Well, the producers of LOST never cease to amaze me. They are absolutely wonderful pioneers. Their show is a successful example of interactive television that uses message boards as a means of communication with the fans. Unlike the producers of other shows, who frowned on fan-created Web pages, fan fiction, among other fan-created items, the producers of LOST actually encourage it. Hey, it’s free advertisement. Now LOST is entering another form of entertainment: webisodes. The beauty of it all is that the writers are getting paid for it.—ESBaker
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 19 — On the picket lines, striking television and film writers adamantly claim that studios are refusing to pay for the use of writers’ scripts on the Internet.But ABC Studios is doing just that. Over the next three months fans of the hit show “Lost” can go to ABC.com to view weekly episodes of “Lost: Missing Pieces,” a series of new two- to three-minute shorts that reveal background information and previously undisclosed details about the stranded inhabitants of the show’s mysterious island.
The “Missing Pieces” episodes were produced under an agreement with the writers’ union that provides for much of what the writers say the studios have been refusing to offer.
Payment for the use of material on the Internet will be a central issue keeping the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers apart when they head back to the bargaining table on Monday.
But as the “Lost” example shows, the two sides have found common ground before, and both have shown interest in giving some ground on the issue.
The “Missing Pieces” episodes were written by the regular writers of the television series, a group that includes Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, executive producers of the series, who also oversaw production of the webisodes. They also feature the show’s regular actors and characters, including Matthew Fox, who plays Dr. Jack Shephard. Mr. Fox appears in the first installment, released last week. The writers, actors and others involved in the production were paid specifically for their work on the Web episodes and will earn residual income, just as they do for the broadcast show.
In an interview Mr. Cuse said that while it took five months to reach an agreement, he believes the “Missing Pieces” deal could serve as a template for resolving at least some of the dispute over payment for online use of material.
“I think it is a pretty good model,” he said last week. “What it shows is that there is basically room for a partnership between writers and the studios in a new medium. It’s where I wish we were headed instead of being stuck in this standoff.”
People close to the studios say they also see some promise in the “Lost” deal, although they note that it was negotiated with a single producers’ alliance member, ABC Studios, rather than with all of the members of the group. The deal also included a clause specifically stating that it did not set a precedent for any future deals and could not be cited as such in future negotiations.
Nevertheless, the television and film studios offered terms similar to the “Lost” deal in the negotiations that took place before writers began their strike on Nov. 5, said Barbara Brogliatti, a spokeswoman for the alliance.
Charles B. Slocum, assistant executive director of the Writers Guild of America West, said in an interview on Friday that he believed “in general terms” that the “Lost” deal created “the pattern that we are looking for in our negotiations,” although he noted that the guild was seeking better financial terms.
“Lost: Missing Pieces” paid the writers of each short episode approximately $800. For that the studio received the right to run the episodes on Verizon cellphones for 13 weeks. After that period, repeats of the episodes or their transmissions on other media — like the Internet — would generate residuals for the writers of 1.2 percent to 2 percent of the fee the studio received to license the material.
Therefore, the episodes now running on ABC.com, each preceded by an advertisement, are generating for the writers a 2 percent residual. In its contract negotiations, the Writers Guild is seeking 2.5 percent for similar work in the future.
The “Lost” deal represents, for the writers, a significant improvement over similar situations elsewhere. On NBC.com, for example, fans of “The Office” can find episodes of “The Accountants,” a series of shorts made for the Internet, scripted by writers of “The Office” and featuring regular actors from the show. A short commercial usually accompanies episodes.
But writers of the “The Accountants” received no specific payment for their work and receive no residuals from their continued play. Writers from “The Office,” including Greg Daniels, an executive producer, have objected to that and refused to work on further shorts without a separate agreement.
Read the rest of this entry »
