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Hollywood writers on strike?
Niceguyeddie616
All you feed me is PUFFINS!I need NOURISHMENT!Registered User regular
All you feed me is PUFFINS!I need NOURISHMENT!Registered User regular
http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/29/news/writers_strike.ap/index.htm
That's right, Hollywood writers are currently on strike because they believe they should receive a bigger cut of DVD sales and sales via digital distribution. If the strike continues into next year then directors and actors may also strike. This will largely affect many television shows that would receive new episodes next season, as many of them will not be written due to the strike.
So, does anybody believe this is justified? Should the studio give a bigger cut to the workers of hollywood, some of which already receive a big cut of the profits?
That's right, Hollywood writers are currently on strike because they believe they should receive a bigger cut of DVD sales and sales via digital distribution. If the strike continues into next year then directors and actors may also strike. This will largely affect many television shows that would receive new episodes next season, as many of them will not be written due to the strike.
So, does anybody believe this is justified? Should the studio give a bigger cut to the workers of hollywood, some of which already receive a big cut of the profits?
Niceguyeddie616 on
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.......WA HA HA HA! I was almost cracking up while I was typing this.
Alright now we'll get more episodes of Wife Swap 17!
What if the ones working now ARE the good writers, and the ones that replace them are actually worse?
I wonder if monster has openings for that?!
The TV and movie industry stockpile scripts for situations like these.
+Reruns :P
I was originally thinking the same thing as Cat and I highly doubt these are the 'good' writers. However that said they'd look for writers to write what they tell them, same old tried and true formulas. I don't watch much tv these days anyways but I can't imagine them trying out really new stuff just because they get new writers. Anyone else think a better solution would be to pay the big actors/producers/directors less, hopefully lowering costs of the final product? There's too much money spent in the movie/tv industry as it is.
Also they threaten to strike often because writers are about the most abused group in TV and film. They get paid shit most of the time considering they're the most vital part of a programs success.
That said, anything that keeps new episodes of House, The Office, and Heroes from me is pretty shitty times. It might prematurely kill some otherwise promising new shows like Life and Chuck, too
(emphasis as original)
Edit: Which is to say, yes, they certainly deserve a better deal.
So no more Hollywood movies with shitty plot and dialogue, at least for a while?
Really, more money for writers can only encourage better writers to get into the gig.
Nope. More Hollywood movies with shitty plot and dialogue, at least for a while. Instead of professional writers at studios shoring up scripts, the studios will be doing it minus the whole professional writers on staff thing.
Contempt for Hollywood aside, whether it be well founded, sarcastic or pretentious, this isn't really a good thing for consumers.
Looking at it as someone who has no vested interest in residuals when you take in to account the huge boom in DVD sales, especially on the TV shows side of things, I have a hard time not understanding and supporting the writers guild's decision to strike.
And if you'd think about it for five seconds you might realize that having a greater stake in the outcome could, at least in theory, motivate writers to make better stuff. As it stands they're treated slightly better than cattle.
I'm all for what they're doing, seeing as I don't actually care about TV and Movies, but care a great deal about art and fair compensation.
I'm just not sure they'll get what they deserve because I am under the impression that there is a labor surplus of creative types.
You'd be surprised. People who can work in TV or movie conditions are a lot rarer than you'd think. Most US TV shows use a bullpen/writer's room approach, where you're one shouty voice among twenty and have to sell everyone else on your idea before so much as setting ink to paper. Screenplay writers have the luxury of solitude but have to be prepared to rewrite, and rewrite, and rewrite, and oh, rewrite again. Assuming they aren't just handed a check and booted off the project because the director wants to go somewhere different.
Either way, it's not an environment conducive to delicate little snowflakes.
The scary bit I just heard was that the Teamsters don't like their members to cross picket lines.... that would cause some things to come to a quick and screeching halt.
We'll first see this impact in topical shows. Daily/Colbert and Leno/Letterman.
Somebody mentioned Stewart writing his own bit, I don't think he's allowed to since he has a writer's union card. Not sure how that works out though.
Edit: For purposes of the Daily Show, it may be time for Stewart to go polish up his stand up.
Stewart more or less said last night that they were going on hiatus until the strike is resolved. I imagine the same will happen with the Colbert Report.
To read a great synopsis about what the strike is about, there is this great entry on MetaFilter:
As a working screenwriter, we need the strike, and aspiring scabs might want to really look at why this strike is getting ready to happen before they offer their services.
If you write an episode of Metafilter Towers, you get paid according to scale for the script; you get paid according to scale for residuals when the show goes into reruns. You always wrote the script, the show is still making money, consequently, you're entitled to some of that. That's the current contract.
But TV isn't just first run and reruns anymore. People can also watch episodes online- free to watch, courtesy of ad revenue. The actors get a sliver of the ad revenue for online display; the producers get a sliver of the ad revenue for online display. The writers currently don't get any of that ad revenue.
Because television is going for the value-added model, Metafilter Towers also has a website that features along with the usual forum, gallery, and fantoys, mini-episodes which complement the aired episodes. The actors get paid scale for appearing in these mini-sodes; the writers may or may not get paid for writing these mini-sodes because there's no established scale for them.
And fans are collectors, so they like to buy the episodes from iTunes. The actors get a percentage of that purchase, the producers get a percentage of that purchase and the writers probably get nothing, because there's no established scale for that.
At the end of the season, Metafilter Towers will be on an exclusive 7 DVD set with outtakes and behind the scenes documentaries, whee! The actors get a percentage of all sales, the producers get a percentage of all sales. The writers get a one time license fee.
Since Metafilter Towers is a hit, it's going to sell four million copies this year- the actors get X% of four million copies' worth; the producers get X% of four million copies' worth. And next year, it sells another couple of million, so the actors continue to get paid for their work, the producers continue to get paid for their work, but the writers got a one time licensing fee.
This isn't a strike over champagne in the writers' room and caviar for lunch every day. It's a strike for basic rights- the producers alone aren't entitled to ALL the profits from online distribution and DVD sales, and they're not entitled to additional writing for free.
A writer's contract is specific- she will get scale or X amount for Y number of episodes, including all rewrites and polishes on that number of scripts. If you write one episode of Metafilter Towers, you should get paid for writing one. If you write fifteen mini-sodes for the website, you should get paid for writing fifteen mini-sodes for the website.
Nobody likes a strike, but we need this one to establish basic guidelines for digital media, and to amend the home video clause now that television shows are available on home media. Producers claim they have no idea how much money they're making on online display (which is untrue, they publish their stats to brag about them,) and they claim that DVD sales only recoup the expenses of making the show in the first place which again, is generally untrue.
Shows profited long before DVDs, on first run ad revenue, and worldwide and syndication rights, which they still earn now. (And it's even easier to make that money now because you no longer need 100 episodes to syndicate; cable partnerships and short syndication deals are the norm now. Profit starts almost immediately now.)
So, yes, aspiring scabs, it would be a great time to get started in screenwriting if you don't mind working for free, and watching other people profit from your work long after your one-time licensing fee is gone. But don't forget- everybody else (even the producers we're negotiating with right now) are unionized, too. They may love your scabby scripts today, but when the strike is over, you may find your career in the industry over completely.
posted by headspace at 7:25 AM on November 2
And regarding DVDs... it's true that they do get a tiny tiny bit for each DVD, but it's still not enough compared with the other players. And since we are moving faster and faster to video on demand and digital distribution, writers have no rights to any residuals on that. Which is 100 percent pure uncut Columbian bullshit.
And what the guy says at the end is also true... you can be a scab now, but once the strike ends (and it WILL end) your career is more or less done. And all you got out of it was being f'ed over by the corporations and your name attached to a few things that will probably be relegated to the dustbin of television history.
A lot of really good writers will most likely use this time to actually sit down and write their own ideas into really good scripts to pitch to studios when the strike is over.
Sometimes good comes from this, other times we get Ghost Dad.
They should hire you!
I can't knock Ghost Dad too much, my dad is in it.
Bill Cosby?
LOL! Nope, his boss.
Man, that was some quality writing...
Back on topic though, the biggest problem with this strike is with studios panicing and accepting really crappy/thrown together scripts to get movies ready to be made during the strike (Justice League for instance)