Slack

I've Been Slack, Yeah

The writers' guild called me on my mobile today wondering if it was their administrative error or my lapse that I hadn't paid for my membership this year. I told the lady it was a bit of both - that I decided to let the thing slide while I thought about it. She asked what I had to think about and so I asked her if she wanted the short version or the long version. She said I should try the short one first.

The short version is that I made all of $1000.00 writing a draft for a screenplay this year. This $1000.00 is an advance against if-and-when the film gets up. The rest will be paid if and when the film gets up. Out of which if I paid my GST, and then full guild membership, I'd be left with about $550. Which makes me wonder why I'm handing over so much for my only writing income. Especially when they did nothing to help me negotiate my contract. I wouldn't have and couldn't have called upon them because their standard contract would have been laughed out of the room.

Besides which, the producer was my friend from Film School. I had to help him get the script sorted before he footed a bill to fly to Cannes to try and raise finance, another process in which the guild would prove utterly useless. Thus, it's really hard to justify the guild membership when there's so little to show for it; and a bunch of workshops and discussion groups and a newsletter and a glossy book each year where screenwriters get interviewed about writing... simply isn't much value. For that money I could head to the pub and hang out with people of my choosing, and the ensuing conversation might actually be more interesting.

The industry has changed greatly. It's not the bustling hive it once was where development led to things. Only a handful of films get made - and none of them get made without the government funding production costs. It's really hard to conceive of a guild in the context of an industry that's only there as an extension of the government.

I then asked her if she wanted the long version and she declined. I can't say I blame her much. I told her it's not something I hold the guild responsible for, but really it couldn't be just me, and the industry couldn't be supporting so many writers to call the writers guild a guild. And hence I told her I was thinking whether I should stump up the money for the membership or just spend it on my dentist - which, would have literally palatable results compared to a membership in a clan of writers equally hungry, disenfranchised, and broke as I.

She said she would relay back to management my concerns. I have no idea how 'management' is going to respond to my feedback. I doubt they would have anything to say. I'm not expecting anything, but at least they got a piece of my fucking mind.