It's the Studio's Fault

When I look back on the years I have worked in the film and television business, since beginning in 1980, there have been many obvious changes. Most of those are technological ones and those technological developments have profoundly altered the soul and the math of the business. Cable TV and then satellite, VHS and then DVD and then DVR, and now MP3. Three networks dominating everything and then those three networks dominating nothing. HBO producing original broadcasting that competed with the Big Three for audience share. David Chase giving everyone a reason to stay home on Sunday to watch TV. Who'd a thought?

In the movie business, among the biggest changes is the background, personality and capabilities of your average head of the studio, head of production and their marketing departments. I recall, through the admittedly distorted prism of time, that Mike Medavoy was the kind of old school studio boss who looked at his release schedule and decided to burn one on "the side of the angels." He had a movie and a filmmaker that he truly believed in and, inside of a slate of 20 or 15 or even 12 movies, Medavoy made one with little regard for the box office prognosis. He wanted to make a good film and believed that audiences would follow the filmmaker, and him, to the theatre.

There are no Mike Medavoys running the studios today. There are no Fred Silvermans running the networks, either, Silverman being the television-savant-as-executive, a breed that seems to have all but vanished, save for Garth Ancier, who apprenticed under Silverman. The studios are run by men and women who know very little, if anything, about how to make a good film. That is why so many studio films are so shamefully (or shamelessly) bad. These are men and women who simply do not have the recipe, although each fancies himself as a modern day Cohn, Warner or Zanuck. From what I read of Hollywood history, Zanuck had more talent for how to fit the disparate elements of filmmaking together in one finger than most of today's crowd has in their whole production department. Make no mistake, there are extraordinarily talented and capable people at the studios and networks. Ron Meyer, once the greatest talent agent of them all (he was mine, and I mean every word of that) and Brad Grey are two smart men who have had remarkable careers and yet run major studios that answer to demanding corporate parents.

The writers' strike is upon us because the writers want more of the back end and the studios claim they don't have it. If the studios don't have it, it's more their own fault than anyone else's. We are now in the fully realized age of the modern entertainment corporation, with lawyers and accountants calling nearly all of the shots. Some say the old studio system was bad. However they look more and more like the Medicis compared to what exists today. Even in independent film, so much of the product seems tired. (If I see one more Indie Icon Guy and Indie Icon Gal put one of their parents into a nursing home, while the lighting is dialed down real low to hide the cheap set design, I might cry.)

Many contributors disparaged the striking WGA on this site. I was dismayed by this. Do you honestly believe that most writers are ultimately responsible for what goes on screen, even if their name is on it? That's like saying a plumber is responsible for your taste in fixtures. Sometimes a writer is like a plumber: he installs what he is paid to install. Most writers I know have a great script in one file and a commercial one in the other. They have BILLY BUDD and PORKYS all in the same computer. Don't ever judge a writer by any screenplay that gets made. Unless you're saying something admiring about a real giant, with real power, from another time. Like Welles or Mankiewicz or Robert Towne.

Everyone in the film industry seems to be searching for the risk-free project. There is no such project. Movie-making, music, theatre and TV, even publishing...all creative enterprises that struggle to discern the taste of a mass audience are in a risky business. We need more risk-takers to make movies and produce TV. We need more Mike Medavoys. And let's hope the strike ends soon.

Read more about the strike on the Huffington Post's writers' strike page.

Comments

[CinnWilliams]

They ain't asking for much... .05c and some $$ for downloads. Come on. The studios are not even meeting with them. They have every reason to strike!

[theroc5156]

I have an idea; how about reading a book?? Books are much better anyway.

When this strike ends, you can be sure that the average customer will be the ones paying for it. Other than the fact that the past few years the quality of movies has been horrible and continues to be today, it's just a big ripoff spending $10+ to see a bad movie when you can wait two months and see rent it. Luckily, there hasn't been shit out lately to waste money on (enough with the anti-War movies. We get it. Hollywood hates Bush and the war. Get over it. No wonder why all these movies do so poorly).

I have no doubt that there are terrific writers who are getting the royal screwjob. Maybe the people who star in the films will give back some of the millions they've "earned" by doing the film to the writers who came up with the idea.

Just a thought.

[asinineus]

Many of my friends are writers and many of my friends are not. The majority of my friends and I depend on film production to pay bills. In the midst of this strike I have heard many conflicting arguments as to whether or not folks are in support, which has urged me to voice my opinion.

Times are a changin', they always have and always will, and sometimes it takes something or someone to ripple the water a bit in order to get folks to catch up to modern times. Take Rosa Parks for instance. If she hadn't stood up against the wishes of that bus driver, how much longer would it have taken for things to change in that aspect?

I believe our natural inclination is to stick with the old, stick with what we know, but that isn't always beneficial to ourselves or mankind. With new technology comes change and with change comes freshness, new ideas, new ways of living life. With the WGA strike, what we have is a group of people providing a service in which technology has surpassed them in their compensation. So it is time for a change, and if these people don't do something drastic, such as putting our jobs on the line, technology will surpass them and they will be stuck sitting in the back of the bus, so to speak.

Our educational system is much the same way. Our schools were re-designed during the Agricultural Era in preparation for the Industrial Era and even though we've moved on to the Technological Era, our children are still being taught in the regimented ways meant to train those looking toward working in factories.

We will now be a part of history, reminiscing back on the day writers weren't paid for internet shows in which they won Emmy's, shows downloaded by those of us who have no time to make it home to watch our favorite shows due to long production hours.

[Ginzaman]

He brings up some good points in this post. But I disagree on a few:

Writers aren't responsible for the final product? True, changes do happen. But they are responsible in many ways:

What happens when a writer has a truly original idea and the studio wants yet ANOTHER remake of a remake? What does the writer do? Do they hold out to their principals while working at Blockbusters to try and pay the bills? Or do they give into what the studio wants and just be a hack? And what about the writer that gets paid for lots of scripts which gives them a nice lifestyle. But nothing is produced. What are they then? Are they a sucess? Or are they an overpaid lazy hack?

The point is the huge profit that's in the business. Which means that everybody's responsible. And the ONLY way to bring about actual change in content is for people to lose a lot of money. Yeah, it sucks and it f***s up people's lives in more ways than one. On the other hand, can you name ONE top actor that would turn down $20 million for a movie on principle (actors are way overpaid. So I'm going to be the first to take less)? Can you name one writer/producer that would take less in producing and syndication fees because we shouldn't get overpaid for crap content? Of course not. So as long as that enormous profit is there it's going to be hard for many in the audience to feel sorry for either the writers or the studios.

I now have to go to work at my minimum wage survival job.

[frankifrost]

Mr. Baldwin,
I salute your courage and work ethic.
FF

[LittleLiberal]

"Don't ever judge a writer by any screenplay that gets made. Unless you're saying something admiring about a real giant, with real power, from another time. Like Welles or Mankiewicz or Robert Towne."

Case in point: one of my favorite stories about this comes from NPR's Peter Sagal. Many years ago, he wrote a screenplay for a film about a young American woman who went with her parents to Cuba. There was a revolution. She falls for a Cuban boy. The screenplay was not touched for years. Suddenly, someone digs it up, greatly modifies it, and it becomes....
Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights.

Good God.

Here's the story in his own words, if anyone is interested:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1744652

[NJPennhawk]

Hi Alec,

As a just recently published author and a jounalist of twenty years, I 100% know the importance of the creative written word.In the general public one does not become a writer to make a ton of money. One becomes a writer to quench a thrist for expressing an inner voice. Those of us that can call ourselves writers have done whatever it takes to get our words in print. Whether that is through the news media, internet, printed books, scripts,etc.
I just accepted a part time job at a national bookstore to give my family some pocket money while I pound the pavement to get my book, "Meet Me at Crossbones," a Jersey Shore Murder Mystery selling.
Alec, fight for the rights of writers. So many of us out there look upon the big boys in publishing and Hollywood to scream and yell for us. Those of us with the gift of the written word should be paid a wage that equals the laughter and tears our audience enjoys.

[BriteBlonde1]

Amen and amen! Where ARE the Medavoys? The Brandon Tartikoff's? Surely creative sparks can live with the economics of the business. Isn't it time we take a good hard look at the folly of allowing huge multi-national companies to ruin the biz in hopes of making a few billion for a handful of white men?

[StephieL]

The problem here, Mr. Baldwin, is the "mass audience" is becoming an endangered species. There are too many other things -- such as the Internet, MP3's, DVD's, videogames and the like -- which have siphoned away what used to be a "mass audience" and channelled them into little niches of entertainment. The studios are scrambling to reassemble a mass audience which really doesn't exist any more, and that's clear by their refusal to negotiate in good faith with the Writer's Guild to allow them to earn a living from new technology.

Combine that with a corporate-run studio system which is dominated by bean-counters who are more interested in cutting costs and producing dividends for their stockholders than fostering genuine creativity by taking serious risks, is it little wonder that the quality of TV and movies has declined so dramatically, and more Americans are tuning out the TV and turning to the Internet to create their own entertainment?

As always, Mr. Baldwin, you've written an insightful post, and I'm glad you're posting at HuffPo.

[Elis]

Alec, I agree wholeheartedly with you.
I'm a UAW member, who is ashamed at how our union has not stayed tough, has not kept the spirit of solidarity, and as a result, its members have suffered greatly (Delphi, for example). Don't let your union fall into the same trap. STay out on strike, as long as it takes!

[tyla]

I Love 30 Rock....Tonights episode is one of the best ever!!! For the love of God why don't they just give the writers what they want?

[JaseAllen]

It's all of those dumbed-down commercial movies and TV shows that put me off of watching movies and TV. Frankly I think most of the crap produced these days isn't even worth stealing, let alone wasting $7 to see it at the theater.

[2Truthy]

"The studios are run by men and women who know very little, if anything, about how to make a good film." -AB

Hey Alec,

This is an excellent post that really describes our culture of racing to the bottom. Risk means everything in the hands of creative and talented artists who should have powerful input into the 'product's' outcome.

Sadly, this race to the bottom also describes what is going on not only in the film industry, but also in the tech industry where startups are run by hubris stuffed venture capitalists with MBAs or accounting degrees instead of computer scientists. Maybe we need to start investing in our writers and computer scientists like we once used to do.

[Egbert]

Blaming the writers for lagging ticket sales is like blaming assembly line workers for lagging auto sales. Myopic decisions by the auto execs have created Detroit's problems. A similar lack of creativity and fear of change have lead to lagging ticket sales at film theaters.

What's interesting is that accountability and responsibilty decrease as you go up a corporate ladder. A kid selling concessions at a theater is held to a higher degree of accountability than the head of the studio. If the kid's drawer is $20 short, he's subject to disciplinary action. If the studio head makes a 9-figure mistake, disciplinary action isn't likely.

Just as the distribution models have had to evolve to meet consumer demands, the compensation models need to evolve to match the changes in distribution. The writers deserve their slice of the pie.

It's not the writer's fault that people aren't rushing to pay $14 to sit in a movie theater (yup $14 in Los Angeles). The studios and theater owners still haven't figured out that the theater experience needs to evolve.

[FogBelter]

Alec, as you know, screenwriters have been the whipping boys of Hollywood for a long time. The screenwriter is the the one who has to toil, hours on end, to come up with a story that holds together and has some meaning, within the 120 pages alotted. Then, if his script is green lighted, he has to bite his tongue while all the meaning and charm of his work is stripped way to suit the egos of Producers, Directors, and Actors.

My friend wrote a great script that was produced, but the final cut had only a vague resemblence to the original and the film, itself, was weaker for the changes.

Beyond Writers being fairly compensated, if their work, and efforts weren't constantly short-shrifted as matter of course, in the film Production process, maybe so much of what Hollywood produces wouldn't be so mediocre and forgettable.