Copyright © 2007 by Sarah Stegall (in photo at right)
The Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) is striking right now, primarily over the issue of payment for use of their material on the Internet. The moguls on the other side of the bargaining table—Warner Brothers, Sony, GE (owner of NBC and Universal), and so forth—are resisting the idea of paying writers anything for the use of their work, claiming that this whole Internet thing is too new and confusing for anyone to understand, let alone come up with a profitable business model.
Yet the third party in this strike, the one ignored by the moguls and the media, has no trouble at all understanding this Internet thing—the audience is already using it, and to revolutionary effect.
A casual remark by writer/producer Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly) [photo at left] last month galvanized several hundred fans, and within a few weeks they had organized a fan rally in support of the Writers’ Guild. On 7 December, they joined Whedon, several fellow writers, and a lot of actors on the picket line in front of Twentieth Century Fox studios, for an event the fans called Mutant Enemy Day (Mutant Enemy Productions is Joss Whedon’s production company). I flew into Los Angeles to join them and show my support.
We started under the threat of heavy rains; it had rained all night the night before and the clouds were low and gray as my plane touched down at LAX. Going through airport security, I noticed that the TSA folk were wearing blue latex gloves; I asked for and got a pair to wear, in honor of the Firefly characters who always wore “hands of blue.” As I signed for my rental car, the rental company clerk noticed my red shirt (red T-shirts are the working uniform of WGA strikers) and asked what I was doing in town. When I told him I was here to support the strike, he gave me a five percent discount. Hollywood is a union town.
At the gathering point across from the Fox gate, I found almost one hundred eager fans, some in costume, almost all wearing red. Donuts were being delivered every ten minutes, and there was a lot of getting-acquainted talk. Many fans had brought their own, unique signs, or were dressed in character costumes. Organizer Adam Livermore-Rich (“Lexigeek”), from the fan board fans4writers.com, got up and reminded everyone that this was a strike, not a convention, but the crowd hardly needed reminding. Well-behaved, energetic and eager to show our support, we strode off for the picket lines.
I think the WGA strike captain was a little overwhelmed to see us&#8212there were already over one hundred fans on the picket line by the time we arrived. In fact, by the end of the day the number of picketers—overwhelmingly fans—had grown to over four hundred. WGA strike signs were delivered, and the fans4writers.com organizers also passed out stickers and markers so that we could personalize our signs. The WGA had anticipated rain, so the signs were thoughtfully covered with plastic bags to protect them. Sign in (gloved) hand, I hit the picket line.
Walking for four hours in a circle sounds easy. It’s not. Even in comfortable shoes and pleasant weather, it can wear you down. In the entire time I spent in support of this strike, however, I must say I heard not one complaint. There was no whining, no inappropriate behavior that I saw. I saw over four hundred fans marching peacefully—nay, happily—in circles for hours, waving at passing, honking motorists, and behaving in a respectful and appreciative manner towards the “stars.”
And stars there were. A partial list of the actors and writers who showed up includes Morena Baccarin (“Inara”, Firefly), Jim Bernstein (writer, American Dad), Nicholas Brendon (“Xander”, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Eliza Dushku (“Faith”, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Ben Edlund (writer/producer, Angel, The Tick), Jane Espenson (writer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Raphael and Yan Feldman (“Fanty and Mingo”, Serenity), Nathan Fillion (“Mal Reynolds”, Firefly), Ron Glass (“Shepherd Book”, Firefly), Summer Glau (“River Tam”, Firefly), Harry Groener (“Mayor Wilkins”, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), James Gunn (writer/director, Slither), Laurie Huxley (writer, The Black Donnellys), William Mapother (“Ethan”, Lost), Tim Minear (writer/producer, Firefly), Marti Noxon (writer/producer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel), Doug Petrie (producer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Alan Tudyk (“Wash”, Firefly), and of course Joss Whedon. Joss boasted later that he had taken four Sharpies with him, in anticipation of signing autographs, yet at the end of the day he hadn’t even had to take them out of his pocket. Fans were glad to see the writers and stars, but aware that this was not an entertainment venue. Instead, they were focused on marching, waving at motorists, encouraging passing cars to honk, and generally doing their job. (Photo at right (left to right): Summer Glau, Tim Minear, Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion)
This being Hollywood, however, there was no lack of entertainment. The Bedlam Bards strolled non-stop for four hours, playing and singing to keep everyone in a jolly mood. Food was delivered in a constant stream to the strike captains to be dispensed to everyone: pizza, doughnuts (from Sarah Michelle Gellar, of Buffy the Vampire Slayer), fruit cups, oranges, and on and on. Impromptu dances kept those of us in the medians amused, and we even got front row seats on a non-scripted action sequence when a fender-bender happened right in the middle of the intersection. Nothing like trying to run a red light in front of four hundred witnesses with cameras.
The actors and writers spent a lot of time talking to fans, both in motion and stationary. I spent a good twenty minutes walking behind Summer Glau and Nathan Fillion, both of them carrying signs, as we circled in front of the Fox lot. Joss Whedon gave interviews without pause. Tim Minear and I chatted about Dollhouse. I walked the line next to Nick Brendon, making jokes about our hats (I won). Everyone posed for pictures with everyone else.
I volunteered to be part of a group of picketers who crossed Pico Boulevard every time the light changed, making sure the drivers stopped for traffic saw our signs. The sound of honking horns was deafening for most of the morning; virtually everyone honked enthusiastically in support. One of them looked an awful lot like Sam Elliott in a red Mercedes Benz convertible; another time a driver turning into the Fox lot was pounding a frenzied trumpet overture of support on his horn—I think it was actor William H. Macy. Almost every large truck that rolled by tooted a supporting trumpet solo of support.
(Photo at left: Raphael and Yan Feldman.) The scheduled end of the picket walk was 2:00PM, by which time the rain clouds had long since given way to a typically bright and sunny Los Angeles day. Reluctant to bring the day to a close, fans decamped to the Cheviot Hills Recreation Center, across the street from the Fox lot, for a post-rally picnic. The fact that food for over four hundred fans had been organized, delivered, and consumed after a lead-in time of only a couple of weeks should stand as a testament of some kind to the power of fans, the power of the Internet, the power of the commitment of a large and vocal part of the audience to this strike. We chowed down on everything from home-made cookies to deli meats to chips and soda and coffee made on the spot. Joss Whedon gave a thank-you speech, hands were shaken all around, and we slowly filtered back to the parking lot.
It wasn’t until a couple of hours later that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) walked out of the strike talks, blaming the WGA for failure to negotiate fairly. Significantly, the AMPTP had already hired a PR firm and prepared its press release when it walked out, proving to me at least that they had never intended to negotiate in good faith in the first place.
So was Mutant Enemy Day a failure? A fun but ultimately useless fan party? Far from it. The Wall Street Journal carried an article about it; ABC news was all over the picket line, and local news in LA carried the story—with video—that night. AMPTP execs can’t have missed the fact that fans from Australia and England flew into LA to support this strike. This should tell the AMPTP that fans aren’t just stupid couch potatoes, that they do understand the issues at stake, and are willing not just to sacrifice the convenience of their regularly scheduled programs, but are willing to pay good money and take time off from work to show how much it means to them that the writers are fairly paid. As Joss put it, the audience matters. There are three parties in this negotiation—the writers, the studios, and the fans who ultimately make or break a television show or movie.
The power of the Internet—the very technology at the heart of this dispute—has for the first time allowed the audience to organize and let its voice be heard. This could be only the beginning, as more such strike support rallies are organized: Trek Day on 10 December, Heroes Day on 11 December, a writer/fan rally in Boston on 14 December (see fans4writers.com for details). The technology that the AMPTP claims they can’t figure out is becoming the platform from which the voice of the audience will be heard. If they’re smart, the studios will start listening.