To Hollywood Strikers: Give it up
Box office sales have been in decline. Movie theatres are going out of business. People aren’t going to the movies as much. It’s not due to the acting.
It’s due to the writers. To be fair, it may be due to the other forces that get scripts greenlit, but the failing point is between concept and final screenplay draft.
So now the writers are striking. I find that hilarious. I’m sure there’s some great writers out there and they’re striking too for some reason, but the bulk of you are not needed. You’ve been doing poorly. I don’t mean to say you’re bad writers, just that because of culture, salesmanship, perseverance, or any number of factors we’ve been provided with extremely lackluster movies for the past several years.
Take a cue from the internet. Take a cue from popular fiction writers. Take a cue from some of the more popular TV dramas. We don’t want the same things anymore. You have to adapt or die. Striking is never an answer. Quit your unions, put your work out there on it’s own merits, sell yourself.
If you start putting out clever original scripts, or even really well crafted unoriginal scripts we will all thank you for it.
The funniest thing to me about this strike is that if they actually changed the model… you know, that the writers made royalties for actual views. Assuming we actually want to be fair instead of just “pay me more,” you’d have to adjust and pay network programming royalties based on ratings as well. Considering how many shows are aired simultaneously across the states a lot of writers would be making a lot less. Some would be ridiculously successful of course, and some would get the boost from online content… but the bulk of them would suddenly be making less. Sure you write for a primetime show, but no one’s watching it this week… you get squat. To me it sounds like the writers want the networks and distributors to take all the risk while simultaneously giving all the benefits to the writers.
I’m really curious who got this ball rolling. I’m all for paying excellent writers more, and I think it’d be great to do it based on who watches what… but there’s a lot of writers that don’t write well, and shouldn’t be getting paid well 
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Comment by psychoanbu@lj — November 10, 2007 @ 9:24 pm
Indeed. The unfortunate part, or so it seems to me, is that half of the “writers” seem to have jobs simply because of some form of tenure. It’s like the 70’s and early 80’s all over again. Let’s come up w/ a couple of decent formulas, and milk it for all it’s worth.
In the 90’s, I watched a ton of Sci-Fi channel and it remained somewhat original and new. Lately, the put a new show or movie, and I can tell you when ‘x’ event will happen, then this will happen, and it’ll end more-or-less like this. It sucks, because I’m a sci-fi geek. Where am I getting my latest fix from? BBCA. Dr. Who and Torchwood. I had to go overseas to get something that’s generally interesting to watch.
I’m kinda surprised that more channels haven’t taken their cue from this and started importing other shows, from Australia, Spain, France, whathaveyou. Hell, part of that could simply because of the FCC and their puritanical attitude.
But then again, what seems to be popular now; reality shows. It’s as if the american public can’t tear their eyes away from these trainwrecks. MTV found a way thru psychological profiling on how to get 8 of the most conflicting types of personalities, put them in front of a bunch of cameras and watch the mayhem ensue. So what do other studios do? They take a page out of that, think up the most ludicrous scenarios they can involve these egotistical retards and watch what ensues. Again, the creative process completely out of the picture altogether.
Oh well, the only thing I can hope for is for a bunch of scabs to show up, put out prime examples of quality writing and storylines, and the disgruntled asshats are still sitting at home, collecting their pittance until the union finally runs out of money and then they can join the unemployment line. Or worse still, write commercials or some other form of marketing ilk.
Comment by Alex — November 18, 2007 @ 12:36 pm
It’s interesting that you mention how you went to the UK for Sci-fi. There’s a serious renaissance going on there in regards to the genre. Not only in TV but in books and shorts as well. It’s really the only place you can go to get space opera anymore.
I think America is sick and saturated with reality shows. We’re still watching them, but they’re not new, they’re not holding us. We just watch them because it’s what’s on.
I’m hoping for a scab revolution as well