Why Hollyweird would try to make itself an exception to this golden rule is beyond greed.

Good writers are very important to any creative endeavor.

Pay them!

I work with digital technologies, including digital video.

I wonder if the powers that be on this blog would object to having an optional email registry for members or commenters. readerOfTeaLeavews works in digital technology. I’d like to discuss with him (or her) the use of the internet as a means of organizing us, the rank and file. It’s all well and good to say we’re for the writers and to march with them if we happen to be in LA, but we aren’t doing anything. We are talking the talk, but not walking the walk even when the walk is something as insignificant as not going to the movies.

BTW nwithers I’ve decided to stop going to the movies until the strike is settled. I doubt this will make Hollywood moguls tremble, but it will have to do until the real thing comes along.

itwasntme @ 109

Yes, I meant “overrated hack Steven KinG”. I’m glad he’s for progressive stuff, tho. Nice man, I’m sure.

Among other things, he and his wife own a progressive radio station in Bangor ME. (Probably the only progressive radio station in the state.) And, last time I checked, he had given lotsa dollars to various progressive causes.

I’d also heard rumors that he was a hard core Bushite…then checked his campaign contributions. Boy that was a surprise!!

Steven King’s Campaign Contributions

charlie don’t surf @ 40

What Digby Said:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com…..se-by.html

Important stuff there:
“The propensity to exploit in competitive “glamour” fields is very, very strong and it was always about making sure that those who weren’t on the A-list could make a decent living and build normal middle class lives. (And from the beginning many of the A-list marched in solidarity with their less rich and famous brethren. It may even have been partially in self-interest. Show business may be one of the most insecure professions on earth.)”
Ding, ding, ding!!!
This is the point — the successful ones march with those who struggle to help the less fortunate ones. Today’s “high flyer” is tomorrow’s “cancelled show” – so it always helps to support one another.
That is why it is important. And that is why we need to care.

Thanks for noticing my minimalist post, Toby. You have cut straight to the “nut graf” (as writers would describe it). Digby’s summary of the labor movement in Hollywood is the best I’ve read so far. It truly is all about Solidarity.
I’ve worked around the fringes of the “competitive ‘glamour’ fields” of Hollywood and if you make the least complaint about work or wages, the instant response is “if you don’t want to do the job, there’s a thousand people who do.” And the solidarity of workers via the Unions is the only thing to prevent this rush to the bottom.

Video of studio execs bragging about the money to be made from the internet. Scumbags.

Enron all over again?

The smartest scumbags in the room?

You may feel good, but I’m not sure you’re accomplishing anything. You raise an interesting point. How do we use the internet to agree on some mass action?… …If we hit them in the pocketbook, we won’t have to write to tell them what we are doing. The question is how to do it?

Well, I’m accomplishing a small bit by myself, $75 a month and a tick on their disconnect databases. As far as the agreement for mass action, that is the bit right here. Nice thing about canceling your cable (or not going to movies), is that you do it your self, and you convince enough other people to do it, then you have a force that scares those in power because it can’t be stopped without bringing the entire thing down. If a million people stopped watching cable, would they force people to buy cable? (not yet anyway)

That’s why I post on the forums about what I think is a good idea. If somebody with more voice takes it up (and if anybody does, take it with my blessing), wonderful. I did my bit, that’s all I can do. (my blog sucks and I haven’t updated it in three months, but I’m planning to work for Udall in NM, what else can I do right now?)

One key technical fact about digital video is that one can attach bits of computer code to specific frames within any digitized timeline. That opens up a host of options for ‘repurposing’ any specific storyline, timeline, or video clip.

The details are too complicated to explain here, but this technical fact enables whoever has legal ownership of an intellectual property to ‘repurpose’ it in a multitude of ways: film, video, online, on mobiles… digital technologies are portable, easily cloned, and can be mixed, mashed, and reused almost endlessly.

Writers should be paid for every single ‘purpose’ in which their content is formatted. There’s nothing complicated about that basic fairness issue.

(And, FWIW, any studio exec who wails about the prohibitive costs of ‘repurposing’ content for the web, or iPods is either an idiot who overpaid for services, or else a lying sack of sh*t. Or both. So ignore the ‘oh, it’s so expensive to put it on the web‘ argument because from a technical point of view it’s complete bullsh*t.)

What I find baffling about this strike is how the studios were so blindly stupid as to let it happen. The web is still exploding. Audiences are growing. So why wouldn’t you do everything possible to keep your creative people happy?

Maybe I’m confused, but its as if the studios are saying, “Well, Bill Shakespeare, we’ll pay you for performances at the Globe, but never any performances on tv, or film, nor on the web.” I’m sorry, but the stupidity of that just amazes me!

IIRC, William Shakespeare joined together with his fellow actors and ended up creating a legal corporation that split the profits from all performances at the Globe Theatre. That cut him in for a good share of the profits; before that, he’d only been a hired hack.

Too bad the writers can’t figure out a way to create their own unionized studio, and tell the greedy beggars who are too daft to treat them fairly to go p*ss off.

Digital media means new audiences, new products, and new revenue. For the writers to hand all that over to the studios would be brain dead, or insane. Or both.

The writers need to win this one.
At least, that’s one woman’s view in looking at this issue through the lens of digital technologies.

Question- I know that for SAG you have to make a certain amount per year to be eligible for certain union benefits like health insurance (which is not free).

Is this the case also for WGA? If so, then that’s an extra dimension re: payment to writers.

Since you’ve asked twice and no one else answered, I will. Yes, it’s also true for the WGA. And sadly, nearly half their membership did not make enough last year to qualify for health insurance. These aren’t rich people here. There are a handful of writers who pull down good money (often ones who also are showrunners, actors, etc.), but the majority are as screwed as anyone else.