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#112
11-12-2007, 02:47 PM
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Re: Official WGA Writers Strike thread.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] So then I guess the writers of the Sopranos were bad writers up until they started writing for The Sopranos [/ QUOTE ] If everything they did before sucked (I'm not saying it did)? Yes. If you are a writer, and you write [censored] for the next 10 years, and then in 2018 you write something amazing, in the end you're judged based on your whole body of work (what else could there be to judge you on?? There's no better measure, not even close, and the one you suggested, how many Americans are worse, is stupid). Now, let's say in an alternate reality, you get hit by a car and die in 2017. Unlucky as it is, because you died having written nothing but [censored], when people look back on your life (which they wouldn't, but let's pretend), and ask 'was he a good writer?', the answer is no. Anything else is an argument akin to: [ QUOTE ] Im sure there are lots of amazing novelists who will never break in because they don't want to go through the hassle of writing a novel. [/ QUOTE ] Which someone else posted in the thread and I think you agreed with me was a stupid thing to say. As for my supposed ego in saying I decide what's good tv and what's not, you're the one who has been listing shows as either good writing or bad writing, not me. The only value judgment I've made of TV writing in this thread is that the best of it is brilliant but most of it is crap; and I think that's not a controversial statement in the slightest, in fact I would guess most people would agree and of those who don't the majority would think the statement is too generous to TV writers, not too harsh. [/ QUOTE ] Yeah my list was more going off a general view of both people in the industry and the critics who review its product..so its not my personal opinion about what is good or bad. And no KneeCo I'd argue your wrong. The writers who worked for those crappy shows were good writers who wanted to pay the bills etc and since that was the job they got stuck with they kept with it until they got something better. While they sloggd away on those crappy shows they were working on their own more personal [censored] on the side...short stories, novels, spec screenplays, TV pilots, poetry, articles for newspapers or magazines, and other spec TV shows. They would have never been hired to Sopranos if they were bad writers. I worked briefly for a writer who I thought was a total hack because the scripts of his that got turned into movies were awful and went straight to DVD. While working for him I ended up reading all these short stories he had written which were [censored] amazing. He didn't ever try to publish them or anything he just did it because he enjoyed it and the format wasn't so restraining compared to screenwriting. So one could assume based on his crappy couple of movies that he was a terrible writer, but that assumption would be wrong. TV & Film is a strange medium compared to other forms of writing given it will often take a amazing work of writing and make it worse and worse and worse until the end product is [censored]. 
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#113
11-12-2007, 02:49 PM
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Re: Official WGA Writers Strike thread.
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OP, Is your information on The Office based on official news? I assumed that the writers who are also actors can continue to act and thus they can shoot however many scripts they have already written (which I assumed was > 1). Are the writers refusing to act? Seems the actors guild would be pissed if that's the case. Or does the show really not write more than 1 episode ahead of time? Yugoslav [/ QUOTE ] Toby, Kelly, and BJ are writers on the show and thus they obv will not cross a picket line. Steve Carrell is a member of the WGA as well as SAG and he won't cross a picket line...though he could technically be fired or suspended for doing so.
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#114
11-12-2007, 02:55 PM
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Re: Official WGA Writers Strike thread.
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THERE IS A VERY SPECIFIC REASON WRITERS ARE PAID RESIDUALS. there is also a reason they are called residuals and not royalties. [/ QUOTE ] Writers are selling a product. Most people who sell their product only get a one time benefit. Ford sells its cars to a dealer and that is it. Ford doesn't get paid if the car is re-sold again or used as a rental car. Studios should pay a flat-fee and own the product in perpetuity. Then they wouldn't have to worry about all this crap. Writers though are generally communists and think they deserve the world because they wrote part of Act I of 'Alf' from 1985. The studios want money and the writers want money. It is purely mercenary and anything else is just a beard.
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#115
11-12-2007, 03:01 PM
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Re: Official WGA Writers Strike thread.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] THERE IS A VERY SPECIFIC REASON WRITERS ARE PAID RESIDUALS. there is also a reason they are called residuals and not royalties. [/ QUOTE ] Writers are selling a product. Most people who sell their product only get a one time benefit. Ford sells its cars to a dealer and that is it. Ford doesn't get paid if the car is re-sold again or used as a rental car. Studios should pay a flat-fee and own the product in perpetuity. Then they wouldn't have to worry about all this crap. Writers though are generally communists and think they deserve the world because they wrote part of Act I of 'Alf' from 1985. The studios want money and the writers want money. It is purely mercenary and anything else is just a beard. [/ QUOTE ] Ok based on the above I can tell there is no point in talking with u.
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#116
11-12-2007, 03:13 PM
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Re: Official WGA Writers Strike thread.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] THERE IS A VERY SPECIFIC REASON WRITERS ARE PAID RESIDUALS. there is also a reason they are called residuals and not royalties. [/ QUOTE ] Writers are selling a product. Most people who sell their product only get a one time benefit. Ford sells its cars to a dealer and that is it. Ford doesn't get paid if the car is re-sold again or used as a rental car. Studios should pay a flat-fee and own the product in perpetuity. Then they wouldn't have to worry about all this crap. Writers though are generally communists and think they deserve the world because they wrote part of Act I of 'Alf' from 1985. The studios want money and the writers want money. It is purely mercenary and anything else is just a beard. [/ QUOTE ] it is extremely obvious that u didn't read the reason that they get residuals there is no parallel here to ford selling a car ford still owns the rights to that car's branding, model, future production, future variants, etc etc a writer is giving that up in exchange for residuals if studios wanted to just pay writers for a script and that's it, then the writer would still own that authorship and would thus have the final say in future installments, future variants, movie adaptations, etc etc etc but studios want that ownership of the author rights, so they pay for them by giving residuals the contracts are up and new ones must be negotiated writers want residuals on ALL distribution mediums, not just tv/dvd, but also on internet and new media...studios know that is the future so they don't wanna give any of that pie up until they agree, there is no new contract
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#117
11-12-2007, 03:15 PM
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Re: Official WGA Writers Strike thread.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] THERE IS A VERY SPECIFIC REASON WRITERS ARE PAID RESIDUALS. there is also a reason they are called residuals and not royalties. [/ QUOTE ] Writers are selling a product. Most people who sell their product only get a one time benefit. Ford sells its cars to a dealer and that is it. Ford doesn't get paid if the car is re-sold again or used as a rental car. Studios should pay a flat-fee and own the product in perpetuity. Then they wouldn't have to worry about all this crap. Writers though are generally communists and think they deserve the world because they wrote part of Act I of 'Alf' from 1985. The studios want money and the writers want money. It is purely mercenary and anything else is just a beard. [/ QUOTE ] lol at comparing writing to a car here's a hint: ford doesn't do that because their competitors don't - they would get killed in the marketplace. writers can demand that because their content is absolutely vital to television.
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#119
11-12-2007, 03:16 PM
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Re: Official WGA Writers Strike thread.
it's not even about what competitors do
ford still owns the brand while writers get paid residuals as payment for giving up the brand...that is the key difference here
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#120
11-12-2007, 03:19 PM
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Re: Official WGA Writers Strike thread.
[ QUOTE ]
Call me on whatever you want. Unions in general protect a small group to the exclusion of others and drive up overall costs. As an article in the LA Times about the Teamsters (another of the fine unions) one driver said "I don't get residuals, why should the writers?". What is wrong with the studio paying a flat-fee for a script and owning it in perpetuity if that is what the writer is willing to give up? Maybe one writer can negotiate for 10 cents of every DVD sales. All power to them. [/ QUOTE ] LOL. Business should strive to profit as much as they can on their goods and services, but workers shouldn't? They should sit back and take whatever handout the company decides to keep prices down?
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