Rant: Hollywood Writers Strike

[ladycrim]

Hollywood Writers Go On Strike After Talks FailAnd already, people are carrying on: "So what? There hasn't been a good movie or TV show in years

Comments

[phonemonkey]

A friend of mine works at the Universal Studios theme park, and she got a memo saying "that the upcoming writer's strike had nothing to do with the theme park, okay, and that we were to just go ahead and cross the picket lines.

Oh, and if anybody threatened us that we should just call security.

Here's a handy map to get you into work, around those nasty, horrible, violent television writers. You scabs."

My friend is extremely displeased about this.

[johnnyeponymous]

I kinda miss SUTN. Marin and Steve wrote a lot of funny stuff that the actors almost all mangled to the point of non-recognition. Still, it was nice to have locally-produced comedy on TV, even at 2 or 3 am.

I'm on the other side of the writers strike. I've worked with enough filmcrews to know that no one makes much money at any tier below the top. Sadly, 80% of the business is on that end and being forced to pay writers much more on the backend would break those productions and leave a lot of hard working people unpaid. Yeah, the big Studios are bastards for not giving up more, but there's a load of work that goes on below that bar that would be destroyed if the pay scales went up the amount the Writers Union has asked far.
Chris

[ladycrim]

What about residuals from profits? Especially on video/DVD sales? That money comes in after the production crews have been paid. Right now, writers get something like .05% of profits from those DVDs. It's ridiculous.

[spondee]

Hear hear!

[mandersmouse]

As much as I agree that writers deserve their dues, with the strike, it's not just affecting the writers but the entire Southern California economy. With shows shut down in production, there are hundreds, if not thousands of individuals who are no longer earning an income--from set builders to PAs to the caterers to even the extras. I'm the first one to say that writers deserve to be paid decently, being a journalist, myself, but I am just not looking forward to seeing how bad this could really get in the next few weeks or months if a compromise is not reached. Of course, the studios could easily create new contracts by hiring individuals who are not part of the two Guilds and announce they will only work with writers who are not part of the Guild to avoid this in the future.

[ladycrim]

Believe me, I would hate to have production stalled on these shows and the crew members adversely affected. But I'm just so darn tired of seeing writers treated with little to no respect. No wonder so many of them also direct.

[ladycrim]

Well said, especially the last sentence!

[agent_dani]

For my part, the view came having watched multiple episodes of various shows and not enjoying them. My response, however, was to simply stop watching television.