The Writers' Strike - some useful links

[elgrey]

The good people on Whedonesque have been sending pizza to the striking writers and are in the process of getting a site up so that people can make contributions.

Also from Whedonesque, this site has icons available for fans (of many shows and rising) to show their support for the writers.

There is a (first) post from Joss Whedon here: http://whedonesque.com/comments/14639#195462 and a second one here: http://whedonesque.com/comments/14650#more

Edward Allen Bernero of 'Criminal Minds' made an excellent post setting out the issues here: http://criminalmindsfanatic.blogspot.com/2007/11/edward-allen-bernero-speaks-to-fans-of.html

I would also recommend:

The Writers Strike And What It Means For You

United Hollywood Blogspot

The Pencils Down ad put out by the Writers Guild of America, West

Stephen Falk's blog Plaintive Wail

ETA

Nikki Finke's blog is fabulous and should be checked out every day.

There has been so much biased reporting from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, IMDB, The LA Times etc etc that it's wonderful to see the way the Internet that is being fought over has turned into a weapon for the writers.

This video (in which the same studios who claim to be too unsure of how the Internet will impact on their business to be able to offer the writers a percentage of the non-existent profits they claim to be making tell people how much money they're making from digital and downloads and how much they expect to be making in the future) is a must see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a37uqd5vTw

Comments

[astrumporta.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much for the links, Lori. I hope you don't mind that I used Joss's link in a story for Solutions, here: http://stargate-sg1-solutions.com/blog/?p=1021

Have you seen this YouTube video from writers of the American version of The Office? It's pretty damning! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6hqP0c0_gw

Michelle

[elgrey.livejournal.com]

You're welcome for the links and I think you picked terrific quotes from Joss.

That's a fabulous article you wrote, Michelle. I think you laid out the issues very clearly and it was good to see that picture of Beau Bridges supporting the writers. Carl Binder is a big loss but I do feel he's doing the right thing and I am crossing my fingers and toes that the strike is resolved quickly - as long as it can be resolved without the writers having to give way on the essential issues. They seem to me to be asking for peanuts now and it's unbelievable that the AMPTP are being so greedy and arrogant as to turn them down when they're only asking for a percentage of the profits when there would be no show without them writing it. I think the AMPTP still think writers should just shut up and live in the basement and be grateful for the occasional crust. They seem personally affronted by the idea that writers might also like to be paid a fair wage for their work.

I do think things have changed a little since the last strike, in that with the advent of DVDs and the internet, show runners and writers are not just names to fans now. We've listened to audio commentaries on which they've talked about episodes. We've often seen them in behind the scenes footage, and sometimes interacted with them on online blogs. Perhaps partly as a consequence of that, online fandom, at least, seems to be overwhelmingly behind them and very aware of the real issues, even with the obfuscations of the biased reporting of so much of the print media. I hope that fan support lends a little more power to the writers' elbows when negotiating. I'm certain that actors walking the picket lines with them makes a huge difference. Reporters who wouldn't bother to write an article about writers walking the line, will get their camera out if there is a familiar face there.

Thank you so much for the YouTube link. I hadn't seen that vid of the writers of The Office. That's wonderful. As they say, lawyers that can designate full length episodes with paid advertising 'promotions' (for which only networks receive the advertising revenue and everyone else gets nothing) should really try their hand at writing comedy; they seem to have a natural gift for it.

[astrumporta.livejournal.com]

Well done on the lawyers having a natural gift for comedy! Very funny.

Those are excellent points, especially about how much more we "know" the people behind the scenes, so they aren't just geeks typing away somewhere.

As far as biased reporting, what I see over here is lots of talk of the impact of the strike, but otherwise the coverage is quite pro-writer in terms of noting the big issues and showing footage of all the celebrities who support the writers. I have to say I don't know anyone who sides with the producers on this one, even if there will soon be nothing on TV! For myself, I'm looking forward to working through my Netflix queue. :)

Ron Moore was out marching today -- BSG had the same webisode battle that The Office folks did. http://tv.ign.com/articles/833/833633p1.html

I think it's key that many show-runners are also writers. They side with the craft, not the business side. It will be interesting to see how it all falls out and what enemies are made through all of this.