The Big Wheel Stops
The IMDb’s studio briefing featured a chilling little article, buried second-to-bottom:
TV PRODUCTION HALTS IN L.A.
As of this week, there are no scripted television series remaining in production in Los Angeles, Daily Variety reported today (Monday), citing figures from Film L.A., an intermediary between film producers and permitting agencies. At the time of the writers’ walkout in November, 52 shows were in active production.
First off, The article referred to by this one did not seem to exist on Variety’s website. This may be because this news is so bad it got pulled, or more likely the IMDb is making things up again. For the sake of argument, let’s take this at face value.
This is remarkably bad news (if it’s real). Even the most modest scripted television shows have large fixed staffs, fifty or so for studio-based shows and sitcoms, but big shows like “Lost” employ hundreds. This also does not count the untold numbers of contractors and companies that support TV production: video post, catering, set-building, etc. No TV production at all represents a LOT of folks sitting on their hands.
Movie production is churning along, and in fact is up nearly a third. This is good news for technical staffers and production talent, but I doubt the increased production is offsetting the loss of TV work.
One armchair theory that one can conclude from this state of affairs is that it’s all part the WGAw’s master plan. TV production is the Big Wheel (a giant treadmill, perhaps) that grinds the corn in Hollywood, and that Big Wheel needed to brought to a complete stop. The noise and rumbling had to be silenced so their case could be made to the studios clearly and unambiguously.
And this might be the tipping point. I doubt if the WGAw has any serious plans to wait out the time it would take to stop feature production as it did TV. It would take another year at least, if it were even possible.
So if this is actual news, it represents the Writer’s Guild’s strike plan being carried out to it’s logical conclusion. They’ve got everyone’s attention: Nothing left to do but talk.
–Skot C.