Category: Press Release

Hey, we didn’t write this – not all of it anyway

Have a Movie Idea? Netflix is Now Looking for Aspiring Writers

Speaking of opportunities (as we were yesterday) here’s a piece about Netflix’s latest search for new writers.

To be honest, after the way Netflix closed out noobs in favor of going to old pros for its streaming shows, we aren’t sure how genuine their interest is.

On the other hand, Ron Howard and Brian Glazer are involved, and LB’s wife, Gwen the Beautiful, met Ron and his wife at a party a few years ago and was impressed by how real they were, so this could be the Real Deal. Here’s the deets.

via Project Casting

Imagine Impact from Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s production company, is looking for submissions as part of their deal with Netflix. The open submissions are looking to identify and help develop feature film ideas in four different genres, over the next year. The first four genre-specific application windows open Wednesday. The first round of projects is considered “large scale action-adventure movies for all audiences.” Applications will be accepted now until July 6th.

What is Imagine Impact?

Imagine Impact is founded by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, and Tyler Mitchell in 2018. It is a content accelerator program, which has held three sessions so far. Content creators apply in an open application process and those admitted to the program take place in an eight-week program that looks for unknown unrepresented writers with unique stories and get their projects to be sold by partnering with experienced mentors.

Since 2018, Imagine Impact has helped develop 62 TV and film projects, with 22 sold or set to be in production.

Imagine Impact and Netflix 2020 Program

This year, Imagine Impact partnered with Netflix. The goal is to give more opportunities to those in the film industry. A group of finalists selected by Impact will present their project directly to Netflix. If Netflix likes the pitch, the streaming company will sign an agreement with the writer and will be paid a WGA-set fee, and then paired with an Impact mentor, who will help the writer deliver the first draft to Netflix. Selected writers will not need to relocate and can work remotely….

Read it all at projectcasting.com

WGAW President David A. Goodman in Response to the Murder of George Floyd and Protests

Statement from WGAW President David A. Goodman

Los Angeles – Writers Guild of America West President David A. Goodman [yesterday] issued the following statement in response to the murder of George Floyd and protests that have erupted across the nation:

“Yesterday, police fired rubber bullets at peaceful demonstrators near the location of WGAW headquarters in Los Angeles while the U.S. President tweeted anger and outrage at his political opponents and the free press. As demonstrations continue today across America, our union stands with those who peacefully protest the racist, extrajudicial murders of George Floyd and other Black people. We must see an end to institutional white supremacy and the militarization of our police departments. Staying silent during this crisis is not an option. National outrage about bigotry, discrimination, and injustice is the only way we will ever see real change.”

The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) is a labor union representing writers of motion pictures, television, radio, and Internet programming, including news and documentaries. Founded in 1933, the Guild negotiates and administers contracts that protect the creative and economic rights of its members. It is involved in a wide range of programs that advance the interests of writers, and is active in public policy and legislative matters on the local, national, and international levels. For more information on the WGAW, please visit: www.wga.org.

Get Your Animation Project Covered by the WGAW

This is important, people!

via WGA West

Dear Members,

We hope you and your families are safe as we continue to face the COVID-19 crisis.

The necessity of social distancing has halted nearly all live-action production in our industry. However, many animated programs have continued production with crews working remotely from home. As a result, we have heard from members that studios and producers are increasingly interested in developing animated projects.

This is an important moment to remind you that the WGA can and does cover writing for animation. If a producer tells you, “The Writers Guild doesn’t cover animation,” that is simply not true. Many prominent animated television shows — on broadcast (Bob’s Burgers, Family Guy, The Simpsons) cable (American DadA) and streaming (BoJack Horseman, Big Mouth, Disenchantment, F is for Family) — are covered by WGA contracts. In fact, our Contracts Department recently negotiated deals to cover new animated series for Netflix (Q-Force, Hoops), Amazon (Undone), Apple TV+ (Central Park) and HBO Max (The Prince). The WGA also covers animated feature projects, including soon to be released Wendall & Wild for Netflix and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run for Paramount.

When opening negotiations to write an animated project, you and your representatives should take the stance that your work will be covered by the WGA. A WGA contract will ensure you have residuals, script fees, credit protections, and contributions to the WGA pension & health funds, more important now than ever. The protections and benefits in a Writers Guild contract provide an important financial cushion in a career that can be unpredictable during even the best of times.

To make sure you get the support you need to cover your animated project, please contact WGAW Member Organizing or Contracts.

Thank you and stay well.

In Solidarity,

WGAW Board of Directors

No Audience, No Actors, But This Show Makes Its Point

NOTE FROM LB: Found this on Facebook and immediately fell in love with the Swarthmore College Theater Department. Wonder if they have any faculty openings….

via TVWriter™ Press Service

THAT WHICH WILL REMAIN UNSEEN
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF THEATER PRESENTS:
SOPHOCLES
THE WOMEN OF TRACHIS
Directed by Michal Zadara

with Alex Kingsley ’20, Nadia Malaya ’22, Josephine Ross ’21, Cynthia Ruimin Shi ’23, and Ziv Stern ’20 (dramaturg)

In the middle of the pandemic, Swarthmore visiting Cornell professor and director, Micha? Zadara ’99, stages Sophocles’ The Women of Trachis.

Sophocles has his chorus of young women witness a non-public aspect of Heracles: his brutality toward women, animals, and societies. Today, theatres are closed and Sophocles’ truth must remain hidden.

Zadara and his students have developed a version of Sophocles’ tragedy that consists of objects and multimedia controlled by a computer. The theater will be empty, there will be no live performers.

No audience will discover what these women of Trachis saw. This knowledge will remain unheard and unseen.

Production co-sponsored by the Department of Classics and the Honors Program.

About 32 minutes, no intermission

NO ONE WILL BE ADMITTED – NO ONE WILL BE ON STAGE
DON’T CALL FOR RESERVATIONS
NO LIVE STREAMING

OPENS Friday, April 24, 2020, 8 PM, Frear Theatre of Swarthmore College

THEATRE WITHOUT WITNESSES
What is lost when the theatre is shut down?

In the end, tragedy is an encounter with everything that cannot be expressed through just words or images. In the theatre, what is not seen is more important than what is on stage. In this production of Sophocles’ play, nothing will be seen.

The crimes and amorality of Heracles will be hidden from view, seen only by the fictional Women of Trachis. Micha? Zadara stages a live performance which no one – not even the performers – will witness.

The performance is a result of Micha? Zadara’s class “Tragedy as Contemporary Theatre” (which was cross-listed in both Theater and Classics).

His students read and analyzed Greek tragedies and then chose The Women of Trachis to stage. Classes on campus were cancelled in March, but Zadara has continued his theatre work with the students online.

Swarthmore’s Lang Performing Arts Center (LPAC) is empty. In isolation, Zadara is connecting equipment, moving scenery, and testing the multimedia his students are sending him.

On April 24, 2020, a computer will start all the cues for the light, sound, and video, and the story of how Deianeira killed herself after killing her husband, Heracles, will be told.

The cast and crew are recorded and the audience is absent.

Swarthmore College’s Department of Theater continues to make live, collective work under these extreme and unique conditions. This performance will exist — and embody — absence as the social reality of this time.

Read what the Washington Post had to say about this fascinating event

WGAW Update re Minimum Basic Agreement Negotiation

by TVWriter™ Press Service

Here’s an important letter to the membership from the WGAW Honchos-In-Charge.

Why is this important?

Because over the long run, what happens in these negotiations will affect all those who write, or want to write, for TV whether they/you/we are members or not.

April 17, 2020
Dear Members,

The Guild is confronting many challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Perhaps the most significant is how best to renegotiate our MBA, which is set to expire on May 1st. The planned March 23rd date to begin bargaining with the AMPTP had to be scuttled upon the order to shelter at home. In mid-March, our committee began meeting virtually to deliberate how best to move forward under these unique and rapidly-evolving circumstances.

We have now determined the best course of action is to propose extending the MBA expiration date to June 30, 2020. On Wednesday, we proposed that extension to the AMPTP, along with dates in May to exchange bargaining proposals and begin negotiations. The extension would give writers two more months to work under the protections of the current agreement, and time for the committee to finalize our proposals and bargain via video conference with the AMPTP. June 30th would also give us ten more weeks to better understand how the pandemic and government policies will continue to impact writers and the industry.

Even in the midst of these unprecedented circumstances, our committee remains determined to fight for writers’ long-term and short-term interests in this negotiation. The crisis has increased our resolve to advance the bargaining goals we’d already set, including gaining additional contributions to our benefit plans and fair compensation and residuals for streaming.

On a related matter, Guild leadership has heard from members concerned about continuing health care coverage during this disruption. Therefore, as part of the lead-up to the negotiation, the Guild has asked the AMPTP Health Fund trustees to agree with us to adopt an extension of eligibility to plan participants who would otherwise lose coverage between now and the end of the year. The details of any extension would be determined by the trustees, who are 50% AMPTP and 50% WGA.

We have not yet heard back from the AMPTP about our proposals.

We will be back in touch in the near future. In the meantime, you can communicate with us about negotiations at MBA2020@wga.org or through your captain.

In solidarity,

WGA MBA Negotiating Committee

Michele Mulroney, Co-Chair
Shawn Ryan, Co-Chair
Betsy Thomas, Co-Chair

Liz Alper
Arash Amel
John August
Amy Berg
Ashley Nicole Black
Adam Brooks
Francesca Butler
Patti Carr
Robb Chavis
Meg DeLoatch
Travis Donnelly
Kate Erickson
Dante W. Harper
Eric Heisserer
Melissa London Hilfers
Elliott Kalan
Chris Keyser
Adele Lim
Peter Murrieta
Luvh Rakhe
Dailyn Rodriguez
Erica Saleh
Sara Schaeffer
David Slack
Lauren Ashley Smith
Meredith Stiehm
Patric M. Verrone

David A. Goodman, Ex-Officio
Marjorie David, Ex-Officio
Beau Willimon, Ex-Officio
Kathy McGee, Ex-Officio
Bob Schneider, Ex-Officio