the quitter

i have quit the writer's guild (www.writersguildofcanada.ca). in the latest issue of 'canadian screenwriter', there are a bunch of articles and advertisment-type announcements boldly proclaiming how much good they have done for writer's. well, not this writer.

quitting doesn't cost me too much. i lose a bit of a drug and dental plan. worth it. i hope they pass it around their office and laugh, but on the inside, secretly cry. bitter? you betcha! the SAP fund was supposed to be a potential for me while i was in school next year. I seemed to write pretty damned good scripts (or ones Telefilm seemed to like) and had my scripts selected 4 times for funding. seems they didn't like that.


HERE'S THE LETTER:
I am tendering my resignation from the WGC for your suddenly-apparent elitist principles and the resulting alienating of a portion of your members, of which I once proudly included myself. By helping to up the minimum requirement for writers who could apply to Telefilm’s “Writer’s First” program (formerly SAP) to two hours from one of produced writing, you have cut us lowly ‘one hours’ out. Congratulations. You have helped save Canadian film! You have provided “even better opportunities for professional screenwriters!”. I’m sure the WGC members with 60 minutes of produced writing are ecstatic to know that their union dues have gone towards the fight AGAINST them, and have been used to help put our “A-listers’” scripts on top of the pile. I’m sure they needed the help.

Rebecca Schechter wants to ‘increase the quality of scripts’ to “save Canadian film”. If that was the WGC’s mandate, why trim the talent pool for SAP? Shouldn’t the best script be given the green light, not just the script written by the writer with an extra 60 minutes on their resume? Don’t let those pesky better scripts get in the way of your BMW! At the WGC, we help eliminate the competition so your fragile ego won’t be bruised if your script is rejected by one of your contemporaries on the basis of it being inferior!

All at the expense of a writer like me, who has optioned two feature films, sold a documentary script, written two half hour episodes for a show that fell apart and wasn’t supposed to be produced (but later was, after I had signed a WGC contract in arbitration saying I waive all ownership rights) and has only 60 minutes of produced drama. I have been a part of two writers rooms, spending the past seven years plying my trade. But this, it seems, is not ‘professional’ enough for the WGC, despite accepting my membership dues every year.

Were the one hour writers dominating the SAP funding? Is that why we were cut out of the mix? Our scripts were better? Because maybe you have it all wrong, Jessica. Maybe A-list writers of television aren’t getting their movies made because their movie scripts aren’t good… maybe they have been writing them and have been turned down. An A-list tv writer is no more deserving of SAP funding than a writer of 60 minutes. The script is the product, not the writer’s credits. And the difference in produced hours doesn’t mean the script will ‘save Canadian cinema’. It doesn’t mean anything, really. Or didn’t. I suppose it does now: it means the WGC wants the A-listers to move to the front of the line, A-SAP.

I have been SAP funded in the past. One reason my film “One Eyed Bluff” has yet to been made is because the WGC wouldn’t budge when a producer wanted to option it for two years to bring it through the Greenburg funding process. So the WGC is lamenting the lack of Canadian films being watched, blaming that on the lack of screens, and the fact that the A-list tv writers aren’t writing films, and yet, when a company wanted to make my first feature film, there was no creative solution open to them through the WGC. According to Rebecca, WGC members don’t really write films anyway (or at least, not the A-listers). Perhaps the WGC should rename itself the TV-WGC. Or perhaps learn to bend in an effort to have new writers get their films produced in the first place. Instead of playing suck-up to the A-list, how about cultivating other writers within your own membership? If you want to save Canadian film, help promote the best scripts through avenues like SAP. Because, as Rebecca said: “Our writing pool is too small to indulge in such arrogance and snobbery.” I couldn’t agree with you more.

fc