Directly, actually. Little too far away to walk the line, but I did get together (virtually) with some friends and have pizzas delivered to the Universal Studios strike. Made the news and everything, but most importantly it demonstrated that the fans are behind the writers. It demonstrated that to the writers, who need the reassurance, and to the studios, who need to know that things have changed since the last strike.
Writers aren't quite as replaceable as they used to be. The studios capitalized on the concept of the "showrunner," the person who's vision drove a series. Which was great for the studios, because that meant the showrunner tended to build an audience of fans that would follow from series to series. Gene Roddenberry. Glenn A. Larson. Aaron Spelling. Stephen J. Cannell. Steven Bochco. James Burrows. Chris Carter. Larry David. David E. Kelley. Joss Whedon. Aaron Sorkin. J.J. Abrams. Tim Kring.
But that means that now we know who writes the words we laugh at and gasp to and cry from. And that means it matters to us, a lot, that those writers are treated fairly.
Some folks are starting up a site to help fans show their support. I went ahead and made a Facebook group for announcements and such. You can find more details (and some great strike thoughts from Joss Whedon at Whedonesque.com.
Support the writers.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I wonder if after the strike will be like baseball or hockey after their strikes, and the ratings suffer for years afterwards. Or will people fall right back into place?
I show my contempt for the studios by not watching new shows until after they've been on for a year (I made an exception for Reaper). It might be a small showing of contempt, but it's what I'm doing.
I support the writers on this one, wholeheartedly. It's easy to blame them because they are upsetting the status quo, but the studios are the ones screwing them over.
Chris, do you know of a list of addresses that people can write to to voice their ire towards the studios? We need to show that we support the writers too I think.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
I changed it to "Responsible." And personally I think that's accurate. If fans don't support the writers in getting a fair shake now, they will have little reason to complains about the flood of reruns and crappy reality and game shows that will be coming along.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Chris, Is there an article about the pizza? I can find ones about whedonesque.com fans sending some pizza. Was that you?
Also, I caught a headline on the news that said something like "We don't need your stinkin' pizza" regarding the writer's strike, but they moved to something else before I could see what it was about. I can't imagine them refusing fan pizza, so I figured it must be from someone who is trying to manipulate them, or something like that.
Any ideas what that was about?
Posts: 2880 | Registered: Jun 2004
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Well, it seems obvious to me that the studios are the ones in the wrong here. So yeah, I support the writers. I do hope that the studios notice things like fans siding with the writers, and cuts their losses by giving in before too many writers', cameramens', craft services folks', and other families start to feel the pinch.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Yup, I was one of the whedonesque.com people organizing (and still organizing). There will be a website soon with info on how to help. Here are some quick details on what happened, along with my whipped-up-in-5-minutes poster that's accompanied all the pizza drops.
The pizza refusal was not directed at our volunteers, who have so far been welcomed and thanked profusely.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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The professional picketers 'round these parts have a big inflatable skunk they march around. "stinkin' pizza" made me think of that.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:"I understand she is in a really tricky position, but it would be awfully nice if she'd said she wouldn't work today," said Louis-Dreyfus. "She's certainly in a financial position to be able to say that."
This attitude bothers me. Presumably Longoria is under contract right now, which means she has promised to show up for filming. Unless her contract has an explicit provision allowing her to respect other unions' strikes (and some do), there's much more than finances at stake here.
Can someone summarize the precise demands?
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote:Originally posted by JonHecht: I would join, but I don't like your ad hominem attack in the title. "Real" fans.
Thanks for the link! That explains it.
quote:Originally posted by Chris Bridges: Yup, I was one of the whedonesque.com people organizing (and still organizing). There will be a website soon with info on how to help. Here are some quick details on what happened, along with my whipped-up-in-5-minutes poster that's accompanied all the pizza drops.
The pizza refusal was not directed at our volunteers, who have so far been welcomed and thanked profusely.
Cool!
Ya'll should send the people refusing to budge at the studios empty pizza boxes.
Nah, that'd be mean.
Posts: 2880 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
Some other people are on strike, and nobody's sending them free anything. Of course they're not doing anything as important as writing new episodes of "Two-and-a-half Men" or the next The Fast and the Furious sequel.
Posts: 1794 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Dobbie, that sounds like a great chance for people peripherally involved in that story to show support for the people who served them and their children.
Is this a school district near you?
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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"Can someone summarize the precise demands?"
There are quite a few, most of them minor updates to existing agreements. But this description from an article in The Economist seems to wrap it up nicely:
quote:Media companies argue that the market has become increasingly competitive and uncertain for many reasons, including internet piracy and tumbling box-office receipts. They want to cut writers' income from “residuals”, which are payments made when a TV show is re-used. The writers are determined not to repeat the mistake they made in 1985, when they listened to the studios' plea that home video was an unproven new market and agreed to a residual payment of 0.3%, which translates into about four cents for each sale of a DVD — or one-tenth of what DVD-box manufacturers get. The writers now want a residual payment of 2.5% for re-use of material online and on mobile phones.
The studios say that internet delivery is the same as home video, so the old rate still applies. And they refuse to pay anything to writers when content is streamed over the internet free to viewers, supported by ads, because this is merely “promotion”. Both sides made last-minute concessions on traditional-media payments. But because new-media rights are so critical to the future earnings of writers and studios, neither was willing to compromise.
The WGA dropped the DVD residual increase demand Sunday night but the producers still walked away from the table so it's been added back in. Other demands, such as putting reality show writers under the WGA, have been dropped.
There are also personality conflicts behind the scenes. Unless the studios give in -- and signs are pointing to no, there -- this will go on for a long, long time.
For a somewhat equivalent example: say the book publishers all decided that the book market was getting too competitive and they needed to cut costs, so they dropped the royalty rate for writers and declared that ebooks were promotional so writers would get nothing for those sales. Writers would be a bit peeved since the book royalties were negotiated at the beginning (royalties, like residuals, are not "bonuses" or extra money, they are the previously agreed upon deferred payments for writing). And while there is not a booming market for ebooks, more and more people are using them and if the market shifts in that direction writers would suddenly find themselves without a steady source of income.
TV and movie writers can see the future, and it's online. They're fighting now to make sure that in that future, they won't be hosed.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Dobbie: Some other people are on strike, and nobody's sending them free anything. Of course they're not doing anything as important as writing new episodes of "Two-and-a-half Men" or the next The Fast and the Furious sequel.
Did that woman quoted really fault the teachers for wanting a decent paycheck and healthcare? Or is there something more to that story?
Posts: 1001 | Registered: Mar 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Chris Bridges: The website for the fans movement, www.fans4writers.com, is now live.
1. There's a comma at the end of your link
2. When I manually remove the comma in the address bar, instead of loading a website that address tries to install an application on my computer. What's with that?
Just thought you'd like to know. Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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There are such things as real fans. Real fans are the 38% who paid to download Radiohead's new album. The 62% who did not are merely parasitic trendoids.
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
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What have you been able to do to help the striking teachers so far? (Or, if you are a teacher, what do you wish people in your district would do for you?)
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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I can't help but wonder if only having 38% 'real' fans still provides you with more money than 100% 'real' fans paying upwards of $15 for 100% of your albums through a label.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Ah. Seems the webmaster asked the hosting company to switch the site from Windows to Linux - that being what he's more comfy with -- and it's going to be abit rocky until it's complete.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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It warms my heart a little to see that people are supporting the writers. In most cases, they are the brilliance behind all the shows and movies we love. They deserve what they are asking for, and probably even a little more.
But hey, I'm not a big studio, so what do I know of these matters?
Posts: 349 | Registered: Oct 2007
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There are such things as real fans. Real fans are the 38% who paid to download Radiohead's new album. The 62% who did not are merely parasitic trendoids.
Seeing as how Radiohead actually encouraged people to download HTTT without paying for it, I am not sure they share your sentiment.
Also the album is also being released as a CD sometime soon, I'm sure there are a group of people who downloaded the CD and plan on actually buying the CD. Also you don't know how many people downloaded the album intending to listen to it first before deciding how much to pay for.
Having said that I am sure there are a huge chunk of people who just downloaded it without paying out of selfishness.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I talked to a guy who's relative is on the line this morning. He's concerned that the relative don't seem to have a good idea of what's going on, and there isn't an discussion underway with management. That summary of points helps somewhat, but bringing previously uncovered workers into a bargaining unit is a pretty tricky demand.
I'm not sure I understand the internet thing. But part of the essence of a collective bargaining agreement is that while your area of work is protected from "scabs", you are only authorized to work within that area.
Like my father in law was working in construction as supervisor and got in big trouble for touching up someone's paint job. If the painters on a job are unionized, they are the only ones allowed to do painting. It drove Dad crazy not to be able to perfect anything he saw needing doing.
posted
The average was $6, which means one person who paid $16 for the album brought two people who paid $1 up to average.
I think that Radiohead was getting ~$2 per album from its old label. Dividing the $6 average from the 38% real fans by the 100% who downloaded brings Radiohead's average royalty to $2.28 per album. So in a download vs record label royalties comparison, Radiohead broke even or came out a bit ahead. However, it looks like Radiohead made a HUGE profit from hyper-fans willing to fork out $80 for the deluxe boxed set of CDs.
Radiohead itself says that comScore's figures are bunk, which I can easily believe. Press coverage has indicated that comScore based its report on a sample of ~250transactions, and that ain't even close to being large enough to produce confidence in a decent margin-of-error.
Here's a few more factors to think about: I'll probably return to some of those statements cuz only crooks would think that way.
posted
250 samples would be plenty to produce a decent confidence, if they were random samples. I suspect the sampling wasn't done too well.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Sorry, the above was sitting on my machine since shortly after Samprimary posted. Didn't see responses between then and now.
Radiohead said "Pay what you think it's worth, pay what you can afford." If it was worth downloading, it was worth paying for. Not necessarily the at-the-store CD price, but at least a token to show if nothing else appreciation for the advanced preview.
Radiohead may be playing it even sharper. IF I were them, I'd cut out the scalpers and the scalpers' trendoid customers by sending emails giving advanced Radiohead concert ticket purchase rights to download buyers and deluxe set buyers. Cuz TicketMaster/etc seems to specialize in selling the best seats to and in selling out to scalpers. Better to have fans at the concerts than to have trendoids. And if some fans make some money by forgoing the concerts to resell those tickets, more power to 'em. Better to have fans making the money than a buncha sleazy scalpers.
posted
That's not a bad idea spectre. It will be interesting to see if Radiohead ends up doing anything with the e-mail addresses they have collected.
Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote:... putting reality show writers under the WGA...
That does not compute... reality show tripe has writers?
What I'm hoping the end result will be is that studios will stop making any ol' movie they feel like it, however theoretically crappy it may be. Maybe they won't consider making Fast And The Furious 8: Somalian Thunder next time...
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
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The union gains a lot by expanding the scope of the bargaining unit. Just sayin'.
The "new media" thing seems rather open ended as well.
I wish I shared any optimism that the effect of this strike might improve entertainment. But the move to cover reality TV as writing would suggest the opposite.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Reality TV has writers for the all the host banter, the challenges, and to shape the narratives from the raw footage. For example, writers work on all the "here's how practice went" and "here's a touching look at this contestant's life" segments.
Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Hey, I'm skeptical. I've thought all along that a lot of reality shows have writers, for pretty much everything. And if not writers exactly, then people who shape the drama to go the way they want it to.
Posts: 2880 | Registered: Jun 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Dobbie: Some other people are on strike, and nobody's sending them free anything. Of course they're not doing anything as important as writing new episodes of "Two-and-a-half Men" or the next The Fast and the Furious sequel.
Did that woman quoted really fault the teachers for wanting a decent paycheck and healthcare? Or is there something more to that story?
A lot of people resent that the teachers don't pay anything for their health insurance.
Posts: 1794 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
Me thinks some people think of teachers as some kind of tolerated necessity.
Logic suggests that the more teachers are supported and respected, then the better off the kids will be and society as a whole has been improved. All the better if that process were recurring.
Posts: 369 | Registered: Apr 2007
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It is a bit unreasonable to expect that you should not have to contribute anything to the cost of insuring you and your family. Health insurance costs money and people generally have to kick in some of the costs themselves. We can argue all day that the health situation in the US needs to be fixed, but until then, insurance costs and people should have to pay some to cover that cost.
The Alabama teachers union balked a few years back because they didn't want to pay an increase in their premiums. I was supporting them until I heard the details - the acutal increase was over $40 a month, and the state was only asking the teachers to pay 10% of that - so their contribution would increase $4. As someone whose own insurance premiums had increased over $50 a month that year (we had to bear the entire increase) I had a hard time being sympathetic.
Yes, teachers have a hard job - now that I'm in the stage of my education where I spend entire days a semester in a classroom I have a real appreciation for how hard teachers work. Unlike most jobs, there is no "down time" anybody who thinks teachers have planning periods where they can relax and do what they want is dreaming - none of the teachers I've been assigned to observe has ever spent a planning period alone in her room able to do what she wants. Teachers deserve more money for what they do, they deserve good benefits, but I think it's too much to expect those benefits can come completely free.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Some of the teachers there are getting less than 30,000 a year. Considering what they do and what education level is expected of them, I think tossing in free health care is good. And if enough unions and people made an issue of health care, then maybe something would be done to fix it. Also, in this case, I think once you give ground, you have lost. When my husband was a teacher, they paid the largest premiums in the area- more than state employees, more than surrounding business. In many cases by double and triple the amounts. And when the legislature decided to not give the $1000 stipend to help out anymore, no one complained. They had already accepted that they were going to pay 20% of their paycheck, what was another 5%?
Posts: 1001 | Registered: Mar 2006
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quote:Some of the teachers there are getting less than 30,000 a year.
Where was that information published? I didn't see it in the linked info. The starting salary for teachers in Pennsylvania is over $34,000 and the state average is over $54,000. Unless you're referring to what they bring home after taxes I can't how it's possible any public school teacher in Pennsylvania makes less than $30,000 a year.
As much as I advocate for better pay and good benefits for teachers (and believe me, I do feel they deserve both) I can't see why someone making over $50,000 a year can't kick in some of the cost for their health insurance. Again, let me be clear - I'm not saying they don't deserve good benefits or higher salaries. I just think expecting FREE benefits is unreasonable.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I looked up the specific district listed and then looked at the high school profile. It listed teachers salary at their high school as ranging from 29-60k. Maybe they need to update the profile, or they make less than the average teacher in Pennsylvania.
Posts: 1001 | Registered: Mar 2006
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