Back in the room
As the dust settles on the US writers strike, Jeff Melvoin, Anna Winger and Suzie Miller debate the challenges and opportunities for writers and writers room models and discuss why they should be trusted to make creative decisions. As the US television industry gets back to work following actors and writers strikes that took place last year, a trio of leading writers sat down to discuss the implications of the deal won by the Writers Guild of America (WGA). Writers went out on strike in May after clashing with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) over issues including pay and residuals, and the use of emerging artificial intelligence with the potential to write scripts. They also looked to secure minimum staffing agreements, with a designated number of writers on every series, and an end to ‘mini rooms’ that would see fewer writers than usual tasked with creating a show and a number of episodes before production had been greenlit – separating the role of writers and producers and removing the chance of writers progressing to higher positions such as that of showrunner. When the strike ended in September, writers won concessions on pay, greater transparency around viewing figures on streaming platforms, guidelines for the use of AI and a minimum number of writers for both pre-development and in-production writers rooms. At Content London, showrunner Jeff Melvoin (Northern Exposure, Alias, Designated Survivor, Killing Eve), writer and producer Anna Winger (Deutschland 83, Unorthodox) and playwright Suzie Miller (Prima Facie) … Continue reading Back in the room
