I told my friend I wouldn't buy any DVDs or even watch online until you guys got your share from the studios...She copped attitude about "Well, they should of thought of that before they went on strike!" Apparently she thought the unions went on strike THEN made demands or something...silly girl.

Wow.

Keep on fighting the power, FTR.


I was going to post the Public Enemy "Fight the Power" video, but Flav makes me too irate these days. Especially considering that his dumb show (not to even mention New York) is pretty much the poster child for the horrors of television without writers.

You know, I didn't care at all about this strike until I saw this:

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

Now I'm all about it!

Hail to the Felicity Huffman, valiant!

Seriously, nice work, FTR. I appreciate these updates.

Subrosa said:
You know, I didn't care at all about this strike until I saw this:

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

Now I'm all about it!

Hail to the Felicity Huffman, valiant!

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1321371988/bctid1321233823

I ♥ Filliam H. Muffman.

As FTR pointed out, the heart of this ultra-shady practice is the fact that incredibly, extremely basic business terms that have relatively standard and set definitions in every single other enterprise in the world - such as 'profit', 'net', and 'percentage' - have no such standardization in the world of film accounting, and instead are defined specifically within the confines of every individual contract.

The end result of this is that any given movie's bottom line can and will be calculated to say exactly what the studio's accountants want it to say, nothing more and nothing less. Prominent examples that have resulted in lawsuits are the exceedingly successful films Batman, Forrest Gump and My Big Fat Greek Wedding which to this day are claimed by the studios as net losses.

In the interest of full disclosure and as a possible strengthening of these points, let me say that 1) I am a producer and 2) from personal experience myself and most other independent producers I know are fully in support of the writers in their strike - when reporters and bloggers use the term 'Producers' with regards to the strike, it is generally in reference to AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) more so than unaffiliated producers. So there's my poor, oppressed movie producer rant.

I miss new episodes of my shows, but it's worth missing them in order for you guys to get a decent deal. If not for you guys, I wouldn't have any shows to watch. I don't think its sunk into the studios heads yet that without new content, commercial slots will lose so much money they might eventually start losing money instead of not making the predicted profit for the quarter.

I'm a budding writer myself, so I'm obviously a bit biased here, but I'm glad you're giving press to this side of the story, Reaper.

Hey, an accounting system where you make shit up! That sounds pretty cool.

Today I learned that taking a stake in the profits of a movie is a bad idea.

I hate to say this but someone has to, whoever let this happen in the first place is the real moron (and obviously a writer) and they are the cause of this, they set precident they fucked all writers from that point forward. What writer even allowed someone to buy the rights without residual income from the use of that piece... seriously, and more importantly when the union was formed how did they not see that as a problem RIGHT AWAY and start fixing it then, not to mention there are 25 issues they have stored up, why wait until you have 25, why not strike when there was just 1 you might have gotten something then and set a precident, waiting until there are 25, you guys look like greedy bastards (even if in reality you are just asking for what is fair)?!

I am sorry but I can't take someone who lets themselves be walked over for years on end to finally blow up in a hissy fit seriously, you should have taken a stand a hell of a lot earlier. Maybe, one of these amazing writers should just for funzies write a scenerio for a sitcom with that as the subject someone might finally see how rediculous you all sound. If you had started this years ago with the strike maybe with only 5 or 6 demands on the table you would have won something, now the studios have you by the balls, you let this slide for years, who in thier right mind would take you seriously. You are like the women who are in abusive relationships, leave, get a restraining order, and then go back and marry the guy 6 months later (which happened to an employee of mine last year), and then is in the hospital because the ASSHOLE FUCKFACE, tried to strangle her. After a certain point you just have to say, she is hopeless (and normally i might say she just needs some help but this is the 3rd time she has gone back to this asshole fuckface and the 3rd time she has ended up in the hospital, although in her defence she only married him once)

Now, I agree you are all getting fucked in the asshole, incedentaly by assholes (how exactly that works I'm not entirely sure, there must be some outside aparatus being used) I agree that many of your demands are just, I agree that the studios are acting like greedy bastards, I agree that most of what you have said in your rant is pretty damn accurate (and oddly enough I am a republican and for the most part think unions have strayed off course over the years). But you took too long to stand up and fight the injustices, you have a long hard fight ahead of you and one you will most likely end up loosing the majority of, you will win some battles but not to the extent that you would like. Soon people will see you as selfish for preventing them from having something enjoyable to watch on TV, the studios will make press release after press release saying we are trying to resolve the situation but they just want more no matter what we offer, you will end up looking like the ASSHOLE FUCKFACES and they will look like the good guys. "Why?" you ask, because they use PR to thier advantage, they will make you look like greedy bastards for trying to weasle them out of the money that they rightfully earned and make you look like bastards by pointing out that if you had just agreed to the terms they had graciously put forth then everyone would be back at home enjoying good programming again. I hate to say it but you have really backed yourself into a corner, which in general is the reason strikes happen. But the hard truth is you won't listen to this, you will still call the studios ASSHOLE FUCKFACES and people will get bored of the constant name calling, learn to be a bit more diplomatic, I'm surprised all you did was stake out the cars of the studio execs, where are the tipped cars, that would get attention, they would believe your serious (you look like fucking stalkers). But that is where I will end my rant, in the end you are just in your demands (for the most part, I don't really know the whole list) and they are wrong in treating you the way they did. But you will never get everything (or even the major things) you want, most likely you will end up with a few morsels that make you feel good but the studios will win out overall.

Let the flaming begin!

I assume a *small* part of why shows like the Simpsons don't turn a profit is because they employ a lot of writers (as well as other types of workers) and pay them a very good living wage in the form of a fixed salary. Generally more than people like electricians and grips and sound people. Obviously another bigger part is that the studios know how to turn profits into expenses and would rather do that, to (theoretically) grow the show, rather than just turn over points to people who would desperately like them. But that's why people usually don't end up pulling residuals until the show's out of production and totally in syndication, right? As long as the show is still in production all of the income is (theoretically) getting paid out to people and services and production/marketting expenses? Still, that they can find ways to lose money on a show that's in thrice daily syndication everywhere in the world IS a little mind boggling.

re: the strike, I build custom electronic equipment that gets used in recording studios. I also used to do a fair amount of work designing and wiring audio systems in recording studios. I work plenty of 12 hour days, spend countless hours in research and design as well as construction of my products, as most of the time everything i do is "one off". Everytime I say goodbye to a box I've built I polish it off, look at with moist eyes and kiss it goodbye knowing I'll never see it again. I consider myself to be a somewhat creative professional in that sense. Most everything I've ever built is in the hands of people who use it to make money, presumably (hopefully) some of which turns into profit for themselves, but I have not ever gotten a residual. I don't feel slighted because I never expected one, so didn't negotiate for one. Obviously there are a lot of people out there like me. Hardly anyone in the working world earns residual income based on past work, even if others are still making money from their labor. The point is, I don't think there's something INTRISICALLY evil about people not getting or only getting very small residuals. Many people develop products for salary knowing that they won't maintain a share of ownership in the final product, and they agree to it because, for them, a salary is more viable than the risk of self employment. I do think the writers have a right to negotiate for residuals, but I don't think it's absolutely clear whether they're OWED them on strictly moral grounds. What the writers are doing, what the studios are doing...It's all just capitalism. sorry.

I don't know what I'm really saying. I love TV and movies, and I appreciate good writing, think it's underrepresented and no doubt undercompensated. It's just the same old story, I find if difficult to believe whenever passionate people paint their own cause lily white. The WGA knew a strike was going to screw a lot of people OTHER than just the richest men in hollywood, and decided it was worth it for the opportunity to add to their own net worths. But online I still see NUMEROUS bloggers and commenters positively SKEWER anyone who dares to put any kind of even slightly negative spin on the decision. Is the cost of pissing other people off worth the writers' cause? Obviously they thought so, and i guess I probably agree -- it's probably just one of those prices that's worth paying when you want to get something done. But I think that if the WGA calculated and deliberately incurred the cost of pissing some people off, they should at least pay that cost with a smile on their face and not accuse the people they've put out of work and dare grumble about it of being, you know, dicks or whatever.

The guy who told the grip to just go collect unemployment insurance doesn't seem to understand the nature of freelance work.

I have to say your opinion is far more well tempered than mine or FTR's, you make some very good points and salute you for that, sadly like my post you will probably be berated for saying what you said.

A less partisan view: