Posted on 11/05/2007 1:23:49 AM PST by abb
Hollywood's film and television writers went on strike early this morning after last-ditch efforts to negotiate a deal with the major studios failed Sunday.
Despite the aid of a federal mediator and back-channel talks between top writers and studio executives, the sides were ultimately too far apart to bridge the massive divide between them and avert the first writers strike in nearly two decades.
After three months of contentious negotiations, talks broke down Wednesday night when the writers' three-year contract expired. Although they made minimal headway on some issues Sunday, the parties could not come to terms on such key issues as how much writers are paid when their shows are sold online.
The question now is no longer whether or when they will strike, but how long a walkout will last and how much pain it will inflict.
Both sides are girding for what many believe will be a long and debilitating strike, potentially more disruptive than the 22-week walkout by writers in 1988, which cost the entertainment industry an estimated $500 million.
"Once it starts, it's going to get ugly," said one of the guild's strike captains Sunday.
snip
"It is unfortunate that they choose to take this irresponsible action," alliance President Nick Counter said.
The guild said that although the union had agreed to withdraw its proposal to double DVD pay, which had been a stumbling block in negotiations, producers refused to make concessions in other key areas. Among other things, producers refused to grant the union jurisdiction for most new-media writing, the guild said. They also insisted on a proposal that would allow them to reuse movies or TV shows on any platform for promotional purposes with no residual payment.
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(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Not gonna happen. No staff tech writers get royalties. It’s ok, though. I read further in the thread and I see the difference.
I agree. I just bought a book on screenwriting. I can dream, can’t I?
Ahh, Pushing Daisies. Chuck is a little sweetheart, ain’t she? Speaking of Chuck, that’s another new show I love. As well as Pushing Daisies has been doing, I bet it’ll survive the strike. The same probably can’t be said about Chuck. And that makes me sad. I’m sure this will be the end of Friday Night Lights as well, since it was given a reprieve based on critical acclaim and not audience numbers.
Go freelance. Tell your boss you’ll do the work for a third of what he’s paying you now (and with no benefits), but you want the right to publish and sell the material on your own.
The ‘dumb father’ commercials are shown in between the stuff these writers produce and is written by Madison ave execs.
On the show Supernatural, a character came out last week and said “Dick Cheney has a parking spot reserved in Hell.” It had no bearing on anything and was just a mean little jab. I guarantee that if I was writing a show, I would never come out and say, “Al Gore is a twisted troll who will spend his eternity with Satan.” I hate leftists, but if they are tuning in to my normally non-political show, why piss on them for it? I don’t like it when they do it to me. So, my answer to your question to someone else is that I don’t like the brainwashing at all.
Screenwriting is incredibly high risk, particularly now when every real estate agent in LA is trying to write a screenplay. Hey, they’re only 100 pages!
Pandering to blue state major markets. A.C. Nielsen does not use a system that employs an electoral college.
Same here. Five years ago, I bet I would spend 80% of my TV watching time watching History Channel. Then, without really realizing it, I started watching a lot more Discovery Channel, which I never used to watch. Mythbusters and Survivorman I've come to like quite a lot, along with "I Shouldn't Be Alive."
About six months ago, I just sort of realized that I almost never watch History Channel any longer. Then, last Thursday night, I was sitting in a hotel room and was flipping around and I found a show called Man, Moment, Machine (on the History Channel) and found it to be quite good. Maybe I'll come back.
Mythbusters and Survivorman I’ve come to like quite a lot, along with “I Shouldn’t Be Alive.”
I want to produce a show called My Life. During various episodes I will make scrambled eggs, wash socks (without fabric softener) and shop for a new coffee mug.
Awesome. Will you do it in the Alaskan wilderness or on top of a mountain in the Alps? I might watch.
My very first question was: if he wakes his dead girlfriend up and then refuses to touch her again because she’ll die, why doesn’t he do the same for all the other people he awakens from the dead? It’s OK for him to re-kill strangers, but not acquaintances?
No, but I will sneak into the homes of celebrities to wash socks.
I think some of the blame could be placed on network execs, some like NBC’s Jeff Zucker are rather evil people in my opinion.
By blame I mean the detoriation of quality TV
I would if this were a publicly available product, but it’s an in-house software system.
However, we recently bought software from another company and the documentation was junk. I rewrote it so we could use the system, and I played with the idea of reselling the documentation back to them to replace the junk they use now. I’ll talk to my boss and see what he says. Thanks!
It’s amazing that it’s the same meme, though.
LOL! Anyone can write for 100 pages, right?
First off, as an engineer my patents are meaningless past 15 to 30 years. I do NOT have the ability to make money off my work indefinitely, as Hollywood now does. So forgive me for not being overly concerned about the writers or any of the other arts folks problems.
When the LIMITED TIMES that an author gets to hold their work EXACTLY matches the LIMITED TIMES which an inventor gets to hold exclusive rights to their work, I'll take the writers side in this. The notion that because my work is deemed more important to society than their work, I am entitled to profit off it for a far shorter period than they are allowed, is hypocritical.
If the unionized writers would support a single legal definition of "limited times", I would be 100% behind them.
By the way, do you write?
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