Writers' strike?!
Question: What is the hold up with the writers' strike? What are they asking for and who are they fighting? What are the 2 sides?
Answers: What is the hold up with the writers' strike? What are they asking for and who are they fighting? What are the 2 sides?
There's a good video on Youtube that explains things - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ55Ir2jC...
As for the sides, there's the Writers Guild of America (WGA), aka the writers (of all movies and scripted TV shows) and the American Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), aka the studios.
One thing to keep in mind is that for creative talent, like actors and writers, they get paid residuals. When a show goes into syndication or is sold on DVD, they get a cut. It's like royalties. This is due in part to the fact that they work piecemeal, especially the writers and people who are guest stars or character actors. A writer can have a year when they sell two scripts, followed by several years of no sales, just like an actor can be in several movies one year and none the next. The residuals help them get through the lean periods when they can't get work.
Basically, when you buy a DVD, it generally costs around $20. Of that $20, four cents go to the screenwriter. This payment was set back in 1988, and hasn't been changed for 20 years. The WGA would like it to be increased to eight cents per DVD. The AMPTP says that's too much money and they can't afford to pay writers that much.
The other big issue is internet distribution. If you download a movie or TV show via iTunes, Netflix, Amazon Unboxed or some similar service, the actor gets paid. The director gets paid. The studio gets paid. The writer does not get paid. The WGA believes the writer should be paid, just like syndication and DVD sales. The studios, which tell their investors that they can make billions of dollars via the internet and that it's a gold mine, tell the writers that they're not even sure they can make money via internet distribution, and if they do it won't be much, so they can't afford to pay the writers for this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Writer...
There you go! Hope this helps!
Strike, writers.
2 points
count it
they're asking for a cut of the internet sales and streaming video on the network's websites
I don't know what the latest is but it ain't settled
the distribution of compensation for extra things that are on DVD or on the web. They dont get paid for that extra stuff and the production companies are making money off of it
a lot of stuff
here it is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Writer...
I don't know about you but seeing a part of Hollywood on the picket lines makes me want to see the celebrities out striking with them. I guess Hell IS freezing over and over and over again. because the actors and actresses are nothing without their little writers pulling their strings.