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Refleksjoner over en avsluttet streik

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Streik!Så var det offisielt: Manusforfatterne (WGA) har stemt på og godkjent den nye avtalen med produsentene (AMPTP) – så streiken i Hollywood er defintivt over. I morgen returnerer forfatterne til tastaturene. Men var streiken verdt det? Nedenfor skal vi se på forskjellige tanker om dette. Det uthevede spørsmålet stilles av Cynthia Littleton, en spaltist i Variety som har fulgt streiken tett. I sin analyse går hun til kjernen av streikens resultater:

For the WGA, it was all about setting precedent and cementing the idea that scribes deserve to be paid for Internet exploitation of their work. More specifically, they wanted a deal that paid them a percentage of distributor’s gross, on the principle that "when you get paid, we get paid." But the cost of achieving that principle through a strike has been considerable — particularly for the busiest and most successful WGA members with the most to lose. Meanwhile, the money to be made through the hard-fought new-media residuals is not exactly eye-popping.

Prinsippet er viktigere enn størrelsen på pengene manusforfatterne kan tjene på nye mediaplattformer – i dag. Men hva med i morgen? Littleton fremhever at WGA har klart å synliggjøre at ingen vet hva fremtiden vil bringe, og at denne avtalen er mye mer fremsynt enn den fra 1985 som gjaldt hjemmevideomarkedet – et marked som viste seg å bli enormt mye større enn avtalen WGA oppnådde gjenspeilet. Nå gjelder det å ikke undervurdere fremtiden:

Nobody in the biz knows how the digital revolution in showbiz wrought by iTunes, TiVo, YouTube, the Wii and their ilk will change the entertainment-consumption habits of generations to come. The only certainty is that things are changing, at warp speed, thanks to the availability of paid downloads and Web streaming and the evolution of the DVR and digital video cameras as household appliances.

I tillegg til Littletons grundige gjennomgang av løsningen, har det vært mange fine oppsummeringer av streiken å lese de siste dagene. Da avtalen ble fremlagt lørdag, skrev den profilerte manusforfatteren John August ("Big Fish", "Charlie og sjokoladefabrikken") på sin blogg en kynisk gjennomgang av argumentene enkelte grinebitere måtte ha for å ville fortsette streiken:

So is this deal, today, good enough to accept? Yes. It’s a yes for me. And I suspect it’s a yes for most writers. Some would shout yes emphatically, with a victory dance around a giant picket bonfire. Others would mutter yes with a forlorn shrug of their shoulders, deeply dissatisfied yet not able to rationalize a no vote. I’m somewhere in-between. I don’t think it’s great — hell, it’s not even “good” — but it’s honestly better than I thought we’d get.

Så, hva nå? The New York Times ser i sin sak "After the Writer’s Strike" fremover – den neste fagforeningen uten reforhandlet avtale er nemlig skuespillernes organisasjon SAG:

Not incidentally, the prospect of a writers’ settlement has already changed a complicated power equation that has kept a strike-weary business on edge about a possible walkout by perhaps 150,000 actors when their own contract expires, on June 30. With writers pointed back to work and directors having settled their new contract weeks ago, the actors would stand alone if they pressed for gains larger than those just achieved by their colleagues, especially in the contentious area of new media.

[…]

The actors’ guild, which covers the movie industry and much television series production, has argued that its higher earnings entitled it to more bargaining power, and it was pursuing a block voting mechanism that would have solidified its power within the committee. The federation, which covers some prime-time television series, has for decades done its series and commercials bargaining in tandem with the actors’ guild. (Game shows, soap operas, and news broadcasts are dealt with in a separate negotiation.)

Avisen har også laget en tidslinje, som viser utviklingen underveis i streikens 100 dager lange varighet. Og med det avslutter vi for denne gang vår dekning av manusforfatterstreiken i Hollywood.
Og begynner å glede oss til Oscar-utdelingen.

Refleksjoner over en avsluttet streik

Av

Streik!Så var det offisielt: Manusforfatterne (WGA) har stemt på og godkjent den nye avtalen med produsentene (AMPTP) – så streiken i Hollywood er defintivt over. I morgen returnerer forfatterne til tastaturene. Men var streiken verdt det? Nedenfor skal vi se på forskjellige tanker om dette. Det uthevede spørsmålet stilles av Cynthia Littleton, en spaltist i Variety som har fulgt streiken tett. I sin analyse går hun til kjernen av streikens resultater:

For the WGA, it was all about setting precedent and cementing the idea that scribes deserve to be paid for Internet exploitation of their work. More specifically, they wanted a deal that paid them a percentage of distributor’s gross, on the principle that "when you get paid, we get paid." But the cost of achieving that principle through a strike has been considerable — particularly for the busiest and most successful WGA members with the most to lose. Meanwhile, the money to be made through the hard-fought new-media residuals is not exactly eye-popping.

Prinsippet er viktigere enn størrelsen på pengene manusforfatterne kan tjene på nye mediaplattformer – i dag. Men hva med i morgen? Littleton fremhever at WGA har klart å synliggjøre at ingen vet hva fremtiden vil bringe, og at denne avtalen er mye mer fremsynt enn den fra 1985 som gjaldt hjemmevideomarkedet – et marked som viste seg å bli enormt mye større enn avtalen WGA oppnådde gjenspeilet. Nå gjelder det å ikke undervurdere fremtiden:

Nobody in the biz knows how the digital revolution in showbiz wrought by iTunes, TiVo, YouTube, the Wii and their ilk will change the entertainment-consumption habits of generations to come. The only certainty is that things are changing, at warp speed, thanks to the availability of paid downloads and Web streaming and the evolution of the DVR and digital video cameras as household appliances.

I tillegg til Littletons grundige gjennomgang av løsningen, har det vært mange fine oppsummeringer av streiken å lese de siste dagene. Da avtalen ble fremlagt lørdag, skrev den profilerte manusforfatteren John August ("Big Fish", "Charlie og sjokoladefabrikken") på sin blogg en kynisk gjennomgang av argumentene enkelte grinebitere måtte ha for å ville fortsette streiken:

So is this deal, today, good enough to accept? Yes. It’s a yes for me. And I suspect it’s a yes for most writers. Some would shout yes emphatically, with a victory dance around a giant picket bonfire. Others would mutter yes with a forlorn shrug of their shoulders, deeply dissatisfied yet not able to rationalize a no vote. I’m somewhere in-between. I don’t think it’s great — hell, it’s not even “good” — but it’s honestly better than I thought we’d get.

Så, hva nå? The New York Times ser i sin sak "After the Writer’s Strike" fremover – den neste fagforeningen uten reforhandlet avtale er nemlig skuespillernes organisasjon SAG:

Not incidentally, the prospect of a writers’ settlement has already changed a complicated power equation that has kept a strike-weary business on edge about a possible walkout by perhaps 150,000 actors when their own contract expires, on June 30. With writers pointed back to work and directors having settled their new contract weeks ago, the actors would stand alone if they pressed for gains larger than those just achieved by their colleagues, especially in the contentious area of new media.

[…]

The actors’ guild, which covers the movie industry and much television series production, has argued that its higher earnings entitled it to more bargaining power, and it was pursuing a block voting mechanism that would have solidified its power within the committee. The federation, which covers some prime-time television series, has for decades done its series and commercials bargaining in tandem with the actors’ guild. (Game shows, soap operas, and news broadcasts are dealt with in a separate negotiation.)

Avisen har også laget en tidslinje, som viser utviklingen underveis i streikens 100 dager lange varighet. Og med det avslutter vi for denne gang vår dekning av manusforfatterstreiken i Hollywood.
Og begynner å glede oss til Oscar-utdelingen.

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