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

[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.