Hollywood Strike
fada
Posts: 1,032
they would want to get their act together. Is it all over script writers wanting more money?
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
I think it's over them wanting what they deserve, yes.
Writers always get the shaft. :(
E.g., Grey's Anatomy has produced 11 episodes and aired 10, so as of last Monday there was one episode left. Since a new Grey's aired last week, I'm assuming Grey's is done.
Shows with no new episodes include 30 Rock, Bionic Woman, The Office, Desperate Housewives, Heroes, How I Met Your Mother, Private Practice, Pushing Daisies, and The Unit.
http://tvguide.sympatico.msn.ca/TVNews/Articles/080108_blackout_countdown_MH
I agree. anyone else with that kind of IP would be collecting royalties over these internet showings.
There would be no question!
Although I support my brethren, I too am in the WGA (not by choice), but am not by any means a fan of unions for these types of professions. We are not Teamsters looking for health care for our kids here, or UPS drivers who need less drive time. We're writers, and we have a God-given talent that (I believe) we should be thankful for. Most people I know who are not in the WGA but are struggling writers would willfully bleed out if it meant they could sell their work to anyone- even without the 2 1/2 cents of internet revenue.
What the writers have done is (obviously) shut down Hollywood, and the repercussions will be felt for many moons to come. Why is it OK for the WGA to strike, when it means that people from the barista at Starbucks in Studio City to the woman who started her own (now failing) payroll company will be out of work? People, including the holier-than-thou writers, will and have lost their jobs, those jobs will not return, and instead of writing like they always wanted to, these people will return to the workforce and cubicles just to survive.
Think this season is bad? Don't count on there being a next TV season either.
They need to get back to work.
I don't disagree, I just think having a writers union is ridiculous. Yes, there are good arguments, like- writers can go years between good gigs so a $1mm payday might not be as rosy as it seems (which is impossible to imagine).
I guess I'm just not a big fan of unions for the priviledged.
My question is, who else gets paid or where does it end. Do the costume designers or casting directors or lighting people or whoever get a cut of internet revenue or syndication? If they don't, should they if so much more money is being made partly off the work they did?
It might be easy to say from the outside looking in, but the film company pays writers (and whoever else) to do their jobs for a particular movie or show. Maybe what they pay these people should be higher because the studio will get more money on the back-end (internet, syndication, whatever), but when every new distribution technology comes out, should writers get a cut of that?
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
I thought it was something of a forward-looking thought. Eventually, DVD box-sets and internet viewing are going to cut into re-runs of TV shows, which, if I'm not mistaken, is where writers make a lot of money. So they're basically trying to insure themselves against the admittedly distant evenutality of a large part of their income being gone.
I agree with you...unions should act to ensure basic needs and safety for its members, but I feel it is wrong for someone to earn much more (I am not talking about unskilled laborers) then their market value simply cuz they joined up with a paid strong-armer (though this isn't really the issue re: WGA strike).
My firm is suffering cuz our fees are based on 5% of our clients' (actors, writers, directors, producers) income.
Axium Payroll has indeed gone bankrupt, so many people will have IRS hassles when it comes to getting their correct W-2s.
Absolutely, and those shows should negotiate with the writers. The writers should not be able to extort money from the producers simply because they are in a glorified club.