Though script writers returned to work in Hollywood studios Wednesday after members of the Writers Guild of America voted to end the writers' strike Tuesday night, cinema professors said the 100-day battle taught future screenwriters important lessons hundreds of miles away in SF State classrooms.

Joseph McBride, guild member and assistant professor of cinema said the strike, which began in November and affected programs such as the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Desperate Housewives on ABC, was educational for SF State cinema students.

“Many of our students aspire to write professional screenplays, and seeing the difficulties faced by professionals helps awaken them to the realities of this challenging art form and industry,” said McBride, 60, who teaches three cinema classes including screenwriting.

A member of the guild since 1977, and winner of a 1983 guild award for co-writing the script for “The American Film Institute Salute to John Houston,” McBride said the strike focused on fair pay for writers regarding DVD sales and the use of internet to distribute shows.

“The strike has been educational for our cinema students who have been following the course of it and studying the issues involved about writers getting fair compensation for their work, particularly in forms of new media that are becoming more and more important,” McBride said in an e-mail.

Cinema student Eric Cabrera, 20, said he was glad the strike was over and that he and other cinema students talked about the strike in their cinema classes.

"It's promising because it gives hope to writers in the future. I support the Writers Guild and writers need to be treated equally just like producers and executives," said Cabrera, who wants to be a screenwriter, before his short format screenwriting class Wednesday morning.

Steve Kovacs, 61, a cinema professor at SF State, said students in his screenwriting classes wanted to show solidarity with the writers during the strike.

"Last semester I had a student in class who said, 'Now that the writers are on strike, we don't have to write anything.' I told them, just try it,” Kovacs said with a laugh.

Kovacs, who has written, directed and produced his own feature films, said he supports the guild, but is not a member. He explained that the industry’s work structure combined with new media helped create conditions for the strike.

“Negotiations are between people who have power and those who don't. Those who have the power are producers. It is companies who produce movies and television shows that negotiated with the Writers Guild,” Kovacs said.

He added that “the writers went on strike because 20 years ago they signed a contract which did not provide them residuals from DVDs.”

Guild members will next vote to ratify a tentative three-year contract, which outlines new guidelines for writers regarding residuals and new media with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, according to a statement released on the Writers Guild of America Web site. The vote will be conducted by mail and at membership meetings on Feb. 25.

Meagan Davis, 22, a hospitality management major, said she was tired of watching reruns, although most of the shows she watched such as One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl and programs on the Food Network were not affected by the strike.

“One of the shows that I watched that was affected was House. I was sick of reruns. If I wanted to watch reruns, I could watch them on the USA network,” Davis said.