Thursday, July 23, 2020

Official 2020 Campaign Statement

There’s a chance all you know about me is that I ran for WGAW Board of Directors in 2019, but stepped aside before the deadline to take my name off the ballot in order to let the election be a clean proxy vote for the ATA action.


I’m proud of what I did last year, and I’m honored to be included in a fantastic field of candidates this cycle. It’s an understatement to say this is a very different election.


About Me


Before I tell you what I hope to achieve on the Board, allow me to (re-)introduce myself.


I joined the Guild in 2012, after several years as a writers assistant on various series. I’ve been on two TV staffs, where I had to repeat Staff Writer. But I didn’t grow up on a TV staff. Most of my work has been in development. I’ve sold pilots both off pitches and as specs. Since 2017, I’ve served the Guild as a Contract Captain and as a TV Captain. I’m part of the WGAW PAC working group and the LGBTQ+ Committee.


Though I write primarily in television, the last five years of my career much more closely resembles that of a Feature writer.


I live and die based on pitches and spec-ing out scripts. I do an unfathomable amount of free work. This is all without the safety net of a weekly paycheck from being on a show staff or under an overall deal. Due to the scourge of free work, there have even been periods where I lost my health insurance.


Mine is a new kind of TV writer trajectory that wouldn't have been thinkable when I first arrived in Los Angeles: the “TV writer in development.”


And I’m far from alone. Thanks to small rooms and short orders, my experience is becoming increasingly common, especially among our newer members.


I strongly believe this career path needs to be represented on the Board.


In addition to the above, out of sixteen candidates put forward by the Nominating Committee, I am the only one who self-identifies as queer in their Guild profile.


At the start of the ATA action, I co-founded “The Rainbow Pages,” an independent database of LGBTQ+ WGA members. This was an effort to make sure queer voices are part of the inclusion conversation, and to supply producers, executives, and showrunners with an easily accessible list of queer writers to meet, to read, and to hire.


By electing me to the Board, you will ensure there is another queer voice in the boardroom, and you will add a strong advocate for all five Guild-recognized categories of underrepresented groups: minority writers; writers with disabilities; women writers; writers age 55 and over; and LGBTQ+ writers.


Bridging the Feature-TV Divide


Thanks to my vantage as a TV writer in development, I can communicate why issues affecting Feature writers should be important to TV writers.


Simply put, it’s because they are coming for us, too.


While some say streaming is turning all content into TV, I’ve had a front row seat to something quite different. TV careers are becoming more itinerant, more irregular, more feast-and-famine… in short, more like Features. TV writers ignore this at our peril.


I won’t pretend to know all the ins and outs of every issue affecting Feature writers, but I can tell you two things.


First, I’m listening and looking to learn.


Second, our Guild is strongest when we fight not just for ourselves but for each other, and I’m a TV writer who is ready and willing to fight for Feature writers.


Prior to the pandemic, a lot of Guild members expected the 2020 MBA negotiation to be one that pushed hard on chronically-ignored Features issues. I’m disappointed we didn’t make significant progress on those, or for teams, or on inclusion, all of which were core tenets of my 2019 candidacy. But, given the new circumstances of COVID-19, I believe the Negotiating Committee secured the best deal possible.


2020 WGAW Election Issues


While I’m ready to rattle sabers on Features issues in 2023, the reality is, the two-year term of anyone elected to Board this cycle doesn’t include our next negotiation with the AMPTP.


Rather, I see this election as a cultural one. It’s about what Guild members are willing to do for each other, and what we ask of each other, regardless of our studio partners. My attitude is that, in many cases, we don't need to wait for the AMPTP to agree to put something in the MBA for us to do the right thing ourselves.


This is especially true in TV, where we always say “writers hire writers.” This fact, more than anything else, is why showrunners are so powerful. Many of my ideas and proposals are “best practices” that rely on this power, and ask showrunners to use it on behalf of their fellow Guild members. Key areas include:

  • Assigning Freelance Scripts: Helping Members Maintain Healthcare Eligibility, Providing TV Experience for Feature Writers, and On-Ramping the Next Generation of WGA Members

I recognize these issues all have their own complexities and challenges. But each one is a choice any individual showrunner can make. Importantly, I am not asking anyone to do anything I’ve not already done, or that I’m not committed to doing when a piece of my development goes forward and puts me in the position to do so.


Writers do not hire writers in Features, but I don’t believe we need to wait for the next MBA negotiation to work on curbing abusive practices. Instead of leaving it to individual members to complain about endless free rewrites and risk blowback, the Guild can play the heavy. Let’s put the town on notice through proactive, organized outreach to producers. It’s a fact that people behave better when they believe they’re being observed. Well, we’re watching.


Finally, I want to help the Guild’s efforts to organize Video Game writers into our ranks. The gaming industry is massive, with global annual revenue that rivals both TV and Features, and is only growing larger. Several major game studios are even part of the same companies that comprise the AMPTP. Writing is certainly a large part of many video games’ success, and so writers should share in it.


Yet, many Video Game writers work on a freelance or permalance basis, with no pay minimums, no residuals or profit-sharing, and no pension plan or health benefits. This group already includes some WGA members: TV and Feature writers who have crossed over, whether to fill a gap or simply as a new revenue stream.


At the moment, writing for Video Games is a lot like Animation in that, on a project-by-project basis, a writer can push for a game to be covered by a limited WGA contract (the IPC). It’s not an easy thing for an individual to do when facing a large corporation, or even when working for an indie game developer. What I don’t want is for Video Games to actually become like Animation, where writers are part of a separate union. Once that happens, it’s legally very difficult to untangle.


This will be no small task. But the challenge also presents an opportunity. The gaming industry is not yet organized on any level. That may soon change. We have the chance to bring Video Game writers under our umbrella, to make Video Game writing a viable career option for WGA members who want to maintain their health insurance, and to have these projects contribute to our pension and health funds, thereby expanding and strengthening our Guild. This is both the right thing to do, and the right time to do it.


In Solidarity.

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Monday, July 6, 2020

Who I Am, and Why I'm Running... Again

About Me

There's a chance all you know about me is I ran for WGAW Board of Directors in 2019, but dropped out before the deadline to take my name off the ballot, as it was clear that election was a proxy vote about the ATA action. Unfortunately, there wasn't oxygen for much else in the debate.

So, allow me to (re-)introduce myself.

After graduating from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a business degree, I moved to Los Angeles in 2006 to pursue a career as a TV writer. I spent a year at an agency, moved on to being an EP assistant just in time for the 2007 Strike, then spent a few years working as an assistant on a string of cancelled shows. The first show I was worked on that got renewed was Lifetime's Army Wives, which I joined in season five as the writers assistant. During the sixth season, I got the chance to prove myself with a freelance. It went well, and I was promoted to Staff Writer for the seventh (and it turned out to be final) season. I became a member of the WGAW in 2012.

Since joining of the WGAW in 2012, I've been part of the LGBTQ+ Committee, a 2017 Contract Captain, and an AMBA Captain during the current action. I've done fundraising work with the WGAW PAC, hosting an event with Adam Schiff in 2018. After the Code of Conduct was implemented in the ATA action, I co-founded "The Rainbow Pages," an independent database of LGBTQ+ WGA members, in an effort to make sure that producers and executives and showrunners have an easily accessible list of queer writers at their fingertips, to meet, to read, and to hire, in the hopes of making sure that queer voices are part of the inclusion and diversity conversation. I know a thing or two about being the "only" LGBTQ+ writer in a room... it just so happens I'm the only candidate running for Board who self-identifies as queer in their Guild profile.

My mentor — Jeff Melvoin, who gave me that all-important chance on Army Wives — describes my career as a series of successes and setbacks. I wear that with a badge of pride — it hasn't been easy, and that's how I know just how much I love this industry, and this profession. It's these experiences — working towards the ups while weathering the downs, all while the foundations of our industry shift massively under our feet thanks to streaming, short orders, and "Peak TV" content glut — that I think make me an excellent candidate for the WGAW Board of Directors.

Part of the reason I became a Contract Captain in 2017 was because, after two years of working in development and not on staff, I felt disconnected from my fellow writers. What I found when I started organizing writers and interacting with other captains was that I wasn't alone. Mine is a new kind of TV writer trajectory that wouldn't have been thinkable when I first arrived in Los Angeles — but it's one that's becoming increasingly common thanks to small rooms and short orders. It's a kind of career that needs to be represented on the Board.

Though I write primarily in television, the last five years of my career haven't looked like what we all think of as a traditional TV writer career. They've been much more like a feature writer's career: pitching and spec-ing and doing an unfathomable amount free work for producers in the hopes of occasionally having that work turn into a sale, all without the safety net of a weekly paycheck from a show staff or an overall deal. In 2019 alone, I took out four TV projects, landed partners on all of them, but haven't yet seen a dime from any of that work, and so temporarily lost my health insurance.

My career is also, in a way, something of a warning. There's a common refrain around town that, with streaming, everything is becoming more like TV. Well, TV writers, the truth is our careers are becoming more like features. Putting aside the issue of directors coming on board projects to direct all episodes of a short order season or limited series and potentially challenging the writer's primacy in TV... anyone who's managed to string together two short order staff jobs to make their year knows a TV career is more itinerant than in the past, and how much hustle is required. TV writers ignore this reality — and what feature writers have been telling TV writers about persistent  issues in feature careers and contracts — at their peril.

In addition to the above, I'm the only candidate (out of the 18 put forward by the Nominating Committee) who self-identifies on the Guild's diversity attributes as queer.

I'm happy to talk about my journey in more detail, but let me encapsulate it with a quick story.

It was Summer 2015. I was at a friend's birthday party. I'd just been on the first season of CW's iZombie (repeating at Staff Writer). As often happens with first season shows, there was a lot of shake-up — about half the staff wasn't a creative fit, including me. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to secure a new gig during broadcast staffing, and I was feeling pretty down about it.

And that's when someone else at this party told me that I'd sell my own show before I got staffed again.

I... laughed in this person's face.

But they were right. I've had more paid development in the years since this conversation than I've had staffing meetings.

The idea that I could sell a show when I was still a "low-level" writer never crossed my mind when I moved to Los Angeles in 2006. It simply wasn't the reality. Of course, the reality back then was also that a TV writer needed three spec scripts in their portfolio, not original pilots. Netflix was a DVD-by-mail rental service. In short, things change.

COVID-19 has only hastened some of those changes. It also, fundamentally, changed the 2020 MBA Negotiation. Writers were among the only people in town working, and our biggest leverage — a strike threat — basically disappeared.

I'm disappointed we didn't make strides on issues like features, or teams, or inclusion, all of which were central parts of my MBA issue-driven 2019 candidacy, aimed at attacking the problem of writers not being paid fairly. But the studios understood we had no appetite for a strike, and they weren't going to give us anything we weren't prepared to fight for.

Though I wasn't on the Negotiating Committee, this isn't theoretical to me. It's what my business degree tells me to be the truth, in our industry and every other. We need to start preparing ourselves now for the fact that 2023 will be a negotiation where all the issues that got pushed aside this cycle must be taken up, and that it very likely will be a fight. Otherwise, we won't make the long-overdue gains we need to for whole swaths of our membership, and to address the continual, structural changes in our industry.

That, however, is not a fight we are going to have during the two-year term of any Board members elected during this campaign cycle. This election is not an MBA election.

Rather, this is all about our culture as a Guild — what we can do as writers and Guild members for each other, what we ask of each other as individuals for the benefit of the collective, regardless of our studio partners. My attitude is that we don't need to wait for the AMPTP to do the right thing in the MBA for us to do the right thing ourselves.

If you followed my campaign during 2019... well, you'd better believe I've got plans.

Please follow these links for more information about my position on issues affecting writers and our Guild that I believe we can tackle internally and make positive changes on without our studio partners including them in the MBA. I'll be updating and adding more as I interact with members over the course of the campaign.


To discuss these issues and others you would like to bring to my attention and have me address, you can connect with me over Twitter, or reach out to me through my Find A Writer page.

I would be honored to have your endorsement.

In Solidarity.

Rob
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