John Rogers Profile picture
Aug 19, 2019 4 tweets 1 min read Read on X
Hey folks I usually post this around contract negotiation time but it seems appropriate to remind everyone that if you work in a creative field involving both potential labor actions and capricious corporate behavior that priority one is six months of savings. Priority ONE.
Take it from the guy who was a freelancer for years who got paid in crumpled $20’s and once hash which I accepted because I didn’t want to be rude but never coke no matter how much that one Boston club tried to push it on us.
Even if you’re on the most secure broadcast series job imaginable, you’re always just one TMZ video away from your star going to jail. We’re all freelancers every one of us, and you’re fooling yourself if you think the companies believe any different.
For fucks sake, most of the corporations don’t even really consider us above the line anymore.

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More from @jonrog1

Aug 9, 2023
As we head out to picket for Day 100, there are a lot of positive messages of solidarity out there, true, but for my little corner I want to remind you of two sentences:

"Rejected our proposal. Refused to counter."
There are a lot of punters out there proposing "their solve for the strike", and to a one they're like those tech bro buddies of Musk who lectured us on how Ukraine wasn't going to last a week.
When you see "the WGA is holding firm" on some term or another, that's not us rejecting some middle ground the companies are offering, and being the problem.

We''re holding firm on the radical idea that we want *more than nothing*.
Read 17 tweets
Jul 23, 2023
Last time I had a failure - which was collateral damage in an argument between the studio and the network - I had to personally fire 200 people, they all were off payroll by that afternoon, and I was also out of a job. The executives all continued to get paid. So fuck off.
Actually, that’s not true. The failure after that one happened as collateral damage in one of the mergers, so it had nothing to do with the quality of the show. And I had to wait, forbidden to work, not earning a dime, as they shopped it for six months.
Also several of my writers were cheated of their expected salaries, some losing up to 75%, for reasons too complicated to explain here. Those executives, both studio and streamer, all kept their jobs. So double fuck off.
Read 7 tweets
Jul 19, 2023
1) A moment at the Teamsters/UPS rally this morning clarified our current struggle with the studio CEO's (among other bosses). Teamsters got a lot of wins, but one of the main sticking points is the pay for the 65% of local UPS workers who are part-time ...
2) If you read the SAG-AFTRA demands, a truly STUNNING amount of their points involve protecting background actors, and trying to improve conditions for the 87% of their union who makes less than $26,000 a year.
3) As WGA members know, this is not a strike for the showrunners. We're trying to fix the fact the the current younger generation of writers can't even afford housing and their pathway to advancement has been cut off.
Read 17 tweets
May 7, 2023
1) Okay, we did "You have writers on set for dialogue" and now we're going to do "we have writers on set for TRAINING."
2) My Dad, on his first visit to a set, after an hour of watching, said "Oh, it's like a construction site, but once an hour good looking people wander through" and goddam I have never topped that.
3) I have written this before: a showrunner is both the lead creative voice of a piece of art and is the head of a company with a burn rate of $3-10 million a week, 200 -500 employees, with unmissable deadlines. Always at the same time.
Read 23 tweets
May 7, 2023
1) There have been a couple threads today about the importance of having writers on set, and a lot of them have focused on last minute changes to to physical locations, story continuity, etc, but there are two other reasons I want to hit a) dialogue and b) training
2) It's not just "don't say X, we find out Y three episodes from now", props, etc, but dialogue is art coming out of unpredictable humans. I always say I choose both writing staffs and actors like a jazz combo -- you're here to play an instrument *I can't play*.
3) There are shows where the writers are considered automatons -- play the score, etc, there was one show where you had to call upstairs to change a "cannot" to a "can't", but I like it when you play one by the text, and then find the reason we cast YOU and not ... not You.
Read 17 tweets
May 4, 2023
1) Non-members ask how they can show solidarity with the Writers Strike. The most effective way is to donate to the Entertainment Community Fund. It's NOT for us, it's to support fellow Hollywood employees, crew who may suffer hardship due to the strike. secure2.convio.net/afa/site/Donat…
2) Choose "Film and Television" in the drop down menu. *This donation is tax deductible*. We writers have our Strike Fund, and the Good and Welfare fund. We're asking supporters to aid those we work with.
3) If you would like to make a more substantial donation, DM me and I'll send you that contact info. Thank you all, I'm pleasantly surprised by all the interest from those not in the industry in this strike.
Read 4 tweets

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