Candidate Statment

JED WEINTROB’S CANDIDATE STATEMENT FOR THE WGAw BOARD ELECTIONS – 2009

It is an honor to be considered for a seat on our Board of Directors at such a pivotal time for WGA members writing in all media.

I am running for the Board this year because:

• I feel that the meteoric rise of digital media distribution and our younger generation’s demand to have their entertainment available where and when they want it (and willingness to steal it if it’s not being offered to them for legal sale) have brought my future and the future of my fellow writers to a crucial juncture.
• I have a unique perspective on writing and producing for new media - from both the creative and business sides of entertainment and technology, which I would like to offer the Board.
• I’d like to give back to the guild that so willingly embraced me as a seasoned entertainment entrepreneur and executive making the move to becoming a working writer in 2002.

I’d like to tell you a little bit about myself and then ask you for a favor.

I’m a writer/director, working mainly in independent features and television, but I have a unique perspective on digital and interactive media. As an executive and entrepreneur, I drafted the very first SAG Interactive contract and consulted with the WGA on the beginnings of its interactive media contracts in the infancy the Internet and new media distribution platforms. As a writer, I’ve worked for the studios, independents, video game companies and new media Internet content companies, so I know first hand what it’s like to deal with the complexities of writing for digital media from the writer’s side as well.

So a great deal of my interest in running for the Board this year lies around helping guide the WGA through the seismic changes that have already hit us in digital distribution platforms (which, with the advent of digital television and digital theater projection mean almost EVERY distribution platform today) and which are going to be hitting us in the next few years. I believe my experience and insight can help the WGA determine how these changes will affect our definitions of media and release “windows” today and in the future, and how we will plan for and deal with these changes.

My thesis is that the line between computer screen, television screen, handheld screen, mobile screen and even theatrical movie screen is already blurred almost to the point of being impossible to recognize: What do you really call a ‘cable series,’ the pilot of which premieres digitally in movie theaters across the country for one night the week before its television premiere, and which on that same night is available on the Web, iTunes and stand-alone Internet streaming players, and which is free on some of these platforms and requires payment on others?

Soon this line will dissolve completely, and it’s going to change the way the studios define the timeline of their release windows and hence the basis of most of our MBA writing and residuals compensation.

I’m not just talking about these changes from an upcoming contract negotiations point-of-view (though obviously, that’s extremely important), but also from the way they are going to affect writers on a day-to-day basis, and the ways that we can continue to harness digital media to build the strength of our guild and the power and vision of the writer in our business.

New media is NOT bad news. The fact that more and more people can watch the results of our work on more and more devices for more and more hours every day is a GOOD thing. We just need to understand fully what these new distribution platforms mean, what the expectations are from the new users of these platforms, and - most importantly - how we can track the ways in which these platforms will be monetized.

We need to help facilitate an ongoing communication with the studios and our sister guilds as they wrestle with these same issues internally. Establishing an official forum for this communication and making it regular and ongoing is the only way to avoid the seemingly insurmountable problems we had during our last negotiations.

It's obviously an extremely exciting - and challenging - time for the WGA, and I'm very excited to have a chance to serve on the Board and help the guild meet those challenges. I’m optimistic that with the proper planning and approach, the WGA can help define a writer-driven path in the expanding digital production and distribution landscape.

I’d like to continue to move forward the great advances the WGA leadership has made in the past few years, to reevaluate positions which have not had optimal results (i.e. despite my strong support of the strike, I hope we can figure out how to never have to put ourselves through that experience again), and to help make the next board as efficient, effective and powerful as possible for every WGA member.

So, now the FAVOR: You’re already hear at my election blog, and I’d love for you to tell me what issues are most important to YOU this year, and as a Board member, how I could help your immediate needs and your future dreams.

I also have some other issues that I’d like to discuss and hear your opinions on, that I’ll be posting on the blog in the next few weeks.

Thanks in advance for taking the time out of what I know is an extremely busy time for us all.
Best,
Jed Weintrob