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 ...
I know a lot of people in “the arts.” And I know that 99.9999% of those who complain about the high salaries and all the rest don’t want to take the chance of doing it themselves.
LOL! Anyone can write for 100 pages, right?
Actually anyone can write 100 pages. It’s the same as saying anyone can bang together a bookcase on a Saturday afternoon. But not everyone can write a 100 pages that someone is willing to invest in or make a piece of fine furniture.
That is true.
We Were Soldiers was high art compared to The Thin Red Line.
Because if he doesn’t re-kill the person he unkilled within a minute then somebody else dies. He killed his girlfriend’s father figuring that one out. And he was going to re-kill Chuck but got distracted. It’s a brilliantly quirky little show, I’m surprised it’s found an audience.
I know more bartenders and restaurant managers who started out as actors and writers than guys who make their living acting or writing. These are hideously high risk professions. The odds of earning a living in them are very long. As a Hollywood guy once said to me, “At any given time there are fewer than 200 movie stars.”
If he doesn't "re-kill" someone, some other person in his vicinity dies.
I would have expected catchy slogans.
Thank you for the explanation. I didn’t watch very much at all before I stopped watching. I got more of the story off a news pormo show and started wondering how they dealt with this issue; especially if the show’s supposed to be good.
This guy needs to stroll through the cemetary closest to the democrat convention in 2008.
The last writer’s strike (1988) was the impetus for unscripted shows like Cops and America’s Most Wanted. In many ways the Fox Network (entertainment side) owes a lot to that 1988 strike. It’s influence can still be felt today with all these reality shows. So be careful what you wish for.
And the last threatened strike brought us Reality TV and the rebirth of prime time game shows... I think we have a crimes against humanity case against the writers.
FR humor rules!
The silly thing about this strike is the only show I watch that will probably be affected is Heroes. Stargate Atlantis is produced in Vancouver so that won’t be affected. And the only other shows I watch are reality TV and Fox News. Oh and Judge Judy too!!! :D
Perhaps the powers that be offer up screen credits to keep payroll down.
Life after Television
TV defies the most obvious fact about its customers -- their prodigal and efflorescent diversity. people perform scores of thousands of different jobs; pursue multifarious hobbies; read hundreds of thousands of different publications. TV ignores the reality that people are not inherently couch potatoes; given a chance, they talk back and interact. People have little in common except their prurient interests and morbid fears and anxieties. Necessarily aiming its fare at this lowest-common-denominator target, television gets worse and worse every year. ...
Television is not vulgar because people are vulgar, it is vulgar because people are similar in their prurient interests and sharply differentiated in their civilized concerns. ...
Television is a tool of tyrants. Its overthrow will be a major force for freedom and individuality, culture and morality. That overthrow is at hand.
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