Stop walking and get back to writing

It looks like the writers that have been getting all that great exercise strolling around the studios may be able to get back to sitting in front of their computers for inordinate amounts of time.

The WGA is putting their tentative agreement out there this weekend for the rank and file to vote on. Most people are guessing that the WGA strike will come to an end of sorts, which is great news. However, it's not the be-all end-all yet. For Television writers, it is good news but for people like, oh… myself… it isn't the end of worries.

The hope is that now when the writers and directors get the contracts they like, SAG will quickly get one. However, until that actually happens, not a lot of movies are going to get the greenlight.

Hopefully the dissension within the actors unions isn't a harbinger of things to come. Currently AFTRA (yet another union – for actors) has started negotiating on their own. SAG hasn't started yet.

    LA TIMES
    Feb 4, 2008 by Richard Verrier

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has made good on its threat to break ranks with its more powerful sister union, the Screen Actors Guild.

AFTRA's board of directors voted Saturday to separately negotiate its upcoming prime-time television contract with the major studios -- without SAG at the bargaining table.

The decision effectively ends a 27-year partnership between the two unions under which they had jointly negotiated film and prime-time TV contracts. It also could complicate key upcoming negotiations for actors, whose contract expires June 30, potentially allowing the studios to play off one union against the other.

 

While this hasn't been big news yet for the public, this is the thing that is concerning a lot of movie people – even more than the WGA strike. Hopefully it will all settle down quickly.

 

Anyway, at least today, things seem to be looking up in a very broad sense.