| Re: Writers Guild of America Strike |
Subject: Re: Writers Guild of America Strike
by MoiraMacTaggert on 2007/12/31 7:39:16
Hey, do you put your best work in on the days you know you're not getting paid for? ;)
More seriously (but far more amusingly), I'd recommend going and looking up "An Evening with Kevin Smith." Now, Kevin Smith is a hit-or-miss writer, but a damn famous one. When he steps back and stops looking at how many guest stars he can cram into a movie, he turns out some great stuff (otherwise we get a "Jersey Girl" or "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," both movies he's actually apologized for concieving).
He was called in to work on the Superman Reborn script. Now, if you don't know, that movie was in revisions for SEVENTEEN YEARS. Going through nine different writers (one of them being Smith), and three different producers (and look at what we STILL ended up wtih as a movie. . .).
The producer he was under was batshit crazy, knew nothing about Superman the Character, wanted him not to fly, not to wear the costume, to have polar bear guards at the Fortress of Solitude, etc etc. Real nutjob. Smith walked. It's well worth it to listen to Smith rant about that part, and it should be on YouTube if you get bored.
Culling the writers because of the crap Hollywood puts out is oversimplifying the process, grossly and unfairly. There are so many people involved in the creative process that it's practically unreal.
And frankly, as I think you're going to see very soon, getting rid of the writers doesn't correct that.
It's going to make it a hell of a lot worse. What you're going to have on the air isn't just reruns, it's a plethora of crap television and 'reality' TV programming with inane concepts and horrible scripts.
They'll keep putting out the same volume of material. We'll just be entirely devoid of content or quality.
Now, you'll notice I'm not trying to recruit happy WGA supporters here. I've got a whole different bit routine for that. But I do encourage you not to blame them for any bit of crap Hollywood puts out.
And meanwhile, considering the sympathy strikes from the Australian Writers Guild (picketing in Sydney, Melbourne, etc), the Western Australia Writers Guild (picketing in Perth), the French Writers Guild (picketing in Paris), German Writers Union (picketing in Berlin), Flemish Screenwriters Guild (picketing in Antwerp), Writers Guild of Canada (picketing in Toronto and Montreal), Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild (picketing in Dublin), Writer's Guild of Great Britain (picketing in London). . . and so on. . .
It's probably far more likely than you think that this is going to hit home for you.
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