A possible Strike by Hollywood Film & TV Writers?

[Cat]

Catholics have generally supported unions.

Many of the actors and other television personalities are quite capable of writing or improvising their own material.

But to do so would be to “cross the picket line.” Not a cool thing to do in ANY profession. Those who cross picket lines are called “scabs.”

An actor or celebrity who “crossed the picket line” and wrote his/her own material would essentially end his/her career. They would never work again.

Many actors are walking the picket lines with the writers not out of fear of losing their career, but because they respect the talents of others and want justice. I say good for them. This seems a very Catholic way to behave, IMO.

Scroll down this link, and you’ll see a nice picture of my favorite actor, Robert Patrick, walking the picket line with the writers of his show, The Unit. He looks mighty fine! deadlinehollywooddaily.com/

My daughter is a professional stage manager who is not a member of Equity or IATSE yet, but she has great respect for the various show business unions, and would never, ever dis them.

 

[Andruschak]

I voted “no opinion and don’t care”. I haven;t had a TV set since 1985, nor seen many movies since 1990.

 

[OldAgeGuru]

Like most people I wish writers would come up with better quality material. But it’s my understanding that the point of this strike is because of major changes in the industry not because writers just want *more *money.

What with more people obtaining their entertainment from the internet and from DVD sales and less people watching television and attending movies in theaters, the money comes in to the distributors in a different method than in the past.

If I understand things correctly, most writers don’t get any residuals from iTunes and such sales like they do from other media. And residuals are a big part of a writer’s income so they don’t want to lose out on what seems to be the media of the future.

Regardless of what I think about the writers strike I understand why they want to change things.

Exactly. Media Conglomerates such as the big networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX) have writers write “webisodes” aired for free to viewers online, however they sell ad space and earn revenue from it. The writers, actors and directors make no money off of this. So they work, but earn no share of the profits. You miss an episode of Ugly Betty, you can watch it on the ABC site, with limited comercial interuptions, which are ad space that the corporation earns ad revenue from, but not the writers, directors or actors.

You watch a dvd. It cost you 20 dollars to buy it. It cost the the company 10 dollars to make it, merchandise it and sell it. Leaving them a profit marging of 10 dollars. The writers earn 0.2 percent of 20 percent of the profit. So, their making 0.2 of 2 dollars. While the studio execs are making beaucoup dollars.

Add to that, the unions aren’t really striking necessarily so the guys making 7500 bucks an episode can make more money. They want it so the little guys, the ones who write say commercials, or smaller scripts can make fair money, and I have to say, I don’t disagree with that.

I want fair compensation for my job. I don’t make the big bucks in social services, but if I felt like my employer was REALLY taking advantage of me, and getting real fat of the fruits of my labor, I would be on the picket line the moment a union rep told me to be.

 

[bones_IV]

Looks like they are out on strike: :extrahappy: A little hiatus from the perversion of Hollywood. The longer the better.

I think this is God’s way of punishing Hollywood for their rejection of the Passion of the Christ.