Speechless

To support the Writers Strike (both sides re-opened negotiations Monday after three weeks of picket lines), members of the Writers Guild Of America (WGA) created some artsy Public Service Announcements featuring A-list Screen Actors Guild talent. The campaign—”Speechless”—was created by George Hickenlooper and Alan Sereboff and has an interesting organic history:

The “Speechless” idea quickly took off and, after a single day of filming, the team learned that the support of major A-list SAG talent was so overwhelming that many wanted to do more than just a screen test. After extensive conversations with various actors, it was decided that the screen tests might be expanded to improvisational scene work that would be done to entertain those of the public who might not be aware of the importance of the writer, and at the same time create mystery and intrigue surrounding the UnitedHollywood.com website.

On the second day of filming, the screen tests quickly evolved into actual short moments and sometimes full-fledged scenes. The result is a unique series of PSAs bringing together talent in solidarity. The “Speechless” campaign has thus far stockpiled several dozen very creative and innovative spots in black & white, ranging in length from 15 seconds to 4 minutes long.
source: press release posted on Deadline Hollywood Daily blog, Nov. 20, 2007

After debuting on Deadline Hollywood Daily blog on Thanksgiving, the videos have been released into the wild and a website has been launched, devoted to this project. The entire series is being posted on YouTube and other places. At the moment, there are 14 17 episodes available:

1. Holly Hunter—outsourcing scriptwriting
2. Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss—charades
3. Sean Penn—silent monologue
4. Jeff Garlin—creating a new script
5. Cast of Ugly Betty—just staring
6. David Schwimmer and Kate Beckinsale—an awkward prison visitation
7. Andre 3000—gibberish
8. William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman—whistling a tune
9. Harvey Keitel—one story in the naked city
10. Nicollette Sheridan and Eva Longoria—non-sensical conversation
11. Laura Linney—Actors Without a Script Anonymous
12. Speechless Actors—one written word
13. [New] Ed Asner—mouth full of sandwich
14. Susan Sarandon and Chazz Palminteri—dramatic blah, blah, blah
15. [New] Demi Moore, Martin Sheen & a host of others—casting call with a blank script
16. [New] Patricia Clarkson and Amy Ryan—the Yellow Pages as a script (my personal favorite)
17. [New] Rosanna Arquette—loud music and lots of pacing

For the rest of the videos, check the speechlesshollywood archives on YouTube or a higher resolution archives on BrightCove.tv.

The heavy irony in this strike situation is that the main issue of dispute is residuals for new media … a platform the writers and allies are exploiting freely. They even have a hip-hop anthem by Writer Boi and are effective users of Twitter, with about 1200 followers and over 300 tweets with news on the strike.

Updated: Four more episodes were uploaded to YouTube, through 12/3.