Rich Fiscus
12 Jan 2008 2:44
As the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike continues to affect Hollywood productions, and even their annual awards season, it's now the directors' turn to work on a new deal with studios. Starting on Saturday the Director's Guild of America (DGA) will start talks with the studios, under guidelines that were agreed to in recent talks.
Until recently the directors were waiting for developments in the WGA negotiations. The chief point of contention between the writers and studios is royalty rates for digital distribution after broadcast, particularly for Streaming or download online. While studio representatives characterize online video as a money losing, or at best break even venture, some on the writers' side point out that this is contrary to claims made in lawsuits against viral video services like YouTube. As the strike has drug on with little communication between the two sides the directors have apparently lost patience.
The DGA negotiations include discussions of the same issues, and although there has never been a prolonged directors strike in Hollywood, the WGA cautions against assuming the same will hold true this time around.
"They're going to be cautious here and I doubt they're going to be as easy to deal with as in the past," said Jeff Hermanson, assistant executive director of the Writers Guild of America, West, citing the complexity of the "epoch-making issues facing us and facing them."
Source: Associated Press