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Writing Out

Long essay on the fate of mid-tier writers in Hollywood that has some interesting insights based on what part of the discussion you are most relate to. I found this little tidbit about how data is shared or not most useful:

..As for the data-sharing agreement, a closer look reveals it to be, as deWaard put it, “very limited, and very fragile.” The studios will share viewership information with a limited number of WGA administrators for high-budget shows. The guild can then release that information only in a summary form, which, in the words of the contract, aggregates the data “on an overall industry level.” The guild cannot share any information at all on the performance of individual shows. A WGA representative told me that there would be no secondary process for writers to obtain that data.

Obviously, if a writer is trying to negotiate better terms for themselves, this level of data sharing is a joke. Its sharing in name only with one side holding all the cards close to their chest. It made me wonder if writers could find an alternate way to collect the data they actually need to further their cause. Nothing prevents the WGS from running polls and surveys asking viewers to respond to the question that needs answering - How important was the quality of the screenplay in the show that you liked best. That alone should yield some useful results. 

“Hollywood is based on giving audiences what they might not know. Any attempt to drive risk out of that process is sooner or later doomed to failure.” His words played off an old adage by the screenwriter William Goldman. “Nobody knows anything,” he wrote. “Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for certain what’s going to work.” But investments in the alchemy of the creative process do not perform well in quarterly reports.

What is true for Hollywood is true for many other businesses. There are investments that need to be made that do not perform well in quarterly reports and yet those are the right ones to make for the company as well as for the customers it serves. All too often these investments are never made with predictable outcomes. 

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