Writers' strike likely

[anarky]

I can see why they're mad. And I can actually see where the conglomerates are coming from, to a certain extent.

But why the fuck in any potential strike situation (Hollywood writers, teachers, teamsters, whatever) don't the companies, who usually have the most leeway since they only have to worry about paying executives several million to do nothing as opposed to actually feeding families and paying mortgages, do something to pre-empt this shit months before?

We've been hearing this is a possibility for a year now.

If nothing else, why not actually try to keep your employees happy? Don't you realize that, even if you plan last-minute negotiations, it makes you look like a dick, and no one wants to work for a dick?

[Zero]

Of course, this affects everyone else in the industry. Writing stops, so you can only produce the episodes already written, and once they're shot, they come to the editing staff. So when they're done shooting, we're done working. And I'm out of a job. Since I'm not seeing any benefits from these going on strike or not (I'm just a little working guy) I'm getting screwed for no reason. The Studios AND the WGA are dicks.

Whatever happens, I hope it gets resolved in the next six weeks.

[anarky]

Good point. This is your livelihood, and the livelihood of a lot of other people, most of whom don't get paid nearly as well as the writers and actors. I'm assuming a writer on a show like Grey's Anatomy or Heroes or 24 probably gets, what, a few thousand an episode? While the grip on the same show gets, what, $10-15 an hour? And if there's no script, no hourly work for the little guy.

Not to mention that someone lucky enough to write for a huge show (or made the jump to comics or another media that's not affected) can afford to lose their income for a little while. What about the guys writing a bomb, like Cavemen? Sure, we should feel sorry for them anyway, since they're morons, but does that mean their kids should starve so the dudes writing Scrubs can afford another yacht?

Bottom line: I tend to agree with the purposes of most unions, but I've never seen why the Hollywood unions are even in existence. This is mostly freelance work. If someone else can do the same freelance job for less, why can't they? There's not a union protecting novelists, or painters, or reporters, or comic inkers. It's survival of the fittest. So why not in Hollywood? If someone is a damned good writer, they may not start out making top dollar, but they will probably get it eventually, and their reputation will guarantee a level of job security. The WGA and the SAG both seem more like the mob to me. Did you know (and I'm sure Zero does) that, to get a minor part in a movie (meaning more than a couple of seconds in the background), you have to join the SAG? There's not even an option of doing it for free. I know someone who had a tiny part in a movie that didn't do well, and he actually paid more for SAG membership than he got in payments and royalties! And he isn't an actor and has no desire to continue on; he did it as a favor for a friend who was directing. If that's not bullshit, what is?

These aren't teachers or steel workers here. It takes talent, but it's freelance work. The nature of freelance work should make it competitive. Period. And we can survive without TV.

[Zero]

I've never attempted to go SAG, but I know people who have and do. There are two kinds of casting; open or "cattle call" casting where anyone can show up and try, or closed casting, in which you need a SAG membership/casting agent/etc. Most casting is closed. And the only way to get a SAG card is to get speaking lines in a show or film, OR the more tedious way, everytime a background actor ( extras) get a part, they get "points" towards an eventual SAG card. If you are a "featured background actor" which are extras who get featured prominently on screen in close ups or whatever without actual dialogue, you get extra points. But you need like 500-1000 points to qualify for a SAG card that way.

It ticks me off when someone like Paris Hilton can blow some producer and get a "one line" in Cat in the Hat and BAM! instant SAG membership where there are people toiling for years, honing their craft and doing free work for friends just to get a good video resume/clip reel to show people. Fucked up.

[anarky]

Didn't realize that's how it works. This guy knew a producer, so he got one line (even though it was just "Uh huh" or something short and stupid like that) and really made it sound like the membership was a liability if you're not George Clooney. Not sure what the point of a union is if it has selective membership.

[vynsane]

his is mostly freelance work. If someone else can do the same freelance job for less, why can't they? There's not a union protecting novelists, or painters, or reporters, or comic inkers.

any one of those could fall under the freelancer's union: http://www.freelancersunion.org

the inker could probably get into the graphic artist's guild: http://www.gag.org

just saying. freelancers deserve benefits like anyone else who works. wouldn't be a problem if we had universal healthcare, but that's never going to happen because it costs $35,000 to run for a republican office.

[anarky]

Okay, I'm ignorant. I wasn't aware of either of those organizations, likely because most freelancers I've known either weren't aware of them or didn't mention them.

Totally in agreement about everyone deserving benefits (especially healthcare). I'm thinking universal healthcare is not going to happen regardless of which party is in charge, though.

[jdr3]

Even though most of my replies stop all threads....I feel like I can chime in here.... the idea of unions used to be great... now a days they tend to cause more problems and don't actually help the people in them because they are run like a business, not an organization. Being a part of the Motion Pictures Editors Guild (MPEG) we are not actually allowed to strike, it's in all agreements, which means we have no leverage, but we are expected to support other guilds in their strikes. Though their strikes hurt our business, us supporting them gives them more leverage. The only support they give us is when they are working, but they can never give us any leverage. Pretty fucked up. And what's better is that you always have to pay union dues.

I agree that, as with everything else (especially in the USA), these things are only really helping the ones that have the most already. The little less fortunate get screwed. Actors and writers, though their talent is a big part, are not the only thing that make entertainment good. In post production, a lot of flaws are fixed and help save many productions, but even if you are good in some area of post (though you might get more work) you are hardly recognized outside of your little circle. And not that you need accolades, but when you have to go through some pretty horrible hours and headache causing acting it's nice to know that you are really appreciated instead of just having to do it more and be passed over by the public because they don't know who you are because they don't see you on the screen. Maybe they should be made to know who you are because you made something they liked. But because they don't know who you are and they do know the actors/writers best work that you made sure they see (and not the worst crap that would just waste everybody else's time) the actors/writers make more money (plus they usually get royalties).

The benefits thing with freelance and nonfreelance is fucked up no matter how you look at it. I'm currently fighting with my unions health benefits to add my new wife because she just switched jobs and lost her old health coverage. Because somebody at her old benefits provider couldn't send a termination letter by Nov 1st, I can't add her to my coverage until Dec 1st, a lapse in coverage of a month for her. Now hopefully nothing will happen in that month, but WTF, they should just be able to add her as soon as I call and say, "Give her coverage, I pay your fucking asses" (which I have now said and they still haven't given her coverage). Though universal healthcare would be great, it will never happen, greed is the new survival of the fittest and people hardly do things out of the kindness of being human because it usually comes back and kicks them in the ass with a lawsuit. And since the guy growing the food ain't going to give it to me just because I help make his favorite TV show, I need to take money from somebody else for helping make the show, and that person needs to take money from somewhere else because they to need to pay me and they guy who made the food. And the guy who made the food needs my money because the people that "owned" the land want to still get paid for selling it to him or the person who gave him seeds wants to get paid for the seeds.....so on and so forth you get my point. Basically enjoyment in doing your job is lost because you have to do it to survive. As soon as anything is given a sense of worth it becomes a weapon, just look at money, it's really an arbitrary thing that we have given worth too, yet pieces of paper have become really important now because they are some how linked to pieces of shiny rock and you need to use it in order to get things to survive because you want to do some other time consuming thing with your life for people to enjoy. Even if you decide that instead you will do only that which is needed to survive, like run your own farm and grow your own food, you need to pay for the land, you need to pay taxes, you get screwed either way because then you are most likely not enjoying life because that which is taking it up is not something you enjoy, but something you need to do, which is what work has become for most human beings anyway.

Alright, enough of my depressing philosophical psychological rant. This thread is killed. I really should just get more sleep, but my union doesn't help me reign in my employer from working me too much and I can't strike to get better benefits, and with the looming writers strike I might be out of a job shortly anyway when productions shut down and slow the industry to just reality TV and youtube.

[vynsane]

I'm thinking universal healthcare is not going to happen regardless of which party is in charge, though.

yeah, well, i have the feeling that the dems are going to use the universal healthcare ticket to their advantage the same way the repubs are going to continue to milk the "no abortion" thing - neither side actually WANTS it to pass, otherwise their constituents won't continue to vote for them in the hopes that it will pass!

james dave - totally hear you on all points. and it sucks about the lapse in coverage for the missus. she doesn't have any long-term illness that i know of though, so the month-long lapse is only a problem if something goes wrong in that month. i know a lapse of three months and the new insurer can say they won't cover pre-existing conditions (which is just about the most ludicrous thing i've ever heard) but it sucks that she's at a new job at the same time that you have this looming possibility of an "extended vacation". will you have the ability to apply for unemployment? or will you still technically be employed? how certain are you that you won't still have work?

[anarky]

Damn, jdr, it sounds like your union sucks. Badly. I'm actually rather fortunate on this, because my wife is a union teacher, and their organizations (CTA and NEA) actually bust some serious ass trying to protect the jobs and welfare of teachers. (It might sound selfish, but I can't fathom why more people don't realize that, if teachers get screwed, the entire next generation gets screwed.) It seems like a union that actually benefits the Everyman is a thing of the past. Actually, I've been reading up on mob history, and, as shitty as it is now, it actually sounds like they're a lot more honest than they were 50 years ago.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Teachers really get the shaft when you think about the importance of their job versus the amount of benefits and pay they recieve. It's ridonkulous.

So, they are talking picket line outside WB Monday morning and sent out flyers on how to deal with crossing the line to come to work, etc. That will be a new experience for me.

[anarky]

You're expected to cross the line? All else aside, can't that royally fuck your future chances of just about anything?

How does this Rollo Red/Rollo Blue work?

[vynsane]

i think that's part of the flier. you have to split your physical body into two energy signatures, so one pickets outside and the other can cross the line and continue to work for a living.

so... what the hell happened? why was zero acting like the reincarnation of EP? i'm confused.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Well, I'm not a writer and I have to go to work. Along with all the corporate people and cafeteria workers, and security guards and editors and sound people and several hundred other people who also work here. Of course, once the new scripts stop rolling in, ALOT of work comes grinding to a halt.

[anarky]

Even if the strike doesn't last long, it's unlikely they'd catch up immediately. Sad thing is, you're probably going to lose at least a week or two.