Back To The Grind

The screenwriters' strike is over. Although the union's members have not yet voted on tentative contract agreement, the union's board of directors has approved it, and approval by the entire union is expected when the vote is concluded on February 25.

Under the new agreement, writers will receive a maximum flat fee of about $1,200 for programs streamed on the Internet in the deal's first two years and then get 2 percent of a distributor's gross in the third year, along with increased residual payments for movies and TV programs downloaded from the Internet.

Both the studios and the writers feel they've gotten good deals out of the negotiations, and the writers are eager to get back to work. Other jobs dependent on television and movie production - set construction and the like - are expected to pick up as a result, and production will certainly try to pick up lost momentum.

The resurgence may be short-lived, though. The Screen Actors Guild contract with the studios expires in June, and negotiations are expected to be tough, ironically, for the same reasons for the 100-day writers' strike - compensation for distribution through new media.

A hectic time is guaranteed for all . . .