Hello and note on the WGA Stike

M

Madlabent

To all who are a part of Indietalk including administrators and members,

Hello.

I am new here, but have been familiar with this forum for some time. It seems to be one of very few filmmaking discussion boards that are always active and contains useful information. This should be a fun and useful experience.

On a different note,
The writer's strike is starting to get to me as some of my favorite shows are being postponed or in danger of being canceled until further notice. One bright side of this situation is that more movies can be watched on DVD during this time of uncertainty in the TV industry. It is very said that in a business that makes hundreds of millions of dollars, there are people fighting for pennies, an extra 4 cents to be exact.
 
Madlabent said:
To all who are a part of Indietalk including administrators and members,

Hello.

I am new here, but have been familiar with this forum for some time. It seems to be one of very few filmmaking discussion boards that are always active and contains useful information. This should be a fun and useful experience.
Click to expand...
We try! :welcome:
 
As a guild member I understand that it's awful to have your
favorite shows delayed. None of us want to stop writing your
favorite shows. Not only do we, too, love the shows, but it's
what we love to do and it's how we pay our bills.

I agree with you, Madlabent - it's sad that we have to resort to a
strike to get the producers to pay us a little of the money they
make using our work.
 
directorik said:
As a guild member I understand that it's awful to have your
favorite shows delayed. None of us want to stop writing your
favorite shows. Not only do we, too, love the shows, but it's
what we love to do and it's how we pay our bills.

I agree with you, Madlabent - it's sad that we have to resort to a
strike to get the producers to pay us a little of the money they
make using our work.
Click to expand...

When it comes to the TV Shows,
I am really pissed that 24 has been postponed as I was really excited about the upcoming season. Some of my favorite shows are no longer on air, so there are programs that I tend to watch but would not be very concerned if they were put to a halt because of the strike. I would take them or leave them with the exception of 24. Hopefully, this strike will be resolved soon.


On the side of "fighting for pennies",
My mother and I was just talking about this the other day and her position on the matter was that it is a matter of greed that writers have, although I may have misinterpreted that since she didn't say exactly which side of the table she was referring to. However, one would only think that it was about the writers when she said that they already get 4 cents and now they want more.

The current payments are not even that much when compared to what the companies are making off of the DVD sales once a TV show finishes a season and all of the other outlets that have been opening up online. I just watched an entire episode of CSI and I can purchase single episodes of other shows on Amazon, Itunes and even ebay if I feel like it. That is if I only want certain episodes because of course, I can purchase the DVD sets, which are NOT cheap so there are many options for consumers and more options equal more sales which equal more profits which in turn means that those holding the purse strings can afford to pay an extra 4 cents per unit if that IS what the writers are asking for.

It isn't really that much. Doesn't those rappers and singers get like 7 cents per album? PENNIES. that is what I am talking about and the larger execs are crying about having to pay a little more...what a shame. It should not be that difficult. It is not like every signle writer wants half of all the revenue generated from every single avenue in the TV industry. If you ask me, the greed is not being practiced by the writers, the people who decide on what they will and will not pay, the people who have caused this strike to occur....they are the ones who are being greedy.

This forum is for film. However, due to the nature of this particular thread, TV is relevant.

Television, just like film starts from a script. Therefore, material will always be needed in this area of entertainment. Just pay the writers!

Best of Luck to all involved in this strike.
 
I agree that we should just "pay the writers", but isn't one of the things that they're asking for in their strike is for internet downloads and the like? How exactly can this be regulated? Are they asking for a small commission every time the show they write is downloaded?

But doesn't that get in a way of a few ideals... What if the production house is willing to pay them only for the first (let's just pull a number from an orifice) one million downloads? Can they regulate that in the contract or are the writers demanding a per-download cut?
 
Most of the online revenue comes from advertisers who pay per-views or per-click, so they're most likely asking for a percentage of that money. Either way, go writer's go. Squeeze those pennies out of the big-wigs. But at the same time, maybe we could get more well-written stuff for the buck? There's quite a bit of expensive garbage floating around in La-la land...
 
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