Saturday, November 03, 2007

Q. What's the difference between the Writers Guild of America, West, and the Writers Guild of America, East? Aside from geographically, I mean.

The WGAw is much tougher about previous work than the WGAe, and even for an associate membership you have to have sold scripts. For the WGAe version you do not.

Does working in LA require WGAw membership? Is the WGAe the poor cousin?

It's purely geographical. If you're West of the Mississippi, you're in the WGAw. Craig Mazin has a thing or two to say about why there are two guilds and why that's stupid.

I'm not sure why the WGA makes it hard to get in. Unions are strongest when they've organized all the workers in a trade; then, when they strike -- as may happen from time to time, and also tomorrow -- employers have no one to turn to. I'm not a WGA member because when a studio was buying a script from me, I wasn't a member, and so they shunted me off to one of their nonsignatory subsidiaries. They lost a member, and I lost $35,000. (There's a big loophole in the WGA agreement. Disney can't buy a script from a non-WGA writer, but they can own a company that buys a script from a non-WGA writer.)

Labels: guild

10:18 AM

5 Comments:

can't you join at the wga if you're a member of the wgc?

or is that a myth?

By  Mef, at 1:07 PM  

Alex, I know that the WGA will basically ban any non-WGA member from ever joining the guild if you cross the picket line, but what if I sell a script to a non-signatory during the strike. Would that count?

By  Tim W., at 4:17 PM  

So far as I know, if you're working with a company that is normally non-signatory (e.g. a company making low-budget straight-to-DVD horror movies) you're in the clear.

But if you were working for a non-signatory subsidiary of a signatory company (e.g. something owned by Disney) then I think that would be considered crossing the picket line, and wouldn't be cool.

By  Alex Epstein, at 5:19 PM  

hello sir,
I am from india and i wrote a hollywood movie script so i want to know where should i register my script,wgaw or wgae???

By  Unknown, at 6:54 AM  

Either is fine. I would copyright it at the Library of Congress rather than spending money on a WGA registration.

http://complicationsensue.blogspot.ca/2015/06/help-with-copyright.html

By  Alex Epstein, at 7:58 AM  

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