I teach a film class in Salt Lake City, and students have asked me why the writers are on strike, and how it will disrupt their TV shows and movies. Instead of taking a lot of time re-typing out my responses to them, I wanted to post these videos that do a great job explaining what the strike is about, why the strike is taking place, and what the results will be without striking.
I personally hope it ends soon so I can get a full season of LOST come 2008 and I am really pleasantly surprised by "The Big Bang Theory" and would love to see that show continue. But, I can certainly understand why the writers are upset. The "Why We Fight" has a great summary of what the strike is about and what is at stake, and the "Voices of Uncertainty" shows why the studios claim that video on the internet is "PROMOTIONAL" is a flat out lie.
Why We Fight
Voices of Uncertainty
The writers of the Simpsons have some good stuff:
I go this from UnitedHollywood site explaining what happened during Monday night's LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards:
"Neil Patrick Harris hosted the evening. He came out onstage, started reading from some 3x5 index cards and halfway through the sentence, "Last night I was just thinking..." he stopped and looked really confused. He turned the card over. Checked his pockets. And then shouted into the wings his card was blank and he didn't know what to say next. Out walked a red shirted writer carrying a WGA strike sign and the whole place errupted into applause. Neil Patrick tried to carry on, calling on some dancers to vamp as he tried to come up with some material. I wish I had my camera at the ready. It was priceless."
2 comments:
I never blame a collective group for striking. the only reason people organize and strike is because the owners of the concern are SO greedy that it becomes obvious that the tail is wagging the dog. If owners would be just a little more generous (notice I didn't say reasonable, I said generous) they would avoid strikes. But instead they will bleed the workers as much as they can. Even if the payscale is relative, it is still unfair for the owners to make that kind of money from the internet and not give some back to the actual creators.
On the other hand, once a group realizes their own power they can force a company into failure. Look at the slow labored death of the once mighty American auto industry. If Henry Ford would have been more generous with his employees, they might have been able to compete better today.
Post a Comment