THE SALT MINES - TELEVISION AUTHORS AND S CRIPTWRITERS

Salt mines? W. Faulkner's phrase refers to the Hollywood studio factor ies for which he worked as scriptwriter. In less than a decade, French TV too has entered the industrial era. The ''author's work'' of the p receding public service period had been replaced with fiction series, a formula that tends to standardize production and introduces a new di vision of labor in the writing process. Two models are competing: indu strial TV's producer-scriptwriter and public service TV's film directo r-author. Although industrial TV has imposed its standards, the cultur al model that underlaid the TV craft in the early days is still borne in mind by professionals, including those who have no direct experienc e with it. The writer's artistic status is at stake.