Hollywood's going to war. Not in the good old fashioned Frank Capra "Why We Fight" agitprop kinda way. No, this war is a potential work stoppage as Hollywood gets into a gilded cage match of egos and dollars.
On one side is the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Basically the studios that bring you all your filmed entertainment. On the other side is the Writers Guild which is the union that represents movie and television writers.
A note of disclosure: I'm a member of the Guild.
A note of clarification: if you draw a paycheck in Hollywood you have zero freedom of choice when it comes to joining the Guild, so already Hollywood's war has some capitalism/communism parallels.
On Oct. 31st the current contract the Guild is working under expires, and its rank and file has already authorized the board to call a strike.
Like a lot of wars, this one comes down to territory. "New media." "The internet." The AMPTP wants to limit how much writers get paid when their work airs on your computers and iPods. The Guild not only wants to set residual fees for that work, but they want to force those who write internet entertainment to pledge allegiance to the union.
Should the strike happen -- the first writers strike in 18 years -- the writers will ultimately lose and lose badly. I'm talking Gulf War I, the Republican Guard were sissies badly. They (we) are going into battle wearing yesterday's armor -- the belief that well written words delivered on schedule matter. They do, but not nearly to their previous degree; before the rise of reality TV, prime time game shows and America figuring out that YouTube on an iPhone can be as entertaining as Two and a Half Men.
And if the writers can't win the battle on the field, they sure aren't going to capture many hearts and minds. Take a look at any strike-related message boards on the LA Times, or either of the Hollywood trade papers. Regularly you'll see the writers described as "selfish," "pompous" and "overpaid hacks."
Just for the record I'm far too accomplished a writer to be pompous.
The Guild's even managed to tick off some of its own by insisting that, should there be a strike, all writers would have to submit their unfinished work to the Guild. This "script validation program" would supposedly ensure no further work is surreptitiously done to unfinished scripts. While some writers groused about this totalitarian measure off the record to the New York Times, lemme just say on the record that the Guild can pry my intellectual property out of my cold, dead hand.
I imagine the assumption is that I am anti-strike. I am not. The strike must happen. Among other, lesser points of negotiation an equitable slice of the future pie is too valuable not to fight for.
But the Guild, much like Che in Bolivia, is more idealistic than capable. They believe too easily that their cause will inspire without understanding the true lay of the land. They aren't fighting stand-alone production companies. They are fighting deep-pocketed conglomerates that can long weather a hit to their bottom line.
Plus, the networks have a secret weapon: after this disastrous fall TV season -- Cavemen, Viva Laughlin, Bionic Woman to mention just a few of the shining turds -- the studios would be happy for an invading army to come do a slash and burn so they can pretend the fall never happened, then start again next year.
Just goes to show, writers can start an ill-conceived war as well as the next politician.
Read more thoughts about the strike on Huffington Post's writers' strike opinion page
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Network TV shows have writers?!
I've got to think the looming strike has played a big part in networks witholding the ax for some underperforming shows. Good luck writers.
Many of you are reminding me why I don't want to play the Hollywood game, despite having gone to USC to study screenwriting and cinema.
Any positive things to relate -- there must be a few since so many of you have decided to make this your profession...
A lot of writers have great ideas, then a producer gets his/her hands on it. Producers and studios decide what you watch. Don't beat on the writers for that. That also means the flip side, when a producer gets it right, and helps develop a great concept witha talented writer, we should celebrate it.
When Hollywood went to war - and I mean WWII - it was for America. Hollywood was patriotic then. Those beautiful black and white classics still stir patriotism and pride whenever they are shown on TV.
Where are the movies supporting America's war effort nowadays?
We see nothing produced by Hollywood other than garbage, bashing America. Nothing more than movies siding with the enemy and making America the bad guy.
Seeing what these so-called writers produced, it would be infinitely better if these no-talent unionized nobodies would stay on strike forever, and let non-union REAL writers produce movies that America needs.
Too bad there is nobody to kick them in the ass the way Ronald Reagan kicked the air traffic controllers when they grew too big for their breeches.
Yukon Jack, why don't you take that American flag out of your butt, and see we're in an another Vietnam? President Spanky McDumbass has lied to guillible Americans, and the blood count is too high. This isn't a war we should be proud of.
And don't rank on Bionic Woman. It sometimes has dialogue rivaling that of the great Joss Whedon himself. Shows like Bionic Woman and Journeyman have me watching broadcast television again, after years of just waiting for the DVDs.
I feel the same way. I like both of them.
Fans could probably step in and write a few episodes if the professionals are tied up.
I doubt it will come to that, but, if a producer made an online appeal for fans to write a particular episode, they'd probably have the pages by the end of the day.
Let's be sure that any anti-war actors, writers, directors, etc.. don't get blacklisted.
What planet do you live on dude?
You say, "if you draw a paycheck in Hollywood you have zero freedom of choice when it comes to joining the Guild."
I have news for you: most production people who work in this town have ZERO FREEDOM OF CHOICE to JOIN a guild.
We also have no job security, health benefits, 401K, set payscale - no nothing.
We work for hundreds of productions companies, cable channels, internet companies and the like. These companies have no agreements whatsover with ANY guild. And that is deliberate.
They don't want to pay a fair dollar, they don't want to give benefits, they don't want to pay unemployment. Their only objective is to keep costs down.
If you want to work, you play by their rules - and if you don't there are 50 other people who will - everybody's got to eat.
We are writers, producers, directors, coordinators, pa's, editors, make-up, costume and on and on. We too deserve the benefits, resources, and protections of the Guilds - don't we?
I'm not not going to slam the strike - it will be more work for the rest of us. But what would really be worth fighting for is to get us all on board - not just the rarefied few.
Hey Agosto,
you might not realize it, but you are talking like a "scab". "more work for the rest of us" is undermining to a strike. If you want the benefits that are guaranteed to union workers for yourself, you should be fighting for a stronger guild and fighting to unionize the shops you work for. Believe me, the corporations would not provide writers with health insurance and pensions if it wasnt for the union. Labor must stand together in this against the corporate machine.
The content of television is abominable. Essentially, we get tripe interspersed generously with a slew of commercials. Why anyone watches TV, except for Stewart/Colbert and C-Span, is beyond me. I have asked acquaintances why they spent $$$ on huge screens to view garbage, and every one has cited NetFlix. Apparently, their dens or whatever have become movie theaters where video films are the fare. One friend says that he has never watched network "news" on his huge screen. Way to go, buddy!
Boo Hoo, over paid scribblers are stomping their feet like the petulant children they are and threatening not to work. Fine let these no talent scrawlers strike. When was the last time commercial TV had anything worthwhile or even approaching the level of a Rod Serling or Paddy Chayefsky script? Outside of a couple of series on HBO ("The Wire", "Rome") TV is a WASTELAND. Most professional writers earn thousands less a year than the pampered scribes in Hollywood and must actually labor at their craft. Let these so-called writers try drafting trade magazine articles, white papers for some bureaucracy or web copy and see what it really takes to eek out a living as a professional writer. Gotta run, my latte is getting cold and my assistant hasn't returned with my dry cleaning.
Johnz52, Serling and Chayefsky were both members of the Writers Guild and wouldn't have thought much of your anti-union, anti-writer ravings (the Guild even gives out a writing award named for Chayefsky).
Please don't use the reference of "war" when
you talk about an entertainment industry. If
working in Hollywood is restricting the
creative talents, then find something else.
Maybe press secreatry for Bush?
or possibly secretary would be better.
Usually I like Ridley. He's got good politics and lots of smarts. But he's way off base this time. The analogy to communism/capitalism is tired anti-union bullshit. Try that on the Teamsters, DGA, or SAG.
'We won't/can't win a strike' is the same whine I've heard since I joined the Guild 35 years ago. If the Guild didn't strike I wouldn't be getting residuals, have a health plan, keep my producer's name off my writing credit, and a have a pension! The problem with the Guild of late is that we haven't been militant enough. The 'labor peace' administrations of the past twenty years have been a disaster for us, and I'm glad we finally have leaders with balls.
I think the Internet and YouTube are more of a threat to the writers than are the producers and conglomerates. You are fighting over control of legacy media.
Not very 21st century...
Wrong, Paul -- this fight is very much over the future of writers in the New Media, with a great deal of emphasis on potential Internet revenues.
What gets me is people who blame the writers for dumb tv. What's on TV is what the producers BUY. Believe me, there's plenty of great TV being written, but very little of it sees the light of day.
As for the issues, it seems pretty obvious that within five years or so we'll all be downloading films and TV shows directly to our HDTVs. Unless your position is that the writers should be cut out of any profits from the success of their creations, I don't see how you can be on the other side of this issue. Profit participation in new media is simply not negotiable, and the reasons for that seem obvious to me.
hmmmm - the millionaires versus the billionaires.
just who should I support (fret, fret).
of course, they could always use adolescent pre-teen jackass stunters on drugs.
might even improve the quality of the shows.
Hollywood has "writers"? Really? You certainly couldn't prove it by anything appearing on television, or in films.
All this name-calling of "Hollywood" writers is such elitist bullcrap. There are talented and less talented writers in this town. And that goes for every profession in every city in this country of ours. And if any of you who condemn a group of people so generally knew what good or bad writing was, you'd find your comments to be less than informative as I do...and laughable as I do. And just as a note: I am not a writer but do know that more times than not, what a writer submits is often shred to shit by their employees and the employees employees, because in Hollywood everyone has a boss over them except for the very top tier.
But can we still lump all republicans/conservatives in one group to vilify?
Yeah, and the unintended consequence: I work in TV in sales with two assistants, both of whom just had their overtime taken away by management because of this strike. So the entry level kids trying to afford their rent get hurt.... nice.
Perhaps you could make some comparisons to the "war," so we can identify what we're talking about.
Is it like the war on poverty? War on drugs? War on illiteracy? War on crime? Is it like a gang war, in our urban neighborhoods? Or is it more like one in a prison block?
Perhaps it's more like a culture war. Is it like the war on Christmas? Is it like the war against God?
Maybe we should be watching for water-boarding, like in the war on terror, which is being fought alongside the war on Iraq, which is one in the same with the war on terror, but should not be confused with the war IN (not on) Afghanistan. However, a really bad TV line-up, that calls people like Chris Mathews "Hard" news, could be considered torture, too... I suppose.
Well... Good luck in your "war." Hope you got your Propagandists in order, 'cause it's a crowded market right now.
Think I'll go have a war with a doughnut.
Good Morning, BadChristian. I remember people like you from college. You sit in the back dozing until you hear something you can be sarcastic about. Your purpose? To get some attention. To get a laugh from the other dozing sarcastics. By mid-semester only the toughest thick skinned or oblivious have any more to say. Oh, and yours truly. I'll have something to say.
Have two doughnuts. Might sweeten you up, you mean-spirited truculent crank. Have three.
Sorry, BadChristian. Yours was just the first comment I read this morning and I think I was looking for something else. I was just swinging my arm and . . . you were there. Now I've read a few more, and they're ALL cranky! I'm going back to bed.
No reason to apologize, sunshine :)
You sweet, considerate fellow. I have had my one doughnut, and it sounds like you need more sleep.
The reason that the Fall season has been such a disaster(and Fall seasons for many years) is that all the talent has left the creative sewage pond of Hollywood. It is a miracle if anything of quality is produced in La La land because there is no regard for Art in our society. If it doesn't make lots of money, it ain't shit. The cynical writer of this column is a product of this horribly corrupt system. Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Frank Capra and many more geniuses would never get a chance in today's NY/Hollywood and, as a result, America's cultural environment is a pathetic slum of dying ideas. But the Producers say, "Who gives a shit. We don't need these artistes. We'll just blow up another car and show more cleavage." Then they shovel millions of dollars into their savings accounts.
I hope they all STAY on strike...open up the
floor for some different talent...bust up
the little racket around the whole business,
too, $138 is just too much to pay for a teeny
lil bag of popcorn...
welcome the the deregulated neo-con takeover of all things fair and free... welcome to the corporate masters spreading tentacles onto everything with a profit margin... welcome to fascism 5.0 and the end of america -- clear channel won't play springstien or the dixie chicks and pink can't mention 'dear mr president' when she interviews. welcome to 1984 X 1000 and the closing of a free society. welcome to WWIII because a few greedy bastards are going to make a shitload of money.
welcome to the new america. and we're all guilty and we'll all pay dearly.
the end.
"You mean...?"
"That's right: 198,400"
"GASP!"
Amen!
I'm remembering a Jim Jarmusch comment along the lines of "If a suit came along and told me how to make a movie, I think I'd kneecap him."
There should be more of that. Unfortunately, the LCD (lowest common denomiator) thinking is paramount (/snark) in the minds of the suits. And they're usually wrong.
I think of some of the best writing that's impressed me in recent years. Joss Whedon, "Buffy" "Angel" and "Firefly". With great ensemble casts and substance in the writing. *sigh*
And some of the mainstream rubbish I flick through in the land of oz, on the way to 'World Movies'.
And having worked in television, mostly as an engineer, but with production experience and even a few scripts produced, I despair of most of the Hollywood output. Not because of the potential quality of the writing, but because the suits kill it stillborn.
I'm not sure the strike will prove anything but one can always hope.
Errr... wow, John, way to lay down your guns and run in the other direction... kinda like the Republican Guard you mention.
The idea that the WGA needs to "negotiate" and accept ANY of the poison-pill demands that the AMPTP have put forward is ridiculous. Why should we do away with residuals? Or allow them to gut our separated rights? Or continue to plead poverty about DVD? Or continue that poverty-pleading to the Internet?
Incidentally, if I'm not mistaken, I seem to remember you doing "I'm an undecided voter" radio spots for NPR during the 2004 election. Really?! Undecided? After 4 years of calamitous failure and a full year of a pointless and illegal war? Are you still "undecided" about Bush's fitness to be president?
Thank God you aren't a member of the WGA's negotiating committee. You'd probably be "undecided" about stripping your fellow writers of every single right our parents and grandparents fought for and won.
"You'd probably be "undecided" about stripping your fellow writers of every single right our parents and grandparents fought for and won."
You write comedy, right?
Fear not!
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------------------------------
Posted October 30, 2007 | 02:20 PM (EST)