In the run-up to the Academy Awards, there is a great deal of discussion of the best films of the year, the state of the American movie business, and the politics of Hollywood.  Miranda J. Banks takes a serious look at inside the writing of movies and television in “The Writers: A History of American Screenwriters and Their Guild.”

    

The Screen Writers Guild (SWG) is little known to Americans except when they go on strike.  Their last strike was in 2007-2008 and caused the cancellation of the Golden Globe Awards and threatened the Academy Awards.  Numerous television series were postponed since no filming could be done without scripts.  Famous Hollywood screenwriters walked the picket lines in front of famous studios.

           

The reason for the strike and its intensity was the battle over control of all those new ancillary means of entertainment.  From the possibility of Hulu and Netflix screenwriters recognized that their ability to receive remuneration from their work when they were picked up by Internet and new media was vitally important.  And they stayed on strike until these issues could be resolved.

           

Yet as Banks portrays in her book, the SWG has stood up numerous times in its history over basic rights over their creative product.  She points out that if you are a playwright in New York and write a play that turns out to be produced on Broadway, your name is on the production.  The same writer in Hollywood writes a screenplay and it is the producer’s name that would go on the copyright.  In Hollywood, writers are treated exactly like other trade members; they are hired and any control of their work is out of their hands.  Yet there would be no movie or television show without their creativity and often they labor for months on scripts that are picked up by producers and then changed.  And it used to be that the writer wouldn’t even get any credit.  The SWG changed that.

           

Created in the 1930’s over issues like this, the SWG has fought the studios, the producers and the directors for recognition of their work and for fair pay.  They negotiated for subsidiary rights and for credit on movie and television scripts often under the worst sort of trickery and politics.

           

 “The Writers” is full of stories about some of the famous writers in Hollywood, about the period of the blacklist, and the changes in the industry as a result of the rise of television and now streaming media.  The author points out that this is a union made up of mavericks who normally work alone who recognize the value of their work and are willing to fight for it.

           

Anyone who is interested in the history of Hollywood will find this in-depth look at one of the crucial players in the system fascinating.