Welcome back for Day 2 of munchman Weekend. Are we having fun yet? Nevermind. Of course we are. And it continues with:
And now for some overlooked news of great relevance to writers living in New York who want to work in TV but don’t want to make the necessary step of moving to L.A. Some idiot’s actually trying to make your wrong-headed, totally ignorant non-move possible:
by Nicole Levy
When CBS bought the pilot she’d deliberately set in New York, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen had to negotiate with the network to staff the production in the city.
New York’s TV-writing talent pool was shallow, she was told, but the former Time staff writer was skeptical: “While that may be true for known talent, I think there is a lot of untapped talent … women, and minorities and people who look different than a lot of the writers in L.A., but who look like the rest of America,” Cullen said.
As New York state lawmakers discuss the state budget that will go into effect April 1, the Writers Guild of America East is lobbying for a bill that would give film and television productions incentive to hire untapped writing talent.
“Including writers as a qualified production cost will create jobs for New Yorkers as well as preserve New York’s strong tradition as a creative center for entertainment,” an AFL-CIO memo in support of the legislation said.
The bill amends the state’s film tax credit program, which offers $420 million a year to cover mostly technical and crew production costs, like props, makeup, wardrobe, lighting and post-production. Under the proposed law, the credits would also reimburse writers’ fees and salaries, up to $50,000 per project for qualified writers.