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Will Streaming Media Lead To A Massive Writer's Strike? (latimes.com)
"A decade ago, Hollywood writers brought the entertainment industry to a standstill when they walked off the job for three months in a dispute over pay for movies and TV shows distributed online," writes the Los Angeles Times. But they're reporting that it may happen again, with the Writers Guild of America now seeking a strike authorization vote from its members.
Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon have transformed Hollywood and contributed to an unprecedented number of quality series being produced -- a phenomenon often described as the new Golden Age of TV. But times haven't been golden for many writers for whom more is now less. Shorter seasons are the new norm, with many series consisting of 10 or fewer episodes on cable and streaming -- less than half the length of traditional seasons on network shows. That has put writers in a financial crunch since many have exclusivity clauses that prevent them from working on multiple shows per season...
"It's getting more and more difficult to make a living as a writer," said John Bowman, a TV writer-producer, and former head of the WGA negotiating committee. Studios are equally dug in as more customers cut the cable cord in favor of streaming options. They're also grappling with a dramatic fall-off in once-lucrative DVD sales and a flattening of attendance at the multiplex. They are releasing fewer titles a year, meaning fewer opportunities for screenwriters... Complicating matters is a lack of transparency. Streaming services operate on subscription models and don't release viewer data, making it difficult to devise a formula for residuals (fees for reruns).
Amazon is a member of the studio alliance, while Netflix "is expected to sign on to an eventual contract." (Though streaming also seems to be hurting the popularity of reruns, which is also reducing the residuals writers receive.) But underscoring the impact of online media, Slashdot reader JustAnotherOldGuy asks, "with all the alternative content available, does anyone care...? Would the writer's strike have any serious impact on your life?"
"It's getting more and more difficult to make a living as a writer," said John Bowman, a TV writer-producer, and former head of the WGA negotiating committee. Studios are equally dug in as more customers cut the cable cord in favor of streaming options. They're also grappling with a dramatic fall-off in once-lucrative DVD sales and a flattening of attendance at the multiplex. They are releasing fewer titles a year, meaning fewer opportunities for screenwriters... Complicating matters is a lack of transparency. Streaming services operate on subscription models and don't release viewer data, making it difficult to devise a formula for residuals (fees for reruns).
Amazon is a member of the studio alliance, while Netflix "is expected to sign on to an eventual contract." (Though streaming also seems to be hurting the popularity of reruns, which is also reducing the residuals writers receive.) But underscoring the impact of online media, Slashdot reader JustAnotherOldGuy asks, "with all the alternative content available, does anyone care...? Would the writer's strike have any serious impact on your life?"
I for one will drop my subscription to Amazon or Netflix if they try to bust the strike with crap.
But I doubt most will so I'm looking forward to reading more since last time reality tv reigned for a decade
So, if you're a TV writer, why not negotiate a contract which takes into account the new reality of streaming and shorter seasons?
What's the big deal? Business conditions change all the time in all sorts of industries and small businesses (which is what most writers should be if they're working via contract and for various rights) adjust to it.
I mean, if they had some sort of big bureaucratic organization which they were forced to belong to and which controlled standard contract terms they might be screwed over while they waited and hoped for it to adjust to the new reality, but if they are free and work for themselves, then it's just business as usual.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
You mean to tell me they were not already on strike? Nothing but remakes, over, and over and over again.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
it won't be massive. it won't be streaming media's fault. there will be a short strike since some writers spent all their savings already.
Is this a joke? Never before has TV been such utter trash as it is now.
The 'Golden Age' is starting to peter out - the quality just isn't there with a lot of newer series. Eventually Netflix et.al. will be indistinguishable from traditional cable channels, but with a unique problem those networks never had, and ironically it's because streaming is not within the boundaries of a time frame: there will just be such a glut of shows, no one could possibly hope to watch all or even most of them. It's going to be the same scenario all over again.
"Super Wi-Fi signals generally won't be as fast as regular Wi-Fi signals"
Is this slashdot, the slashdot, the technology site, do explain how regular Wi-Fi and Super Wi-Fi signals travel at different speeds through the same medium.
A decade ago, I quit watching House MD and various other shows impacted by the strike when they stopped mid season. By the time they came back, I had moved on and didn't care anymore. For big shows, the risk is probably minimal, but for the niche stuff this can be a killer.
TV can disappear tomorrow and it won't matter. People can get their entertainment the good old fashioned way by going outside instead of staring at a screen.
All to the good, I might add. I swear, I didn't realize how watching several hours of TV each day as a kid had screwed me up until I went a couple of years without owning a TV. Then I got myself a flat screen to put in the living room when I got married and started watching again. Yeesh. Good riddance to the trash merchants. Less money for them means more people are realizing they're putting out crap.
I remember when a season was 39 episodes. Then it dropped to, I dunno, 13. Now it's 6-7.
Sucks as a viewer, I guess it sucks as a writer, but to be clear, it sucks to be a viewer paying $180/month cable to watch this shit crumble into pieces.
sooner these shows and these contracts go the way of the dodo the happier I will be. Let netflix/amazon crush the competition with quality writing. The big 4 will adapt or die. Hell F/X is a damn fine station to watch on it's own thankfully unshackled from the horrible TV that is on Fox.
Service Network Minimum Cable Minimum
30 Minute Story $8,062 $5,432
30 Minute Teleplay $17,343 $8,821
30 Minute Story + Teleplay $24,183 $13,557
60 Minute Story $14,192 $9,871
60 Minute Teleplay $23,399 $17,096
60 Minute Story + Teleplay $35,568 $24,768
Staff Writer - 6 Week Guarantee $4,318/week same as network
Staff Writer - 14 Week Guarantee $4,014/week same as network
Staff Writer - 20 Week Guarantee $3,703/week same as network
Any Level Above Staff Writer - up to 9 Weeks $8,055/week same as network
Any Level Above Staff Writer - 10 to 19 Week Guarantee $6,712/week same as network
Any Level Above Staff Writer - 20 Weeks or More Guarantee $6,036/week same as network
Given the number of new shows Netflix and Amazon are producing, I have trouble believing that good writers are having that tough a time of it.
So is this about Hollywood or traditional TV writers? Well they can suck the collective dicks of all people across the Earth as far as I'm concerned. They have all but destroying movies being entertaining. Traditional TV sitcoms long ago became such a wasteland that cutting the cord and dropping the antenna was about as hard a choice to make as stopping up an open sewer line coming into the house.
A pox on you, "writers". Never before has real talent had more opportunity...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So if they strike we dont get a reboot of whatever has already worked, We dont get CSI bakerfield, CSI nome, CSI mayberry?
IF they would come up with something fresh I might care, but How many CSI, NCIS shows do you need.
My STB has >100 unwatched episodes that I intentionally recorded. And I've skipped several seasons of series I would have liked to watched.
I have at least 2 years' worth of video to watch before I crave anything new.
So, dear writers, hold out for what you need to thrive on. I'll probably want what you write by then. Or, maybe not, given that I never went back to watching or caring about hockey on TV.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
The writing of most shows is poor.
I haven't turned on a "television" in over 7 years, and haven't missed it.
Now, I do confess to watching Netflix content with my wife.
Was visiting a family member at the hospital recently, and the individual turned this "television" on to see what it was all about. "Channel" after "channel" of strange annoying things called "commercials". We didn't like it and turned it off. Grabbed the laptop and fired up Netflix. Much better.
The writers are getting screwed over? Maybe. It's just not the fault of streaming media or the internet. It's a change business environment and everybody has to adjust. The industry of course doesn't want to cause it's in their favour. The reality is most writers are probably not being paid well and the industry would like you believe it's cause of piracy and the internet success stories like Google taking advantage of the entertainment industry when the reality is quite different. The industry is just aiming to take advantage of EVERYONE. From the consumers to the actors to the writers.
Trends are moving away from television networks to streaming services with non-union shows doing very well in streaming services. I can easily see a writers strike creating a void that can be swallowed up by independent shows. By the time any writers strike is settled, will there be much of a market capital worth having a guild or union monopolize? This reminds me of a lot of manufacturing union strikes in the mid-west in the 80's where it was ended by the plant shutting down and throwing everyone to the street. Could the lead to a real estate crash around Hollywood?
What is wrong with Slashdot?!
n/t
THIS! Supernatural season 1 - 22 episodes. Season 10 - 23 episodes. Meanwhile in Brooklyn it fell apart as Hollywood couldn't stick their unit out long enough for another series
X-Files Season 1 - 24 episodes (1993)
Star Trek Next Generation Season 1 - 26 episodes (1988)
Will and Grace Season 1 - 22 episodes (1999)
Star Trek Enterprise Season 1 - 26 episodes (2001)
Falling Skies Season 1 - 10 episodes (2011)
The Walking Dead Season 1 - 6 episodes (2010)
Mad Men Season 1 - 13 episodes (2007)
Sleepy Hollow season 1 - 13 episodes (2013)
Fear the walking dead season 1 - 6 episodes (2015)
is to show its ENTIRE 10-ep. season in a weekend, this May.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt31...
It'll finish after four seasons.
Hollywood writers have been on strike for years, that's why we are only getting mindless remakes and sequals to old films and shows.
Trump is a cunt. Discuss.
The last time the writers went on strike we ended up with Doctor Horrible’s sing-along blog, and that was not a bad thing.
....
Streaming
The writers should have seen the writing on the wall, Hollywood, although still capable of producing an original hit now and then, are more interested in sequels and reboots then originality.
TV is much the same, “lets get this guy that was popular for 4 seasons in a sitcom and put him in another sitcom just like the last”
That might work for some viewers, but it will not grow the industry
It happened before, in the 60’s Hollywood was afraid of cost and originality and it took the Italian's with their Spaghetti Western’s to show the way forward. and a decade later Norman Lear transformed TV
The shift is happening, like it or not writers, traditional Hollywood and TV are dying.
Want to stay employed?
Start talking to Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, or the other streaming services that are or will be cropping up.
That's a laugh and a half! The shit that passes for TV, intercalated between all the annoying, insulting, stupid commercials and other bullshit, was written decades ago. There's precious little that actually qualifies as NEW in many, many years. Everything's just reheated leftovers, shit scraped off the cutting-room floor, and re-tooled, warmed-over GARBAGE.
So tell me why I or anyone should give a flying fuck about "writers"? They're a bunch of fucking hacks. When they start producing new, interesting, and high-quality programs instead of drivel and dogshit, then maybe they'll be able to say they're worth any fraction of what they're demanding.
Seasons of 22-26 episodes were standard for a long time, now they're doing half and quarter length seasons. This typically results in less content at a higher quality. (keeping in mind that higher quality trash is still trash)
Feel bad for these people but nobody ever promised them anything. Hollywood has always been extremely fickle about what it would support and when, and those tastes change all the time. Things go in and out of favor and writers have to cope with that, including periods of starving. OH WELL.
Now, how the audience consumes content and who, exactly, is making it, is changing. We no longer need TV networks to fund content so they can sell ads against it -and THAT is the only reason TV networks bother with shows anyway, to sell ads.
Without TV networks, the content that is funded and produced IS going to be different. The customer is different. If you paint houses and your customers decided they want blue houses and no longer want yellow houses, you as a painter don't get to stomp your feet and demand that people want yellow houses. You paint blue houses or you starve. Pick.
Anyway, the writers are running a huge risk: as the whole distribution model has changed, we may eventually see the writing model change too. Do we really need union writers or could they find freelancers to do it? Of course they could. And with the script to screen path being more streamlined than ever, the union writers are in a precarious position. The client sitting at home won't care who wrote it as long as it is good.
Sig for hire.
Now anyone can write a script and submit it to any new streaming company.
The once needed access to a select few staff in TV stations or broadcasters is over.
Creative pay at a broadcaster will slip down to that of an editorial assistant and stay low.
Make a fuss and a lot of very skilled people are waiting for that job for even lower wages.
Writers should have done more to protect their profession during the good decades.
Ensured that only US universities can offer the needed academic standing for the creative professions.
Some sort of accreditation to ensure only people in the profession now can be allowed to write for broadcasters.
That would have reduced the competition of writers allowed to interact with the wider public. Wages stay up and good existing jobs are protected.
Ensure only a qualified writer can offer work, sign a contract and a have a script accepted. Make "arts" and "english" a profession again.
Consider how aspiring talent is entering the profession. They are competing to lower wages and take jobs.
Dont go the way of newspapers in the online world. Learn from past errors in other areas of the arts and secure a profession as a professional writer.
Study who else is submitting scripts to streaming and broadcasting companies.
If the work submitted is not from the USA, suggest a strong Russian influence in their past work or education or friends?
Use existing contacts to ensure only existing authors are considered.
Also use the US government, big US brands and mil to further your own work. Plots have always been friendly, supportive or never mentioned complex issues.
Consider the new owners of broadcasters. Tiananmen square an issue? A theocracy? Monarchy? Human rights issues and weapons sales? A cult or faith wants some good fiction about their past?
Why risk a new writer with ideals and ideas? Listen to the people who are now in control of the streaming brand and broadcasters, work within the owners branding needs. Once the owners know who can be trusted and will write what they consider quality, become a no bid contractor.
Never be afraid to report new gifted authors to the correct authorities if they have equal skills or better talent.
They present a good rural script? Thats hidden nationalism and a Russian topic of influence.
An inner city story? Thats Russia trying to get poor consumers to lose faith in US brands and the US mil.
Any enviromental aspects to the plot? Thats an ag gag issue trying to sneak around local laws. Report that author to their home state and the feds
Given the vast amount of work submitted is junk with poor grammer and spelling, a professional work can quickly move to the top once some other authors have lost their professional standing.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
The last time hollywood writers went on strike we got a whole lot of unscripted reality TV such as The Apprentice which in turn made Trump a media 'star'. Can't wait to see the unintended consequences of a second strike.
Regards Sinesurfer A Nerd is someone who lives for technology, A Geek is someone who lives for technology and loves it
If this is the new "golden age" of television and there's so many new shows, I'm kind of confused as to how the math works on the writers not making enough money, exclusivity clauses and the new content getting written.
At the peak of broadcast television sometime in the late 1970s you had three networks and we'll assume for arguments' sake they had about 14 hours per day of programming, 7 days a week -- and I don't think it was even quite that much, there were big holes affiliates filled with reruns, local news, local chat shows, etc. Anyway, that's roughly 300 hours a week that needs "writing" of some kind, although some of it was journalism and not creative fiction, but we'll ignore that distinction, too.
Now there's far more networks with original programming -- AMC, USA, SciFi, FX, Fox, HBO, Showtime, WB, plus the networks, plus Netflix and Amazon originals -- how can there be so much content AND the writers are getting less work at the same time?
It doesn't make sense unless there really is less content, and the new "Golden Age" really is a fraud, and the entire industry is actually producing a lot less content. It doesn't feel that way. Antenna TV had a lot of crap content, movie-of-the-week (Hollywood theater movie, just broadcast on TV) and then there was live sports, news was actually journalism writing often written by the reporter who read it, etc, and even though series were 20-odd episodes then there was a long rerun season and TV also loved variety & talk shows with little scripted content.
Part of me thinks the writers just smell more money from actual growth in the medium and don't think they're getting enough of it, which is fine, everyone in creative filmed content management is a cunt and deserves to get bled a little.
Cut and pasted from the intro:
Slashdot reader JustAnotherOldGuy asks, "with all the alternative content available, does anyone care...? Would the writer's strike have any serious impact on your life?"
It isn't that the average viewer will have a major impact. Poor writing can impact the number of viewers a show attracts, or in the case keep. (See many comments above).
A strike does have the potential to lose revenue for the studios, Netflix, etc.
There was a writers strike in 1990. Star Trek The New Generation season ended with The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1. Picard had been captured and assimilated by The Borg. It is usually rated as one of the better episodes of of he series. The strike impacted the writing for Part 2, which really fell flat.
Aside. the musical score for this was written by Ron Jones. It was good enough to be released as an album, but the honchos at Paramount thought the music was too good as distracted from the plotline, and canned him!
It's not really advisable to workers to go on strikes to combat management replacing their jobs with robots. Because, guess what: Nobody will give a shit.
Likewise, it's probably not the best way to save your jobs to put on a strike when the thing you're protesting is pretty much what makes you redundant in the first place.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
They want to show they are a force to be listened to, or they want to make their members feel like they are doing something. So they strike, even though they don't really have an attainable goal.
That happened here with the buses. They are Teamsters and they went on strike for two weeks more or less out of the blue. They weren't engaged in contract negotiations with the city and at a stalemate, they struck more or less right off the bat, at the behest of the national Teamsters. The demands were silly too in that one was something they could easily get, and the other was impossible. They wanted a clear shield (like Lexan) installed around the driver for dangerous routes, which was no problem the city was perfectly willing. However they also wanted a pay hike, which was impossible because the city budget was in the shitter at the time and there was no money.
At the end of two weeks the agreement was they'd get back pay for the two weeks they were on strike, and the shields would get installed at some point in the future. That was the end of it. It accomplished little other than to get more people annoyed with the bus service (it is not good here sadly) and to make the members feel as though their union had their back.
Sometimes unions go on strike after they've tried and failed to come to an agreement, however that isn't always the case.
The problem is that Studios have been pissing people off and running their business based on very incorrect metrics. They talk about a drop in DVD sales, yet they make a decision to cancel a show before a season is even finished, sometimes before it even started airing, let alone before DVD box set of that season is available.
They make decisions to cancel based on "viewing figured" what are only based on live viewing, so DVD sales never feature into whether a show gets cancelled or not. The only legitimate way for people not in the same country as the studio to view the show in the years showrly after airing in the US is to by the DVD box set, yet all those millions of sales don't get counted.
Until they start looking at the profitability of the global sales they will keep falling foul of their own broken business models. This is why the like of Amazon and Netflix are winning over them, because their metrics for assessing the viability of their business model isn't fundamentally broken.
anything coming from Hollywood anymore.
The future is upon us. The TV world decided to dumb down the TV audience as most Americans have a limited level of concentration which is why we now have TV shows that start with a synopsis of what is coming later in the programme to try an keep the American audience interested in the programme, then they shuffle in a load of adverts, then back to the programme when we are then told what has happened before the ad break as Americans have now lost their concentration and it needs to be jogged. Then we get 7 mins of actual programming followed by another long ad break and then back to the programme when we are then told what has happened before the ad break as Americans have now lost their concentration and it needs to be jogged AGAIN and so the cycle repeats and 1 hour long programme is now only 25mins of actual content........So the writers are having a hard time, which season runs of 24 episodes now dropped down to 10 as the Americans are finding if difficult to remember between episodes that they were actually watching the series... Then the writers are tied into monolistic contracts forcing them to beg on street corners whilst the actors in the shows are paid MASSIVELY big mound of cash, then the middle men take their wheelbarrows of cash and leaving the poor writers with peanuts.. This is the future, this is the future that America wanted and it's the future they got..................Just wait and hope that this does not happen to films as if the typical American does not have the concentration for 10mins of TV then how can they watch a film for at least 2hrs
So, the World Canadian Bureau want more of that Internet money again. Please be generous and send them your Theoretical Dollars!
Worst. Signature. Ever.
Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon have transformed Hollywood and contributed to an unprecedented number of quality series being produced -- a phenomenon often described as the new Golden Age of TV.
I would like to know where all these "quality series" are - I can't think of even one that hasn't become yet another endless, drivel-ridden soap opera. They start out well enough, sometimes even with a brilliant concept, but then it becomes an exercise in recycling, and because that is boring even to the producers, they start adding "drama" (ie. unrealistic idiocy). And then we get "The Movie", "Rebooted" and the protagonists in their younger days. A good series is one that stops when the story has run its course, probably after less than 6 episodes. What we get now, and perhaps it is because of streaming media, is quantity, not quality. It has simply become too easy to produce something with a decent or even good, technical quality, but there simply aren't enough good, original writers around, so it get diluted; it isn't without reason that everybody keeps going back to the great productions of the past - back then it wasn't easy to get your story produced, so it was far more likely that only the very best made it.
The only time I tune in the networks is to watch NFL football. I hope the strike is over before the season starts ;) Would be a shame to not have good scripts for each game ;)
;)
Maybe if the writers wrote fewer scripts for commercials and more scripts for interesting content they would do better
Since the last writers strike TV has really gone down the pan, constant remakes of old shows, very little imagination in new ones and an excess of cop shows. Fuck them, ultimately it's the writers fault TV isn't really worth watching anymore and that has a knock on all the way down the line.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
Seasons used to average about 25 episodes so they could hit the magic 100 required for syndication. Where you find older shows that shows that had 24, one episode would be a double length season premiere or finale and would get cut in half for syndication.
In the 1950s shows would often have 40 episodes a year. Things like the The Burns and Allen Show would be written and produced in a week.
. . . We got "Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog".
So, if we **DO** get a strike. . . (hint, hint, Joss Whedon. . . .)
I like the shorter seasons. US shows seem to drag a bit mid-season. British shows with about 6 episodes per series end too quickly. The 10-13 episode seasons Netflix does seem a good length.
I'm sure this makes cable TV less value for money. But I think most people consider that to be slowly dying in favour of online services.
Since most greenlit productions these days are repeats of comic book movies and previous hits (remaking the Matrix, really??) a lot of writers could be replaced by a photocopier. That's not a lot of leverage.
The business model is broken. Striking won't fix it.
Sometimes the "writing on the wall" is blood spatter...
If there is an alternate commodity in the market, then when the first becomes unavailable the market moves.
The power of the strike depends on no alternative being available in the market.
There are a number of alternatives in the market.
The strike is going to push the market to those alternatives. Those alternatives, if they see the risk of being a "member" are going to resist allowing collective bargaining, because it becomes an existential threat.
Personally, I think modern TV isn't worth watching, so I do netflix or nothing.
I think most of America is too dumb to know they can't say no right now, so they are going to be unhappy sheep, and they are going to go wherever they think that grass is green. Personally I think they should turn off the TV (and all screens) for a month and see what real life does for them. They might be forced to read a book, walk outside, or have an actual relationship with actual humans. While hard and painful, those are much more humanly valuable than staring at pixels and being induced not to think, or feel, or ... live.
EngrStudent
I mean, nothing new or interesting has come out of Hollywood or TV in the last 10 or 15 years. It has all been reboots, remakes, sequels, tweaks, or other predictable, formulaic bullshit like Game of Thrones or The Big Bang Theory (seriously, this show is 10 seasons of the same exact episode over and over again).
Of the entire /. abstract, only the exclusivity deals are the stickler, and the writers should fight/not sign if they can't do an honest year's work. I wouldn't accept it as a dev, either. What I don't want to see is harkening back to 22-24 episode seasons. Ain't nobody got time for that.
. . . .was Joss Whedon and gang went and did "Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog". . .
So, if there **IS** a strike, how about a sequel, Joss ?? (grin)
I know this will come as a shock to many, but there is a whole world of stuff to do out there, and none of it involves passively sitting in front of a screen. Quit wasting your lives on entertainment, and get out and accomplish something meaningful for a change people! What a waste!
If they are locked into a show for a season (exclusivity in contract), the shorter season should actually be a benefit. It would allow them to work on multiple shows in a year much easier as each lock-in period would be about half or less of the time they were locked in before. Unless they have something silly like it's a year lock-in to represent one season, which seems crazy to me even if you had a full 22-24 episodes. BBC writers must have this figured out as most of their groupings are 6-10 episodes.
Imagine if a programmer got paid every time his code was executed....
Why shouldn't these writers get paid once for the content they produce?
There used to only be so much available at any one time, so TV shows were more valuable. Now, that you can stream on demand content at will, and shows essentially never become unavailable, there's more content available for viewing than time to watch it. 'Water cooler' talking about episodes as they air has dropped slowly down to Game of Thrones with the occasional bout of The Walking Dead or Downtown Abbey at my workplace. They'd have to go on strike an awfully long time before anyone noticed.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Union-busting is very much in fashion again. Add to that the fact that people get a lot of their entertainment and "news" online where very little writing is involved, and the writers would be severely overplaying their hand to call for another strike right now.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Market: "There's not enough work for all youz guys."
Worker: "Oh yeah?! Well, we're going on strike!"
Market: "Thanks to a bunch of you leaving your jobs, there is now just enough work for those who remained."
Worker: "Yay! I'm ending my strike. See you at work on Monday morning."
Market: "You don't work here anymore. Your quitting is what solved the problem."
3D and 4K content was a chance to entice people to watch something new instead of reruns. But not for $60 for a single movie that takes no special advantage of new media. As for movie theaters, people are trying to be health and budget concious. $100 for an hour and a half of entertrainment and junk food is too much for a family of four.
So people moved on to other options. If you want to be a writer today, think VR interactive fiction. Or have another wave of innovation pass you buy while you fight for scraps. Accidentally, movie theaters could find success as arcades as gear is still expensive/difficult to set up at home.
And for god sake, embrace adult content! That's how the world works if you want to be on the leading edge. Some of the best stories were published by Playboy.
With the crap level writing you see like the last season of the Walking Dead, it's time to start ignoring the "pro writers" once more. the last strike allowed a lot of new writes to get some traction, it's time it happened again.
Out with the old that is stuck writing tripe and in with the new.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
A season on DVD use to retail at $40. Now, maybe $20. A TV show is not worth the inflated price it was once, therefore the writings are not worth the price they were before. The inflated monopoly of Hollywood has changed.
Being that, if i do watch a TV or movie. I prefer the British sitcoms over U.S. based dribble. Movies, it's the same. I prefer international films these days. Hollywood has been sorely lacking for decades now. Let the Writers Guild of America strike, they have become irrelevant by their own minimum effort.
They run a cabal betwen the writer's guild, screen actor's guild, and whatever the other guilds are. You lose your guild membership if you work on other for-profit productions which don't use exclusively guild talent.
This is why cameos with non-SAG members are always unspoken parts.
While I can understand the reasons this system came to be, I am wholly for it being destroyed, but only if it takes the producers/publishers of content down with it. Long term that destruction would change the landscape of many 'cinema towns' that need a true cultural revolution, instead of a bohemian decline.
There is endless entertaining educational content on Youtube. TV/Netflix/Amazon has a place if you are in the mood for make believe. But there is so much out there from which you can learn when you least expect it!!! I mean, theres a Youtube video on how to measure PI *using* pies. Videos showing the history of Japan. Shows that explain why there is the letter R in the abbreviation for Mrs. What happens when you pour molten metal into an anthill. Your favorite songs played on unexpected instruments (I'm lookin' at you ukelele!) Too cool!! Make believe murders and shows filled with angst about why they had to turn down a prom date.. Give me a break.
The time to strike is when there exists a large demand for your services, but for whatever reason you aren't capturing much of the profit as that demand is satisfied.
That's not the position writers are in now as demand for their services slackens. It's likely they'll just strike themselves out of a job.
The Writers Guild of America represents writers for all of TV / Film / Streaming / you name it
Including things like the BBC's Sherlock, or Doctor Who, or Downton Abbey or a dozen other shows that have gotten quite popular from "across the pond"?
Which are represented by Writers Guild of Great Britain. Or are you making the weaker claim that WGAW and WGAE aren't coordinating with WGGB?
For another, I imagine that far more screen time on this side of the pond is spent viewing U.S.-originated programming than those fifteen British series you mention. Many British-operated channels are geoblocked, and those that are available in the United States, such as BBC America, tend to be on higher multichannel pay TV tiers than the first expanded basic tier (the one with TNT, ESPN, CNN, and the like).
I didn't worry about a cable company
You do if cable is the ISP for your area.
Fiber to the home? As far as I'm aware, more live outside its service footprint than live outside that of cable.
DSL? Unless it's VDSL, which (again) isn't available everywhere, it often has trouble keeping up with 720p let alone 4K.
Satellite or fixed cellular? Its data transfer quota tends to be on the order of 10 GB. Per month. This is so small that it's unsuitable for regular viewing of long-form streaming video.
If we have a writer's strike, we'll get endless s#itcoms, (un)reality shows, reruns, sequels, and remakes!
Oh, wait!
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
Huh, didn't notice. We watch too much TV always. Don't like what you're paid, don't write them.
I'm pretty sure live action Pocahontas exists. I seem to remember Kevin Costner starring.
In a unionized business with standardized employment contracts, the main way to get improvements is to change the standard contract. That requires multiple companies to cooperate in the formation of a new contract. In most cases, a strike or the threat of a strike is the only way to get all the parties to the table at the same time.
One fix that seems fairly simple and would make the life of the writers easier: limit the scope of exclusivity deals. A series that only runs for a short season of 10 or 12 episodes should not trigger a full year of exclusivity. It's reasonable to expect that a staff writer should be able to work for two or three short season shows per year (depending on episode count and length) or combine one short season with a few freelance writing gigs for other programs. (Some shows use people who are not staff writers for some or all of their episodes.)
Another problem that the writers face is that the average pay rate for people working in television, not just writers, is going down. Back when there were just the big three or four networks they paid top dollar for their people. The CW, cable networks, and streaming services don't pay as much, and that drags the average down. There isn't any simple cure for that, and the increased number of opportunities is a counterbalance to falling pay: it may be harder to make a good salary but more people get an opportunity to make some kind of living at writing.
Now that the audiences of the big networks are declining they're also going to be making cuts in pay. I doubt we will ever again see actors who get a million dollars per episode of any show that is not already on the air. The three leads of The Big Bang Theory get that much; nobody else comes close. Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel got $750,000 for each of the four Gilmore Girls revival episodes but they're double length (1.5 hours each). Next closest is Mark Harmon, who gets $525,000 for NCIS. Source: http://stylecaster.com/highest...
Can be a best selling author. Just look at the author of 50 shades of gray. She is downright terrible by anyone's standards... except the market's. The hard truth is that writing is a soft skill that anyone can do. Therefore, a writer's strike will do nothing to save the profession when any broke liberal arts graduate can do your job for pennies.
It was more than a decade ago, and the studios reacted by making "reality" shows mainstream, then add "america got $stuff"-type shows.