John August

Archives for 2011

WGA Elections, 2011 Edition

WGA

Writers Guild members should have received ballots this week for the 2011 election, along with a packet of candidate statements and endorsements thicker than a screenplay.

You’ll see my name listed on several endorsements for candidates I think are terrific, but I also want to give a more general overview of the issues and personalities involved.

The top of the ballot
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We have two candidates for WGAw president: **Chris Keyser** and **Patric Verrone**. Both have served the guild in a variety of roles. Both have strengths.

Chris Keyser comes from the Board of Directors and the Negotiating Committee, and spent seven years on the Health and Pension Fund, where he served as a Trustee. I didn’t know him before this election, but after [reading his statement](http://keyser4wga.com/2011/07/22/my-candidate-statement/) and [watching a video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qIU5BiXGCg&feature=player_embedded) of him speaking at a house meeting, I think his priorities are correct:

> We cannot demand that companies make more movies or pay for more development, but we can be a Guild that is strong in between negotiations, strong on those days when we don’t have an army on the streets. We can be strong through enforcement, strong through leveraging our shared membership with the DGA, strong through rapid, effective assistance to members in need.

A WGA president must occasionally play the general who leads us into battle, but far more often needs to be the pragmatic CEO who insists on the best from his organization and all its partners. We can do a much better job enforcing the contract we’ve already won. That seems like Keyser’s focus.

Patric Verrone is by far the better-known of the two candidates, since he served as president during the 2008 strike. It’s impossible to talk about Verrone without some rehashing of the strike, and what it means going forward.

Here’s my short assessment: I think Verrone did a commendable job of internally organizing the Guild. He kept members informed and engaged in a way I hadn’t seen before.

But his external communication was a disaster.

For months leading up to negotiations, Verrone kept beating the “strike or cave” drum, including an ill-fated campaign of picketing for reality TV. Watching this, the AMPTP came to us with a ridiculous offer full of rollbacks, giving no choice but to make good on our threat to strike. Meanwhile, the studios did an end-run around us and made a deal with the DGA.

We were boxed in, and Verrone built the box.

The contract isn’t up until 2013, but re-electing Verrone signals to the studios they might as well prepare for a strike — again. They might as well pre-negotiate with the DGA — again. They might as well just ignore us, because we’re lunatics who elected that guy – again.

I’m voting for Chris Keyser.

The rest of the ticket
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I’m happy to see so many strong candidates for the other offices and board of directors. I’ll be reading through the candidate statements, but want to give a few recommends based on writers I know personally.

Keyser and Verrone both endorse **Howard Rodman** for Vice President. So do I. He’s particularly devoted to getting WGA coverage for writers working on indies.

I served on the Committee on the Professional Status of Writers with **Billy Ray** and found him to be smart, focused and incredibly generous. Last year, he organized a series of workshops for screenwriters hoping to direct. That’s exactly the kind of programming the WGA needs more of. A strong guild is made of strong members.

In his statement, **Jeff Lowell** focuses on enforcement. In particular, [late payment](http://lowell4wga.blogspot.com/2011/07/candidate-statement.html):

> Honestly, the fucking blatant disregard for the contract they signed… They acknowledge they owe me money, let me know that there is some kind of mysterious internal operation of indeterminate length to “process” the payment, and then, when that’s done, it’ll take five to ten business days to get the check from them to my agent.

He’s angry, but he’s right. The WGA needs to spend the money to get checks in writers’ hands on time.

**Ian Deitchman** focuses on repairing relationships with the DGA and SAG/AFTRA. He also has experience with web series, which still haven’t materialized as the Next Big Thing we were supposed to be striking over.

Ballots are due September 16th. I urge you to vote.

Writing and decision fatigue

Big Fish, Broadway, Psych 101

This past weekend consisted of three long days of meetings and work sessions for the Big Fish musical; Sunday went fourteen hours. I had a hunch that late in the day wasn’t the best time to introduce a new song, and now [science has my back](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all):

> No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price. It’s different from ordinary physical fatigue — you’re not consciously aware of being tired — but you’re low on mental energy. The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts, usually in either of two very different ways. One shortcut is to become reckless: to act impulsively instead of expending the energy to first think through the consequences. (Sure, tweet that photo! What could go wrong?) The other shortcut is the ultimate energy saver: do nothing. Instead of agonizing over decisions, avoid any choice. Ducking a decision often creates bigger problems in the long run, but for the moment, it eases the mental strain.

Writing involves a dozen choices every sentence, a thousand every scene.

Discussing material with producers and a director means understanding and deciding between myriad possible options — and the more people in the conversation, the more choices to consider.

And casting? Exhausting. It feels like it should be one of the easiest parts of production — you’re not *doing* anything, just sitting there and listening — but it wears you out. I’ve been through casting on five projects, and each time I’m amazed how tough it is. You’re trying to compare the actor you just saw versus the actor you saw yesterday versus the actor who won’t audition.

The article explains that sugar (glucose) is one of the quickest ways to restock your willpower supply. That’s why writers get fat.

(link via [@mjeppsen](http://twitter.com/mjeppsen))

What a flop feels like

Psych 101

Conan The Barbarian co-writer Sean Hood answers a dismal question: [What’s it like to have your film flop at the box office?](http://www.quora.com/Whats-it-like-to-have-your-film-flop-at-the-box-office)

> The Friday night of the release is like the Tuesday night of an election. “Exit polls” are taken of people leaving the theater, and estimated box office numbers start leaking out in the afternoon, like early ballot returns. You are glued to your computer, clicking wildly over websites, chatting nonstop with peers, and calling anyone and everyone to find out what they’ve heard. Have any numbers come back yet? That’s when your stomach starts to drop.

> By about 9 PM its clear when your “candidate” has lost by a startlingly wide margin, more than you or even the most pessimistic political observers could have predicted. With a movie its much the same: trade magazines like Variety and Hollywood Reporter call the weekend winners and losers based on projections. That’s when the reality of the loss sinks in, and you don’t sleep the rest of the night.

Read the whole thing. It’s a great write-up of the experience.

As screenwriters, we have little control over anything beyond the words on the page. Once cameras start rolling, the director, the producers and studio executives are making the big decisions. We contribute where we can — screenwriters can be great in the editing room — but we’re largely spectators.

In the last few days before release, even those big decision-makers are spectators. It truly is a launch: you’re watching the movie follow its trajectory, powerless to alter its course by more than a few degrees.

The quality of the finished film is obviously a major factor in how it performs. But it’s never the biggest factor.

What movies are you opening against? Which movies are holding surprisingly well? Did your fourth-billed star recently marry a younger man and show up at the premiere with both him and her ex-husband, sucking up all available publicity? (For example.)

Ultimately, you may have to fall back on Hollywood’s tautological version of the Serenity Prayer: It is what it is. There’s not always a helpful lesson to learn — at least not a lesson you as the screenwriter can act upon.

Still suing

Film Industry, Follow Up

Remember that guy who’s [suing the agencies](http://johnaugust.com/2011/suing-to-get-an-agent) for not representing him? Jim Vines has an interview with him, and asks one question that kept [nagging at me](http://theworkingscreenwriter.blogspot.com/2011/08/interview-withjustin-samuels.html):

> JV: With regard to the agents and/or producers you’ve queried, how do they even know you’re an African-American screenwriter? I mean, your point of view seems to be: “They know I’m black—they won’t read my script!” Do you mention in your queries that you’re an African-American?

> JS: I didn’t say that they know I’m African-American. I said since the majors do not even accept queries, this has a disproportionate impact on African-Americans in terms of locking us out of the industry, as we have no access to the people we would need to be read by.

I don’t agree with his logic, but that’s at least an answer.

[Disparate impact](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disparate_Impact) falls under U.S. employment law. Does it apply to the agencies he’s suing, since he’s not seeking to be hired by them? Assuming disparate impact could be shown, would requiring agencies to accept queries actually change the percentages? This interview still suggests a very uninformed view of the industry.

After the epic comment threads on this issue, let’s send any new discussion to [Jim’s post](http://theworkingscreenwriter.blogspot.com/2011/08/interview-withjustin-samuels.html).