When the highly paid writers who create America's hit TV shows went on strike earlier this month, they faced a tough sell: mustering sympathy from couch potatoes angry because their favorite programs went black.
But as writers consider a Nov. 29 offer from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, it's clear that members of the Writers Guild of America have so far creamed the studios in telling their side of the strike story.
"Maybe if the studios had (Joseph) Goebbels or someone like Leni Riefenstahl on their side, they'd have a fighting chance," said Aram Sinnreich, managing partner at media consultancy Radar Research. "They obviously do not. What makes it even more difficult is that the studios are up against TV writers. Who is better at manipulating people's emotions through videos than TV writers? Nobody!"
While the studios have stuck to old-school corporate PR techniques, movie and TV scribes have launched a web-based labor protest built on YouTube videos and bitterly funny blogs. The internet blitz mocks the producers while arguing that writers deserve a bigger piece of the digital distribution pie, including a 2.5 percent share of internet revenues.
Public opinion only carries so much weight when billions of dollars are at stake, but the writers' crowdsourced union action is just the latest example of the internet's growing influence as a powerful media outlet that can be harnessed for anything from presidential debates to rallying protesters in Myanmar.
"What we're essentially talking about here is online grass-roots phenomenon that originated in the '04 election cycle," Sinnreich said. "That was the first time this multiplicity of voices, rather than the official party line, became the defining characteristic of a major national campaign. The writers strike is really a continuation of that phenomenon and one of the first time it's had a strong effect on labor politics."
AMPTP, which did not respond to requests for interviews, has been slow to react to the writers' viral online offerings. The trade group has so far stuck to old-school methods, for example taking out a full-page "open letter" ad in The New York Times.
(On the picket line in Los Angeles, sleep-deprived writers and actors from The Office dish the dirt on studio business tactics.)
Tim Carvell, a writer for The Daily Show, says the web became an obvious outlet for WGA members biding their time on the picket line.
"People from every show kind of had the exact same impulse all at once," he said. "Walking around on the line with the picket signs, there was this sense of, 'Ya know what dude? This may take more time to explain than there's room for on a picket sign.... By habit, we're accustomed to speaking through video."
YouTube videos also offer a direct connection with fans, Carvell said.
"I'm not sure how much more appetite there is for residuals-based humor," he said. "As writers we're endlessly fascinated, but our fans would rather see us doing something on the Republican debates."
- (The Daily Show writer Jason Ross likens studio executives to underwater creatures borrowed from Peter Jackson's King Kong.)*
Humor drives most of the TV show spots, but movie stars give the viral campaign a dramatic twist via the speechless project.
(Demi Moore chews gum while James Franco and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss look puzzled in this speechless short, directed by Oscar winner Paul Haggis.)
The speechless project's somber short films dramatize just how screwed actors would be without scripted dialogue. Susan Sarandon and Chazz Palminteri perform a "scene" consisting entirely of "blah blah blah." The cast of Ugly Betty sits mute as the camera pulls back. Sean Penn simply stares at the camera while birds cheep in the background.
Filmmakers for the black-and-white spots include Oscar winner Paul Haggis (Crash), Kamala Lopez (Wired Science co-host) and George Hickenlooper (Factory Girl), who organized the project with writer Alan Sereboff and shot most of the spots, including an upcoming segment featuring Woody Allen.
"The most important thing was to show that we could make entertaining content with A-list talent and take it directly to the internet without interference from the studios," Hickenlooper says. "We're sending the conglomerates a very clear message: You need to be fair in these negotiations or this could be the future and you guys could become dinosaurs."
Not surprisingly for writers who suddenly have a lot of time on their hands, WGA members like John August (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and Cheers veteran Ken Levine are blogging up a storm, tossing out opinions that you'd never find on an official press release.
*(*Everybody Loves Chris *executive producer Ali Leroi joins ex-*Diff'rent Strokes star Todd Bridges in a sidewalk rant titled "Everybody Hates Studio Moguls.")
Will the WGA's chorus of pasty-faced malcontents produce a Triumph of the Wit at the negotiating table? Buzz at de facto strike info headquarters Deadline Hollywood Daily varies constantly. Optimism that an agreement could be hammered out before Christmas more recently has turned dour in light of the WGA's rejection of the producers' latest offer.
(In this spoof video, men in suits explain why "scabs" are part of the healing process.)
