Have you seen Bad Santa, 2003 Golden Globe nominated comedy, produced by the Coens brothers and starring Billy Bob Thornton? Glenn Ficarra, the co-author of the screenplay and one of the Hollywood screenwriters who finished their strike today shares his view of the present situation in the American film and TV industry and the protest's outcome exlusively with Aktualne.cz readers.

More about Glenn and his new movie

Viděli jste americkou komedii Santa je úchyl s Billym Bobem Thorntonem v hlavní roli? Spoluautor scénáře Glenn Ficarra, jeden z hollywoodských scénáristů, kteří tři měsíce stávkovali za prosazení svých požadavků, se podělil se čtenáři Aktuálně.cz o své dojmy, co pro něj osobně stávka znamenala. Český překlad přineseme v krátké době.

Glenn Ficarra writes:

Obviously the strike personally meant not getting paid, but it didn't hurt me as me as it hurt many others who are not as fortunate as me. Of course preparing to direct a movie while all this was going on was a bit awkward since many television showrunners walked away from their shows as both writers AND producers. I'm glad the strike ended before we were put in that position.

Many news items circulated saying that it was a TV writer's strike and that highly paid feature film writers were mad and not willing to stay on strike. This was, best that I could tell, bullshit. I don't think we were even close to the breaking point. I think this could have gone a couple of months longer without fracturing the guild, but the question was, how much better could we have done? Not much I think. I am happy with the deal. I see this as a great victory. And I think it would not have been possible without a few key things. The first was that the AMPTP came out swinging, threatening to roll back our residuals package. This was the worst tactical error in the history of collective bargaining. It galvanized the guild and made everyone dig in for the long haul.

Secondly, there was a lot of propaganda swirling aimed at breaking morale. But interstingly the internet- the very thing we were striking about, was the thing that kept the writers unified. Information was transmitted so quickly it was near impossible for rumors to flourish and erode solidarity. Internet was also used to post humorous videos aimed at ridiculing the media conglomerates we were striking. This also played well for morale. It also proved that we could do what we do without them. I'm glad that these media companies recognized our worth and that our strike really made an impact on their bottom line. Many were afraid that they would break the unions, but I never did. Being the creator of material, I would always have a market. I could self finance movies and sell directly to distributors, or to internet companies and market without studio help if need be. It was the studios who realized that THEY are the ones who could be cut out of the process, much like the music companies. Had they broken us, they would have been the losers in the long run, not us.