Eisner says WGA Strike is over?

Michael Eisner says the strike is over.

Talking to CNBC:

“They’ve made a deal, they shook hands on a deal,” he replies. "The deal is going on Saturday to the constituents (for a vote)… I think it’s impossible that they turn it down. A deal has been made and (the writers) will be back to work reasonably soon!”

Well that's ... great.

But ya know, I think I'll believe it when I hear it from the WGA.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/23050841/site/14081545/


*** EDIT 9:45am***

Well maybe there MIGHT be something to this after all.
Driving in to a gig on Olive there were NO picketers at WB or NBC.

Dare I Get my hopes up?

Nick Kroll and Seth Macfarlane bring you "The Negotiating Table"

This is prolly NSFW...
Seth Macfarlane and Nick Kroll give us the inside scoop on the AMPTP/WGA negotiations.



Written by Seth Macfarlane; Directed by Bryan Carmel and Brendan Colthurst; Produced by Kat Foster and Nick Kroll; Edited by Bryan Carmel; Featuring Josh Radnor, Kat Foster, Nick Kroll, John Viener, Seth MacFarlane, and Erik Weiner (woot! I've worked with Erik!).

You know, there's a part of me that's REALLY going to miss the higher quality content being produced online when the strike is over.

Directors and Producers make a deal, so why not the Writers?

LA Times is reporting that the DGA and the AMPTP have reached an agreement. It sounds like it was much more reasonable than what was offered the writers:

The contract covering 13,400 members guarantees directors a $1,260 fixed residual payment for one-hour TV dramas streamed over the Internet in the first year, compared with $250 the studios had offered writers. The studios also would be entitled to a 24-day promotional window in the first year, and a 17-day window in the second year. After the first year, writers would receive 2% of the distributor's gross revenue.

When movies are sold online, directors will receive the current DVD royalty, 0.36% on the first 50,000 downloads, and 0.65% thereafter. Directors would get a 0.36% residual for the first 100,000 downloads of their TV episodes, and 0.7% after that.

Directors received jurisdiction over Web episodes based on existing scripted shows and original Web shows above a certain budget threshold. For instance, Web series costing less than $500,000 would be exempted.

The deal contains a so-called revisit clause that allows contract provisions to be adjusted after the three-year term.

So why SO much better than what was offered writers?
I'm starting to think that there's something to those rumblings (practically conspiracy theories) of studios using the strike to "clean house"...

Story @ LA Times

Top Striking Writers to Launch Online Video Company

Hmmm sounds a bit more like a manifesto than it does a business plan...

“We are a coalition of top film and television writers and top tech innovators who are dedicated to creating and delivering professionally made content directly to the end user, and who believe in the model of freedom and inclusiveness over the model of control that has been employed by the big media conglomerates for the past 100 years”

The point though, is that online, content is king. It'll be interesting to see if they pull this off.

read more | digg story

Speechless with Justine and Jason Bateman

So, no writers huh?




There's more where that came from!

News Sound Bites - Napster, Sony, Golden Globes and More!

CorePlayer (a play anything media player Windows Mobile users have been using for a while) comes to the iPhone. Play any file, not just what Apple wants you to play!

Sony's plans for DRM-Free Music are retarded! I mean this in the truest sense of the word, as in "to retard progress".

In other DRM news, Napster is going DRM free, likely give up on subscription service?

NO GOLDEN GLOBES FOR YOU! ONE YEAR!!!

Your iPhone can now be used to help you figure out what that song on the radio is...

Sierra Entertainment touting Prototype as the first Video Game to feature 7.1 THX surround sound audio. Sounds good to me.

Odeo relaunching, to become relevant again?

MetaFilter users wax philosophical on the Death of High Fidelity (not the movie), and I agree.

Letterman and WGA Reach Agreement!

He Shoots, HE SCORES!!!
(lol teh cheesie)






This is extremely exciting news! As reported by NYT, Worldwide Pants Inc, the company behind The Late Show with David Letterman, and The Late Late Show with Colin Ferguson has worked out a deal with the WGA.

Read the whole article HERE.

This is my favorite part of the article:
On Friday evening, the leaders of the two writers unions, Michael Winship of the East Coast guild and Patric M. Verrone of the West Coast guild, upped the ante in a letter sent to members. It said the unions would urge actors and politicians to appear on the Worldwide Pants shows and stay clear of the others, which would be subject to even more intense picketing.

Take THAT Carson Daly! SCAB!!!

News Sound Bites - Wavosaur, Writers, and Hi-Def Transfers

Just a couple cool links for ya'll.

Download Squad has the scoop on Wavosaur, a free tiny portable audio editing suite. Does it have what it takes to compete against products like Audacity?

Gizmodo is looking for writers! If only there were an influx of really good writers, with time on their hands, looking for new projects ... hmmm ... (I kid because I love)

Sound and Vision Magazine has a great article on the challenges of transferring Blade Runner to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. YAY! I get to buy the movie AGAIN once I get an HDTV! I can't wait!

Conan O'Brien pays salaries of 80 people

Conan O'Brien is digging deep to help his staff weather the WGA strike. Host of NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" will cover the salaries of his non-writing production staff for the foreseeable future, an NBC U spokeswoman confirmed Thursday.

read more | digg story

WGA Strike: A Love Story

Sent in from my friend A.

Susan Savage writing for Huffington Post

My pal Susan is currently blogging on The Huffington Post. She's a featured columnist writing about the WGA strike, and she lends a very personal perspective.

You can check out her work here.

VIDEO: Seth MacFarlane Gives Impassioned Speech About WGA Strike

Well the pic is actually from a speech he gave at Harvard, but close enough right?

This is an interesting video to watch in light of the recent announcement that FOX will be signing off on episodes of Family Guy without MacFarlane's approval as show runner. He's been withholding his show runner duties along with his writing duties, which I can't say I'm in favor of. In the video he mentions studios firing assistants and staff, but that was in direct response to writer/producer/show runners striking on all fronts, not just on their writing duties. Variety has a great write up of THAT situation over HERE.

Anywho, I caught this vid on Digg, so here's the original posting (spelling corrected):

Earlier this month the creator of "Family Guy" and active WGA member Seth MacFarlane gave an impassioned speech at Fox Plaza in Century City in front of 4,000 fellow striking writers guild members in witch he lambasted Fox and other Hollywood studios for not paying the creators of profitable content what they are due.

read more | digg story

NOT Well Said! Response to "Why We Fight" from shirtless dude...

Yup,
He's a tool...
Here's GhostCow's (LOL!) response to "Why We Fight".

"Writers Are Greedy"



A perfect example of "teh intarwebs are a privilege, not a right"!

***EDIT***

This is the winning comment from GhostCow's video page!

LeFlaneur00

I'm sorry, but your video is structurally weak. You need a good hook at the beginning, plus you need to clearly state your thesis. Your copy tends to meander and your points (ie "the average writer makes...") are not well supported. Plus, the piece is really lacking a solid conclusion.

I suggest you hire a better writer.

Well Said! Clear simple viewpoint on WGA Strike - "Why We Fight"

It's amazing what four cents can do...

"Why We Fight"

Jon Stewart perfectly sums up WGA strike

From November 1st's "Moment of Zen":


Perfect. Subtle. Smart.
I'm going to miss this show most of all...