I remember the last WGA strike. It was sad. I had been in LA for a couple of years, just getting my feet wet in the movie business after working in TV for five years. The trickle down was incredible. Restaurants, limousine companies, real estate brokers, clothing retailers, travel agencies. The list went on and on. Not to mention all of the direct impact on actors, directors, crews, office staff and accounting, the studios and networks themselves, talent agencies and managers, publicists and business managers. It was a disaster and it was painful to witness.
However, as an actor who has worked in film and television since 1980, I have always been pretty clear about the fact that we are nowhere without the writers in our industry. And that goes beyond the scary concept of a world of unscripted reality TV. Television and film writers are responsible for some of the greatest literature in the history of our society. Go to one of my favorite websites, the Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb). You can pull up CITIZEN KANE, ALL ABOUT EVE and SUNSET BOULEVARD. You can read, online, hundreds of the greatest movie screenplays of all time. Members of the WGA wrote those scripts.
The studios and networks claim that their profits are eroding and blame the cost of stars' salaries and expensive marketing campaigns. One more thing the studios and networks ought to consider is how overstaffed they are themselves. You've never seen a business where more people are required to do the same job until you have worked at a TV network or film studio. Actors don't put a gun to the studio executive's head. They negotiate a price and the studio agrees, or disagrees, to pay it. Sometimes, as an actor, the price you pay is a pretty big number that you arrive at before you even open your mouth.
The not-so-secret truth is that everyone in show business, of those who live "above-the-line," are overpaid. The only ones above-the-line who usually are not are the writers. Let's hope there is no strike and let's hope the writers get a good contract. Read more thoughts about the strike on Huffington Post's writers' strike opinion page
I do believe many in "digital media" like me, as I post politely but with pithy comments. I have an aim to keep it interesing when I blog/video blog on the web. I can't believe it, as I know creative challenges call for push and shove, but I think it hurt my feelings. I wore a witch's hat and spoke affectionately of 30 Rock. as opposed to the guy, who has a site forbidding you to watch My Name is Earl. Had I lied and made a video saying 30 Rock sucks, I'd be ranking on google. What does this say about creativity being respected?
I uploaded to a major media source, I googled for months correctly, now after letting them advertise for free on my 450 hits video, without bitterness, because I had creative control, they have changed me to a "mere" forum thread. I can still get traffic there, if you could find me. My title is at the bottom of page one, google. How far will I drop? Creative control will rear it's ugly head, again, sooner than later. The web gave me my much earned shot to fly! I am curious if anyone else has seen their creativity moved, only to near disappear. if so, let me hear it!
Respect, good manners, and a sense of humor with writers would go a long way in solving matters!
Once I asked for Iron Eyes Cody's autograph at the Choctaw pow-wow in Mississippi, who had recently lost his wife, (he played "Sitting Bull" and perhaps more remembered recently for the "crying Indian" seen watching the trash thrown onto highways in America) maybe it's again more over the politics of American history and its leadership. It seems the opportunity for writers in America, not just in the film industry, it's commentators and critics, might be the intended target.
The same day it was revealed that an empty space like the charismaticly gifted entertainer Ms. Spears collects $737,000.00 each and every month, the writers who originate every single moment of the entertainment industry were announcing a strike for wages in an industry where $737,000.00 is a decade's income for many writers lifetimes.
If Hollywood can piss away hundreds of millions on the Britneys and Jessicas and Parises who contribute only the realization that every barrel has its bottom, why can't it be fair to those who are willing to share that rarest of gifts -- a truly creative spirit?
The writers are at fault for only one thing - not publicizing enough how little return they get on the one commodity Hollywood is shortest on -- imagination.
If you are a visual artist you can sew together a par of sock monkeys and have Christie's auction that off for the price of the average mortgage. ( This is verifiably true. I was there to see it).
And probably sell it to the glitzed-out bean-counters who are saying no at the moment.
If you are in the music business--- well, do I really have to say it?
What's theoretical with chimps and a typewriter, is easily provable with baboons and an instrument.
But if you're a writer. It's put up or shut out. It all starts with you casting your net into uncharted seas and yet you are the first to be tossed off the money island.
There is no one gullible enough to keep you in Gold Cards for specious crap.
There's no facade to hide behind on a blank page. No one will ever pay money for litereray pretense.
How many writers can you name that haven't sold themselves short? I mean people with quantifiable creativity, not template pushers.
So, let them eat repeats til they figure out you are worth more than the caterers.
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Writers already share the risk, buddy. So if there's a jackpot, you're damn right we want a share of that, too.
Now the complications. What exactly is "fair compensation"? If Alec Baldwin and I audition for the same part and we're the final two, does this mean that because I'm an "unknown" I'm less talented and deserve a smaller fee than his normal one? If I get hired and the studio paid me $1 million, am I being overpaid? No. Why? Because nobody's forcing them to sign me. As long as somebody meets your asking price, you're not overpaid.
Would we ever have a union free workplace in Hollywood? No chance because the profit margin is so high. And because of that, you need union protection. Why should Michael Eisner make megamillions in stock options or a severence package while people below him make due with much less? If the studios think that the unions are too greedy, then try doing one/all of the following:
Stop paying A-list actors $20 million a movie.
Do these people REALLY need their posse hanging out with them on the set?
Stop using the "we can make it up overseas" excuse if a movie with a bloated budget bombs domestically.
Force everyone who pitches ideas to actually come up with original ones. Don't remake everything that's been remade already. If it's been done already, say no.
When an industry is so high profit, not all but most people get lazy. Until somebody stops the gravy train and they're forced to make changes, they never will. You don't need an (fill in famous school name here) MBA to figure that out.
And, while we're at it, howzabout doing away with the practice of evaluating movies based on how many idiots pack themselves into multiplexes over the first weekend? Touting the gross is...
...gross.
By getting the content out of the hands of a select few, the entire viewing audience will benefit. The internet is ushering a brave new world - the writers see that as a main point in their negotiations. I wish no ill will on the hard working people of this great industry. However, for things to change, the evil empire needs to come crashing down.
If mediocre people need guarantees to survive, there are too many people in the industry. If they are only working 28 weeks a year, they have plenty of time to pursue other ventures. Again, back to the entitlement.
Before I started my production company (with my writer/director business partner), I came from the computer software industry. There are no unions protecting programmers. If you write good code, you will be fairly compensated. If you do not or don’t like the working conditions, quit and find another job.
Film work can be hard and grueling, but other than the grips, it is NOT hazardous especially for writers. To me this all about bloated infrastructure on both sides of the coin. Evil studios + evil unions = why I am independent.
That as long as unions are there to propagate themselves and not to work on behalf of it's members and as long as studios continue to put out scripts, that do nothing more than make actor's mouths move with lots of "sound and fury signifying nothing," bringing the quality of entertainment to a screeching halt, the movie/tv industry is bound to kill its audience with boredom. If writers are forced (if they are) to flesh out a formula week after week or movie after movie then audiences will go elsewhere for a thrill or for a fine performance (depending on their level of sophistication.)
Besides fighting for money, would love to see writers fight for the integrity of their work, so that eventually the hacks leave and the decision makers at all levels will have to create something worth while. In the interim we are left with, pathetic sitcoms, car chases-shoot-em-up, and worse boring police and detective morbidity (how many disgusting images does it take to vomit your pizza? Ask CSI!) What Hollywood and tv offer is nothing more than a culture of death.
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Frankly, I couldn't have said it better myself.
Moreover, in an ageist left slanted generation that caters to a sociopolitical agenda where only certain sheepish writers make it, why should one care about selfish wolves whose only job it seems is to take care of their own?
When media reflects the opinions and stories of a full spectrum of humanity, it will be worthy of set standards. Right now it only serves the interests of certain people who act like selfish children. They'll never get fair pay. The WGA is but their slave wage playpen.
American's would have to look to possibly un-friendly nations to then feed, clothe and shelter us.
Yet each dollar you and the federal government give to groups, including Sierra Club and The Nature Conservancy, brings us closer to that end.
That would be a disaster more far reaching and painful to witness than a writers strike.
Can't imagine what kind of work would come from a shivering writer with an empty tummy.
We are there now, please read your food labels and dry goods labels. Where have you been for the past three decades?
It is these very groups you mention that are working to bring attention to the fact that we are abusing our resources and are being forced economically to buy foreign. The last time I bought a product made in the USA, it was a beer can opener - Bud anyone? Let's wake up and smell the coffee.
Hollywood is nothing more than a system to perpetuate a system. The unions are defiantly part of that bloated infrastructure. The best thing that could come from this is that studios and networks are crippled and the unions get busted.
I am an entrepreneur - I make things happen for myself, and I do not rely on arcane rules to make my hay.
Do you really think Alec Baldwin needs to be in SAG? Of coarse not - He has talent. This strike is not about protecting the rights of talented writers. It is about protecting the rights of mediocre people that hardly work, and that is what I have a problem with.
Unions, whose officials I am sure are better paid then the vast majority of its members, fly in the face of that premise. I am not bashing all unions - Certain unions with hazardous working conditions and standardized jobs are need of representation.
However, when you force creative jobs like writers, actors, etc. in a box, it does not make sense. The more talent you have should lead to higher paychecks. What about this is so hard to understand???
As to your statement that mediocrity is the basis for this industry, I could not agree more. That is precisely why I got in to this game - Because with talent, hard work and lots careful thought, we can create a product that is significantly better than projects with many times our budget.
I am not against the writers - I understand that a film needs a great script. I am against bloated infrastructure that makes budgets skyrocket where people feel they are entitled to something that don’t deserve.
If writers or any one in this industry want a bigger piece of the pie, go out and start your own company and control all the variables - There is nothing more American than that...