Hollywood Writers’ Strike: 78 Notes from the Sidewalk
When writing partners Elizabeth Hackett and Hilary Galanoy chose Paramount Studios as their picketing location on the first day of the WGA strike, they looked forward to meeting single men and rubbing elbows with A-list writers. The screenwriters forgot all about ninety-five degree weather, scruffy guys and having to walk in a circle for 12 hours.
Fade in. Ext. Paramount Pictures – Day.
Like any memorable Act Three plot twist, we never saw it coming. As Hollywood writing partners who have collaborated on nine scripts together over the past five years, we’re forced to spend a lot of time together. Like hostages without a bank robbery. As a result, we can talk about anything for hours. And we mean anything. Not just movie ideas. We once had a full five-minute debate about how burned a piece of toast would have to be before neither one of us would eat it. We’ve weathered the ups and downs of show business, but after nearly two months on the WGA picket line and sixty-plus hours of walking in a circle together, the unthinkable happened: we ran out of conversation. We trudged silently, unsure where to go from here.
Long ago, on Day One of the strike, we chose Paramount as our picketing location. (Nothing personal, Paramount. You’re a closer commute. And you have free parking.) Sure, we were worried about being unemployed and broke, but we support our union and as comedy writers, we’d “find the funny” in picketing. When life hands you a lemon, peel off a twist, plop it into your martini, and look at the upside (the martini helps here). We’d absorb some fresh air and Vitamin D instead of sitting behind a computer all day. We’d meet single men (the WGA is 70-something% male, after all). We’d rub elbows with A-list writers, dazzling Aaron Sorkin with off-the-cuff improvised rants like “We won’t stop screamin’ til you pay us for streamin’!” and soothing our aching feet at post-picket pedicures with Susannah Grant.
Or, at the very least, get a wacky Christmas card picture out of it.
We must confess something. We dressed up for our first 10-2 PM shift. No jeans or oversized red WGA XXL T-shirts for us. If we hoped to romantically tangle picket signs in a meet-cute with the single male creator of a hit syndicated TV show (insert title card: “Love on the Line”), then makeup and an attractive ensemble were in order. One of us even wore boots.
This plan got a major rewrite ten minutes after we signed in.
First off, it was one of those ninety-five degree, Indian summer November days where the California sun blazes like a Quizno’s grill. This sort of heat is ideal for many things. Firing pottery in a kiln, for example. Not a four-hour picketing shift. And not when you’re a fair complexioned redhead. Our feet screamed, our makeup ran like Niagara Falls, and we only felt like flirting with the free sunscreen at the check-in desk. Turns out, style is irrelevant on the line. It’s hard to be charming when marching in a tight circle on a sidewalk, over and over, like a lemming with a short term memory problem. In fact, on a picket line, you can’t do much but…picket. Sure, during the first twenty minutes, you cocktail party banter with the person next to you. The usual bartering of “Where are you from?” and “What do you write?” You glean that you write feature films and he writes for TV and more often than not it’s a show you can’t stand or worse, have never seen. Then, the conversation slowly dies off like our shrinking residuals and you shuffle along in an awkward silence. It’s like making the mistake of chatting with your seatmate on a plane, pre-takeoff. At least on the plane, you can end the social discomfort by pretending to take a nap. There are no naps in picketing.
We also quickly discovered that if studio pickets are a high school cafeteria, then Paramount is the nerdy transfer student with whom nobody wants to eat lunch. It’s where the oddball writers picket. We have a theory why. You can choose your picket location and everyone probably chose like we did: shortest commute. Since Paramount is seated in the heart of Hollywood, you get your scruffy, Eastside types. (Plus that guy wearing just red undies and a necktie.) The big names we hoped to rub shoulders with? They live in Santa Monica and Brentwood, i.e. near Fox and Sony, the “hip kids” picket locales.
Turns out, once the hilarious Christmas card picture is taken, picketing is not “all that”. We thought we were buying a ticket to a comedy. Instead, it was one of those slow, non-narrative, foreign language dramas. And then, unexpectedly, picketing started to rewrite itself. The shifts were reduced to (only!) three hours and we started frequenting the 5:30-8:30 AM timeslot. We could fulfill our duty and have the rest of the day free to speed dial Bank of America’s automated system to see if our accounts were zeroed-out. The Early Bird picket is dark and sometimes downright cold, but it beats a third-degree sunburn. And it’s sparsely attended, which would seem like a drawback but actually, is a boon. The five or six of us huddle together, sipping coffee and commiserating, like we’re on the last chopper out of ‘Nam. We take pride in the tactile misery of walking the line instead of lying in our nice, warm beds. Real conversation is to be had pre-sunrise, when you’re so wrapped up in hats and scarves that you can’t even see if the other person is male or female, hideous or attractive, much less worry about what they write. Instead we have conversations about travel and food and politics and family and sex and love lives. The good stuff. The honest stuff. The stuff that good stories are made of.
And we noticed another change: weight loss. Twelve hours of walking in a circle has not produced a new contract, but it has resulted in a new pants size. In a heartfelt attempt to bolster its image, Paramount’s been hosting “theme” pickets, like Singles Day and Star Trek Day. But us diehard Paramounties don’t need bribes or cajoling. We now embrace that we’re misunderstood but ultimately way more cool because of it. We’re like Nirvana in its heyday. Fighters, rebels, the bookworms who make their own prom dress out of the hand-me-downs.
The WGA is on a two-week picketing hiatus for the holidays. Liz in Seattle visiting family; Hilary is house-sitting in Beverly Hills. But as we caught up on the phone this evening, we admitted…we kind of miss picketing. And not just because it’s an excuse to not write. Maybe it’s Stockholm Syndrome, but picketing has grown on us. And as for our lost conversation? Eh, most good scripts need a dialogue polish anyway.
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28 Comments
1. Kevin:I for one am glad you crossed the picket line to write this article.
Unions are bad for America.
Dec 29, 2007 - 6:21 am 2. Pajamas Media:Er, Kevin, Pajamas Media is a news and opinion company. We are not a signatory of the Writers Guild, which only organizes film and television writers. Writing for Pajamas Media is not covered by the WGA anymore than the New York Times is. Writing an article for us does not constitute crossing any picket line. Thank you.
Dec 29, 2007 - 7:43 am 3. Fontessa:“The WGA is on a two-week picketing hiatus for the holidays.” This is the funniest sentence I ever read.
You ladies, and all the other striking writers need to seriously consider replacing the leadership in your union.
Dec 29, 2007 - 8:00 am 4. Curly Smith:“… he writes for TV and more often than not it’s a show you can’t stand or worse, have never seen.
Yep, that sums up the viewers’ position and explains the studios’ lack of money.
Twelve hours of walking in a circle has not produced a new contract…
What? You walk your 3 hour shift 4 times a day? 4 times a week? Or just 4 times in the 78 days of the strike?
Since you’ve run out of things to talk about, perhaps you could discuss the rationale behind the strike. Discuss among your fellow strikers what you hope to gain, what you’re currently losing and what you might ultimately lose. This might shock you but you’re not engaged in a risk-free venture and you might want to consider where the money you hope to gain will come from. My gut tells me that you’ll ultimately get a bigger share of the revenue stream but that many of you will permanently lose your jobs. If you could work with the studios and create a bigger pile of revenue then everybody would win, but that’s not the path that you’re on. Sorry, you should stop by Quizno’s for an application before the post-strike rush.
FYI – spend some of your free time researching the aftermath of protracted labor strikes. See who wins (the union – they get more power), see who loses (the members of the union – many lose their jobs, future expansion is curtailed so no additional jobs created and very limited potential for job advancement), and see who’s largely unaffected (the company – they’ll simply adjust the expenses to fit the new contract by cutting jobs, outsourcing, moving overseas, canceling expansion plans — or largely what the studios have been doing for the past decade to the detriment of your union members).
Dec 29, 2007 - 8:36 am 5. progressoverpeace:This is why I’m very happy that Hollywood writers are on strike.
Dec 29, 2007 - 9:35 am 6. Dishman:Better than Quizno’s, you might want to investigate generating content for interactive media like games. Writers are a growing part of that industry.
You’d have to leave your union membership at the door, though, because unions are not compatible with the fundamentals of software development. Unions represent job security for the incompetent, and that really doesn’t work in a field with a factor of ten differential in productivity.
As for the merits of the strike, I think Curly doesn’t go far enough. As I see it, Sony and GE come out ahead on a total restructuring of content production, and they can afford to ride it out. The ones who are going to get screwed are WGA, SAG, AMPTP and Hollywood.
Dec 29, 2007 - 9:42 am 7. Jul:Ladies – Good on you for striking with your fellow writers! the future of entertainment is the internet & making sure that your contracts protect the use of your product in this medium are worth it. Good luck! I hope this strike ends soon.
Dec 29, 2007 - 6:06 pm 8. Peg C.:Clever and amusing piece. And yet I can’t find it in me to care if the strike goes on another year. I think it would be best for all of us.
Really intelligent and successful people don’t watch TV; they read. We should all try that.
Dec 29, 2007 - 6:46 pm 9. KSgop:So thankful that I live in a Right To Work state. Never will I join a union.
Dec 29, 2007 - 8:33 pm 10. Brad:You have ‘collaborated’ on JUST nine scripts in FIVE years? And sold how many? What are your real jobs? Real writers just write. And sell. They don’t picket, or pen cute puff-balls, or look to others to defend their work.
For those of us who write, and sell, and make good livings, and represent our own interests,
your essay is just one more reminder of the wasteland that is contemporary TV.
Strike on. As another commentator said: “people will read.” And writers will write.
Dec 29, 2007 - 8:35 pm 11. Jim:As a crewguy, I hope you get what you want. But…I hope you get what you want damn fast, because you needlessly put me and my co-workers out of work just before the holiday season. While you play the blue collar “rebels”, tiring of a whole FOUR HOURS of walking, we watch our next month’s rent slipping away. (That’s rent, not a mortgage BTW…Crew people can no longer afford to purchase homes in L.A. unless they bought around the Millenium.)If I hear a whiney writer in line at Trader Joe’s, I’m liable to whup his ass.
Dec 29, 2007 - 11:42 pm 12. Stosh2:Striking is fun & funny !! Tell us more about your outfits & makeup, girls.
Dec 30, 2007 - 7:49 am 13. Darren:Yes, I know you’re going for a mental image here, and having been in the army in the 80’s I don’t really have the enough similar experience to know if you’re wrong or not–but somehow, “sipping coffee and commiserating” isn’t how I imagine flights out of Vietnam in 1975.
Am I reading too much into this, or have we just learned a little something about how you view the military and/or the end of South Vietnam?
Dec 30, 2007 - 11:19 am 14. Pat:“But us diehard Paramounties don’t need bribes or cajoling.”
You write for a living, and you think it’s OK to use “us” as the subject of a sentence?
Dec 30, 2007 - 3:23 pm 15. Bill:The wasteland that is T.V. can only be helped by a very long strike. Bring back re-runs of the honeymooners, gilligans island or even batman. Any one of these brain dead teleplays beats the pants off of anything hollywood has been foisting off on the viewing public for the past 10 years. Hell, I would take a whole channel of Love Boat if it woudl keep the likes of West Wing off the air. I would even dedicate an hour a day to watching it. America is a better place without new dreck, if for no other reason, I applaud your strike for that.
Dec 30, 2007 - 5:06 pm 16. sam:Thanks for the article. I was wondering what ever happened to the writer’s strike – now I know.
Dec 31, 2007 - 11:24 am 17. Philip H:Very funny. I don’t know too much about the strike, but I’m sure you gals deserve whatever you’re fighting for. Keep it up and good luck. And I’m not sure who is who, but the curly-haired one is hot.
Dec 31, 2007 - 8:44 pm 18. Erin:Great, funny article. I enjoyed it and hope there will be a follow up if the strike continues. However, most of these comments were clearly written by angry old buggers who haven’t left their underground bunkers since 1979. It’s time to come up for air, fellas!
Dec 31, 2007 - 10:38 pm 19. syn:Perhaps while the writers pound their tender feet on the streets of hard knocks they can take a moment to ask the question,
‘How can writers be creative when they’ve locked themselves inside a politically-correct groupthink lock-box’
Afterall, writing agitprop requires that writers conform, which leaves little room to engage in anything remotely creative.
That said, keep up the strike ladies your siliconed fakery is an expensive image to maintain.
Jan 1, 2008 - 5:32 am 20. Laaz:Great, fun piece. Ignore all the nasties, they don’t speak for most of us.
Jan 1, 2008 - 9:58 am 21. Frank:Boy, what an intelligent collection of comments we’ve got here.
First there’s Kevin, who clearly could not be bothered to, y’know, actually read the WGA strike rules before accusing these authors of breaking them…
Then there’s the poster who alleges that they are part of some political agitprop group think collective, when as far as I can tell, the authors never once mention their political views in this piece…
And then there the commenter who actually took the time to correct their grammar, forgetting that this is a comedic piece and not a foreign policy paper. You must be some fun to hang out with on weekends honey… “no I’m sorry I cannot go to that Bar-B-Que place with you, as they have engaged in superfluous and incorrect usage of the hypen.”
This is a light-hearted, and I thought very funny, look at life on a picket line. How about we take it for what it is, and not twist it into another opportunity to make some kind of nasty churlish point.
Just because you CAN post a comment, doesn’t necessarily mean you SHOULD post one.
Jan 1, 2008 - 1:18 pm 22. Mike:Look….
However, it is just ridiculous that studios won’t pay any type of residuals for the “new media” known as the Internet.
Come on — I watch plenty of shows over the Internet. I especially enjoy stuff that conflicts with other shows during the same time slot.
Ask yourself — who WANTS to not work and make no new income during that time frame? No one…
I feel for the “below the line” guys such as teamsters because it’s not their fault that there is a strike.
As for the “haters” out there, you try to write a 20 page script for a 30 minute sit-com. Then, try to shop it around town in LA.
By the time you start crying “mommy, why won’t they at least read my script”, let us know how “easy” it is being a writer…
Jan 1, 2008 - 2:54 pm 23. GMH:Frank and Mike – applause goes out to you!
As for screenwriters in LA all having mortgages, I guess us (oops – “we”) IT/technology types must all live in mansions like Bill Gates, huh? Get real. And, if all writers made that much money, would they really be in line buying 3 Buck Chuck at Trader Joes?
And, as for those who comment on reading (which must be difficult while they looking down their noses…) as opposed to watching TV, I’m surprised that reading blogs on the internet is such the intellectual pastime! BTW, some of us have the ability to multi-task.
Liz/Hilary – best of luck for a quick and just end to the strike!
Jan 1, 2008 - 8:08 pm 24. Mike:I just checked and saw my first post was up…here’s a little bit more of my 2 cents:
I saw first-hand how hard it is to even get in the unions (SAG/WGA…doesn’t really matter which) and then once you are in the union, that just gets you the POSSIBILITY to get work for anything that is union.
* I have an award-winning script — please someone just read it
Oh wait, you don’t have an agent…well, you need an agent to get your script read. Oh, you don’t have any purchased scripts, you can’t get an agent.
Somehow!
* I have an agent!
Once the agent is secured, a set of rejections, script doctoring (sometimes uncredited) and other grunt work is the most likely way you will go as a writer in Hollywood.
You are thankful for that work since it is very sketchy, seasonal and can end at any time. Oh, and the pay is probably spotty unless you happen to “hit” with a TV show, movie, etc…
Welcome to Hollywood…
A couple of very quick comments:
* You must be in the union to get union work. Non-union work for writers = video games, the Internet and reality shows (oh wait, those are “editors” and not writers…sure they are…)
TV and Film = union
No choice in the matter so don’t even bother making comments like “I will never join a union”. It’s just not a realistic choice for real work in Hollywood.
* Below the line folks
I know a lot of “below the line” folks in the crew, art department, etc…
This strike sucks for them — no way around that. They are really caught in the crossfire of the strike and certainly want it to end ASAP.
Everyone connected to the industry (from the obvious like talent agencies to the not so obvious like hotels, restaurants, etc…) are impacted by the strike.
Conclusions
* NO ONE (repeat NO ONE) wants to be out of work — especially over the holiday season.
These folks have gone through tremendous trouble and effort to get into a Hollywood union and be a working writer. Jobs are tough to come by and steady jobs even harder to come by for writers.
* Someone has to give and I don’t think the writers are going to move. They got jacked out of millions of dollars over that crazy new media known as VHS (and then DVD).
* There is a real possibility of a combo strike of WGA/DGA (Directors) and SAG (Actors). That would be the ultimate “scorched earth” scenario where we have 13 episode TV seasons or (God help us) EVEN MORE reality TV.
For those that don’t like TV now, wait until you have so much reality TV that you forgot how actual actors look onscreen. You will beg for the so-called “scripted” TV!
Jan 1, 2008 - 10:22 pm 25. syn:Mike
Jan 2, 2008 - 4:58 am 26. Bo:I’ve known camera guys who got their daughters (who never worked a day in the industry) memberships into the unions.
Jeesh…People are so uptight these days.
Just enjoy the article for what it is…an entertaining article that has turned some lemons into lemonade.
Bo
Jan 2, 2008 - 7:09 am 27. AMT:Syn – The requirements to get into the various IATSE guilds are drastically different and far less restrictive than WGA/SAG/DGA. Comparing the membership process for for IATSE and the WGA/SAG/DGA is apples and oranges.
Also, well said Bo. This strike has been hard everyone working (or currently holding work) in Hollywood. We are all hoping for a quick and fair resolution to the writers strike and that it may stave off future strikes in 08′.
Bravo girls for finding a humorous way to cope with a tough situation!
Jan 2, 2008 - 9:52 am 28. Frank:SYN: Not into the WGA they didn’t. Unlike SAG, WGA members have to actually, y’know, work!
BO: Absolutely!
Jan 2, 2008 - 10:02 am