When I first arrived in town in 2006, if you saw a project get announced in the trades, there was more than enough time to flex your network and try to get read. But now, thanks in part to mini-rooms and streaming secrecy, when you read about a new project in the trades it's far more likely the first season room has already wrapped, the show is shooting season one (and just cast whoever's PR team got that article printed), and the second season writers room is already hard at work even though the series hasn't been officially renewed.
Given all that... when the Guild unveiled the Staffing Submission System in the wake of the ATA action, it felt like a breath of fresh air. Suddenly, at our finger tips, was all sorts of information and potential access.
Unfortunately, the system has not received the buy-in from showrunners necessary to make it successful... let alone work the way it was intended. We need to take a business approach to this tool — strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.
To be clear: I am a huge proponent of the system, and its potential, and I want it to succeed. I love that it exists, and I thank our current Board members for pioneering it and championing it and pushing it forward. But we have to bring a critical eye when there is so much game-changing potential at stake. We should not be happy with the current state of the system or its offerings.
While it's easy to blame COVID-19 for scuttling the 2020 broadcast development cycle, the reality of the Staffing Submission System is... not every room or mini-room was listed as "open to submissions" prior to the pandemic. Far from it. Most weren't, and aren't. I know plenty of people who have gotten jobs on shows that never hit the system — including broadcast shows that got renewed or were ordered straight-to-series.
The fact of the matter is, the best way to be considered for a job on a TV staff is to already know the showrunner, either by social circle or by virtue of having worked for them previously, or worked with someone they trust previously. This was true before the ATA action. It remains true now. I don't expect we're going to change that.
So, my question is... why are so many showrunners not ALSO using this tool?
No one is suggesting you shouldn't hire friends who you know you work well with, or that you shouldn't give someone you know who hasn't had their break a chance, or that you shouldn't give a friend who has had a run of bad luck a chance to revitalize their career. Of course not!
I'm not only speaking as someone frustrated by the lack of listings. I'm also speaking as someone who has used the system as one of my hiring tools. I've been on both sides of the equation.
One of my sales, a long-gestating project set up at BET based on a spec pilot, was searching for a Black showrunner to supervise me and do a rewrite. The network executives were searching, my manager was searching... and then the system arrived. It was easy for me to get the network to sign off (I know this isn't always the case, one thing we can do is work on outreach to studio/network execs so they aren't barriers) on listing the show to fill this one very specific need, even though it hadn't been announced in the trades. I read every submission that fit our needs and forwarded every submission to the network as they had final say.
Ultimately, we found a wonderful writer (if you're reading this... hi!) through other means. But writers were put on my radar for potential staffing should the series get ordered, and they were put on the network's radar.
So, here's my challenge to showrunners, and it's one I will continue issuing as a Board member.
If you are staffing up a completely new room — list your show.
If you are trying to fill a single vacancy — list your show.
If you've been allowed to open a mini-room — list your show.
If you experience resistance from your studio or network on using the system — let the Guild know. Because you're probably not the alone... it's incredibly rare to be the only scripted offering on a platform these days. Let the Guild be the one to push back. Hopefully, in the future, we'll change the studio or network's mind. This is doubly important if the studio or network in one breath is saying they don't want to use the system to find writers, and in the next is bemoaning that they can't find (i.e.) writers of color. Guess where they'll find writers of color? As applicants on the Staffing Submission System!
But don't just list your show. Download the material submitted to you. Read the applicants' cover letters and scripts. Meet with the ones you like. And if a writer who applied through the system is the best writer to fill the position... well, of course, hire them.
Showrunners are our Guild's most powerful members because showrunners have the power to hire other writers. I promise, all using the Staffing Submission System will cost is time. I know, because I've done it. I'm not asking anyone to do anything I haven't.
What you could potentially get is a superstar whose writing you wouldn't otherwise be exposed to.
And what you are signaling to Guild members by using the Staffing Submission System and making it part of the regular toolset of finding and reading and hiring writers is that the old, gatekeeping ways of relying on relationships and access aren't all that matters. The writing matters.
