Chapter 1066： Irrelevant fair

In the reception room of the Theory of Relativity Building, Ronan shook hands with a gray-haired middle-aged white man.

"Hello, Mr. Anderson." The middle-aged white man smiled enthusiastically: "It's very nice to see you again."

Ronan, with his master’s demeanor, said with a smile: "Bill, welcome to Relativity Entertainment."

This middle-aged man is the director of the American West Screenwriters Guild, named Bill Domingo. He is also a senior Hollywood screenwriter. However, he was active in the 1970s and 1980s. Although he has many works, he is less famous. , Belongs to the category of large output and lack of quality products.

In the mid-1990s, Bill Domingo stopped writing scripts and instead worked in the administration of the Western Screenwriters Guild. In 2005, he became the chairman of the Western Screenwriters Guild.

The American Screenwriters Guild is a large organization in general, which consists of two parts, the Western Screenwriters Guild and the Eastern Screenwriters Guild.

As the name suggests, its members are mainly divided by geographical location.

The Screenwriters’ Union is a very large organization, even with high access conditions, it has nearly 20,000 members.

There is no doubt that Bill Domingo is the spokesperson for the interests of these people.

Bill Domingo exchanged a few words with Ronan and went directly to the topic: "Mr. Anderson, the situation in Hollywood has not been very good recently. The entire industry may be in turmoil. No one wants to see this situation. I am On behalf of the screenwriters union..."

Ronan understood what he meant, and said, "Bill, you should talk to Del Potro about this. He is the director of the Producers League and is responsible for specific matters."

Bill Domingo knows very well that if you want to resolve this matter as soon as possible, you cannot avoid it: "I have talked with Del many times, and the two sides have great differences. If we continue to talk through formal channels, it may not be reached for a few months. protocol."

Ronan roughly guessed that the producer union contacted several major unions in private, and took a split and disintegrated approach to deal with the Hollywood union union. The screenwriters union responded in the same way, contacting the largest producer union. the company.

Although the 　　 Producer Alliance is composed of more than 80 companies, it can convince the large and medium-sized companies that the rest is not a problem.

Even as long as some of the large and medium-sized companies are persuaded, the situation will become very beneficial to the screenwriters’ union.

says so, but the job is not that difficult at all.

Ronan appeared calm, and said, "It's useless for you to talk to me about this. To tell you the truth, Bill. The producers' union has already reached an agreement, and negotiations with the union will be conducted by the union."

Bill Domingo smiled, but did not mean to give up, and said: "I have carefully counted it. In the past three years, among all Hollywood companies, the company that produces the most movies and drama projects is your theory of relativity. Entertainment. If I'm not mistaken, will it be the same now and in the next few years?"

There is no need to deny this kind of thing. If you don't calculate the film library and past copyright income, and just consider the new film projects each year, Relativity Entertainment is currently the company with the largest business volume and the highest income in Hollywood.

Ronan seemed to be very casual and said: "It is estimated that in a short period of time, in terms of new projects, no company will exceed Relativity Entertainment."

"Relativity Entertainment has the most projects and hires the most screenwriters." Bill Domingo is still trying his best: "Once this incident is delayed for too long, if it gets worse, Relativity Entertainment will suffer the most losses."

Ronan remained silent: "Bill, what do you mean..."

Bill Domingo said: "If Relativity Entertainment can reach an agreement with the screenwriters' union, all screenwriters under the union can cooperate with Relativity Entertainment, and it will not have any impact on Relativity Entertainment."

Ronan couldn't help laughing: "This will bring about a split in the producer league."

"You are a loose alliance, with each having the power to negotiate with the union." Bill Domingo said the truth: "I believe that other companies will not consider your alliance when they are favorable to them."

Ronan nodded slightly: "You are right."

The producer alliance is a coalition of interests. The reason why the union alliance is treated unanimously for the time being is because there are common interests in this regard.

When more favorable conditions arise, it does not matter to abandon the alliance and negotiate with the union.

Bill Domingo added: "The union attaches great importance to cooperation with Relativity Entertainment, and there are also..."

Ronan raised his hand to consider Bill Domingo’s words: "I understand what you mean, and Relativity Entertainment does not want to see the contradiction between the alliance and the union intensify and develop to the point where it is irreversible."

This sounds good, but Bill Domingo knows that there may be a turning point in the future.

Sure enough, Ronan's voice changed: "But the new conditions you put forward are not acceptable to Relativity Entertainment anyway."

Bill Domingo said, "We can talk."

As long as the two sides officially start the talks, there is no doubt that a signal will be released.

"Your conditions are too high." Ronan didn't mean to refuse to talk, but if he wants to talk about it, the conditions must be lowered: "15% of the new media and DVD revenue share, and other aspects of the share increased to%. Third, it also requires additional compensation for new channels in the past. Such conditions cannot be negotiated."

Bill Domingo asked: "What about the conditions for relativity entertainment?"

Ronan said directly: "I won't talk about the minimum and maximum incomes of union members. They are mainly divided. In terms of traditional channels, the 1% share of distributors' global revenues remains unchanged. DVD can be added to the home entertainment division, such as the same as video tapes, and 1.5% of the producer’s revenue. In addition, each movie will also be paid to the screenwriter for a total of 10,000 US dollars in DVD script fees."

Bill Domingo's face remained unchanged, but his heart was cold. This low condition is unacceptable!

"New Internet media..." Ronan pondered a little, and said, "You can also talk about one percent of the issuer's revenue."

Bill Domingo fell into a brief silence.

Ronan’s conditions, compared to the requirements of the screenwriters’ union, dropped from the sky directly into the Mariana Trench.

Fortunately, the past sharing projects have basically not changed much, and the problem is not big. Video tape revenue is now better than nothing. The 1% distribution revenue share of TV channels can be discussed later, and how much will increase a little.

But in terms of DVD and new media channels, bargaining is too heavy.

The writers’ union has not thought about the peripheral derivatives channels, nor does it receive support from the labor association. However, in terms of the copyright income that the writers can participate in, the highest income is currently DVD and new Internet media led by Netflix. .

The screenwriters’ union requires a 15% share of the total revenue.

In terms of new media and DVD, Ronan cut 0.5% and 1.5% respectively, not to mention the total revenue share.

The former is the issuer’s revenue share, and the latter is the producer’s revenue share.

Copyright revenue can be divided into three parts as a whole: channel, distributor, and producer. If you remove the two aspects and calculate the revenue on one side, how much will you reduce?

"I will tell you the truth." Bill Domingo said: "Such a condition, the screenwriters union cannot accept.

Ronan spread his hands: "Then we don't have to negotiate privately."

If there is not enough interest, why does Relativity Entertainment risk offending the producer union and negotiate with the screenwriters union alone?

Bill Domingo is still trying his best to fight for: "Mr. Anderson, you also worked as a screenwriter for the first time. Knowing the hardships of this industry, how many screenwriters have put in effort without getting the corresponding reward? Is this fair?"

To be precise, the treatment of screenwriters in Hollywood is unfair. Ronan knows this, but he cannot stand as a screenwriter, even if he has been a screenwriter before: "Sorry, Bill, I am a producer, Thousands of employees of Relativity Entertainment are responsible."

The differences between the Producers Union and the major trade unions have nothing to do with fairness and justice.

In this meeting, the two sides did not reach any agreement in the end, and the differences were not so big.

At the end of October, the division and disintegration strategy of the Producers Union played a role. New agreements were reached with the Directors’ Union and the Actors’ Union. With the signing of a new framework agreement between the two unions and the Producers Union, the Hollywood Union of Trade Unions ceased. Existence, most of the trade unions have died down, and the big trade union organization which is really still fighting against the producer union, only has one screenwriters union left.

The directors’ union and the actors’ union and their respective members still verbally support the screenwriters’ union, but this kind of verbal support is basically equivalent to zero.

After the producer union made some appropriate compromises, the two unions once again abandoned the screenwriters union as they did 20 years ago.

The new agreement proposed by the screenwriters union was unacceptable by the producer union.

To put it simply, this new agreement involves a series of issues such as hiring, dismissing, treating, compensating the screenwriter and how to sign the screenwriter.

Among them, financial terms are one of the focal points of the negotiations between the two parties. They mainly include two aspects: on the one hand, it is stipulated that film and TV producers must pay more than a certain minimum wage to the screenwriter; on the other hand, it is stipulated that TV shows or For the omni-channel income earned by movie rights, screenwriters must increase the share of accounts.

The screenwriters’ union is also well-founded. The entertainment industry is now the most profitable. In the last fiscal year, Hollywood’s eight entertainment media companies, including the DreamWorks of Relativity, which dominate the film and television markets, had operating profits of nearly $56 billion. , More than 80% of the screenwriters of the screenwriters union work in these eight companies.

The total profits of these eight companies have doubled in the past ten years and continue to grow. The screenwriters union believes that the entertainment industry depends on the content created by the union members, which has promoted the global growth of entertainment media companies and online video With the rapid rise of distribution, companies that control content have repeatedly profited from it, and screenwriters should take a share of this unprecedented prosperity.