I hope the writer’s strike ends soon, not because I don’t think they’re doing the correct thing, but because I don’t want to miss any of my TV shows. There are about 4 TV shows that I really care about and make time for each week, and one of them has already stopped until the strike is over. The other three are also shows that depend heavily on the writers and I imagine production will be shutting down shortly and they don’t have many more episodes filmed and ready to go. Now, the general public might be thinking that this is all a little ridiculous, but that’s not the case. You’ve probably seen pictures of Tina Fey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus on the picket lines and thought to yourself, “They don’t need more money, what are they doing?” The truth is that they are the exception rather than the rule. Tina Fey started off as a writer, and she still writes for her show, but writers who then become stars are rare. For every Conan O’Brien there is a whole staff of people wishing they could get their own break. That’s why it’s so weird that so many people from the Daily Show have gone on to have successful starring careers of their own.
So here is the breakdown as I understand it: right now writers receive residuals from DVD sales amounting to .4 percent of the price. So, for a $20 DVD they make $.08 (the producers make $16), but when a TV show is sold on iTunes or Amazon UnBox they don’t get anything. The writers want the same percentage for downloads as they get for physical media. They also want to double the percentage on DVDs if the DVD sells more than 1 million copies. These seem like reasonable demands to me. I don’t know how much the actors get in residuals, so if anyone knows that info let me know. Of course working writers do get a salary of some sort, so residuals are kind of like icing on the cake, but for retired writers or writers in between jobs it could make a big difference. Whatever happens I hope they get this resolved soon because I already miss SNL and if Gossip Girl gets cut short I’m not going to be happy. What do you think? Is the writer’s strike justified?
2 comments:
I've always wanted America to be a bit more like France so STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE! Or, GREVE GREVE GREVE!
But seriously, I don't think it's too much to ask for the creative people behind the "art" to be better paid. The doubling of the residual doubling if more than 1 million are sold is interesting and I don't quite know what to do with it. The argument could be made that if there weren't talented actors and directors involved, the writers wouldn't have anything to do and therefore don't deserve as much, but I think that's silly.
Anytime I hear about someone being screwed out of money by bigwigs, I pretty much believe it. Call me a stereotyper, but that's how I roll. I think they're justified, but if Lost gets cancelled, I'm gonna get mildly frustrated.
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