On the Writers Strike

[ivyfic]

I pretty much have no idea what's going on with the strike, but seeing as how I'm between a week and a month behind on all the current shows I watch...doesn't seem to really affect me.

But I loved this week's Publishers Weekly. The editorial was basically, "Suck it up Hollywood writers! You want to see lack of residuals? Try a career as a novelist!"

Comments

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I saw a lovely blog post noting that the producers and studio heads are all sayings, "Why do you care about internet residuals? There's no money on the internet!" But if they actually believed that, they'd have no problem giving in. The fact that they're fighting this implies that they think there's a great deal of money to be made in internet residuals, and they don't want to give it up.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

You're right about this exactly. There's also the precedent set by the previous strike some twenty years earlier over VHS. The writers got screwed there and, from what I've read, apparently the residuals they earned on VHS didn't necessarily (or in all cases) then translate to residuals from DVDs. Which is why they have to strike for internet download/broadcast residuals because, clearly, the studios are pulling every lawyering trick they know to shoe-horn the writers into receiving money only from ancient or current-day-only technology. And the writers have learned not to let this happen. So, strike.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I am for the writers, yes, in that they should get their fair share. But really, they're some of the best paid writers on the planet. If anyone is getting shafted, it's book authors, and there's nothing they can do about it.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

As always, the people getting shafted by this aren't the people at whom the strike is directed. The studios aren't going to hurt for a while--some years in movie-terms, though I can't say for sure how badly this will impact television--and even when they do it will be with a buffer zone that won't affect the asshats in charge who are prolonging this strike.

The people hurt are the writers who're no more fabulously paid than your average novelist. They're, I bet, 20-to-1 outnumbering the few writers who really rake in the money (the ones they've been making an effort to show in all the press coverage, the famous ones, and, most often, those that are also stars or directors). Not to mention the ancillary damage done to those working on stalled shows or waiting forever for the movies to start shooting. It's a crying shame that they're being denied livelihoods, too, but that's not an argument for not-striking or for not sympathizing with strikers.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that it sucks to be a novel writer since you don't have a union, but since novel writers are self-employed, sorta, them's kind of the breaks. It's an argument for unionization as a theory, this way novelists are typically treated, because unions are shown to work in other areas, but because of the independent nature of novel writing (versus the team-player construction used in film/TV), there's nothing doing.

I do feel bad for novelists in that respect, but I hate the rhetorical argument "but these people have it worse!" Well, if they do, then they should act on it, not whinge. Or have you do it for them :P

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

No no! I'm not actually arguing against the writers strike. I'm mostly...oblivious of it. (And if I was, this would be a bad argument.) It's just another chance to laugh at novelists. Heh. Stupid novelists.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Good. Mockery is something of which I approve. Rock on with my grammatical bad self! Er, sorta.

[tirtzah.livejournal.com]

I've got a few videos and links in my most recent LJ post about the strike, if you want to check them out. There's lots of really good info out there. I've been reading all about the strike (I'm interested in the TV/film industry) and I've been learning a whole ton of really interesting info, even stuff about copyright and intellectual property law. I read a pretty interesting blog article yesterday that touched on the whys wherefores of how screenwriters ended up with a union and how and why it can't work like that for authors and other royalty-receiving artists.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

That blog actually sounds interesting--have a link? As far as "what the strike means to me," it's supposed to lead to an influx of book proposals, so I'm all for it. ;)

[tirtzah.livejournal.com]

Yeah you can bet all those screenwriters are dusting off their novel ideas now that their screenwriting's been put on hold.

Here's the article (http://johnaugust.com/archives/2007/why-writers-get-residuals) I mentioned. With footnotes and everything. (I would note that I think the amounts he's talking about screenwriter's getting for screenplays is for feature films, I believe the rates for television are different.) United Hollywood (http://unitedhollywood.blogspot.com/) and Deadline Hollywood (http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/) are both really good sources for lots of interesting links and updates about the strike.

ETA: After looking at the article again I realized I was conflating two different articles in my head. Here's the other one (http://artfulwriter.com/archives/2005/12/reprint_we_dont.html").