By Gabrielle Harradine
Special to the Daily Press

The writers’ strike is in its fourth week and there’s no end in sight, only a small glimmer of hope with the agreement for both groups to get back to the bargaining table today. That makes for hard times for the screen and TV writers belonging to the Writers Guild of America (WGA), and not just financially.

According to the WGA’s strike rules, members are not allowed to write anything for the consumption of those belonging to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers while the strike continues. With all the stress, uncertainty and time spent picketing it’s unlikely that writers can focus enough to write anyway.

Considering that fact, life might be better as a non-union writer these days, where there are no rules to follow and no studios to picket. Michael Chase Walker happens to be one of those. He’s a resident of Santa Monica, and a freelance screenwriter who’s not in the WGA. Every weekday for the past two weeks, Walker has continued to enjoy his morning writing sessions, unlike his peers who belong to the guild. The twist is that Walker was eligible to join WGA, but never did.

“I just didn’t have the joiner mentality,” said Walker. “And at that time I didn’t see myself as a writer.”

This fact doesn’t really come as a surprise when you consider the range of things that Walker had done, which included founding an animation studio in Peoria, producing “The Last Unicorn” and working as the Head of Creative Affairs for Rankin Bass Productions.

Walker started his journey into film while studying Sanskrit in India. He and George Harrison, of The Beatles, started screening Bollywood films in downtown Bombay because there was a lack of access to the films at that time. The excitement and emotions that Bollywood films provoked made Walker realize the power of the cinema.

He ended up moving to Los Angeles in 1978, and followed his passion for animation in various forms. Eventually working at CBS TV as their Director of Children’s Programs, Walker helped create 100 hours of network programs, including “Pee Wee’s Playhouse,” “Galaxy High School” and “Teen Wolf.”

Walker started focusing on writing when a friend, who had heard so many of his great story ideas, suggested that he sit down and write them out.

Walker took the job seriously and after going to a popular Robert McKee seminar, immersed himself in structure. His first completed screenplay was an animation epic entitled “The Mask of the Red Paw.”

Walker was later hired as a freelance screenwriter and sent to Jamaica for a year to adapt Timothy White’s biography of Bob Marley dubbed “Catch A Fire: The Life and Music of Bob Marley.” In a 2004 interview for WXYT-FM Walker said, “Talk about pressure. Bob had touched so many people, not a single one could imagine a film in which they did not play a major role. Every Rasta had his own movie version of “Bob and Me” in his head and insisted on running it by me frame-by-frame. It was hysterically funny, but also deeply touching. Bob brought such life and hope to the disenfranchised of Jamaica, it couldn’t help but spread to the entire world.”

In addition to writing, Walker has also taught others the craft. He was an adjunct faculty member at the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico for five years in the ‘90s, where he lectured on the history of animation, beginning to advanced screenwriting and advanced story development, and more recently taught a seminar at New York Film Academy and lectured on mythology at DreamWorks.

Walker’s talents don’t end there — he’s also written a book. It’s entitled “Power Screenwriting” and is required reading for students studying screenwriting at UC San Diego. The book also has a rating of four and a half stars out of five at the Amazon online marketplace.

Walker has grown to consider himself a writer, but only after putting many years of effort into the craft. Having a regimented writing schedule probably doesn’t hurt to reinforce the title either. He writes everyday for at least three hours and is currently polishing up a full-length biography picture about Alexander Pushkin, the famous and innovative Russian writer, who died from a duel that he initiated against his wife’s lover.

Walker is not deeply rooted to any one place, but he has found a home in Santa Monica, where he calculated he had lived off-and-on for about five years. After his morning writing ritual, Walker takes advantage of Santa Monica’s natural beauty, and hits the beach for some fresh air and a little reality. He walks for an hour and half on the bluffs and beach and usually ends up somewhere on the Third Street Promenade.

Although he’s a freelance writer, Walker has no plans to cross any picket lines.

“I honor the (WGA) writers,” said Walker. “I think the whole industry has to reconsider their business dealings.”

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