Screenwriter and author John August

Getting Started with the Start Button

May 13, 2019 News, WGA

Over the past month, the WGA has rolled out several new tools to help members better represent themselves without agents, including the Staffing Submission System, the WGA Weekly Feature Memo, and the Find A Writer directory.

For screenwriters working on assignment – and TV writers working on pilots – an existing WGAW tool can be especially helpful in confronting the twin problems of free work and late pay.

The Start Button is a simple way to record when you begin working on a draft and when you hand it in. It helps the Guild protect writers from abusive requests for unpaid rewrites and delayed checks.

I made a little video to walk writers through how the Start Button works, and why members should make it standard practice when beginning an assignment.

Like all WGA tools, the Start Button is designed to help members take more control over their work and career. In this period when most members don’t have agents, writers need to advocate for themselves and others. The Guild is there to back you up.

(Music by Matthew Chilelli, of course.)

Explaining Conflict of Interest

March 28, 2019 WGA

It can be hard to understand exactly how agency packaging fees and producing impacts writers’ salaries. This short explainer video does a great job visualizing the issues, and looking at why the WGA is in negotiations to address agency conflict of interest.

Guild Sets Dates for Meetings and Vote

March 19, 2019 WGA

For the past few months, the WGA West and East have been negotiating with talent agencies over a successor to our 43-year-old agreement. I’m on the negotiating committee and it’s been fascinating.

Soon we’ll be holding membership meetings to discuss what’s going on and what’s in store:

WGA West members in Los Angeles:

Tuesday, March 26th at Beverly Hilton, 7:30 pm
Wednesday, March 27th at Sheraton Universal, 7:30 pm
Saturday, March 31st at Writers Guild Theater, 10:30 am
RSVP using the link in the email you received from “WGA Mandatory.”

WGA East members in New York City:

Wednesday, March 27, 2019 at BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 7:30 pm.
RSVP and bring your Guild ID card.

WGA members will be voting on the following resolution:

To authorize the Board and Council to implement an Agency Code of Conduct, if and when it becomes advisable to do so, upon expiration of the current AMBA on April 6, 2019.

Voting for will take place for West members from Wednesday, March 27 at 9pm PDT through Sunday March 31 at 10:00am PDT. For East members, voting runs from Wednesday, March 27 at 9pm EDT through Sunday, March 31 at 10:00am EDT.

Eligible members will receive an email that includes a link to the online ballot when the ballot is activated. Please vote!

The Chinese Box Office is Huge

February 11, 2019 International

Writing for Forbes, Scott Mendelson notes that the biggest movie in China is bigger than even the biggest US movies:

The Wandering Earth wrapped up its first week of release in China with a record-breaking $349 million. That’s the biggest one-week total ever in China, besting the $338m debut of Detective Chinatown 2 last year and the $307m launch of Wolf Warrior 2 in the summer of 2017. It was the second-biggest seven day total for any release in any territory save for the $390m seven-day cume of Walt Disney’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015.

Yes, Wandering Earth earned more in its first week in China than Disney’s Avengers: Infinity War earned in North America ($338m) last April.

Yes: it’s complicated because China controls which movies can be released, and how wide they can expand, so it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. But it’s clear that the Chinese box office is simply massive.

Hollywood movies have long been one of the America’s most reliable exports, because you simply couldn’t make a certain kind of movie anywhere else. That’s not true anymore.