In a push to win better wages and benefits from producers, Hollywood writers are telling all about how “unscripted” reality TV actually is.
The Writers Guild of America is demanding that companies that produce shows such as “The Apprentice” and “Supernanny” provide union wages and benefits to people who watch all the raw footage and piece together story lines.
The WGA claims reality shows have become cash cows for the networks because producers don’t have to pay union wages and benefits.
“They want to keep the fiction that it’s not written so they don’t have to pay us what they pay fiction writers,” said Rebecca Hertz, a 28-year-old writer from shows such as “The Swan” on Fox and “Big Man on Campus” on the WB.
The WGA said it has received nearly 1,000 signed cards from reality TV workers requesting unionization.
Unlike a sitcom or drama, a reality show doesn’t often employ “writers.” Instead, people with titles such as “field producer” or “story producer” craft the shows to follow pre-conceived plotlines.
In other examples, editors have to find dramatic story lines in hundreds of hours of tape. Producers might reduce 400 hours of footage to create a single 44-minute episode of a show, said Jeff Bartsch, a 26-year-old editor.
“Audiences want to see conflict and resolution. They want to see a progression, to see the characters learn something,” he said.
That process, argues the WGA, should be referred to as writing.
Writers have been pushing producers for years to pay union wages and benefits on reality shows. The WGA won a provision in the three-year contract it reached last year to negotiate with producers on a show-by-show basis for representation.
The guild said it is going public with its grievances after finding little support from producers.
Editors and writers pointed out that even if they successfully won benefits for one show, they would have to fight all over again on others.
“This one-by-one strategy, which we call the ‘whack-a-mole approach,’ just doesn’t work for the people and they are not willing to struggle on that basis,” said David Young, the WGA’s director of organizing.
This month, the WGA sent letters to reality show producers demanding union recognition. The WGA said it was willing to call a strike if producers don’t negotiate.
By and large, producers are not taking well to the new strategy.
“It’s an unfortunate tactic,” said Nick Counter, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. “It’s directly contrary to what they agreed to.”
Counter said the organizing campaign places reality show producers in a tough situation because some of the workers the WGA is trying to sign up are already represented by the Directors Guild of America or the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.
That conflict would have to be resolved by the National Labor Relations Board, a process that could take years.
Bartsch said much of the action in reality shows is staged. In some cases, producers find cast members who fit predetermined plotlines or personality types, ask leading questions to get the ideal answers or even splice together pieces of conversation to create desired dialogue, something known as “Frankenbites,” Bartsch said.
For example, he said, a producer might take a cast member saying “I can’t stand the dinner they served tonight” and combine it with that person saying another character’s name at a different time to come up with the statement “I can’t stand Suzy.”
“It varies as to the scruples of the company, how true they remain to the intent of the character and the story,” Bartsch said.
Calls to several reality TV producers seeking comment were not immediately returned.
Credit: Yahoo/AP
