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    Life in a Frozen Hell: What the WGA Strike Really Means
    Saturday, 03 November 2007
    ImageOP/ED:

    Beginning Monday, the Writers Guild of America is officially on strike. In a recent vote, 90% of the guild voted to stand behind the decision, so barring some unforseen miracle at the last moment, this is going to happen. It's real.

    The last time we had a writer's strike was back in '88, so most TV viewers don't fully realize what this means for the industry, and more importantly, to the fans themselves. No writers means no new TV shows, shortened seasons of current episodes, and a general "lowering" of standards for what TV and films do get made.

    And you want to know what the strike is all about? Let me sum it up for you:

    Imagine you worked at fast food restaurant on the food assembly line. Everyday, you report to work and flip as many burgers as you possibly can and make every customers order just the way they like it. You take great pride in your work. At the end of the month, you get your check and lament how small it is. It's ridiculous. Sure, you get paid to flip burgers all day, but it isn't enough. You should be getting paid everytime someone takes one of your burgers home! You should be getting paid everytime someone talks about your burgers in a magazine! You should be getting paid everytime someone uses the same recipe as you, right?

    If you disagree with that, congratulations: you're on my side.

    Sorry, the rest of this op/ed article is for members only and may contain strong language, wildly biased opinions, and vulgar expressions. If you'd like to read it, please LOG IN or REGISTER.

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    Comments (8)
    Stevo wrote...
    Agreed, to a point. These writers aren't starving. There's always room for new negotiations, but inviting in a flood of reality TV? Like we need another Kid Nation or Survivor? If they would do that to me they deserve no support at all.
    || November 03, 2007
    Tom wrote...
    Excellent comments, Peter. I read an interesting article this morning that saw a connection between the writer's strike in 1988 and the emergence of reality television; in other words, rather than entering the "catalyst for a new golden era of writing, where the cheesy plots and lame dialogue of the past aren't put up with", I suspect this strike may be the death knell of TV. Sound crazy? The audience is already fragmented and pulling down not nearly the numbers it used to for "major hits". I don't see a silver lining to this one...and I have no doubt it's coming....

    ...Unless, of course, it means that a bunch of people turn off their TVs and the obesity epidemic disappears completely!!! Ha ha.
    || November 03, 2007
    The Ash Bringer wrote...
    I'm glad we see eye to eye here Pete. Wish I would have saved that Rant for this article! The writers prob don't even think about the fans in a situation like this. And as I said last comment and you said in this post, People out there would kill for a chance to be on the Heros or Lost wirting staff. Your absolutly right! If you want money for the DVD sales, make your own show. You knew what your job was when you started, You are to take Tim Craig idea and add your own twists and turns. You were hired to expand someone elses ideas. CREATE YOUR OWN DAMN SHOW THEN! I have not gotten connected to any tv show. I mean this is the first where I cared what the charaters where going through. And as I said b4 if this is the way they are going to end a great series with a lot of potential, with a emergency, re-write, last second, oh-we-are-going-on-strike series finale. I doubt I could bring myself to care again once to show comes off Hiats. Seems like such a cheap copout to the fans. I havent even seen this "Emergency Sesaon Finale" but I already know that the Heros fan deserve better. Expecally everyone on this site. Thanks Pete.
    || November 03, 2007
    Peter wrote...
    Thanks for the support, everyone.

    As for the emergency season finale, I believe that episode was slated to reveal who the killer was and why. So now, I'm assuming, they will probably rewrite it to make it a final confrontation with the Heroes Killer, because that's the only way I can think they would wrap up "Generations" which is essentially about the lives of the previous generation of heroes.
    http://www.bleepinggeek.com || November 03, 2007
    Tron wrote...
    Will it be you who leads the uprising Pete?

    Great piece but also a very disheartening one. I think the writers argument for shares in dvd and itunes sales is moot since we're probably only a few years away from completely new distibution models for entertainment. Not only that but I would say less than 5% of all American (sorry not trying to start anything here it just makes up the biggest % of what's produced) TV and Cinema is actually any good. The rest? Well we get a fraction of the US shows in either the US version or a permutation of the format here in Australia and it's unbeleivable what the general public lap up (or so we are led to believe).

    I think this will all lead to a good portion of the audience simply switching off their sets. It's amazing what a bad show can do to reinforce the 'i just wasted x hours watching that?' feeling and be the catalyst for you doing something useful. This would mean a fall in revenue which means less money for the writers and we're back at square one only with no good TV.

    Let's just hope that the old guard can be ushered out quickly and quietly.
    || November 04, 2007
    Peter wrote...
    Haha, Tron. Yes, yes it will be me. Call me leader and bring your lovely women to me.

    Just kidding. I don't have the cognitive capacity to lead.

    I know better to think that something this small is going to change people's viewing habits. This is America, where people will sit and watch anything put on it front of them because they're simply too lazy to give a damn. I just feel bitter that whereas they might normally be submitted to some quality programming now and then, soon they won't even have that.

    As for 5% of American TV and Cinema being good? I actually think you're being rather generous. Depending on the year and what trend is currently "hot" at the moment, I would say it's in the 1%-5% range.

    Man, I really hope you guys get the good US TV, and not the bad US TV...
    http://www.bleepinggeek.com || November 04, 2007
    SilvRS wrote...
    The writers you're talking about are the lucky ones, who make a lot of money. The average pay for screenwriters is $5000 a year, and considering that the top end pays in millions, that's actually even lower than it seems.

    The reason writers want to be paid residuals is bacuse residuals are a bargained portion of their pay. This allows pay to be dependant on how successful a show is. If it sucks and no one ever watches it again, they only get what they were paid up front. A huge portion of a writer's pay comes from residuals, and yet it's only 4c per DVD. And by the way, that was dropped from negotiations, meaning all they were asking was to get paid at all when their work was used online. And they STILL couldn't get a deal.

    And laying aside everything else, why should writers, perhaps THE most important part of making a tv show any good, be paid so much less than everyone else involved?
    || November 06, 2007
    Peter wrote...
    Thanks for the comment, SilvRS!

    I don't think that writers should be paid less than everyone else involved. Trust me, I have a whole websites worth of rants about how actors get paid waaaaay too much. I do, however, believe that writing should not be a cushy job. It should be hard. It should pay the bare minimum it can until you get to be one of the "lucky" ones, who aren't really lucky at all: they're talented. They've made enough of a name for themselves based upon the strength of their writing that they deserve the higher pay.

    And beside that, I'm not really even arguing that writers shouldn't get residuals. I'm only arguing that they shouldn't be guaranteed residuals. That should be something that is dependent on what company you work for, or what show you write for. It should be mandated by the terms of your employment, not by your choice of profession.

    Another reason I'm anti-strike is because I agree that internet distribution is still too new of a medium to establish a reliable payscale upon. It can prove to be very lucrative (which is what is fueling the need to be paid for it) or it can be completely worthless. It could make a lot of writers rich, or (more importantly) it could just cost the user/fan/subscriber/viewer more money. It's exactly the same thing that is killing the recording industry: too many fingers in the pie. The more money people have to pay out to make a television show in a production climate that is already increasingly expensive, the more money they eventually have to make just to break even. And, when shows cost more money to write and make, studios are less likely to take a chance on shows like Pushing Daisies or even Heroes (no one knew if it would last more than 3 episodes when it first aired). I don't feel like paying more money just to watch bland TV or movies because of the WGA's overinflated sense of entitlement.
    http://www.bleepinggeek.com || November 06, 2007

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