Will the Strike effect the Script Books?

[JDSValen]

The title pretty much explains it. Will it delay it even further or will it help it because JMS will not be busy with other stuff?

[Jan]

It may very well help since he won't be working on deadlines for any movie or TV projects. That said, we're getting into the time of year when they don't usually issue books so that people can concentrate on regular holiday spending.

Jan

[raw_bean]

Most of the Christmas presents I buy every year are books, as it happens. Although any B5 scriptbooks that come out would be being bought as presents to myself!

[JDSValen]

Although any B5 scriptbooks that come out would be being bought as presents to myself!

My thinking exactly!

[Spoo Junky]

I want to take advantage of the Canuck dollar before it sinks again. It's not much of a saving, but I'll take it!

[FuryPilot]

The title pretty much explains it. Will it delay it even further or will it help it because JMS will not be busy with other stuff?

He may do some speculative writing (creating scripts/pitches to be sold after the strike is over) during the strike, but I would imagine that this might get the last books out faster.

After all, this (and the "Never Surrender Dreams" print that just went out) are guaranteed income to help tide him over during the strike.

FP
(for the writers on this one)

[Shabaz]

He may do some speculative writing (creating scripts/pitches to be sold after the strike is over) during the strike, but I would imagine that this might get the last books out faster.

After all, this (and the "Never Surrender Dreams" print that just went out) are guaranteed income to help tide him over during the strike.

FP
(for the writers on this one)

Pretty sure creating scripts during the strike to be sold after the strike isn't allowed, or at the very least against the spirit of the strike, and I doubt JMS would want to do that from the sense I get from his newsgroup postings. The strike isn't supposed to just affect writers who are already under contract. As the poster says, pencils down means pencils down.

[Jan]

That ad/poster was by showrunners who traditionally do both writing and producing tasks.

As long as the writing isn't under contract, it's allowed. From Script Book #1 where JMS talked about when B5 actually came together in his mind (during the '88 strike):

During such labor actions, you are not allowed to stockpile scripts for the show you are working on when all hell breaks loose. You can, however, write anything else you want: spec feature film screenplays, pilots you intend to sell down the road, anything else that is not otherwise under contract to a producer or studio. Which is why the period following a Guild strike is followed by a veritable snowstorm of spec material.

I think if JMS weren't allowed to write at all we'd have that proverbial head implosion.

Jan

[Shabaz]

That ad/poster was by showrunners who traditionally do both writing and producing tasks.

As long as the writing isn't under contract, it's allowed. From Script Book #1 where JMS talked about when B5 actually came together in his mind (during the '88 strike):


I think if JMS weren't allowed to write at all we'd have that proverbial head implosion.

Jan

I know who that poster is from, but the sentiment it expresses is more general I thought. I've seen a hollywood writer in an other forum I post on saying that anyone showing up with completed projects after the strike is pretty much considered a scab, and he won't be creating new pitches or scripts during the strike because of it (which someone suggested to him). And he mentioned the 'pencils down' poster he saw hanging at the WGA meeting last week as reference for that sentiment.

And JMS still has his comic work to keep him busy, right?

[WorkerCaste]

I thought I read somewhere that the writers could work on purely speculative items, but they couldn't do any writing for existing properties. Thus, writing a future CSI episode wouldn't be allowed, even if it was speculative in the sense that there was no committment to buy it. I don't imagine you can stop thinking if you're a writer for an existing show, but I think the idea is that there shouldn't be a ready supply of scripts once the strike ends since knowing that would enable the producers to prolong things. As is, they need to take into account the time it will take to get back up and running even after a settlement.

[Jan]

And JMS still has his comic work to keep him busy, right?

Not so many monthly titles anymore but one never knows what special projects he might have picked up. I'm also gathering from Colleen Doran's blog that we may get more 'Book of Lost Souls' fairly soon. <fingers crossed>

I have a feeling that the writer may have been referring to somebody who might have been stockpiling scripts for a show that they're already on? That definitely would be against the rules and would certainly fit the definition of a scab.

Perhaps to avoide the perception of a writer being a scab, there are script validation rules issued by the WGA:

--Any unproduced script or other literary material written for or acquired by a struck Company delivered during the six-month period before commencement of the strike.

--Any undelivered script or other literary material being written for a struck company as of the date of commencement of the strike.

--Any spec or sample script, if any version of it was submitted to a struck company during the six month period before commencement of the strike.

The crux of the matter seems to be whether any written material has reached any of the struck companies.

Otherwise, an excellent example of a 'writer showing up with completed projects' could easily have been JMS if his agent had found a buyer for 'The Changeling' after a strike. Those who are familiar with his 'Complete Book of Scriptwriting' are reasonably sure that he actually included a small part of that script in the book. There's no way of knowing if a writer has been working on a spec idea for months or years.
In the strike rules there are instructions as to messages that the guild members need to send to struck companies who already have spec material and also to their agents who might already be in negotiations on a proposed project.

Interestingly, one of JMS's recent posts said that show runners would be allowed to maka 'A through H' changes but that's expressly forbidden by the posted rules so that may be a newer rule.

Jan

[Shabaz]

I just re-read the post I was thinking of, and on second thought I may have misread the guy. I actually thought the conversation I was remembering specifically mentioned working on completely new projects, but I just noticed it doesn't. Though he did say that he pretty much isn't going to touch tv and movie work, and only do writing for things like e.g. novels, short stories, or comics.