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| Writers Strike - Love it/Hate it?
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The Hollywood writers strike has shuffled along now for a good length of time bring to an early end a number of hit TV shows.
Major casualites that have had to have a mini series - Lost, Family Guy, Scrubs, ER and those that never even made it out of the blocks like 24. What of Nip/Tuck, Battlestar Galactica and The SImpsons?
Shows have been postponed, some even cancelled. And why? Because the writer's contracts came up for renewal and they wanted a bigger slice of the pie. Fair enough I dont have an argument with that but what I do have an argument with is those that suffer are us!!! The ones who pay the damn wages in the first place. They get their money through firstly their contracted pay, then through syndication then through DVD sales (4 cents per DVD I think - that will seriously add up - if a million DVDs are sold the writer makes $40,000 from sales alone - not a bad little add on). They also get paid upwards of $30,000 for sixty minutes of prime time scripting. What they are striking for is to get 8 cents per DVD (this would cost the studios millions and who do you think will pay for it - them?? No don't think so - will be us!!!. Remember the cost always gets passed onto the consumer.
They are also striking for a cut of the internet based media - downloads, streaming etc. Most of the revenue made from this is advertising not direct sales - does this mean the writers should get a cut of the TV advertising?
I don't have a problem with writers being paid more - some of the scripting these days is exceptional and they probably deserve it - but I do have a problem with striking to get it. I'm not lucky enough to be in a job where you can strike to get more money. I have to take what I get or leave - my only two options. I feel I am worth more money but to get it I need to change my career - why do writers get to say pay me or I dont work!!! Surely if they want more money then like most of us they should change career - or would they get even less doing that?
As I said the only ones to truly lose will be us. Take Scrubs for instance - a show I love and was disappointed to learn this was due to be the last season. Now because of the writers strike it looks like it will only be a final 8 episodes or so. Thanks guys. I know this sounds selfish but considering its my hard earned money, and yours, that generates their pay I wouid appreciate getting full product for my money. Its not much to ask.
Whats going to happen for us is that we will be inundated with shit reality TV. Woohoo!!! Okay its just a TV show at the end of the day - but if thats really all it is then why do these guys deserve more money? After all what they do isn't really important. Its not like they fight fires, save lives, police our streets, fight our wars. No, they sit down and write. All I ask is that they have the decency to write the shows we pay them to write. They argue that without a script you dont have anything which is true. But they are just the starting mechanism. If you didn't have the actors, director, studio money, sets etc - the precious script would be pretty fucking useless. No-one is more important than the other. Its like saying the car can't run without the engine. But what use is the ngine without the car?
Hopefully this will all end soon and we can have our weekly entertainment back on track.
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Posted by namesy on 2008-01-31 18:09:09 | Rating: | Views: 31
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