They'll begin formal contract talks with the studios and networks tomorrow. But they won't be starting from scratch - members of the Directors Guild and the media companies have been holding informal discussions over the past two weeks in order to lay out a framework for the negotiations. The hope is not only to expedite a deal, but to use any new contract as a template for both the Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild (that's known as "pattern bargaining"). Of course, there's no assurance that the WGA will follow the DGA's lead (they haven't in the past), but at some point the writers run the risk of appearing as if they’re stonewalling. We’ll see how this goes. From the LAT:

Writers are especially concerned that directors might undermine their own goals of seeking what they view as a fair cut of revenues from movies and TV shows distributed on the Internet, cellphones, digital video players and other devices. The fear reflects long-standing tensions between the unions. Many writers still blame directors for negotiating more than two decades ago a much maligned formula for residuals from home-videos that became the standard for all talent unions. Writers have long felt short-changed by the rate, which pays them about 4 cents for every DVD sold.