Sherri Sylvester: Hollywood writers' contract gains

Sherri Sylvester

After months of negotiations, Hollywood writers and studio executives agreed to "groundbreaking improvements" for more than 11,000 writers. CNN Showbiz Today Reports Correspondent Sherri Sylvester explains what the writers gained.

Q: What did writers win?

Sylvester: The writers gained ground both economically and creatively.

Economically it is a pretty broad-reaching agreement, in that they did boost residuals for overseas play of their work. Fox Broadcasting has agreed to boost their pay rate up to that of other networks, so they'll be up to 100 percent by the end of the third year. The writers get a pay increase for video on demand and made-for-pay-TV shows such as pay-cable shows "The Sopranos" and "Sex and the City." They get a mandatory $5,000 payment if their work is released on DVD. Their overall guild minimum pay rate went up 3.5 percent. So the total package is worth $41 million over three years.

Q: What about creative gains?

Sylvester: Creative gains will be laid out as sort of a guideline for policy procedures. The studios agreed that they would make an effort to give the writers more creative control on film sets. It specifically regards film and has nothing to do with television.

They said that they would allow writers to attend cast readings, to visit the sets of their movies, to meet with directors and collaborate with directors. They would also be including in publicity events for feature films.

But they did not get the "film-by" credit, that possessory credit that they wanted. It's that credit at the beginning of a movie that might read, "A Steven Spielberg Film" before the title. Writers had complained that oftentimes those credits are just routinely given to directors, even first-time directors, over a very experienced writer. They wanted to eliminate that process or at least to get that credit for themselves and that issue has been tabled.

What used to happen is that a film writer would sell a script to a studio and then they were often simply dismissed. Their script would be rewritten by script doctors, they had no say-so over who directed or starred, they weren't necessarily allowed on the set during rehearsals. They never got to see their script all the way through the process, as opposed to television, where writers are on the set week after week because they are staff writers. The film writers weren't getting any kind of creative control. But the new creative package is subject to everyone agreeing on it. It's not a mandatory creative package; it's just a suggested policy package.

Q: Why the big changes?

Sylvester: A lot of the residual formulas were behind the times. Their overseas pay formula went back to 1970, which was when the TV show "Marcus Welby, M.D." starring Robert Young was on the air. So since then, there's been a huge explosion in U.S. entertainment exports overseas. So writers were looking for more of a trickle in the revenue stream and they got that.

They also were trying to do something with the Internet. They did lay down some groundwork for writers to be hired to produce product directly for the Internet. So if the entertainment industry decided they wanted Internet-only programming such as series, they would make a deal that would allow the writers to become guild members, get employment pension and health benefits. So they are treating the Internet as a legitimate, alternative form of entertainment, just like cable would be.

Q: Were there any sticking points?

Sylvester: I think both sides seemed to compromise all the way down the line. It is a pretty broad contract, covering a lot of ground. I don't think there was any area where the producers absolutely rejected writer payment changes in any area.

The international residuals and video on demand both give writers 1.2 percent of the gross profits. And before if a writer's show went overseas, it was just a buyout, a one-time only payment of a few hundred dollars. Now the international pay is unlimited, so if you have a show that lasts for years and years in Europe, you would continue to get residuals for that.

With video on demand, which is any type of pay per view or hotel movie -- that agreement is retroactive to films and products going back to July 1, 1971. So if you wrote a film like "Rocky" or "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and those movies are still in a pay per view situation, you would get still get all those back payments.

Q: What's the next step in contract process?

Sylvester: The guild takes this contract to both boards, Writers Guild of America East and West. And then they go to their 11,000 voting members and take a vote to ratify the contract. Writers are expected to approve it.

It was interesting that on Friday a number of studio top guns such as Paramount Pictures head Sherri Lansing, Disney's Robert Igor, Dreamwork's Jeffrey Katzenberg were here to make the announcement, as well as a number of well-respected writers such as "Thelma and Louise" screenwriter Callie Khouri. There were so many that they had to remove the chairs around the dais so everyone could crowd in.

I really think that everyone wanted to quell all the strike fears. Because there's been so much out there, especially all those studies by Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan that said that everyone would be out of work and Hollywood would shut down and all the jobs be lost and the economy would go down the toilet.

I think the studies and the writers wanted to come in and say, "Look, we came to a deal. They said it couldn't be done, but we did it. Let's put this to an end and move on."

Now these same producers, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers management, begin negotiations with the screen actors guild May 10. The actors' contract is up June 30. What prompted a lot of these strike fears is that you had two guilds coming up at the same time and everyone thought you could have a one-two punch that would just knock Hollywood out completely. Therefore, everyone was watching the writers specifically to see what kind of deal they get and that would set the groundwork.

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