N.Y. Loses in Writers Strike

Members of the Writers Guild of America gathered yesterday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Midtown Manhattan and the Writers Guild Theater in Los Angeles for a vote that was expected to end the three-month strike that has put thousands of New Yorkers out of work.The strike will end with the writers getting what they wanted most: a share of digital revenue. But thousands of actors, cinematographers, stagehands, carpenters, electricians, makeup artists, costumers, and caterers were forced to pay the price.Under the agreement reached with the producers, which will not be formally ratified until Guild members mail in ballots, writers would be paid a fixed residual of $1,300 in the first two years for the right to stream a television show online. In the third year, they would get 2% of the distributor’s revenue from the streams.The costs of the victory were significant. Although the precise economic impact of the strike on New York City is difficult to estimate — and clearly smaller than the impact on Los Angeles, which has been estimated at as much as $1.5 billion — many New Yorkers said that they or their businesses had suffered.An actor who has appeared on “Gossip Girl” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” among other shows, Austin Lysy, said jobs had been scarce during the strike. “Normally, at this time of year, I’m going on nine auditions a week,” Mr. Lysy said. “This year, it’s been more like nine a month.” Karl Wasserman, who works as a boom operator on several television shows, said he has been “pretty much living on my savings, collecting unemployment and saving nickels.”An independent producer, Beth O’Neil, said several projects she had in development with different production companies “came to a screeching halt” because of the strike. Fortunately, in the case of one project, the company, Big Beach Films, signed an independent deal with the Guild that allowed writers to go back to work. Ms. O’Neil said that, in general, New York producers had been more willing than producers in L.A. to negotiate interim deals that got people working again. “I think New York had a really different perspective on the strike than Los Angeles,” Ms. O’Neil said. “The Weinstein Company worked out a really good interim deal with the Writers Guild, and lots of smaller production companies here in New York used that as a model” to work out their own deals.Still, people in all areas of television and film production found themselves out of jobs. The business agent of Local 52, the union of motion picture studio mechanics, John Ford, said about 1,500 members of the union have been out of work due to shows such as “30 Rock,” “Gossip Girl,” “Lipstick Jungle,” “Cashmere Mafia,” and all three versions of “Law & Order” stopping production. Local 600, which represents cinematographers, has also had many members out of work.Stuart Suna, the president of Silvercup Studios — where “30 Rock,” “Gossip Girl,” “Cashmere Mafia,” and a new drama about an immortal homicide detective, “New Amsterdam,” are filmed — said Silvercup’s revenue stream had suffered from those shows essentially locking up their studios for three months. Although the shows are paying for the studios, he explained, they’re not paying for any of the extras, including overtime, as well as lighting equipment, lumber, and paint, all of which Silvercup provides.“We’re like a hotel that provides a lot of amenity services,” Mr. Suna said. While the guests — the shows — are still paying for their rooms, “they’re not consuming anything from the minibar, they’re not ordering room service, they’re not going to the spa,” he said. “We’re excited to have people coming back.”

N.Y. Loses in Writers Strike

N.Y. Loses in Writers Strike

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