The screen writer (Apr-Oct 1948)

these points are inter-related and we must resolve them soon. The infant prodigy known as television will not permit us to postpone anything. Will television follow the early path of radio? Will it pay as little as possible for material and as little as possible for writers? Will it be a mere catch-as-catch-can proposition for free lance writers or will the field be stabilized from the outset with a fair licensing program? Will the basic jurisdiction over writers be in a new television writers guild or in the individual guilds as their members may happen to work in television ? And what will be the basic concept of contract writers in television ? Will they, like screen writers in the past, be regarded merely as one more group of employees who draw a weekly pay check? Or will they, like screen writers in the future perhaps, hold that the method of remuneration has little bearing on determining the creative or non-creative nature of the work being done? ' I 'HERE is no easy answer to any -* of these problems, but fortunately the Authors League is already working on various points designed to clarify the principle of licensing in television, to which it has been committed for some time. Already, according to reports from New York, the Dramatists' Guild is conferring with Broadway managers for a revision of contracts, so that television rights can be excluded from all deals for motion picture rights. The League itself is continuing its drive for "separation of rights," so that omnibus contracts no longer will dispose of all rights in one deal. Committees are also at work in the Radio Writers' Guild and the Screen Writers' Guild studying various problems of the contract writer and the free lance writer in television. OUT of all this activity one fact is clearly evident : if the problem of licensing is won for television, it is also won for the screen. For at certain points the two mediums use the same kind of product and the same kind of writers and the joint action necessary to stabilize the principle in one field is exactly the same kind of action that would be needed in the other field. No, it is not our virtues but or necessities which will solve the problems of licensing. That and the way we choose to look at the craft of screen writing. If we think of it, as do our brothers in the Dramatists' Guild and the Authors' Guild, and the licensing craftsmen of the Radio Writers' Guild, we can not be content with anything less than licensing for ourselves. If we think of it as Samuel Goldwyn thought of it in the last issue of The Screen Writer, the way is clear and not too hard. True, Mr. Goldwyn over-simplifies the matter a bit. There is a presumption in favor of the original authors' originality in the play and in the novel, which does not exist quite yet in the making of motion pictures. It is quite possible that for some time studios would be just as quick to rewrite a good original screen play as they would a first-class novel — and yet the times are changing and the craft of screen writing with them. Remember the days when our predecessors were told that a rock was a rock and a tree was a tree and they could all be shot in Griffith Park? It's nothing to laugh about. Screen writing begins with a camera and today, when so many screen writers are without their customary contract employment at the studios, you too can rediscover how to write with a camera. An Eyemo is an Eyemo and, if you are very lucky, you may be able to make your own picture — or a reel at least — in the nearest public park. And would you sell it for a lump sum, with television just around the corner? Not you — you're on the road to self-employment. T4 Screen Writers' Guild Studio Chairmen (May 19, 1948) Columbia — Maurice Tombragel. MGM — Anne Chapin ; Studio Committee : Levien, Joseph Ansen, Robert Nathan, Wells. Paramount — Richard Breen. Republic — Sloan Nibley; alternate, Patrick Ford. Sonya RKO — Daniel Mainwaring; alternate, Martin Rackin. George Fox — Richard Murphy; alternate, Wanda Tuchock. Universal-International — D. D. Beauchamp. Warner Brothers — Ed North. The Screen Writer, May, 194