WGA Strike - Tuesday 11/5/2007

On my way to Braveheart’s Tuesday afternoon, I passed the writers’ strike line outside of Warner Brothers. Yeah, I honked my horn and gave them a big thumbs up, even though what they’re doing is impacting my livelihood.

I conduct legal script research for a living. What that means is, I receive a script from CSI:Miami (I work on that and on 3-4 other series at a time, sometimes movies. If you want more titles, e-mail me) and I read it, making notes about all the character names, business names, products, and places where products might show up.

For instance. When they (not necessarily the above-mentioned show) write, “Girl picks up a tube of poisoned toothpaste,” I write, “Possible commercial identification” in my report. When they write, “Girl picks up a tube of poisoned Aqua Fresh,” I write “Indicated featured prop use of brand name toothpaste in unorthodox manner may be considered derogatory.” Or something to that effect. Different networks want different wording and have slightly different criteria for what works and doesn’t work. I might even give them some fake toothpaste names to replace the real one.

I check the names they create for characters to make sure they are not accidentally using the name of, say, a real veterinarian living in the locale of the show and claiming that she is a killer or even a very nice person. If the name, or business or product isn’t okay to use, I think up and research until I have three alternates and offer them to the writers. I try to stay in the same vein, so there’s a little bit of creativity involved.

If they are looking for a clothing store called “Vintage Rags” I won’t give them “Buffenbarger’s Fine Clothing.” I’ll give them something like “Primo Retro.”

So that’s kind of fun. So is, oddly enough, calling and asking people in various organizations and agencies for information. When I first started, this was the hardest part of the job. But then I worked on a TV movie set in Alaska and the people I talked to in the Yellow Knife library and police station, etc., were actually excited to answer my questions, and that helped.

I worked on The Agency and it was always a trip to talk to the CIA public relations contact. The first time I called, he had me about half convinced that he had a camera in my office. Then he complimented me on my lovely ensemble, and I had him. Yeah, I was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans. We had a good laugh over that. I also threatened to use his name in a show because the CIA won’t confirm or deny the names of its agents or employees. Because of that, if we accidentally use one, they can’t take any legal action. He laughed and said he’d been doing that job for years and no one had ever come up with that before.

The company I work for is small, but it’s the oldest currently operating script research company out there. And the best. We’re thorough, we invest in the best resources, and we are committed to giving our shows great service. We often work long hours to make sure our shows have what they need to film on time. Sometimes they’re incredibly difficult and ask for long lists of names they’ve created, which sometimes they later decide they don’t like after all. That’s when it’s frustrating.

All this is to say, you see… No scripts, no work.

Well, there are still some scripts around that were written before the strike deadline. And there are requests from the Art Departments for business names that will go on signs. And maybe some lists of names from outlines of scripts that are in the pipeline. (Shows are usually working on a script that will air about 4-5 weeks after the one that’s being aired in any given week during the regular season.)

And there is the possibility of work on related products. Did you realize that all three of the CSI shows have related novels, board games, video games, and web content? We also do clearance on those. I recently did some items for CSI: New York’s upcoming content on Second Life.

My boss has figured out a plan to keep us all at least partially employed through the end of the year. There’s something called workshare set up by the EDD in California to allow for working short weeks for regular daily pay and getting unemployment for a day or two. So we’ll be doing that through the end of the year, if the strike lasts.

It seems a very humane solution to me. We were expecting to be laid off entirely some time this week or next.

And like I said, I support what the WGA is doing, even though it’s putting my life on an unclear path for the duration. But I’ve gone on long enough. More later.