I can add my experience in negotiations to Tom Schulman's pithy analysis. As Schulman comma Roger knows (from our days together as a team), I became a father at about the same time I became a TV producer. I marveled at how alike fatherhood and producerhood seemed. Now, having two sons of 17 and nearly 13, I realize that negotiating with them is quite like Tom's description of negotiating with the AMPTP.

Apparently, my boys are excellent negotiators. They anger my wife and me, clouding our judgment. Then we feel bad and are tempted to capitulate. They raise and lower our expectations, attempt to destroy our leadership cred, and they use each of us as a back channel to the other. Divide and conquer. The good thing is, my sons rarely work as a team. The really good thing is we love them, they love us and they're nutty teenagers becoming great people.

In our MBA negotiation, we're dealing with tactics well-honed during adolescence: Dispirit, demoralize, dissemble, divide and conquer. And get the keys to the car.

AMPTP... grow up. You might own the car, but we've got the keys.
David Steven Cohen | 12.25.07 - 3:38 am | #

MR SCHULMAN WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN REVIEWING " THE REEL SCRIPT " IT IS POSSIBLY THE CHEAPEST WAY TO SCREEN TEST SCREEN PLAYS AVAILABLE IT CONSISTS OF JUST NINE PAGES AND IS PART OF A FORMATS FOR SALE CONCEPT
barry st john ryan | 09.25.08 - 1:00 pm | #

Great post. It's interesting to see what it takes to sell your work as a screenwriter. Good points on divide and conquer and the benefits from getting someone to lose their temper

--Anubhav
Anubhav Rohatgi | Homepage | 11.05.09 - 1:05 am | #