03. Eric Ernst - Writer | The Attic Door

The Return of the WGA

Eric Ernst
Writer, non-striking

After a three-month stalemate, the WGA strike is nearly over. Mere weeks after the Directors Guild of America reached a settlement months ahead of schedule, the Writer’s Guild has come to one of their own. Details were hammered out Thursday, the language was agreed upon late Friday night (really early Saturday morning) and WGA members will vote to end the strike on Tuesday, with the new plan to be approved within 10 days.

The WGA has allowed showrunners, who typically have an equal amount of producing duties as they do writing for their respective shows, to go back to work Monday, before the vote. If the strike is called off, writers will return on Wednesday.

Of course, knowing how writers work, most will spend a week cleaning their office or finally getting around to repainting before actually writing anything. And then those shelves need to go up. Plus I’ve never really been happy with how the furniture is arranged in here. Also, the light doesn’t scatter right. And you know, by that point it’s almost going to be time for hiatus, so might as well just wait until next season to start.

Strike Monster Claims Another Victim But Tom Cruise Deals It A Good, Hard Blow

The Great Writer’s Strike of 2007/08/? claimed its latest victim as the Beast devoured the telecast of the Golden Globe Awards. The always mysterious Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced today that, due to members of SAG not crossing picket lines and no pre-written material for them to read off of a TV, the award winners would be announced during an hour-long press conference airing on NBC this Sunday at 9pm EST/6pm PST. While viewers will be spared the usual yawn-inducing praisefest, one can’t help but lament that we will not be able to see Sacha Baron Cohen (aka Borat) present the Best Actor – Comedy, Musical or Whatever award to Tom Hanks, nor the death glare from John C. Reilly that is sure to follow his snub.

In other strike news, hot off of David Letterman’s victory against the Strike Monster, Tom Cruise has thrust his sabre deep into the beast’s hide, as his United Artists company has come to an agreement with the Writer’s Guild, allowing UA to move forward on re-writes and projects they have in development. UA is the first major company to do so and could completely change the way that labor negotiations are done in Hollywood, if other companies follow suit, the AMPTP could be crippled. More to come…

From the Cast and Crew of “A Monster in the Attic”

Happy Holidays

Another mention in Salt Lake Tribune; trails only Karl Malone in press coverage

Eric Ernst
Writer

The fine folks over at the Salt Lake Tribune have again honored our film by including it in an article about the busy fall filming schedule in the state, and the projects that were shot in Utah this year.

Many thanks to columnists Mark Havnes and Vince Horiuchi for keeping us in the news!

Here’s the link:

The article is also reposted after the jump, preserved for antiquity.

Strike Talks Break Down; Hollywood in Greater State of Shock than Usual

Eric Ernst
Writer

Bleak news from Hollywoodland – the AMPTP and the WGA formally broke off negotiations last week, leaving the current and coming television seasons in a state of disarray. As many shows air the last of their completed episodes, their futures are in limbo as everyone waits anxiously for the talks to resume. New statements were released by both sides, and are decidely harsher and more personal, with the AMPTP chiding the WGA management for staging “mock exorcisms” and the WGA criticizing their opponents for jumping the gun and blaming them as quickly as possible.

With the holidays on the way, talks continuing before the end of the year are unlikely. Rumors abound of another month before the negotiations resume and a drastically reduced Pilot Season ‘08, and the possibility of resuming the current season in the fall.

Fun stuff, huh? The latest he said/she said after the jump:

Congratulations!

Eric Ernst
Writer

To Madison Davenport, for her Annie Award Nomination!

Madison was nominated in the category of Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production for her role as “Sophianna” in Christmas Is Here Again. This is quite an honor, as Madison is nominated alongside Scott Adsit (Voice of Clay Puppington � �Moral Orel�), Tom Kenny (Voice of SpongeBob � SpongeBob SquarePants �Spy Buddies�), Eartha Kitt (Voice of Yzma � The Emperor�s New School �Emperor�s New Musical�) and Eddie Murphy (Voice of Donkey � �Shrek The Halls�).

The 35th annual Annie Awards, animation’s highest honor, will be presented by the International Animated Film Society on February 8, 2008. More information is available at www.annieawards.org.

The WGA Strike’s Back (On)

Eric Ernst
Writer

Despite the hopeful and optimistic rumor that began circulating earlier this week, the Great Writer’s Strike of 2007 has not ended and unfortunately, does not seem like it will soon. Although talks resumed this week, there was little news until Thursday, when both the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) and the WGA released press statements after the first three days of meetings.

Something I noticed while reading these: the AMPTP’s statement addresses the proposal using broad, big picture statistics, particularly the statement, “The entire value of the New Economic Partnership will deliver more than $130 million in additional compensation above and beyond the more than $1.3 billion writers already receive each year.” This is more than likely designed to create a negative emotional response to the fact that writers receive such large salaries, specifically $1.3 billion worth. However, if that were averaged out over the approximately 12,000 WGA members, that $1.3b comes to about $108,000 per member. Of course, it is not divided equally, and there are many writers making much more and much less than that.

Furthermore, while reading the WGA’s letter, the numbers get much more specific. For example, this statement: “For streaming television episodes, the companies proposed a residual structure of a single fixed payment of less than $250 for a year’s reuse of an hour-long program (compared to over $20,000 payable for a network rerun). For theatrical product they are offering no residuals whatsoever for streaming.”

What makes this interesting is the difference in management vs. labor strategies that is present in almost all labor disputes. Please be assured this is not an attempt to editorialize, merely an analysis of the presentation of progresses made during this week’s negotiations. Which basically amounts to zero progress.

At least they’re talking again.

Statements available after the jump: