HWI 528

Hollywood What If Chapter 528

In February, the Writer's Guild Of America strike ended... This was the shocking but positive news that Kazir received today.

What? Do you think it was another sad news, such as an actor being found dead in his hotel room because of an overdose? Nah.

The Writer's Guild Strike was a long labor dispute that lasted around 100 days because many sectors in the industry couldn't make a decision. The strike started on November 5, 2007, and ended on February 12, 2008.

The Writer's Guild was the organization that represents writers in television, radio, and films. This organization made sure that the writers would be protected and not be bullied, in a way.

Also, Writer's Guild was an organization that helped protect the scripts that scriptwriters make. One of the reasons why Kazir joined the organization and also registered his scripts in WGA(Writer's Guild of America.)

There were issues why many writers went on strike and stopped working.

First was the residuals for digital distribution. Now that the internet was slowly dominating such as streaming and downloads, writers wanted a cut of this profit. Obviously, the big studios were against that and said that the profit regarding digital distribution was still questionable, which was a fair point since it was still 2007. However, WGA and major studios agreed and gave writers 1.2% of the distributor's gross revenue for digital rentals and purchases.

The second reason was Home Video Residuals. Writers were paid a fixed percentage of revenue from DVD sales, which had not been updated since the 1980s. The contract between DVDs and Videotapes was different. In the 90s, Videotape slowly lost its relevance, and DVDs became the go-to method to watch movies at home.

Writers demanded a higher percentage, arguing that DVDs had become a massive source of income for studios. In the 80s, writers could only get 0.3% whenever a DVD was sold. It means that writers could only get a few cents every time a $20 DVD was sold. By the way, Kazir also has this kind of contract but his rates were higher for obvious reasons.

Unfortunately for WGA, major studios stood firm with their decisions and never agreed to increase the residuals. Studios make money from selling peripherals and it would be hard to accept if they give more to the writers.

What the studios didn't know was that in the next decade, digital distribution would become the best way to consume content, and since then, writers could get at least 1.2%, depending on the contract. People stopped using DVDs around the 2015s, hehe.

This strike impacted a lot of projects in Showbiz since most projects needed writers. Shows that needed scripts were delayed, some TV series had a smaller number of episodes compared to last year, and some shows were even canceled.

Especially for the Film industry, this section heavily needed writers, and many projects were canceled or delayed. Movies such as 007: Quantum Of Solace, G.I. Joe: Rise Of The Cobra, and Star Trek were some of the movies affected.

Also, this strike had an economic loss. Los Angeles alone lost $1.2 billion in revenue because many projects were badly affected.

In Kazir's and Grey Pictures' situation, they suffered slightly but not that much. Why? Because Kazir agreed to most of the requests that WGA listed. Furthermore, Kazir was also a writer and highly respected at that so the organization didn't give him tough jobs.

In fact, most screenwriters in Hollywood dreamed of becoming someone like Kazir Grey, where they could sell the scripts for millions of dollars. Grey Pictures increased the DVD residuals up to 0.5%... A small increase, but still an increase. As for profits from digital sales, Grey Pictures had the same contract with most studios which was 1.2%

Seeing the strike end was a good thing; at least people had jobs again, which was good for the individual and the economy.

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The filming of Ninja Assassin ended and surprisingly, Kazir had the time to watch the 80th Academy Awards. Scarlett said that she would arrive later.

Kazir watched the show while prepping a dinner for both of them. Most of the time, Kazir hired chefs to cook their meals but the chefs were gone today because both Kazir and Scarlett didn't expect that they would go to the house this time. They were always busy and rarely met at the house... They usually went to hotels.

This was a rare relaxing moment for the couple so Kazir decided to level it up. He cooked steaks. The two were working too much and understood that staying in the house with warm food was one of the best that could happen after a hard job.

Anyway, No Country For Old Men was the biggest winner this year. The film won the Best Picture. The Coen brothers, the directors of No Country For Old Men, won the Best Director. Javier Bardem won the Best Supporting Actor. The film also won the Best Adapted Screenplay.

Obviously, the movie was invested and produced by none other than Miramax. Miramax had always been the star of award shows. At this point, Academy Awards was a business for Miramax.

As for the two nominations from Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End... None. This pirate movie didn't win any of the two.

Kazir chuckled as he watched the ending credits. As usual, nothing surprising. Miramax knew how to cook the Academy Awards.

A few minutes later, Scarlett arrived. The couple hugged each other before having dinner. Then, they cuddle while watching a horror movie.