The Tech View

by Kelly Lynne Ashton

The far reach of the digital world

In previous articles I have given you definitions of common digital terms and let you know why you should be exploring work opportunities in digital media.

The reality is that most work opportunities will be in traditional media–film, television and radio–for some time. So how does the growth of digital media impact the writer of traditional media? That is the subject of this column.

There are two primary ways that digital media affects a writer engaged for a non-digital production. The first is future digital uses of the non-digital production. For example, full episodes of a television series could go on to be exploited by download or streaming online, or short versions could be available for download or streaming by wireless. [Note: Downloads allow you to keep a copy, while streaming is a live time ’broadcast’ which may or may not be saved on your computer or other device.]

You can get a piece of the action

The producers take the position that any revenues from these exploitations are part of Distributors’ Gross Revenue, however writers are always able to negotiate better terms than those contained in the collective agreement. For example, when a ‘download to own’ arrangement has been negotiated, the producer will be earning a share of the download fee from the user. The writer could negotiate an additional royalty on a per download basis.

Streaming is a bit more complicated as the producer may earn a share of the user fee, or a share of advertising revenues which are embedded in the ‘broadcast’ or on the page that hosts it. But in both cases revenues are likely being calculated on the basis of the number of viewers and could be subject to an additional royalty payable to the writer.

These forms of revenue are uncertain these days but offer a great deal of potential for revenue that has not been whittled down by distribution fees and expenses, and is instead directly related to the popularity of the production with the audience. The reporting required to track talent royalties is already being done for the producer or by the producer.

Digital content supports the TV series

The other time when a writer of traditional media should be concerned about digital is when they are the head writer or showrunner of a television series, or the writer of a feature film.

In television series it has now become almost standard that the broadcaster will want content for digital platforms to support the television series. This could be webisodes, mobisodes, in-character web content (e.g. journal entries, message board postings), online games, mobile games, videogames, etc. The additional content fills the need of the audience for ‘more’, and also drives audience to the television series.

Whether or not these other productions have been planned at the time of series development–or even production–the head writer should consider negotiating a first right of refusal to be the writer for this additional content. Not only will the digital content be additional sources of work, but an unrelated (sometimes non-union) writer may not be the best qualified to give life to the head writer’s characters and story lines. This could potentially damage the ‘world’ that the head writer has worked so hard to create.

Create a new kind of bible

It’s also valuable to consider creating a cross-platform bible that can be handed off to game designers and other digital content creators in order to maintain the integrity of the series. A cross-platform bible would not be limited to the 13 or 20 episode stories that the series requires. It would go into more depth on the characters, their back stories, and their interactions, to allow additional content to be created that stays consistent with the series. If the producer does not suggest a bible, then the writer should.

Digital spin-offs from feature film are less certain, but if a film is successful this could happen, and the right of first refusal would be useful. These spin-offs would probably be videogames or mobile games rather than webisodes or other web content, but increasingly videogame producers are hiring the feature film writers to work on the dialogue and character development of their games.

So you can see that digital production or digital distribution has an impact on just about every writer, and it is in your best interest to work out these issues during contract negotiation.