If you look at the list of struck companies, it's surprising how many companies are not on the list. Pretty much all the Indie companies in NY are off that list. Even a surprising number on LA companies that I thought had studio deals aren't on the list. I would think that means that if you are not in the WGA, you could still work freely for any of these companies, if they chose to do business with you and it wouldn't be scabbing, or strike-breaking, or anything bad at all. The WGA is NOT striking these companies! When the unions strike Ford, they don't get mad when workers go to work at GM.
Here's the list of struck companies, which I recommend no one work for during the strike, and which, if you're not in the union, probably won't look at your stuff anyway.
http://wga.org/subpage_member.aspx?id=2537
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posted by @ 11/13/2007 8:07 AM
This is my understanding as well, but I'm going to try and write something more about non-guild work during the strike at some point.
Most producers set up single-purpose companies to produce a film and that company becomes the guild signatory if the writer doing the work is a member of the guild. So, an indie company might have another entity doing their guild jobs.
The WGA strike is about WGA writers striking guild signatory companies. Many if not most indie film scripts are written by non-guild writers, people who, in many cases, aren't even eligible to join the union. And they sell these scripts to companies that are not guild signatories themselves. The strike really should have nothing to do with them.
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posted by Scott Macaulay @ 11/13/2007 9:33 AM
Technically speaking though, guild writers are not supposed to do business w/ companies that aren't signatories, right?
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posted by @ 11/13/2007 2:04 PM
That's right. I was referring in the previous post to non-guild writers and their dealings with non-guild signatory companies.
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posted by Scott Macaulay @ 11/13/2007 4:56 PM
Now I understand why people were saying this would be good for independent film...
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posted by @ 11/13/2007 10:41 PM
