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As much as you are entitled to your opinion, I find that you don't fully understand the situation.
You seem to think that they're a bunch of money grubbing blood hounds. Writers are people too, they have taxes and a mortgage to pay. Since they're not paid on bi-monthly basis like 90% of the poplulation, the rely on their residual cheques they receive in the mail to pay for those. And sometimes writers can go years without having something produced, what happens then? They'll probably have to get a day job to pay the bills, which means less time to write, which makes it harder to get something produced.
I also feel that the writer deserves to be payed more. It doesn't matter if they're not the only mind in the process, imagine if the producers were forced to start writing the scripts. They've made it in this life as screenwriters because they have a requried talent. I think they should be payed according to that talent. Will Smith probably makes more money sitting on the shitter in his trailer than a writer makes for putting months of effort into forming the story.
And don't think that writers are the only ones thinking about this. I'm sure their will be talks around the director's guild and the actors' guild, not to mention teamsters and all that other jazz.
For the time being, you're only going to notice the effects of the strike when it comes to TV shows. There's so many movies currently in prodcution that we probably won't notice it until the beginning of '09.
I think you have to imagine yourself in there situation. If you ever become a proffessional writer(I don't know why you would want to, you seem to be against everything they're for) and fully understand how much work is needed, you'll want to paid more too.
I like to think of it like working in a restaurant. The servers get paid more than the cooks, yet they're just showing off the cook's work. Now what happens when the people who make the salads feels like they should be paid more because they make awesome salads? If you don't give them a raise they're going to leave and that's going to suck because you're gonna have to either have the guy who makes pastas make the salads or hire some guy who's never made a salad before. The salads are obviously not going to be as good as before and the servers are going to look bad because they have to serve they crappy salads.
Everyone in this life feels like they should be paid according to their talent. What makes a writer any different?
I don't know why I wrote this, I'm not that good of a debater and you don't look like you're gonna change your opinion anytime soon. Nobody wins...
...but you gotta admit, that restaurant analogy was pretty good.
Please, read Elvis The Goat or Cold Turkey. Thanks in advance and I'll make sure to review your script in exchange.
haha. I don't know these little debates have to feel like everyone's offended because we're sharing opinions. My opinion could and may change about this...these were just my first thoughts about this whole deal. Humans today have an inability to discuss issues without everyone getting on edge.
hah. You'll probably be offended by what I'm saying right now.
Anyway, I shared my opinion and so far nothing y'all have said has managed to change it. Probably won't either. And plus, it's harder to explain an opinion on a computer. If we were face to face it would be much easier.
-Chris
This has nothing to do with being offended by your opinion, but moreso your delivery of it. Telling anyone to "get real" ... now that's just plain rude. If you want people to hear you out, then mind how you voice your opinion. If you spoke to me like that face to face, you'd be staring at my awesome dramatic exit out the door. That's what I was trying to make you understand before!
Chris, you seem to think I am offended. I think your tact is off and yet you think I'm making a big deal about the PC brigade. No. How you say something can totally affect the outcome of what it is you have to say. Also, it affects my decision as to whether or not to even stick around to hear what else you might have to say!
Evidently, you may or may not have even thought your own arguement through, in which case I'll leave you be. Nor do I care to try and change your opinion, let me make that perfectly clear. I've said all I have to say.
Anyway, I shared my opinion and so far nothing y'all have said has managed to change it. Probably won't either. And plus, it's harder to explain an opinion on a computer. If we were face to face it would be much easier.
If you feel this way, then you are not an effective (aka: good) writer. On boards like this, you can take your time to express your opinion. Think things through before hitting the 'send' button. Make changes if you have and so on. When discussing things face-to-face, you don't always have time think think things through and you don't always get a do-over.
Writers are treated like dirt in the industry. They're only one rung up from craft services and they're not paid that much for what they do. If they can get a few extra bucks, then more power to them.
Ok...so 65k for one film. So all a writer has to do is write two to three scripts a year. boo hoo.
And Mike, writers DO write drafts that quickly for most films. They probably get a month before they have to turn in their first draft depending on the type of film it is. If it's Pirates of the Caribbean, that's a different story. But the average film, a draft is completed very quickly and then redrafted a million times by the original writer and other uncredited writers. I'm not saying the final draft gets completed in four weeks. I'm just saying a starting draft from the credited writer does.
-Chris
Did you even bother to read the rest of my post or what? In case it was missed, I also said:
This whole strike is nonsense from both sides, the writers should already know by now we don't get paid much, so why exactly are they gonna start whining about it now? This is why producers are pushing as hard as they can to get movies out, because once the writers' guild goes on strike, we will be looking at quite a few re-runs...
My point was that screenwriters knew from the get go that they get paid for the writing, not ticket commissions OR DVD sales, so why would they bother to change that now? I mean also take into account that producers are spending more and more publicizing their films, to the point where they're either barely above the point of margain or that they break even all together, think they want to spend more on the screenwriters? I for one don't think they do.
Would I MYSELF strike? Absolutely not, do I see why the WGA is striking? Absolutely. This is just a really neutral issue in my book.
Admittedly, I'm pretty ignorant on the workings of the business (I'll go ahead and assume that you all are more knowledgeable then I, if you are it'd be great if you filled in my blanks) but still I can't resit cramming my opinions into the dialog:
Don't know how much 4 cents is relative to what directors or actors get but it sounds reasonable. If it is the case that the share writers and others get are hugely disproportionate they should probably get more.
I also agree that they should definitely get residuals for material distributed through the internet.
That said, I'm against Unions and striking in general. I think that in general Unions just inflate the costs of services or products while lowering the quality of said services and products.
Fact of the matter is that there are a lot of people willing to do what WGA members do and I'm willing to bet that there are a fair number of that pool could do a comparable job (some of the people on this board for instance), so I guess what I'm asking is if what they're producing is really worth what they're asking for.
If they have exhausted every other option, then I guess they have to do what they have to do, and if they can make out with some more cash more power to them.
Quoted from shelton
The original post in this thread can be chalked up to one thing...
Chris is a filmmaker, not a writer.
Why do you say that? He might just be a writer with a low self-esteem and sense of worth. Or maybe everyone else is arrogant and narcissistic. On the radio I heard a "industry insider" say that writers were the most full of themselves out of every group in the industry.
sheepwalker
ps
I'd also like to say that even though some people aren't being super tactful in presenting their opinions I also think people, in general, are too sensitive and should lighten up. Not everything is an attack.
Because the projects he has spoken of working on as a Director or DP far exceed the ones he's worked on as a writer.
To answer your question about the relevance of 4 cents against what directors and actors get, it's probably closer to a quarter, if not more.
Quoted from Pia
When a writer sells his/her script, don't they agree to the terms at that time? If they don't like the contract, no one's forcing them to sign...
True, but if you have a starting point of 1.2% (What is was in the 80's) versus the current rate of .3%, you're that much ahead of the game and don't have to fight and negotiate as much for more.
That's only Gross pay as well sadly. After considering taxes, the writer's probably looking at between 65k to 70k. This whole strike is nonsense from both sides, the writers should already know by now we don't get paid much, so why exactly are they gonna start whining about it now? This is why producers are pushing as hard as they can to get movies out, because once the writers' guild goes on strike, we will be looking at quite a few re-runs...
60 - 70k for words on a page and most of the time the film isn't any good... sounds better than working all year at a REAL job. Then again when you're working a REAL job at least you earn the money they pay you.
60 - 70k for words on a page and most of the time the film isn't any good... sounds better than working all year at a REAL job. Then again when you're working a REAL job at least you earn the money they pay you.
With REAL jobs, you don't have to pay agents and managers.
60 - 70k for words on a page and most of the time the film isn't any good... sounds better than working all year at a REAL job. Then again when you're working a REAL job at least you earn the money they pay you.
That's my opinion right there...
I mean seriously...I don't care how unfair they think it is or if it's just how the industry works as far as money goes...if getting paid 60-70k for writing is the poorest Hollywood treats it's people, they're sure livin' the dream.
Does the fault for the film not being any good fall upon the person who made 60-70k for writing it, or the person who got paid 3 mil to direct it? Could be one or the other, could be both, could be neither.
When an actor is in search of that great story and role, what are they looking for? A script. Who creates that script? The writer. Who gets all the recognition when a film is tops at the box office? The director and actors. When the result is the opposite? The writer.
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