Hollywood Writers Strike on Monday?

R

Rich Tate

Supreme [H]ardness
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Jun 9, 2005
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While not tech related, pretty much all of your favorites shows will probably be in limbo if the Writers Guild of America strikes tomorrow.

"The studios made it clear that they would rather shut down this town than reach a fair and reasonable deal," Patric Verrone, president of the western chapter of the guild, said at a news conference.
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The business model of the studios is retarded and unfair.

Reminds me of the RIAA... oh wait it's the same.
 
Maybe, but you do realize that when they get more cash for for DVDs or Downloads, your price goes up, right? There's a reason why so many of the Deluxe DVD sets (with all the extras) cost more than they did 7 or 8 years ago, and it's the royalties that are paid to talent (including, but not limited to, actors, writers, and directors).

I don't know what they're currently getting paid, but I can promise you that you and I will pay for it with increased prices.
 
Considering the mindless, plot-less, and talentless crap that comes out of Hollywood now days (except, maybe, Pixar), I'd say the studios aren't losing much in the strike. I'm sure a bunch of up-and-coming students would be happy to be a movie writer for the current pay rate. Heck, it might actually thin out the herd.


Here's how to write a movie using the standard corporate mandated template:
  • The plot, vocabulary, and reason for the location must be understood by someone with, at most, a sixth grade education.
  • There must be rampant and loose sexuality, even if it doesn't make sense or even add to the plot (what little plot there is). Just throw in nudity, skankiness, and some moans a groans for good measure. Also must have token homosexuality.
  • There must be one or more of explosions, gore, and violence.
  • CGI must be used and exploited. Just like the 3D movies of the early 1960's, the "oooh" must be over-stimulated.
  • All cast hero's and "good guys" must be a minimum of 8 on the 1-10 looks scale and ALL women must wear unnaturally tight and revealing uniforms, suits, armor, or other such costumes. Bad guys, geeks, nerds, etc. are ugly. Please note, with today's standards, a woman like Marilyn Monroe would never get a job now days. She was a naturally voluptuous woman (beautiful), not some bulimic starved (cocaine fed) twig without an ounce of fat on her.
  • It must never exceed 90 minutes in length. Only rare exceptions to this rule. 90 minutes in a multiplex can have two or more plays per day than longer movies. Hence, more money for studios and cinemas.
  • Make it "dark". We don't care what the story is, but make it DARK. You can thank Tim Burton for starting this miserable trend (Batman).
  • To heck with entertainment, the viewers are too stupid. The movie must have a political message because those in their isolated $2000 a day lifestyle behind bodyguards and 400 acre private ranches know better about normal things in the world than you do. Geez, If I see one more "climate change" themed movie I'm going to puke. Morons, all of them.
  • All families must be broken. Divorce or single parentage must be made to seem "normal".
What needs to happen is the movie industry needs to get rid of 90% of the garbage that is involved in it, from the writers to the top execs to the over-egoed actors. Once upon a time actors were considered the lowest fourth class of society.
 
Its sad that seasoned comedians like letterman, leno, stewart, and colbert have to go to reruns.. sad to see theyre just talking heads...
 
@SuperSparky

I've always felt that anybody who makes more than, say, $500,000/ year (and especially multiples of millions/year) should have no say in politics because their view of the 'real' world is completely skewed by not only absurd amounts of money thrown at them for doing basically nothing for the greater good, but also living in that alternate reality that is Hollywood/Beverly Hills et al. If I hear one more Deutch-Bag telling me to give my HARD earned money to help Darfur or junk my present vehicles and buy hybrids to lower my carbon footprint, I'm going to puke.

I feel ya.

My 1.5 cents
 
nilepez said:
Maybe, but you do realize that when they get more cash for for DVDs or Downloads, your price goes up, right? There's a reason why so many of the Deluxe DVD sets (with all the extras) cost more than they did 7 or 8 years ago, and it's the royalties that are paid to talent (including, but not limited to, actors, writers, and directors).

I don't know what they're currently getting paid, but I can promise you that you and I will pay for it with increased prices.
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the royalties theyr get are pennies per set. tv show sales on dvd are essentially free money for many studios, especially when the show has almost 20 seasons of footage to go through, as in the simpsons. these dvd sets should cost about 5 bucks per season if they pricing them anywhere near fairly.
 
You see, unfortunately, due to the unions, they CAN'T write their own material. When a host "writes" his own material, a union writer still must write and get credit for it in the credits. So if Jay Leno wanted to write his own material, he must dictate his material to a union writer, else the union will not allow the material to be used as Mr. Leno would be "depriving a union employee of his job."

Every person in the credits of a show (any show) are agreed upon, in advance, when the show is in pre-production. If a director or producer chooses to write for themselves, they must pay union dues and be a member of the union for which the job entails. Nevertheless, If someone gets credit for more than one job in a production, (Director, Producer, Writer, etc.) they get full pay for each and every one of those jobs, as if that job was done by separate people.

Unfortunately, for the entertainment industry, everything and everyone is a member of a specific union. One of the rules of a union member is to not be a "scab" to strikers in another union. Since the grips, band, camera, director, etc. and even the host (Letterman, Leno, etc.) are all members of specific unions, they cannot cover for those on strike. If they did, they'd get fired and fined, and in the case of a host or producer, sued.

While the industry execs can dictate which shows are made and their budgets, they have no control on how they are made. That is under union control.

This is why New Zealand, Mexico, India and Australia are becoming popular replacement production locations for movies now days. No unions. It's so much easier and cheaper to make a movie there than in the USA or the UK.

So, I said all that to say this. Those "seasoned comedians" can't do what you want them to do. The unions won't let them.

As you can tell, I hate unions with a passion. I believe working for a living isn't a privilege. It's something earned. Do a good job, get paid well. If not getting paid well, find another job that does. Heck, start your own company and run the "mean one" into the ground with competition. Capitalism works best from both ends. Unions were only good for a short time back in the early 1900's. They turned monopolism back into capitalism. Unfortunately, unions have become exactly the tyrants they once fought against.

I'm not saying members of unions aren't hard workers. However, unions coddle those that are lazy at the expense of everyone under the veil of "he needs a job."

Of all unions, the Teachers union is the only one worse than the entertainment unions. Only a union can think of the concept of Tenure.

I digress, sorry....

mcasagrande said:
Its sad that seasoned comedians like letterman, leno, stewart, and colbert have to go to reruns.. sad to see theyre just talking heads...
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Want to lower the price of DVD's? Don't buy them. The market determines the price, regardless of the manufacturing costs.

Next time, remember that when you see the $6 DVD's in the "Sale" bin of your favorite store. Nobody wants to buy those movies. That's why they are so cheap.

If you continue to pay the higher prices, then it's "worth it" to you. Hence, demand determines price.

Want better royalties? Get a better lawyer next time when negotiating the contract.

Martyr said:
the royalties theyr get are pennies per set. tv show sales on dvd are essentially free money for many studios, especially when the show has almost 20 seasons of footage to go through, as in the simpsons. these dvd sets should cost about 5 bucks per season if they pricing them anywhere near fairly.
Click to expand...
 
nilepez said:
Maybe, but you do realize that when they get more cash for for DVDs or Downloads, your price goes up, right? There's a reason why so many of the Deluxe DVD sets (with all the extras) cost more than they did 7 or 8 years ago, and it's the royalties that are paid to talent (including, but not limited to, actors, writers, and directors).

I don't know what they're currently getting paid, but I can promise you that you and I will pay for it with increased prices.
Click to expand...

This isn't write, the whole issue over the DVDs is the fact when VHS came out, the suits didn't want to eat the expensive cost of the blank tapes, so instead of the writers getting a standard cut like everybody else, they were made to take 10% of the standard cut (roughly 1 or 2%), to defray the cost of the media. With DVD, the cost of the media plummeted. But the studios wanted to (and did) pocket that money, without restoring the writer's royalties. So the writers are still paying for the price of VHS media in cuts, while the suits keep the dough they save. And that's just one of the issues on the table.

Too bad the actors and directors guilds won't stand up for the writers. I find it kind of funny they don't considering there are a lot of card holding WGA members in their ranks.


This is also a reason why people shouldn't watch those garbage "reality TV" shows. The more they take hold the worse it is for the WGA, and the less of a hand they have to fight back with.

You might be right, if the writers get more, the more we might have to pay, but that's only because of studio greed, they are ripping off the writers, it's not their fault the suits are greedy assholes. The writers are some of the lowest paid people in Hollywood.
 
I can't even say when the last time I have even watched the major networks was. The shows suck big time.The same goes w/their news, other than the local news, I never watch the national anymore. There's very few good movies, w/the last one that I went out of my way to see in a movie theatre being "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King".
 
UrielDagda said:
This isn't write, the whole issue over the DVDs is the f
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Various groups did negotiate higher royalties on DVDs and insisted on extra pay for commentary tracks, and other extras on DVDs. And since that happened, prices did go up.

I'm not going to debate whether writers deserve more money or not, but there's no doubt that if costs go up, so will prices.

And you can be relatively certain that if paying writers more costs an extra 50 cents per disk, you'll pay a buck more/disk (if not more).
 
nilepez said:
Various groups did negotiate higher royalties on DVDs and insisted on extra pay for commentary tracks, and other extras on DVDs. And since that happened, prices did go up.

I'm not going to debate whether writers deserve more money or not, but there's no doubt that if costs go up, so will prices.

And you can be relatively certain that if paying writers more costs an extra 50 cents per disk, you'll pay a buck more/disk (if not more).
Click to expand...

The thing with paying writers more is an issue of studio greed, since the writers were basically taking a pay cut to pay for the media. I doubt writers got anything for extras, unless they were also a producer/actor.. As it is now writers might get a nickle to dime per sold DVD on average. The problem gets compounded for the writers when the movie isn't a huge hit in theaters (or winds up limited release or straight to DVD), but sells like hotcakes in the DVD market. If the studio made $250 million on a DVD release the writer would wind up with $250,000.. That might seem to be a lot, but screenwriting isn't usually a job of consistent guaranteed work either. And I think anybody would be pissed at working a few thousand hours on writing, rewriting, pitching, revising, etc, and wind up getting $250k while the director, producers and actors are splitting $50-$80 million with the studio pocketing the rest.

So essentially, whether the price goes up, shouldn't be a concern to writers wanting their fare share of pay. The studios can raise the prices whenever they want, and they don't need to in order to pay the writers properly. That would just wind up being an arbitrary action designed to create animosity toward the writer's guild. It's not the fault of the writers. The studios are just being greedy bastards.
 
So now they will have to follow the actual game plot and dialog in game movies now? :p
 
SuperSparky said:
Considering the mindless, plot-less, and talentless crap that comes out of Hollywood now days (except, maybe, Pixar), I'd say the studios aren't losing much in the strike. I'm sure a bunch of up-and-coming students would be happy to be a movie writer for the current pay rate. Heck, it might actually thin out the herd.


Here's how to write a movie using the standard corporate mandated template:
  • The plot, vocabulary, and reason for the location must be understood by someone with, at most, a sixth grade education.
  • There must be rampant and loose sexuality, even if it doesn't make sense or even add to the plot (what little plot there is). Just throw in nudity, skankiness, and some moans a groans for good measure. Also must have token homosexuality.
  • There must be one or more of explosions, gore, and violence.
  • CGI must be used and exploited. Just like the 3D movies of the early 1960's, the "oooh" must be over-stimulated.
  • All cast hero's and "good guys" must be a minimum of 8 on the 1-10 looks scale and ALL women must wear unnaturally tight and revealing uniforms, suits, armor, or other such costumes. Bad guys, geeks, nerds, etc. are ugly. Please note, with today's standards, a woman like Marilyn Monroe would never get a job now days. She was a naturally voluptuous woman (beautiful), not some bulimic starved (cocaine fed) twig without an ounce of fat on her.
  • It must never exceed 90 minutes in length. Only rare exceptions to this rule. 90 minutes in a multiplex can have two or more plays per day than longer movies. Hence, more money for studios and cinemas.
  • Make it "dark". We don't care what the story is, but make it DARK. You can thank Tim Burton for starting this miserable trend (Batman).
  • To heck with entertainment, the viewers are too stupid. The movie must have a political message because those in their isolated $2000 a day lifestyle behind bodyguards and 400 acre private ranches know better about normal things in the world than you do. Geez, If I see one more "climate change" themed movie I'm going to puke. Morons, all of them.
  • All families must be broken. Divorce or single parentage must be made to seem "normal".
What needs to happen is the movie industry needs to get rid of 90% of the garbage that is involved in it, from the writers to the top execs to the over-egoed actors. Once upon a time actors were considered the lowest fourth class of society.
Click to expand...

bullseye....right on the mark, last mainstream movie i enjoyed was Lord of the Rings...

i think another poster hit it, get those young college writers and indie filmakers to fill the gap, abolish the union and let actual comedians do their own work. maybe tv and movies would suck just a little bit less then.... i'd rather watch a indie film on a prosumer camera that replaces special effects with good dialogue/wordplay and actual cinematic tricks than blockbuster garbage thats all effects and explosions and a plot that makes sesame street seem complicated.
 
Unions, for the most part, are a joke. All the do is extort money.

This, is an example of when the union is doing GOOD. Personally I'd love to see the fuck over the studios as much as humanly possible. The writers, despite how horrid most of their work is, deserve as much money as the actors. I'll start buying movies and paying for cable when the actors are making < $1mil/year and the difference is getting distributed to everyone else that makes it all happen.
 
So many anti-union posts here. I'm not union, but I believe it has it's place protecting workers.

Most of the negative posts here are from people who only see or choose to see part of the picture. Until you understand all the issues with this dispute, please refrain from posting mindless opinion.

One day, when you are doing your thing and putting in extra effort to help out your company, someone will decide that they can dump you in favor of someone else where costs are cheaper. Hey, why don't you just agree to a pay cut, or less time off, or less medical coverage? Do you think you will have an easy time doing this? I don't think so.

Until YOU personally have to get to this point, you will probably not understand why unions are needed. For all the bad publicity they have been getting around here lately, you would think there is no place for them. You are dead wrong. I don't think people in the US want to get exploited. Why, then, do some of you say the movie industry should move out of the US or UK and then exploit the local populations in other countries? Makes no sense.

Why do you demand "extra's" on DVD's? These have been freebies, however, the actors and other people were doing this work gratis. Now it's such a big deal (effort wise) that they are actually putting this stuff into contracts. Why should actors and writers not get paid for their work? Do you go to work and offer to work a few weeks for free?

For as much as I hear people complaining about big corporations and the RIAA/MPAA, I am surprised to see so many people not backing the writers. They do their jobs and should get paid fairly. Is that too much to ask for?

If the cost gets passed on to me via higher DVD prices due to extra crud on there that I don't want, then the choice is mine and I will not buy the thing, or I will limit how many I buy. Simple.
 
Unions are doing a great job of ruining all types of industries in this country. They have played a major role in the decline of american auto industry. I know there are other reasons, but the unions hinder changes in buisness models and make the auto makers even less nimble than they would be without them. Hollywood is, in my opinion, shit. I can't wait till they replace all actors with CGI characters. Most of the writers write the same shit over and over again. And hollywood,please quit trying to convince me an advertising project director living in a big Manhattan loft apartment is a "normal guy". Some of us americans don't live in L.A. NY or Chicago and just because we don't live in the big cities doesn't mean we are semi-retarded bare-foot inbread hicks
 
All this is going to end up doing is speed up Hollywood's relocation to Canada.
 
SnapperDragon said:
So many anti-union posts here. I'm not union, but I believe it has it's place protecting workers.

Most of the negative posts here are from people who only see or choose to see part of the picture. Until you understand all the issues with this dispute, please refrain from posting mindless opinion.

One day, when you are doing your thing and putting in extra effort to help out your company, someone will decide that they can dump you in favor of someone else where costs are cheaper. Hey, why don't you just agree to a pay cut, or less time off, or less medical coverage? Do you think you will have an easy time doing this? I don't think so.

Until YOU personally have to get to this point, you will probably not understand why unions are needed. For all the bad publicity they have been getting around here lately, you would think there is no place for them. You are dead wrong. I don't think people in the US want to get exploited. Why, then, do some of you say the movie industry should move out of the US or UK and then exploit the local populations in other countries? Makes no sense.

Why do you demand "extra's" on DVD's? These have been freebies, however, the actors and other people were doing this work gratis. Now it's such a big deal (effort wise) that they are actually putting this stuff into contracts. Why should actors and writers not get paid for their work? Do you go to work and offer to work a few weeks for free?

For as much as I hear people complaining about big corporations and the RIAA/MPAA, I am surprised to see so many people not backing the writers. They do their jobs and should get paid fairly. Is that too much to ask for?

If the cost gets passed on to me via higher DVD prices due to extra crud on there that I don't want, then the choice is mine and I will not buy the thing, or I will limit how many I buy. Simple.
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That's all good and fine, except the result of unions is ALWAYS the same. Lazy workers demanding more money. You think today's writers would be anywhere as horrible as they are if they actually had to produce good work to keep their jobs?
 
Okay let me say this. I have worked both union and non union jobs. I find union work very very annoying. Why you ask? Because in a union your as good as your lazest worker. Thats what unions are for the most part. they protect lazy people. The most used line i hear from union workers is " its not my job" and there is not a dang thing you can do about it. Plus they took 20 bucks a week out of each paycheck only to thumb their noses at workers that NEEDED them to help them out.

Unions have their place as long as it is for the right reasons. Its to protect the workers.That was the main purpose of unions back in the day to stop the abuse of workers and such. But now its about who can do the lest amount of work and still get paid the same amount and not worry about getting into trouble.

All and all I am okay with unions only if they do what they are intended on doing what they are there for and that is to make sure workers dont get screwed.

And yes actors get paid wayyyy to much compared to what the writers get. if it was not for the writers then these actors have nothing to do.
 
SnapperDragon said:
One day, when you are doing your thing and putting in extra effort to help out your company, someone will decide that they can dump you in favor of someone else where costs are cheaper. Hey, why don't you just agree to a pay cut, or less time off, or less medical coverage? Do you think you will have an easy time doing this? I don't think so.

Until YOU personally have to get to this point, you will probably not understand why unions are needed. For all the bad publicity they have been getting around here lately, you would think there is no place for them. You are dead wrong. I don't think people in the US want to get exploited. Why, then, do some of you say the movie industry should move out of the US or UK and then exploit the local populations in other countries? Makes no sense.
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This point i agree and disagree on this. Unions are ment to protect the workers but they also protect the people that are lazy. You think that people that work thier butts off get paid any more then a person that does very little? Let me show you an example of what im say from a union job i worked at.

Say that there are 2 slicer ops slicing a product. The amount of product put out in the area is say....30000 pounds. Slicer #1 slices 20000 of the product. Slicer #2 only does 10000
But they both make the same amount of money. The slower slicer does not get into trouble because... well he protected by the union. Eventually what will happen is the guy that is out doing his co worker in pounds will eventually say " whats the point he gets paid the same as me no matter how little he does, so why should I bust my butt?" and he will slow down to

Another gripe I have is that alot of advancement in companies with unions are also limited. Unless you have alot of time in the company , you not going to move to a different job to better yourself. Its not about who would be better at that job its all about "who has more time in" which is BS in itself
 
I'm all for someone making a fair ammount of money but in this case I don't really have much love for the writers at least yet. I'm hoping that they start looking else where for writing and we actually get some good mateiral on the screen.
 
These things have happened to me at various times. What I did was just go and work for some other company. I didn't think I was entitled to things I already did not agree to when I was hired. Things like pensions and insurance are PERKS not things you are entitled to. It is the company's right and prerogative to decide who works for them and how they do business, as long as it is within the law. Personally, I think it's stupid to not give employees perks and profit sharing, simply because it's bad for business. Employees work harder when they feel appreciated and rewarded for hard work. Employees without incentives (unions) and only entitlements tend to not work their best. Most only do the union minimum and turn around and do nothing for the rest of the day. Without that union, those working harder deserve to be paid higher or promoted. Those slacking off should be fired. In a union, pay is only determined by seniority.

This isn't the 1930's anymore. The monopolies don't exist anymore. The useful purpose of unions are gone. Let the market, on both sides, determine employment and the health of companies and employment.

You mentioned out-sourcing. Yes, this can hurt the job market for certain markets, however, it has been proven to cause much more and expensive problem for these companies in the long run, and outsourcing isn't looked at positively any more.

It is not a company's responsibility to give you a job. They give you a job because they require your skills and services to accomplish their goals of making a profit. Thinking a business exists to give you a job is rather stupid thinking.

So, I do understand the issues in union and company reactions. I also have a right to express them, even if you don't like them. What knowledge do you have of my work experience and union experience?? ZERO. Stop trying to have the arrogance of thinking you do. Let's just say I probably have decades more work experience than you. Old farts like me know from experience and not by what some hippie professor told them.
  • I have been laid off in favor of outsourcing.
  • I have been laid off in favor of cheaper, younger, employment.
  • I have been told to train my replacement.
  • I have been fired for NOT supporting dishonest and illegal business practices.
  • I have quit jobs I was mistreated at.
  • I have had jobs without any perks or insurance.
  • I have worked extra hard at jobs and have been rewarded and treated with respect and perks.
  • When I was younger, I have worked at jobs I slacked off at and was fired for it.
Interestingly enough 80% of the "bad" companies I have worked for either went out of business, eventually, or were bough out and the jerks fired. I happily watched as I saw the market work.

High prices are caused by unions. Once entrenched in a company, they begin to demand more, (extort more) and they keep doing it until the company can no longer make a profit as the market will not allow for constantly higher prices needed to cover constantly higher and unreasonable worker union demands.

As to the "protecting workers" statement. Unions stopped protecting workers decades ago. They only protect their own self interests and have become the enemy they once broke. If "protecting workers" were a truth, they wouldn't have a problem with a worker working at a location choosing not to join the union, but we all know that isn't going to happen. That just means less money for the union.

Want to get writers higher pay? Simple, stop thinking a small handful of people are the only possible ones that can act in a movie and venture to have more brought into the herd. When competition for acting is higher, the rate to pay actors will become lower. When everything is left to the market and unions pulled out, eventually everything achieves its own stability. Start more production companies. Instead of unions, have employee owned companies that write scripts for movies and TV and let them contract these companies for the service.

When employees have a vested interest in the results of their work. In other words, have a reason to make the company profit, they tend to work harder and are happier and get all of the perks and support unions only claim to give.

You see, the same result is achieved without a union leaching their pay via "dues". With unions, it's just free money. In an employee owned company, they benefit from the profits as a result of their work.

A union isn't the solution. Let the market punish bad companies, and let the employees of a good company profit directly from their own work.

You say unions work? Well, tell that to Chrysler employees. They leach so much out of that company that the company can no longer compete in the market. Nobody buys the cars so raising prices to cover ridiculous entitlement demands no longer works. So the end result is their only choice, and that is mass lay-offs. So much for union job protection.

Getting paid and treated fairly isn't unreasonable to ask for. However, you cannot force this and expect it to work. Just don't work for such a company. Eventually it will come back to bite that company. Eventually all of the good people will leave and the product will suffer and so will the company.

Want to see what works better than unions? Look at JetBlue, or Google, or other companies that treat people the right way, and you'll see a profitable company with a happy and well compensated crew. Notice how fast their competition either dies or makes similar changes.

When will people learn that forcing other people to do anything just never works. Power begets corruption, and unions are no different. A union operation makes the company people even more isolated from "the crew" than a properly run company with a happy crew is.

You get more results with "honey" than with "vinegar". Incentives are also more effective than threats. This works in all aspects of life, not just work. Want to help the environment? Stop trying to punish and limit. Instead give profitable incentives for alternates.

SnapperDragon said:
So many anti-union posts here. I'm not union, but I believe it has it's place protecting workers.

Most of the negative posts here are from people who only see or choose to see part of the picture. Until you understand all the issues with this dispute, please refrain from posting mindless opinion.

One day, when you are doing your thing and putting in extra effort to help out your company, someone will decide that they can dump you in favor of someone else where costs are cheaper. Hey, why don't you just agree to a pay cut, or less time off, or less medical coverage? Do you think you will have an easy time doing this? I don't think so.

Until YOU personally have to get to this point, you will probably not understand why unions are needed. For all the bad publicity they have been getting around here lately, you would think there is no place for them. You are dead wrong. I don't think people in the US want to get exploited. Why, then, do some of you say the movie industry should move out of the US or UK and then exploit the local populations in other countries? Makes no sense.

Why do you demand "extra's" on DVD's? These have been freebies, however, the actors and other people were doing this work gratis. Now it's such a big deal (effort wise) that they are actually putting this stuff into contracts. Why should actors and writers not get paid for their work? Do you go to work and offer to work a few weeks for free?

For as much as I hear people complaining about big corporations and the RIAA/MPAA, I am surprised to see so many people not backing the writers. They do their jobs and should get paid fairly. Is that too much to ask for?

If the cost gets passed on to me via higher DVD prices due to extra crud on there that I don't want, then the choice is mine and I will not buy the thing, or I will limit how many I buy. Simple.
Click to expand...
 
I hope they dont' come to an agreement. We need new content and not this garbage they feed us everyday.


I hope to see these small studios and writers step in now and give us something fresh.
 
Manaknight said:
bullseye....right on the mark, last mainstream movie i enjoyed was Lord of the Rings...

i think another poster hit it, get those young college writers and indie filmakers to fill the gap, abolish the union and let actual comedians do their own work. maybe tv and movies would suck just a little bit less then.... i'd rather watch a indie film on a prosumer camera that replaces special effects with good dialogue/wordplay and actual cinematic tricks than blockbuster garbage thats all effects and explosions and a plot that makes sesame street seem complicated.
Click to expand...

Only problem is, that's still part of the large studio problem. Writers will only write what the studios will buy, and the big studios all want big-budget brainless, mindless drivel. That force is also driven by the fact there are so many mindless drone movegoers will will flock to such garbage. I am willing to bet there are thousands upon thousands of really good scripts that got jammed into the circular files because of that.

Maybe the indies will eventually break the industry out of the rut, but they would have to also survive the large conglomerate studios, even break them, without becoming them. And the only way that will happen is if they can get the audiences that the "blockbuster" movies pull in. But they will also have to work with the WGA.

As for comedians, most of the big ones are also members of the WGA and won't be able to write even for themselves in a strike. If the union was abolished, why would anybody want to write anyway? They would have no power to avoid being ripped off, even the independent filmmakers would get large and bloated eventually and the suits would take over, the studios would make money hand over fist and the writers would make much less than they even do now.
 
UrielDagda said:
Only problem is, that's still part of the large studio problem. Writers will only write what the studios will buy, and the big studios all want big-budget brainless, mindless drivel. That force is also driven by the fact there are so many mindless drone movegoers will will flock to such garbage. I am willing to bet there are thousands upon thousands of really good scripts that got jammed into the circular files because of that.

Maybe the indies will eventually break the industry out of the rut, but they would have to also survive the large conglomerate studios, even break them, without becoming them. And the only way that will happen is if they can get the audiences that the "blockbuster" movies pull in. But they will also have to work with the WGA.

As for comedians, most of the big ones are also members of the WGA and won't be able to write even for themselves in a strike. If the union was abolished, why would anybody want to write anyway? They would have no power to avoid being ripped off, even the independent filmmakers would get large and bloated eventually and the suits would take over, the studios would make money hand over fist and the writers would make much less than they even do now.
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see thats what they want you to believe. That is exactly the issue here. Unions for the most part now a days dont look out for the workers they look out for their bottom line. There are plenty of laws that protect workers now and people can make it without unions
 
UrielDagda said:
Only problem is, that's still part of the large studio problem. Writers will only write what the studios will buy, and the big studios all want big-budget brainless, mindless drivel. That force is also driven by the fact there are so many mindless drone movegoers will will flock to such garbage. I am willing to bet there are thousands upon thousands of really good scripts that got jammed into the circular files because of that.

Maybe the indies will eventually break the industry out of the rut, but they would have to also survive the large conglomerate studios, even break them, without becoming them. And the only way that will happen is if they can get the audiences that the "blockbuster" movies pull in. But they will also have to work with the WGA.

As for comedians, most of the big ones are also members of the WGA and won't be able to write even for themselves in a strike. If the union was abolished, why would anybody want to write anyway? They would have no power to avoid being ripped off, even the independent filmmakers would get large and bloated eventually and the suits would take over, the studios would make money hand over fist and the writers would make much less than they even do now.
Click to expand...

Instead of a big and bloated union bureaucracy that only leaches, why not instead start a writer's consortium? This simply is a company (or companies) all of the actors own (kind of like a Credit Union) and this company contracts out the writers. The writers get a salary, from what the consortium gets paid, and suddenly market forces determine price because perhaps there are more than one of these consortium's. It's like turning a union on it's head. Instead of the union taking and holding things back in the name of "protection", the "dues" are replaced by profits, and the more profit is made the more the writer's earn over and above their standard pay as employees.


You see, even the drivel that comes out of Hollywood now is a direct result of what the executives sees the market paying. So, in reality, this crap is a direct result of the public showing they want more crap. Unions tend to limit market forces, as market forces also require internal competition as well as product competition to work right. I will point out a simple fact. Movies were better before the unions. Actors used to be salaried employees. Nope, unions stopped that. Prices went up to compensate for higher actor's pay... and so on. Sorry, but unions created the production studio monster themselves by eliminating internal competition. Oops, now that foreign competition has finally entered the picture, the monster the unions created isn't prepared to compete.

It's been proven time and time again that the beginning of the end of any industry or company is the unilateral invasion of greedy unions. Eventually they fall under their own weight.

Saying you deserve all of that money for writing a movie is fine, BUT you take the financial burden and risk of millions of dollars to make that movie and then earn the profits yourself. Sorry, but the studios paid for the movie, and they are entitled to profit off of it. They took the largest risk in making it and thus earned the right to have the largest return on that investment. Guess what, in a normal company where employees get paid a salary and make so the company can file patents or make millions off of a product you helped develop, guess you makes the big bucks off of it? Yep, the company that invested all of it's resources for you to develop it. Many such companies give bonuses for such work, but they don't have to. With a union, a bonus to a single person is against the rules. Everyone is paid according to seniority not performance. This is the same for the writer's union. If a freelance writer (if there were no unions) were to demonstrate they were very good, then they would be in higher demand and thus would dictate their pay rate. Mediocre writers wouldn't be in demand and would be paid less. That's called market forces. This "protecting the workers" bill of goods is just a scam. It actually holds good workers back and hands what the good worker would make over to the slackers. Sounds like socialism to me, and it's obvious socialism never works, because people aren't mindless equal drones.

Look at France next time you want to convince me unions or socialism are good things. I could use a good laugh. Get this, you don't have to work if you don't want to. Yeah, working for a living, what a concept. In France, there are protests because the new Prime Minister wants to actually take away free money for those that "choose not to work". I didn't say "those that cannot work", I said "choose not to". How would you like the idea of half of your salary going to some guy that would rather sit at home playing Xbox just because he didn't want to work. Sounds like theft to me, government enforced theft. Unions are no different. No wonder France's economy hasn't grown in ten years.

The incentive to do better is gone with unions, where you are guaranteed a job if you only do the minimum amount of work, and you have no incentive to do a better job, knowing promotion only comes with time not performance.

Geez, I write a lot!
 
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