and vested), then it's easy to see why you view the strike as nothing more than a point of debate. And, as it is for anyone entering the business, your career within the film and television industry can quickly rise if you're willing to listen, learn, pay your dues and persist.

However, during a sanctioned (and widely-supported) strike is not the time to try to break in by "whatever means" necessary. At best, it will yield a lackluster short-term result. At worst, it could mark you for a long time as someone who can't be trusted.

e
 
I live in Connecticut, I can't go to the Paramount lot lol as much as I would like too.
See I live in the eastcoast... there isn't much out here.... No Hollywood...
 
If I were you, and since you have no train to catch, WAIT. Listen to what Mrwrong had to say. No one likes a scab and for you to even think about crossing the picket line, unforgivable in the eyes of the WGA. You will NOT be allowed to join, guilds are there for a reason to protect your rights as a writer and you will be up the creek without a paddle.

Unless you are the next Steven Spielberg, this is a terrible course of action for you. Not only are you crossing the lines for writers, but as stated, the other unions like SAG as well which has shown solidarity to the WGA.

My advice, DO NOTHING until the strike is over when it comes to submitting a script.

So what can you do as a writer/director and not get smacked? Go out and get some investors, produce your own film. That's really the only forgivable way to get anything done right now.

Dude, crossing a picket line now may hurt you years to come. Be smart about it and remember, you have absolutely no train to catch, so what's your hurry?
 
Uhmmm blacklisiting does exist in a very real way, and you won't work. If you are interested in writing check out an insiders perspective of those who broke in www.smandjimgotohollywood.com great points of view from industry professionals who came in from the outside.
 
How far do you live from NYC? There's a really strong indie film making community there. You can try to get funding to make the movie independently. The studios may not be accepting any new scripts right now, but in 9 months to a year from now when they have no movies of their own to release they're going to have to be thinking about distributing foreign and indie films.

No one is going to (reasonably) blame you for making an indie-movie non-union and then having it get picked up.

http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071210/ENT01/712100361
 
Denied hahahah u got me there... didn't know he did something before Reservoir Dogs. I'm kinda glad most of that film was lost in a fire. It sucks
 
You should see Martin Scorsese's first film.

You'd be rooting for the city in which it is kept, to be destroyed by a nuclear blast...
 
overlandfilms said:
If the business needs to change, it isn't likely to come in the form of a goodwill gesture from the studios or networks.
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There's an understatement.

It isn't likely that pandas will come flying out of my ass and circle the room, either...at about the same degree of probability.

Since people who cross their own trade's picket lines are consciously screwing the strikers and allying themselves with the producers for their own narrow and temporary personal gain, I think it magnificent that payback awaits, down the road. Can't think of anything more appropriate than people who undermine a guild, getting boned by that guild when the day arrives that they come looking for its benefits and protections...

...and WGA is not one of the guilds to which I belong. But if I happened to have the name of someone crossing their lines, I'd be on the phone to WGAW, ASAP, to be sure that it did not go unnoticed...
 
Quigon,

If you want to submit. Do so. But DON'T submit to production companies, such as Paramount Vantage and the lot. What you want to do is find an agent, or manager. You want someone who can get you into the game once the whole strike is over. You need their advice in this business.

I'm assuming you know this already, but let's say hypothetically you query your script. Let's say some Creative Exec at some random production company loves it, asks for the script, you send it. It's a hit. He wants to make it. His people want to make it. They want to throw down a deal with you.

Woo.

Next step. They'd then pay you however much they want to for the script, and you don't really have much say because you're not repped by an agent, or even in the WGA. The WGA will not allow ANY writer who is already in the WGA to submit a script, get paid for said script and all that business.

So, if you got a script accepted by a company, they pay you, and they've greenlit the script into their new smash hit for the next summer blockbuster, 1.) I'd congratulate you on having a really good script, and 2.) you'd be blackballed. For good.

Now, I think if you have connections within a certain production company, I'm sure you could pull some strings to where they'd finance the script (if they'd want to make it) once everything has settled down.


but in 9 months to a year from now when they have no movies of their own to release they're going to have to be thinking about distributing foreign and indie films.
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Actually, that's not entirely true. Hollywood has an enormous collection of screenplays from years back, that they won't really be behind for quite some time. Of course, most of those scripts are probably crap, since they weren't greenlit the first time around. But still, it'll take Hollywood a much longer time than it would for, say, television to run low on supplies.

I think I talked enough for now.

-Austen.
 
Turnpike said:
Hollywood has an enormous collection of screenplays from years back, that they won't really be behind for quite some time.
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This is true, but the implications apply only to writers. To produce those scripts in the backlog, they still need production personnel...
 
Turnpike said:
Quigon,

Actually, that's not entirely true. Hollywood has an enormous collection of screenplays from years back, that they won't really be behind for quite some time. Of course, most of those scripts are probably crap, since they weren't greenlit the first time around. But still, it'll take Hollywood a much longer time than it would for, say, television to run low on supplies.

-Austen.
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That sounds pretty plausible. Although I hope that article I linked to is correct about more indies and foreign films getting distribution.
 
davide said:
That sounds pretty plausible. Although I hope that article I linked to is correct about more indies and foreign films getting distribution.
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I couldn't agree with you more. I'd love to see more independent and foreign films being picked up and distributed. With a far lesser budget than one possible in Hollywood, indies are being able to find new ways of doing things, which is entertaining to watch.

Sad Max said:
This is true, but the implications apply only to writers. To produce those scripts in the backlog, they still need production personnel...
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True.

-Austen.
 
Well as i said before, Once my screenplay is finished and registered with WGA I am going to submit it to the Peter Miller Film and Literary Agency. I Figure that is my best way to break in, while I'm waiting for the strike to finish, I can complete my 3rd full length script. So by the time the strike is over, and if I'm accepted to the PMA agency. I will have TWO scripts.... twice the chance of getting them green lit.
 
Quigon007 said:
Well as i said before, Once my screenplay is finished and registered with WGA I am going to submit it to the Peter Miller Film and Literary Agency. I Figure that is my best way to break in, while I'm waiting for the strike to finish, I can complete my 3rd full length script. So by the time the strike is over, and if I'm accepted to the PMA agency. I will have TWO scripts.... twice the chance of getting them green lit.
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I don't want to curb enthusiasm or stifle positive thinking but my sense is you haven't vetted your material. Are you sure you're ready for prime time? The bar is pretty high. Some people write one script and bang, get a deal. But that is the exception not the rule. If you haven't already, get some peer review, enter some contests, try and get an objective idea where you stand right now.
 
brianluce said:
I don't want to curb enthusiasm or stifle positive thinking but my sense is you haven't vetted your material. Are you sure you're ready for prime time? The bar is pretty high. Some people write one script and bang, get a deal. But that is the exception not the rule. If you haven't already, get some peer review, enter some contests, try and get an objective idea where you stand right now.
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He's just following the rules of his universe...:evil:
 
1 out of 3 people, when randomly stopped on the street in L.A. and asked how their screenplay is going, have an answer.

.... According to something I read in the forward of some screenplay writing book.




Good luck Daniel san.

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I'd write\make a billion shorts before I dare for a feature.

Actually I'm pretty close to a billion, so... maybe...
 
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