A piece I wrote is up on Pajamas. It begins: Back in moviedom’s glory days, Jack Warner famously called screenwriters
“Schmucks with Underwoods.” Today, they’re mostly “Schmucks with Apples.” But whatever they are, they’re schmucks in the eyes of Hollywood.
I go on from there to put in my two cents on the coming Writers Guild- Producers negotiations and the producer’s threat to end residual payments. Times are changing in the entertainment industry and no one knows what to do.
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Hollywood hs declined a lot from the days when the three most important things were “story, story, story”.
I still don’t understand how residuals work. Could you give some examples?
Chuck, how residuals work is much more mysterious than it has to be (even to an old hack like me), but the essence is this: a small percentage of the revenues from the re-use of film and television shows (after their first run or runs… many caveats here) are remitted to the creators. This can include DVD sales and television syndication. Typically residuals diminish with the age of the movie or show. If you are lucky enough to have had a big star in your film, the residuals are usually larger because the buyers (television networks in foreign countries, for example) rarely buy on quality. They go on names.
Perhaps it’s time for writers, actors, etc. to start owning.