Comments on: Writers Need to Recognize Opportunity http://boldwords.wordpress.com/2008/01/15/writers-need-to-recognize-opportunity/ Exploring how bold words can give life to bold ideas. Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:34:13 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Britt http://boldwords.wordpress.com/2008/01/15/writers-need-to-recognize-opportunity/#comment-1102 Britt Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:20:50 +0000 http://boldwords.wordpress.com/2008/01/15/writers-need-to-recognize-opportunity/#comment-1102 @Joe: I should have included the mandatory membership issue in my original post, because you bring up the important point that people can't write in Hollywood unless they join the WGA. My proposed alternative was more of a co-op situation instead of a the forced membership that's currently required. The whole industry is paralyzed because the group as a whole is on strike, which is detrimental to many individuals. Ultimately, I was proposing moving away from group negotiations for intellectual property rights to individual contracts, rewarding quality and giving the writers more control over their working experience. @Joe: I should have included the mandatory membership issue in my original post, because you bring up the important point that people can’t write in Hollywood unless they join the WGA. My proposed alternative was more of a co-op situation instead of a the forced membership that’s currently required.

The whole industry is paralyzed because the group as a whole is on strike, which is detrimental to many individuals. Ultimately, I was proposing moving away from group negotiations for intellectual property rights to individual contracts, rewarding quality and giving the writers more control over their working experience.

]]> By: Joe T. http://boldwords.wordpress.com/2008/01/15/writers-need-to-recognize-opportunity/#comment-1098 Joe T. Thu, 17 Jan 2008 11:04:32 +0000 http://boldwords.wordpress.com/2008/01/15/writers-need-to-recognize-opportunity/#comment-1098 Britt: grat idea, and kudos to you for thinking outside the box - but the situation you described is very similar to what exists right now, under the 4creen Writer's Guild. Most people don't know that mwmbership in the Guild is mandatory for Hollywood writers; if you don't join the guild, you can't erite for a show or movie; and if you sign on as a writer for any show or production company, you have to join. And, the SWG provides pretty much all the functions you've described, including paying some legal costs. And it doesn't hold the writers' IP. On the other hand, it doesn't sell or market the members' works, so it doesn't iperate as a for-profit enterprise. Neverthless, what you've described is doable, and in many ways, sensible. Britt: grat idea, and kudos to you for thinking outside the box – but the situation you described is very similar to what exists right now, under the 4creen Writer’s Guild. Most people don’t know that mwmbership in the Guild is mandatory for Hollywood writers; if you don’t join the guild, you can’t erite for a show or movie; and if you sign on as a writer for any show or production company, you have to join. And, the SWG provides pretty much all the functions you’ve described, including paying some legal costs. And it doesn’t hold the writers’ IP. On the other hand, it doesn’t sell or market the members’ works, so it doesn’t iperate as a for-profit enterprise.

Neverthless, what you’ve described is doable, and in many ways, sensible.

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