DGA talks head into fifth dayBy Carl DiOrio
Wednesday will mark Day 5 of negotiations between the DGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers.
The parties met into the evening Tuesday, aiming to hash out a new contract to replace a directors pact set to expire June 30.
The negotiations were said to be going well, and an agreement could be announced almost any day now.No details have been released on any of the bargaining sessions, which began Saturday, but insiders said that negotiations would resume Wednesday morning.
The manner in which the parties have been marking quiet progress in their talks -- which were preceded by weeks of informal discussions between reps of the organizations -- stands in stark contrast to the WGA's ongoing contract impasse. Once a DGA deal is announced, the big question will be whether the striking writers will embrace any of its terms as a template for their own new contract.
Hollywood writers have been out of contract since Oct. 31 and walking picket lines since Nov. 5. Their last bargaining session with the AMPTP was Dec. 7.
Striking Writers Head for the InternetToday was the deadline for proposals for Strike TV, a new online channel that striking members of the WGA are setting up. The site, which will live on the United Hollywood Website, will feature original video shorts and shows created by "working professionals" in the TV and film biz, and is set to launch in February.
OnlineMedia.com reported that the new channel's designed not only to showcase what the striking professionals are made of — without the studios — but also to raise ad revenue that will go to the Writers Guild Foundation Industry Support Fund. Strike TV's MySpace page emphasizes that proposals should be for fresh material that shows off creatvitiy and avoids any nasty legal hassles.
Will Strike TV remain a political statement, or morph into something bigger? And who will be some of the first contributors? No one's revealed that so far, but my money's on some of the brightest brains in town, whose work we're already missing. Who's your money on? — Anna Dimond