Hollywood Goes to War
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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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.
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.
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.
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.
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...o
floor for some different talent...b
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.
Amen!
"You mean...?"
"That's right: 198,400"
"GASP!"
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.
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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You can't strike while a war is going on. It'll seem too selfish, petty, and - dare we say it - unpatriotic. As in, "I'm here fighting for freedom and my life while they're back home fighting for a greater percentage of the take".
Well Mr. Ridley,
Personally, as a consumer, I think it's high time for a strike. I think of the TV writing I love/have loved and I think that the writer continually get the major short end of the stick in H-wood over so many less talented and I'd so much rather do without than be stuck with the crap H-wood thinks they can get away with without writers - namely that awful "Reality" crap.
This year I lost my mom. And I will tell you that having 'Six Feet Under' episodes to view on Bravs or A/E very much helped me through the whole thing believe it or not. Especially the series finale...t
I hope all of the liberals on H-Post please support the writer's strike. It's necessary, writers should be making good livings for their genius. And vice-versa.
Ridley, why are you not on that cable morning show with joe scarborough anymore?
Someone actually writes movies? I mean, it takes someone literate to come up with that trash?
This is a dumb comparison between a writer's strike in Hollywood and Bush's invasion and occupation of Iraq.
I don't see any similarities but I think it diminishes the seriousness of Bush's war crimes to compare a Hollywood writer's strike to Bush's historic crimes.
This post could have been helpful and instructive three months ago, instead of being simply commentary, as it is today, October 30th.
"Just for the record I'm far too accomplished a writer to be pompous."
And I believe you are dreaming, my son.
That was supposed to be a joke.
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