Guild General Secretary, Bernie Corbett, on a panel at the World Conference of Screenwriters
We start from here
Gail Renard reports from the first World Conference of Screenwriters
I’ve just spent five days in Athens, as a WGGB delegate to the First World Conference of Screenwriters. Writers spoke with a passion I hadn’t heard in a long time. I felt so inspired that if I wasn’t already a writer, I’d immediately become one.
Audrey O’Reilly, Chair of the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild, reported that never has less work been available, yet never has the Irish Guild had so many new members. They’re beating down their door for the simple reason you can’t stop writers writing.
Olivier Lorelle, writer and co-president of UGS in France agreed that our goal was ‘to write the impossible script,’ not just the possible ones which can be turned out easily and with a template. 'We want to do work we’re proud of that will change the world,' he said
Writers’ work is coming in fascinating new forms as digital media develop and we must be open to it. Writer/ producer/ director Yomi Ayeni is doing an innovative interactive reality experience, Breathe. Check it out for yourselves (www.breathewith.me) but it comes with a warning get too close and you might run out of air.
Opportunities are limitless with digital media; conversely it’s made the world smaller and given writers everywhere common problems, for which we must find common solutions. For the first time, high and low earners share the same interests. Digitally our work will have an infinite shelf life (also known as the long tail) but we must be paid for it, in both the present and future.
We were reminded that the WGA strike two years ago enhanced the status of writers worldwide, and taught producers and broadcasters that writers mean business. We need to build upon that. As Lowell Peterson, the executive director of WGA East said, ‘No one will give you anything you haven’t the strength to take for yourself.’
And there are many problems writers have yet to address. There was a call to end the possessory ‘auteur’ credit which directors have taken in recent years. It was suggested any time ‘a film by”=’ credit rears its head, it should be changed to ‘a film directed by’. Or better still, as the recent release Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs boasts: ‘A film made by everyone’.
WGGB General Secretary, Bernie Corbett, warned we should also be careful of language. In journalism, lobbying, presentations and PR, the word ‘writer’ is being replaced by ‘storyteller’ and ‘creator’ by ‘rights holder’. Both of these new terms significantly alter writers’ legal and moral rights. We can’t allow this to happen.
There was also a general concern about collection societies. Not enough of the money writers earn ends up in their pockets and there is little transparency. There was an extreme case scenario which explained that commissions can first be taken by the foreign countries where writers’ work is shown (perhaps 10%), on top of which there can be ‘voluntary’ cultural deductions (in Poland, for example, it’s an additional 15%); and then foreign taxes as well as the writer’s own collection society’s commission of another 9 or 10%. That’s before writers have paid their agent’s commission of an additional 10-15%, which means they’ve lost a sizeable chunk. At this rate, writers will soon be paying for their work to be shown.
It was also pointed out that in some collection societies screenwriters are, to their detriment, greatly outnumbered by scientific and academic writers; and some Canadian screenwriters have to fight attempts to divert some of their money to directors. All this is making others rich, but not professional writers. Dr. Eva Obergfell, a Professor of Law at Aachen University, said ‘we need a new form of collection societies. We have to make it better’.
The time has come for the International Writers’ Guilds (IAWG) and the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe (FSE) to redress all these imbalances. A common aim was declared: to work for the dignity of writers worldwide and to assert our common rights and goals. A new global organisation for writers was envisioned. Together it would represent 25000 writers around the world. That’s a lot of Writer Power. It won’t happen tomorrow but it would be glorious if it did.
The conference ended with a video message from Frank Pierson, a former Writers Guild of America chair and writer of the films Dog Day Afternoon, Presumed Innocent, Cool Hand Luke and many others.
‘There was a time when the writers’ blocks in the studios were bigger than the producers’ blocks,’ Frank said. ‘There was a time when in the commissaries everyone wanted to sit at the writers’ tables... Now we write in isolation in our rooms. We’re losing sight of our strengths.’
He asked us to remember that ‘no one gets paid till the writer is done. That’s our strength’. And Frank signed off saying: ‘Take it easy... but take it!’
At last, a line which needs no rewrite.
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