First-Ever WGA Silverdocs Documentary Screenplay Award Goes to Writer-Director Anna Broinowski for Forbidden Lie$ June 24, 2008

LOS ANGELES — The Writers Guild of America, West and the Writers Guild of America, East have named writer-director Anna Broinowski as the winner of the first-ever WGA SILVERDOCS Documentary Screenplay Award for her film Forbidden Lie$, presented at Saturday night’s awards ceremony at the AFI Silver Theater in Silver Springs, MD. The honor goes to the qualifying screenwriter of a feature-length film who demonstrates screenwriting excellence in the documentary genre.

“The Writers Guilds are proud to be the sponsors of this new award, which highlights the fact that many compelling documentaries are indeed written and include a story structure. While nonfiction writers are honored through our own annual Writers Guild Awards, we also felt it was important for them to receive recognition at the SILVERDOCS film festival,” commented WGAW President Patric M. Verrone.

“The art of writing documentaries is one often overlooked and underappreciated in the entertainment world. We are thrilled that this new WGA Award at SILVERDOCS will recognize those who work so diligently and creatively to enhance the imagery of non-fiction film with their well-crafted words and ideas,” added WGAE President Michael Winship.

“SILVERDOCS is honored to work with the WGA to recognize the art and craft of screenwriting in documentary, a critical element in shaping non-fiction storytelling,” said SILVERDOCS Festival Director Patricia Finneran.

Forbidden Lie$ investigates accusations that Forbidden Love author Norma Khouri fabricated her biographical tale of a Muslim friend who was murdered for dating a Christian. Broinowski’s documentary also recently won the Australian Film Institute’s Best Documentary Award.

The WGA SILVERDOCS Documentary Screenplay Award carries with it a prize of $2,500 and the winner will be granted membership, free of charge for the first year, in the WGAW Nonfiction Writers Caucus or WGAE Nonfiction Writers Caucus.

Nominees for this year’s WGA Documentary Screenplay Award at SILVERDOCS 2008 were:

DEAR ZACHARY: A LETTER TO A SON ABOUT HIS FATHER – Writer, Director, Composer Kurt Kuenne

FORBIDDEN LIE$ – Written and Directed by Anna Broinowski

GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF HUNTER S. THOMPSON – Screenplay by Alex Gibney; From the Words of Hunter S. Thompson

IN THE FAMILY – Written, Produced and Directed by Joanna Rudnick

I.O.U.S.A. – Written by Patrick Creadon, Christine O’Malley, and Addison Wiggin; Story by Addison Wiggin and Kate Incontrera

LETTER TO ANNA – Written and Directed by Eric Bergkraut, Coauthor: Therese Obrecht Hodler

LUCIO – Script and Direction by Jose Mari Goenaga, Aitor Arregi

To be eligible for this Award, SILVERDOCS documentaries were required to meet the following criteria: Writer(s) must have received an approved onscreen screenwriting credit, and a script must be submitted for consideration, i.e., a screenplay or transcript.

In recent years, the Guilds have increased their outreach and organizing efforts to build a strong community of nonfiction writers, with an aim to bring more documentaries under WGA contracts.  The WGA’s Documentary Screenplay Contract enables writers to write and sell documentary screenplays using partial or completely deferred fees while receiving Writers Guild benefits and protections. Questions regarding joining the Writers Guild through documentary work may be directed to the WGAW’s Kay Schaber Wolf at (323) 782-4731 or email: Indie Program and also the WGAE’s Alexis DiVincenti at (212) 767-7800.

This season, SILVERDOCS 2008 presented a total of 108 diverse films, representing 63 countries selected from 1,861 submissions with six World, eight North American, six U.S. and seven East Cost premieres, as well as two retrospective programs. Now in its sixth year, SILVERDOCS and its concurrent International Documentary Conference honors excellence in filmmaking, supports the diverse voices and free expression of independent storytellers and celebrates the power of documentary – past, present, and future – to enhance the understanding of the world. At this year’s week-long festival, a wide range of documentary films from around the globe screened in six distinct sections: U.S. Feature Competition, World Feature Competition, Best Music Documentary, Silver Spectrum (formerly known as World View), Short Films, and 1968 and Beyond, a special thematic sidebar added for 2008. Additional information about SILVERDOCS is available at www.silverdocs.com.

The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) represent writers in the motion picture, broadcast, cable, and new media industries in both entertainment and news.

For more information about the Writers Guild of America, West, please visit www.wga.org; for more information about the Writers Guild of America, East, please visit: www.wgaeast.org.

2008 Board of Directors Election Noticen – WGA June 24, 2008

Each year the Guild conducts an election for eight of the 16 seats on the Board of Directors.
 
The election cycle starts in the spring, when the Board appoints a nominating committee that will select candidates for the September election. The committee selects at least two candidates for each of the eight Board seats. It will seek potential candidates from the various work areas within the Guild’s jurisdiction: features, episodic and long-form television, animation, reality, nonfiction, made-for-pay TV and made-for-basic cable, interactive, comedy-variety, daytime serials, new media, news and documentaries.

The Guild encourages members to participate in the nomination process. You are invited to suggest names of prospective Board candidates, including your own. The nominating committee will consider all prospective nominees suggested by members. Eligible candidates must be Current members in good standing for the 12 months immediately preceding the September 2008 election (Constitution, Article V.A.§5.a.). Successful Board candidates will be elected for two-year terms. In order to be considered for candidacy by the nominating committee, members’ names must be received by Jennifer Burt at the Guild, 7000 W. Third St., Los Angeles, CA 90048, by Thursday, May 15, 2008. Names may also be faxed to Ms. Burt at (323) 782-4801, or emailed to Jennifer Burt. The nominating committees will make its selections by June 18, 2008.

In addition to selection by the nominating committee, eligible members may also run for a Board seat by petition (Constitution, Article V.A.§4.). Petitions for Board candidates must be signed by 25 or more Current members in good standing. The signed petitions must be received by Ms. Burt on or before Monday, July 21, 2008. Each candidate’s name must appear on each page of a petition containing members’ signatures. Fax signatures are acceptable.

If you have questions about the Guild’s election process, call Ms. Burt at (323) 782-4569. You can have a significant impact on the governing body of your Guild, and we welcome your active participation.

Submit nomination petition online
Download petition form (.pdf)

From the Computer Screen to the TV Screen June 24, 2008

In the LA Times (Monday June 16) Scott Collins wrote an insightful piece on Hulu, NBC Universal and News Corporation’s online video joint venture. The occasion was the addition of Comedy Central’s Daily Show to the Hulu roster. As he points out, the greater significance of that appearance is that it inaugurates a relationship with Viacom. If Hulu wants to be the “department store” for video on the web, new partners are the metric of success to watch. Collins also helpfully assesses another important metric of success for a video site, which is depth of content. Hulu’s 700 titles are only a start at what they will need to develop a habit among viewers for dropping in. 

If Collins misses anything it is in his contrast of Hulu on the computer with the TV set. These are not the competitors he poses, but rather stops along an evolutionary path. For replays of traditional media content, computer viewing is just the first incarnation of Internet delivery and it may not be the most significant one. As Apple TV and the new Roku Netflix set top box demonstrate (with pay television business models), the next step for the Internet is migration from the computer screen to the TV screen. This process is one writers need to be keenly aware of. When Hulu, and other services like it, compete with cable-based Video On Demand on the TV set they will move from the minor leagues to the majors. Under the Guild’s new Minimum Basic Agreement, ad-supported VOD via cable or via Hulu to the computer, or eventually to the set top, will pay 1.2% of distributor’s gross receipts for feature films produced after July 1, 1971 and 2.0% of distributor’s gross receipts for television programs produced after 1977 (and a small number produced prior to 1977). Great potential is there for reuse of network and studio libraries on current and future digital platforms—and thanks to writers’ resolve it will be covered by our new contract.

Read the article: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-channel16-2008jun16,0,1733921.story

POV June 24, 2008

It’s the System That Needs to Change 

Jeffrey Korchek, a lawyer for toy company Mattel and former Universal Studios lawyer, wrote in the Hollywood Reporter recently (June 11, 2008)  that the industry doesn’t have the money for the studio lawyers at the AMPTP and the industry unions to indulge in the luxury of a “fight” to resolve a contract negotiation. He thinks union contracts should be for longer than three years and thinks it’s more important to keep everyone working than to hold out for an acceptable contract. He advises SAG to follow the example of the DGA, which, in his view, did not need to strike to achieve an acceptable contract. Mr. Korchek is wrong on three points worthy of a response.

First, Mr. Korchek characterizes the strike as a luxury in resolving the contract negotiation. If the studios thought of it as an optional strategy, the WGA certainly did not. The strike was born out of necessity in the face of a November 4 walk out by the studios that left a devastating offer on the table. The situation hadn’t changed much when the studios walked out on resumed talks December 7. The issues were not small. The offer included pennies on the dollar for new media compared to long-established standards of residuals and the elimination of key provisions of the contract. In the end, writers were successful in avoiding the rollbacks, and they won residuals for new media that largely conform to the standards of prior contracts for other uses.

Second, while the DGA brought its own leverage and negotiating skill to the table, there is no doubt that the WGA’s strike added to the DGA’s ability to get a deal and exposed the AMPTP’s willful scuttling of negotiations with the WGA. If the companies had conducted the three weeks of substantive negotiations that resolved the WGA contract in February of 2008 back in July of 2007, the WGA would have welcomed it. Those conversations and that offer were not available then. The studios and networks are well-informed about their businesses. We must take it at face value that they made a business decision they judged in their interest to delay the offer that long.

Finally, Mr. Korchek describes the industry’s economics as “shaky” and opines that the pressure of a strike is “too great a strain.” Actually, while industry revenues are shifting, they are growing. The entertainment business only appears shaky to those who do not look closely or those who have no strategy to adapt. Industry CEOs continue to brag to Wall Street that the economic outlook is bright and even claim that the strike improved their profits.

Mr. Korchek has raised a worthwhile criticism of the industry’s labor relations. He writes that “The whole labor negotiation process has become contentious and distracting and costly.” That is certainly true. If the studios and networks look back and agree with Mr. Korchek’s conclusion that they should have found a way to make the offer earlier that they were eventually satisfied to make, there is a change to make. The cause of unnecessary conflict is a labor negotiating process disconnected from the operating divisions of the studios and networks. In February, when two seasons of television and the Academy Awards were about to go down the drain, and it became too costly not to settle, the CEOs got involved and the issues were resolved. That was the serious negotiation the WGA had sought from the start, but could not achieve without the pressure of a costly strike. Reconnecting the labor negotiating process to the operating realities of the business is a change that would solve the problem that Mr. Korchek raises. His solution to “just stop messing with the system” is neither specific nor helpful. It’s specifically the system that needs to change.

-Chuck Slocum, WGAW Staff