Credit Amendments Passed in WGA Vote

Three amendments will be made to the Writers Guild of America’s screenwriting credit policy, a vote by the U.S. guild’s members indicated.

The total 1,169 ballots cast by WGA East and West members passed by 90 percent a proposed amendment to allow teleconferencing between guild arbitration officials to determine writing credits, The Hollywood Reporter said.

In addition to allowing teleconferencing if a unanimous decision cannot be reached, 83 percent of the voting members supported a proposal that reduced the contribution percentage for writers on a screenplay project.

The guild’s policy had mandated that any additional writers must contribute more than 60 percent of a work to obtain credit, but the amendment reduced that to more than 50 percent.

Finally, the voting members passed by 86 percent a proposed amendment regarding similar percentage-based credits, the Reporter said.

The new amendment eliminated a standard that allowed production executives to receive credit without a percentage requirement. Under the new regulation, any first writers on a project will get credit if they create more than 33 percent of that work.