I'm getting a lot of questions about the Writers Guild strike and I need to emphasize that I have no real "inside" info on the negotiations or the lack thereof. But having been through WGA labor stoppages before this one, I may be able to answer general questions like these. Brendan Murphy asks…
Will the Writers Guild strike affect your participation in panels at Comic-Con, either in what you can do or guests you might have lined up?
I can't imagine how. None of my panels have anything to do with the kind of work the Writers Guild covers. The only impact I can think of on Comic-Con would involve panels which feature the cast and/or crew of some TV series or movie. If a TV series or movie is delayed due to the strike, its makers might choose not to do a presentation they might otherwise have done. Or maybe they'll do it and not invite the writers.
And Matthew Wecksell asks…
Shows with finished scripts, like season 2 of House of the Dragon remain in production. There is online commentary that these shows will have problems without writers on set to do last minute rewrites.
So I ask, outside of the context of the strike: Why is this a problem? Some shows may have rushed production schedules that require filming before the words are written, but why is the idea of a script being "finished" so anathema to the act of filming it? Surely no one filming yet another A Doll's House or Hamlet would insist that the process requires rewriting after the start of principal photography?
No…but the actor starring in Hamlet is not going to walk onto the set and tell the producer or someone in charge, "This speech which starts 'To be or not to be, that is the question' really sucks. We need a rewrite on this!" That kind of thing has been known to happen on a script not by William Shakespeare or me.
Or due to budget or schedule problems, the scene at the football game has to be shot in a bowling alley and some of the lines in the script need to be altered to fit the new setting.
Or what looked fine on the page doesn't play well when the actors read it in context or costume. On situation comedies, the writers do rewrites throughout the rehearsal process and sometimes even after a dress rehearsal in front of a live audience. I worked on a sitcom once where, after the audience response at the dress rehearsal told us they weren't understanding the ending. We had about three hours to rewrite Act Two and have the cast learn it before the second audience came in for the final taping.
Time on a stage with a full crew costs a lot of money per hour. If you were producing a show, you might want to have someone present who can do a speedy and professional rewrite if problems arise. It might not be the script's original writer but you might feel you need someone. The costumes are almost always completed before the day of filming but there are always a couple of wardrobe folks around in case of emergency.
By the way: Our series here on panel borders and Western Publishing Company will resume when I don't have strike questions to answer. But don't let that stop you from sending in ones you think I might be able to field.
