When I first heard about the strike I thought lazy buggers they just want more money when I can barely make ends meet, but once I read that more about it, what they want seams fair enough. I mean I payed about a thousand dollars for Star Trek Voyager on DVD, and now getting Enterprise for $80 each (hold until everyone stops laughing about all the money I spent on Voyager) and I was pissed that I had to spend so much when other shows cost shit all, e.g. season one of Earl for $35, but now I find out that the writers of Voyager get next to nothing out of that thousand dollars, that just seams unfair, if not for them there would be no show.
And currently writers get payed nothing for ?New Media? sales, Internet downloads, IPTV, streaming, smart phone programming, straight-to-Internet.

Well that?s the way I understand it anyways, I may be wrong. Money figures are in NZ dollars by the way.

So I?m I supporting the Writers Guild of America.

And remember this is about the WGA, not the fact that I spent so much on Voyager and Enterprise

They can suck it. Its not like they don't make an a$$ load of money the first time around. But I am just pissed that there are unions. Yeah, I need a union job. Work for an hour... take two off... repeat.

I would like to know what kind of money the cast of Voyager make off of the sales of the DVDs. Then I might side with the writers. But once Jay Leno and Letterman run out of content.. I am sure thta they will start pushing to get these money grubbin' jacksticks their money. So, this won't last long.

I don't like unions. I could go into a big rant, but I won't. Let me put it this way - I've never belonged to a union and that has allowed me to become far more successful than people who have.

I don't agree with striking unless it's a health and safety issue. None of those writers looks like they are starving and if they were... they should go get a new job.
There are a whole lot of people who work harder than writing for a lot less money.

But the thing is they were quite happy to sell their writing the first time, it then becomes property of someone else who can do what they like with it.

If you sold your car to a guy, and this guy went and resold the car for a higher price, you couldn't jump up and down demanding more money.
Well, you could, but you wouldn't get it.

I worked for a company who's union did nothing but rape your paycheck.

I now work for a company that is in dire need of a union because the higher ups need a kick in the rear really bad.

On this, I don't know enough on the issue to throw in on either side. And who's to say I would pick a side even if I knew? Maybe a whole crop of new "good" writers will pop up out of this. Most likely somebody's gonna cave in though.

I have mixed feelings about this. I think unions really helped the workers at one time, but that was when working conditions were horrid. Now, I fear they've made companies move out of the country for manufacturing. The consequence of that is to have toys that contain GHB in them. Why does that sound like something Toyman would do??

As far as the writers' strike, actors get residuals, so the writers should as well. The internet and DVDs are a new frontier, so it should be fair. Still, it doesn't cost much to make DVDs, so one wonders why they are so expensive. We may see the price of them go up even more now, because of the strike.

Oh and even more fun! There's a stagehand strike in New York! That has basically halted most Broadway shows. Imagine saving up for a long time to see a show and arriving only to find it canceled due to a strike.

Wow... Chillyplasma pretty much stated with 100% clarity the way I feel about this strike.

I mean, these writers were paid for their efforts already. Why should they suddenly be eligible for whatever additional value their efforts may have attained after their compensation? If I sell you a house today for $200,000 and you turn around and sell it for $250,000, do I deserve part of the $50,000?

If the writers are unhappy with their current level of compensation, then they should each renegotiate their salaries based on the free market and their corresponding skill.

Blah blah blah.....

I worked on a film here in Austin, and the Union drivers had us by the cahones because they were the only one's allowed to drive the vehicles. And 98% of the time when you needed something moved the lazy fukers were on break. At one point in the shoot I had to literally beat up one of the drivers to get the keys to a truck that we needed moved immediately. And it was a good thing they were all on break, because his union buddies didn't step up and help him out. Unions are crap... I agree, at one time they might have been a good idea. But now all they are good for is... well... nothing. They put a strangle hold on the companies they work for. If you strike, you should be fired. And that goes for anything... including sports. Everyone is replaceable.

Wow Jr that sounds almost as crazy as an artist taking a year to do one picture.

See my signature for my opinion.

I'm all for renegotiating contracts, but when Unions force strike actions, that to me is the equivalent of holding a hostage for a ransom that you feel you're entitled to. If one is illegal then so should the other be. It doesn't matter what line of work you're in.

I think it's alright to withhold you're own work. When you start forcing other people to, though, it starts to become legally and ethically ambiguous.

The world is not fair and never will be and unions are not going to be able to change that no matter how hard they try.

I also think that unions were useful and necessary at one time but not anymore.

I'll say up front, I'm a supporter of the WGA. In fact, I'm one of the rabble rousing, fund-raising, boycott-encouraging supporters of the WGA.

And I didn't do that lightly. Frankly, I come from a very anti-union background, myself, but I researched the heck out of this because I got an inkling from the Internet that they news wasn't telling us everything.

The AMPTP (that's the American Motion Picture and Television Producers to those of you less acronym-friendly, or "the other side" if we're looking at this from a WGA standpoing) is putting out some figures that are pretty darn laughable, really. This "More than Surgeons! More that Pilots! Astronomical salaries!" line is really just a crock.

When you take an average, you add together the salaries of every writer out there. So. Take the salary of someone like Steven Spielberg. George Lucas. And add that into the salary of twenty schlub writers that step in periodically into television shows. Spielberg and Lucas are hyphenates--they direct and produce their shows too. Plus, if their names are on it, it's going to make millions.

Their inclusion into that number sure makes the average go up, though, doesn't it?

The MEAN average of a Writer's Guild writer? A measley $5,000 a year. They get paid a project price. Re-writes, editing, touching up, revisions. . . a project can take several years. So the nice shiney $68,000 figure attached to a project that takes eight years to ever see the screen, with the writer working on it the entire time (this is a movie script scenario, and I can back it up if you'd like), becomes $8,500 yearly salary. I made more jockeying a register.

Not every writer is a Spielberg, Lucas, Jackson. Hell, not every writer is a Smith, Whedon or Fey. Most of them aren't, and 48% of them at any given time are getting paid entirely off of their residuals from other projects. They're not asking a huge amount. So while it's unfortunate our favorite shows are off the air, I'm willing to wait and read my comics until they get a fair deal.

Of course the news wouldn't tell us the whole story. Sensatonalism rules their worlds via ratings and sales. If they tell the whole story, it doesn't really seem like anyone is getting reamed or being jerks. If they only tell one side of it, the public gets in an uproar suppporting the media's side and tune in for updates on the evil villians who dared do something to someone else. Unless you do the reseach, you don't really know what is going on and any opinions is based off of conjecture and hearsay. Not that I ever bother to research something for the sole pupose of having an informed opinion on it.

personally I am not for or against unions, they have their place and they can get in the way. like most things they are a shade of grey.

also I hope that both sides can get together and work something out so we can return to our wonderful land of entertainment. Writers are just as important as the stars and need a fair share.

In regards to getting a "fair deal"
There are hundreds of jobs out there where the workers don't get paid fairly (and those other jobs don't even get the recognition of having your name in the credits).
But my view stays the same, if you don't like it, quit and get a better job.

As for writers getting paid very little per year, I am really, REALLY happy to hear that. Why?
Most of the stuff I see is pure crap and a large part of the blame goes to the writers (some of those writers are still overpaid even at those rates).
Sometimes when you walk out of the cinema don't you wish you could get your money and time back?

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Not here! We get a mix of NZ, Aussie, UK and US television. All my favourite American shows were cancelled anyway, so I'm even less affected!

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.

Interesting response, but I think some of what you wrote was misleading Moira.

Do I do my best work when I?m not getting paid? Yes, quite frankly.
Many times I have volunteered to work overtime knowing I would not be paid extra. And the work I did was the same quality (if not higher) than the rest. The extra work came with the job, I knew that, and when I was sick of the situation I quit.
And I?ll say once more, if the writers don?t like what they get paid, grow up and go get another job.

As for Kevin Smith, I suspect he loves making movies so much that he would do it for nothing if he could.
And here is where I started finding you misleading, I could not find a reference of Smith apologising for his movies, quite the opposite:

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The writers do have to take responsibility for a bad script. A writer comes up with the idea, a writer writes the script and dialogue, and another writer might rewrite it.
You know when it?s the actors doing badly and when they just have bad dialogue? how often can you sit in front of TV or movies and know exactly what words will come out next? (my flatmate does this all the time)

There are good writers, but the way to reward them is to scrap the union so that writers will be free to negotiate on their own merits.


And I would also like to see proof of writers striking in other countries. I searched for an hour and couldn?t find any reference to it. The closest I did find was rallies held in London, Paris, Berlin and Sydney one day in late November. Each rally was small (50 people or less). A rally is not a strike and writers in these countries are still working (unless they have hidden their strikes very well).

As for the "plethora of crap television" you mention, well we already see a plethora of crap TV from the U.S. so how is it any different? 90% of American stuff I see is terrible, and the really good shows get cancelled.

It will be interesting to see if shows like Battlestar Galactica are affected as I believe it?s made in Canada?
But even if there was a big effect here, it wouldn?t be that big. Most people I know don?t watch much TV and would simply use the time to do something else.

Sure the writers are selfish because the movie studios are making money off their work and they want a piece of it. Just like the studios greedily shafted the writers by not including them in the new revenue stream because of the contracts in place they could. Of course if you are worried they will charge more now, don't. It's not like they weren't planning on charging you more anyway.

Unless you are members of the WGA or an employer of them, why would you even give a crap?