Hurray for Hollywood

Principles and Practices of Negotiation

Prof. Padilla

Hurray For Hollywood!

1. Representing the Screen Writers Guild.

2. First things first, reading the history between the SWG and Hollywood Producers, one can easily see that the HP have had the upper hand in all contracts situations. Priors to the 50’s (1), screenwriters were not even given residuals, so one can see why there is so much bad blood between both parties. This is a priority that needs to be fixed first and foremost. Focus on interest and not position is vital for both parties to settle and agree. Since the HP obviously is the bigger and more powerful opponent, SWG needs to put to bed what has happened in the past.

The main issue for parties is New Media as well as DVD Sales and what percentage each should receive

Option 1

With the DVD formula for residuals set a .03%, the screenwriters wanted to double it to .06% (2). The producers saw this as an affront, as their part of the pie would shrink while the SWG would increase. The screenwriters, not wanting to repeat what had happened during the strike in the 80’s (DVD formula rate resulted from this strike, as it was a carryover from VHS formula rate), were very adamant about doubling the residual rate. What they should have done was look at and discuss other alternatives. One alternative would be to switch out of the formula and make residuals based off of market value, instead of having it capped.

Option 2

As for the new media, the screenwriters could negotiate on specific markets within that category. For instance, producers can have all the residuals from Blu-Ray sales while screenwriters can have authority over streaming video, or subcategories within that set.

Option 3

Worse case scenarios are to bring an arbitrator or expert in the field to settle things and have them divide sales as they see fit. This would take care of the protest the producers would have about how sales would be divided, as the arbitrator would...