Hump Day of week 2 and the story of the writer’s strike is slowly leaving the cover pages of big media. Not unexpected. And what is being covered has a slight slant. Again, not unexpected. As I said before, it’s hard to win the war when your enemy controls the news. At least Nikki Finke is out there.
But I just don’t understand why we gotta be enemies. Writers, directors, actors, the crew and the cats with the money and distribution.
My one year old gets along better with her buddy Duran than a bunch of seemingly like minded adults. Shame really.
I don’t know. Just seems like if everyone would quit doing everyone else’s job then we might actually make better movies…that make better money. Let the writers write. Let directors direct. This well oiled machine ain’t broke. Stop trying to fix it.
And, moguls, learn 2 share.
But as more of Hollywood shuts down, it’ll get worse. And writers will get the blame.
I had a long eye opening conversation with my old college suite-mate. He’s been an editor as long as I’ve been a writer. And he had no real understanding of why we were striking. And as we spoke it became clear that the information he did have…was slanted. He was frustrated that this whole thing was over 4 cents. He wanted to know if studios were supposed to increase their budgets just so writers could get paid more. I explained that this was more than just 4 cents. That it had to do with the future of residuals, that DVDs would go out as VHS went out, that internet was the future…and he understood. But at the end of the day he’s a friend and he’s worried about the future of his wife and kids. Does our reason really matter to an editor who will never see a dime in residuals? On some level it doesn’t.
On some level it does.
If the writers cave then everyone loses. Even the moguls, they’re just too stupid to know it. I don’t mean stupid financially. No, in that arena they clearly rock. Where they are stupid is in the area of vision and creativity. If they win, if residuals are killed then rest assured a number of brilliant writers will take their talents elsewhere. I mean, why stick around if you’re just gonna get screwed and bitter? Movies that would have brought in a billion plus dollars go away into the debate of what if.
Is Disney’s 35 billion dollars a year really gonna miss the 100 million in residuals? You get what you paid for I guess.
Pay the writers their residuals. Then get out of the writer’s way and let him/her do the job. In the end, you’ll make more money that the 100 million a year you are trying to save.
Rich people are silly. You can’t take it with you. And I don’t want to. But I’d like to keep my kid fed and covered by decent health care.
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