2007 Writers Guild of America strike

[diabolistic]

Originally Posted by wikipedia

The 2007 Writers Guild of America strike is a strike by both the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild of America, west (WGAw) that started on November 5, 2007. The WGAE and WGAw are two labor unions that represent film, television, radio, and new media writers working in the United States.

The strike is against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), a trade organization that represents the interests of American film and television producers. Over 12,000 writers are affected by the strike. The last such strike was the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike; it lasted 22 weeks, costing the American entertainment industry an estimated 500 million dollars.

The strike is expected to be prolonged. The Writers Guild has indicated their industrial action would be a "marathon." AMPTP negotiator Nick Counter has indicated that negotiations would not resume as long as strike action continues, stating, "We're not going to negotiate with a gun to our heads—that's just stupid."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Wr...America_strike for the full wiki


How does this affect television? I don't want too much television, but I do try and keep tabs on Heroes and The Office. Unfortunately, the writers for The Office are on strike!

This writer's strike may lead to a nation-wide pandemic of exercise and a decrease in sloth-like behavior. The consequences would be enormous. Or rather, they'd be slim. </pun>

Well Animesuki, how does the writer's strike affect you?

[KholdStare]

I'm somehow worried about all of this even though I don't watch television at all. The few shows I watch are Family Guy and South Park, which one is affected, but as the watcher of primarily game shows and some reality series, I shouldn't worry, but I do. Oh well, there's always anime to fall back to. I have about 10 series on my want to watch list so I might fall back on those.

[Spectacular_Insanity]

Meh, I don't watch enough TV to care. Anything worth watching is on PPV anyway. I hate reality television with a passion rivaled only by my love of the shows on Discovery channel. And I don't thnk those will be at all affected by the strike.

[Green²]

I miss The Daily Show and Colbert Report, as most of their material has to do with current events. However, Fox News, according to MSNBC, is not affected by the strike, as Fox News is not unionized.

[Amry]

I hope the riots turn violent. With explosives and mass casualties if possible.

Otherwise, I curse the moronic media who puts such an insignificant event in the front pages. When I turn on the news or go to news websites, I'm trying to find out about events with real significance, not on how Britney shaved her head of Paris Hilton is a slut (wow, you think?) or how a bunch of spoiled Hollywood types are striking against a smaller yet richer bunch of Hollywood types.

tl;dr: couldn't care less. Hope they kill and eat each other.

[u43368]

^ I rarely watch news for that very reason. And the sensationalist stuff, but that's a different story.

Meh, I only watch animu or documentary stuff on TV nowadays, I pretty much never watch anything else unless it's out of the blue moon or something.

[Demongod86]

Originally Posted by Amry

I hope the riots turn violent. With explosives and mass casualties if possible.

Otherwise, I curse the moronic media who puts such an insignificant event in the front pages. When I turn on the news or go to news websites, I'm trying to find out about events with real significance, not on how Britney shaved her head of Paris Hilton is a slut (wow, you think?) or how a bunch of spoiled Hollywood types are striking against a smaller yet richer bunch of Hollywood types.

tl;dr: couldn't care less. Hope they kill and eat each other.

Quoted For Fucking Truth.

I could not put it any better.

Frankly, I can't care less. I only watch numb3rs, sports, and Kitchen Nightmares, and Myth Busters from time to time. Numb3rs is far too niche of a show and too important for high schools and some colleges to stop putting out episodes, kitchen Nightmares is a reality series, and all of the rest have nothing to do with hollywood that needs writers.

Oh well. So sad. TT. Now let's have something important on the news.

[Kyuusai]

For those who want a simple, informative explanation of just what in the world this strike is about, I recommend this video.
WGA:Why We Fight

I usually think most union strikes are asinine, but I don't think this one is. Heck, I don't think they're demanding enough.

[Aoie_Emesai]

I lost my tv to being with, but this doesn't affect me once so every. Not like my discovery shows are really affected by it.

[Fluke]

The only outcomes that worry me about this whole situation are...

Heroes second season only being 11 episodes long.

Lost being delayed until 2009.

And most of all, Scrubs' last season being rushed and cut short. Even though it's been on a steady decline, I still want to see it end without the shadow of a writers strike looming over it.

[JustInn14]

eh, I don't watch any TV anymore. My family is HOOKED to it, though. Too many retarded advertizments, and shows with the quality of rotten food......

[Zaris]

The thing is most writers are like contract writers, who are of lower status compared to screenwriters with established reputations, on regular saleries and are expected to work on any subject assigned to them. They're more of a hack - never getting screen credit and are more likely given the task of doing draft rewrites for the director or the producer. The money in this field is disproportionate to begin with, and now the companies are refusing to adjust their payrates to reflect the sliding ratio of box office sales to home video sales (i.e. VHS and DVDs; the latter has slowly climbed over the former for more than a decade)? I'd say "F it" and go on strike too.

As a fledgling screenwriter, I have to feel a little sympathy for what they're trying to do. Writing for television and film is a difficult and under-appreciated lifestyle. There is no technique for having ideas. You can't "teach" people to be creative. It's a gift. These days, everyone is so hammered with the auteur in the cinema, the idea that a commercial feature film can be regarded as the work of a single individual in the way a painting, a novel or even a musical might be. And everyone is so intoxicated with the idea that the director (who has an easier job compared to others) has the closest bond to the end result. But in reality, that result would not have come to fruition if there was no writer to generate that idea in the first place. And they're the ones who generally get paid and credited the least. It could be seen as exploitation.

You also have to consider the fact that the industry has become less interested in taking risks with bold new productions. With new media and piracy on the rise, money spent on making movies and TV shows has been wanning, and yet the ones in power feel it's their right to deserve the same level of wealth as they would've received 5-10 years ago despite the changing times. Futhermore, people are so "PC" nowadays that you can't show something without it offending somebody, even if it might contribute to something fresh and exciting that global audiences have been yearning for for a while. Everyone's ready to file lawsuit because "you depict Asians and blacks in a low light" or "this offends the gay community". It's pretty sad the things some people insist on complaining about (300, anyone?).

So while money goes to feed the bellies of the rich, we writers have to cope with the danger of plagiarism and legally "safe" material, or we get our asses fired from our jobs. Nobody wants to make a new Star Wars. It's too dangerous to produce something new because you don't know if it will cash or crash. The higher ups would much rather play it safe and do spin-offs of already known works like Transformers, Survivor, and Marvel comics. In short, innovative stories aren't seen as profitable, and the wealth of a writer's imagination fall on deaf ears.

Our culture should show more appreciation towards our writers.

[Demongod86]

Our culture glorifies the media enough. If you don't like it or can't make a living off of it, then nobody's forcing you to stay. Seriously.

Frankly, a little less television never killed someone.

[KholdStare]

Originally Posted by Amry

I hope the riots turn violent. With explosives and mass casualties if possible.

Otherwise, I curse the moronic media who puts such an insignificant event in the front pages. When I turn on the news or go to news websites, I'm trying to find out about events with real significance, not on how Britney shaved her head of Paris Hilton is a slut (wow, you think?) or how a bunch of spoiled Hollywood types are striking against a smaller yet richer bunch of Hollywood types.

tl;dr: couldn't care less. Hope they kill and eat each other.

That's true, but it does affect people who watch TV on a regular basis, no matter how rich they are they still provide us entertainment.

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by Zaris

You also have to consider the fact that the industry has become less interested in taking risks with bold new productions. With new media and piracy on the rise, money spent on making movies and TV shows has been wanning, and yet the ones in power feel it's their right to deserve the same level of wealth as they would've received 5-10 years ago despite the changing times.

I was fine with your post except for this bit. New media and piracy is cutting into profits? I think you said it yourself - nobody wants anything new and bold. It's much the same as music. I was amused to find many remarks on the iTunes Music Store today on their free single of the week, all stating that this sounds the same as every other R&B artist, it's a studio clone, etc. So it's much the same for movies and television shows, I think. It gets boring. Remember when Survivor was huge news? Reality TV hadn't been done before (at that level, at least). Suddenly, every single television show was reality TV in some form.

What's cutting into profits? People are bored of the garbage being put out. Further, the costs that go into production are incredibly high. Producers don't seem to get it that putting money into special effects won't help you if your plot is garbage. On the other hand, there have been plenty of underbudget films that were incredible.

New media? That one rips the consumer. Piracy? Piracy is debatable - there's evidence that supports the fact that it cuts into profits as much as that it increases profits due to advertising and interest generation. Please don't put the industry's woes on us, though. If I see a movie that looks interesting, I'll go and see it. I haven't seen a movie in a damn long time. I don't owe the industry a thing, and that's how business goes.

Zaris good luck to you in your screenwriting.

[Konata-chan]

I'm starting to really like shows like "The Colbert Report" and "The Daily Show", and it saddens me that I can't watch new episodes of these shows. It saddens me that producers aren't willing to pay more for their writers (who are basically the core of what makes a show interesting), yet the writers aren't willing to call off the strike even during negotiations. I used to like reality TV back in the day, but now I think it's a rather cheap alternative to quality TV. I was actually thinking of getting myself back into primetime programs, but can't get into new shows during the strike.

I really miss the Colbert report Where's my almost-daily source of truthiness?

[Zaris]

Thanks, Ledgem. I was being very general with that statement you quoted. While they are legitimate factors, there's obviously more than those two reasons alone contributing to the decline of movie/story quality. And you're right, there have been several examples where new media has helped promote the release of a film or series. It's just difficult to cover all the bases without it turning into a drone lecture.

A lot of the bickering is internal, really. Finding a proper distribution for the profits and credits has been an age-old struggle since the start of the industry. As long as national politics and economics change, so will the problem be debated again. My beef is simply how so much money can be poured into giving celebrities their Ferraris, their drugs, and their loopholes around the law when it could be better spent on the actual production of their talents (as if they didn't have enough). Writers lose their jobs, companies go bankrupt and are bought over while actors sleep soundly in their million dollar homes. We didn't want to involve the consumers in this (giving people tasteful drama is our business. You shouldn't owe us anything; it's our job), but it's an unfortunate inevitability. Because the reruns and the crap you're watching now is a direct result of not putting enough money where it's needed most.

[Demongod86]

Well frankly the writers failed long beforehand. The same old garbage got boring, so the writers lost jobs, not vice versa. Most of primetime TV has been garbage for a while. Heck, discovery channel is more entertaining than your silly primetime ever can be aside from numb3rs and kitchen nightmares (in some cases).

The silly writers need to justify their pay first, and then bitch. Heck, maybe if we stopped watching so much TV we wouldn't have an obesity problem in this country, would we?

[Kyuusai]

Originally Posted by Konata-chan

It saddens me that producers aren't willing to pay more for their writers (who are basically the core of what makes a show interesting), yet the writers aren't willing to call off the strike even during negotiations.

Well, even if individual writers want to continue working during the negotiations (and I'm sure many do, as they have bills to pay), they must move as a group. As union members, they have little choice.

Still, with the size and stubbornness of the behemoths they're fighting, I've no doubt that continuing work would be as good as losing. After all, negotiations were going nowhere before the strike, which is what brought the strike here in the first place.

Originally Posted by Demongod86

Well frankly the writers failed long beforehand. The same old garbage got boring, so the writers lost jobs, not vice versa. Most of primetime TV has been garbage for a while. Heck, discovery channel is more entertaining than your silly primetime ever can be aside from numb3rs and kitchen nightmares (in some cases).

The silly writers need to justify their pay first, and then bitch. Heck, maybe if we stopped watching so much TV we wouldn't have an obesity problem in this country, would we?

While there are a lot of talentless, hack writers with jobs in Hollywood, you can't blame the writers as a group. They aren't the ones who are choosing which stories and scripts from which writers to show. For every show that makes it to air, there are far more that don't. Think of any good show that was cancelled before its time, and it becomes more clear that the writers as a group aren't at fault for bad television and movies. The responsibility lies on the producers, executives, and the general public that fanatically watches the trash that makes it to their screens and thereby makes the process profitable for said producers and executives.

[Papaya]

Originally Posted by Green²

I miss The Daily Show and Colbert Report, as most of their material has to do with current events. However, Fox News, according to MSNBC, is not affected by the strike, as Fox News is not unionized.

I LOL'ed at this, because it kinda implies that Fox News has writers, a la sitcoms, which would make a bit of sense, considering how incredibly comedic their coverage is.