Meet your new thread, same as the old thread.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop

• The U. S. Supreme Court decision in Communication Workers of America v. Beck, 487 U. S. 735 (1988) . . . held that nonunion employees who are required to pay union dues as a condition of employment could not be forced to support union activities, such as political contributions, that are unrelated to workplace representation.

If they don't like it, they don't have to sign up. So what's the problem?

There is none. All three of them could opt not to sign up.

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by andViolins
Aren't the studios deathly afraid of what you just wrote? That either people a) will discover other forms of entertainment (such as the internet (perhaps discover is not the right word. Maybe use more?) and/or b) simply not watch as many t.v. shows or movies? The last big writers strike pushed viewing audiences towards cable and pushed the networks towards reality t.v. shows. I don't know where the audiences may end up after this strike. And if the studios (in their polling/tracking) believe that negative press or negative attitudes could affect these numbers, then that will change the strategy.

aV

I think the networks' move to reality TV from scripted TV hurt the writers much more than it hurt the networks, but that may just be propaganda. Reality TV is cheap as hell to produce, and at least at the moment, very popular. American Idol, anyone?

I don't think it's really a networks vs. cable issue at all. I think most or even nearly all of the scripted content on cable is governed by the agreements -- it's not just network scripted shows that are ending, it's Comedy Central etc. Plus, a lot of the cable channels are actually owned by the same conglomerates that own the networks. It's all producers, not just network producers.

I'm not seeing that people would somehow become readers or start watching mainly non-produced content (like youtube) -- but I'm not a trend predictor at all.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
I think the networks' move to reality TV from scripted TV hurt the writers much more than it hurt the networks, but that may just be propaganda. Reality TV is cheap as hell to produce, and at least at the moment, very popular. American Idol, anyone?

I don't think it's really a networks vs. cable issue at all. I think most or even nearly all of the scripted content on cable is governed by the agreements -- it's not just network scripted shows that are ending, it's Comedy Central etc. Plus, a lot of the cable channels are actually owned by the same conglomerates that own the networks. It's all producers, not just network producers.

I'm not seeing that people would somehow become readers or start watching mainly non-produced content (like youtube) -- but I'm not a trend predictor at all.

It will be a short term boom for NetFlix and Blockbuster and pay per view and theatres. It will also help the movie studios a little because they have a deep backlog of movies that they otherwise wouldn't release that they can now put into the marketplace at higher profit due to the decreased supply.

I don't think the studios can mine much more out of the reality genre. It's already beaten to death.

[Gattigap]

Originally posted by andViolins
Aren't the studios deathly afraid of what you just wrote? That either people a) will discover other forms of entertainment (such as the internet (perhaps discover is not the right word. Maybe use more?) and/or b) simply not watch as many t.v. shows or movies? The last big writers strike pushed viewing audiences towards cable and pushed the networks towards reality t.v. shows. I don't know where the audiences may end up after this strike. And if the studios (in their polling/tracking) believe that negative press or negative attitudes could affect these numbers, then that will change the strategy.

aV

I've been listening to a writer/producer named Rob Long on a local station (KCRW) who's explaining that the writers are making a bad move because they're probably going to lose, and the studios are making a bad move because even when they win, it'll just be the first stage of a murder/suicide death pact, because this strike will help accelerate the trend away from the current messy, expensive, inefficient studio system to the more efficient means of producing and distributing content on the interwebs. The shrinking pie won't kill professionally produced content, but it will make a number of people relatively poorer.

[notcasesensitive]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
I think the networks' move to reality TV from scripted TV hurt the writers much more than it hurt the networks, but that may just be propaganda. Reality TV is cheap as hell to produce, and at least at the moment, very popular. American Idol, anyone?

I don't think it's really a networks vs. cable issue at all. I think most or even nearly all of the scripted content on cable is governed by the agreements -- it's not just network scripted shows that are ending, it's Comedy Central etc. Plus, a lot of the cable channels are actually owned by the same conglomerates that own the networks. It's all producers, not just network producers.

I'm not seeing that people would somehow become readers or start watching mainly non-produced content (like youtube) -- but I'm not a trend predictor at all.

In an interesting (to me)coincidence, an actor friend today sent me the link for her new webseries. Not sure whether the writers on that would be prohibited from working during the strike, but those are now out there. I've heard conflicting reports about the effect on blogs and the like. My guess is that if the writer is union, they can't write, but maybe it is easier to get non-union writers to write for internet alternatives?

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
I just listened to a writer on NPR explaining that it doesn't, and that the union is ginning up public sentiment to rally its members who may be considering crossing picket lines.

THAT makes sense to me.

w/r/t your later post, the writers strike applies to movies, so the studios would eventually run out of movies -- it just is a more delayed effect than on TV because movies take longer. The studios say they have scripts stockpiled, but that's a little bit BS I think b/c writers seem to remain involved well after shooting begins.

I don't think the studios can get more out of reality, but I think it's not going to go away -- so it's a reliable, significant source of money. And it seems like even though people might prefer to watch good stuff, if there's nothing really good, they'll watch almost anything.

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by notcasesensitive
In an interesting (to me)coincidence, an actor friend today sent me the link for her new webseries. Not sure whether the writers on that would be prohibited from working during the strike, but those are now out there. I've heard conflicting reports about the effect on blogs and the like. My guess is that if the writer is union, they can't write, but maybe it is easier to get non-union writers to write for internet alternatives?

I think non-union people can write for those, but that the WGA may have said that they will refuse to let non-union people who do a lot of stuff during the strike into the WGA in future, or something, which would mean that they couldn't make the transition from (likely non-lucrative) webseries to writing for TV/movies for any entity that is part of the producers guild, which is pretty much all of the entities that pay people.

Who pays for the webseries?

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by Gattigap
I've been listening to a writer/producer named Rob Long on a local station (KCRW) who's explaining that the writers are making a bad move because they're probably going to lose, and the studios are making a bad move because even when they win, it'll just be the first stage of a murder/suicide death pact, because this strike will help accelerate the trend away from the current messy, expensive, inefficient studio system to the more efficient means of producing and distributing content on the interwebs. The shrinking pie won't kill professionally produced content, but it will make a number of people relatively poorer.

I believe that, as well, to some extent. I don't think I've seen any non-produced content on the internet that makes money, though? But filmed entertainment is not a hugenormous part of my life.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
I think the networks' move to reality TV from scripted TV hurt the writers much more than it hurt the networks, but that may just be propaganda. Reality TV is cheap as hell to produce, and at least at the moment, very popular. American Idol, anyone?

I don't think it's really a networks vs. cable issue at all. I think most or even nearly all of the scripted content on cable is governed by the agreements -- it's not just network scripted shows that are ending, it's Comedy Central etc. Plus, a lot of the cable channels are actually owned by the same conglomerates that own the networks. It's all producers, not just network producers.

I'm not seeing that people would somehow become readers or start watching mainly non-produced content (like youtube) -- but I'm not a trend predictor at all.

There was one poll that suggested that more people are planning on picking up books and magazines than any other form of alternate form of entertainment. I have plenty of DVDs to help me through this difficult, difficult time. And the real impact isn't going to be felt for another month or so of reruns.

I tend to by sympathetic towards the writers. In part because I actually know quite a few of them, and in part because I secretly aspire to be one of them.

I have a friend that works for a casting agency in New York. She said that the double strikes was just killing the agency, and they're all extremely relieved that the stage hand strike is over. My boyfriend works in production in LA, and he says a lot of the Christmas parties that the studios and other industry companies usually throw have been cancelled or sized down considerably this year. He says that are a lot more technical people than usual looking for productions to join right now.

[Gattigap]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan

I tend to by sympathetic towards the writers. In part because I actually know quite a few of them, and in part because I secretly aspire to be one of them.

I know what you mean. From the little that I've seen (my firm has an entertainment group, and tangentially I've learned a little bit about how being a writer in Hollywood works, though certainly I'm no str8) it sounds like it can be a real struggle to make it as a writer, though.

I have a friend that works for a casting agency in New York. She said that the double strikes was just killing the agency, and they're all extremely relieved that the stage hand strike is over. My boyfriend works in production in LA, and he says a lot of the Christmas parties that the studios and other industry companies usually throw have been cancelled or sized down considerably this year. He says that are a lot more technical people than usual looking for productions to join right now.

AoN, the aforementioned Rob Long has two theories about when the strike will end. His head tells him June, for reasons that I'm not recalling at the moment. His gut tells him January, because that's when pilot season starts. If the networks miss pilot season, then they'll have nothing to sell to advertisers in May, when traditionally the networks auction off something like 40-70% of their advertising inventory for the new season, for which they get paid upfront.

Those upfronts amounts to mucho cash. If there are no upfronts to sell, then Long alleges that these billion dollar networks will be worth something along the lines of a basic cable channel.

Uh, carry on.

Gattigap

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
I think non-union people can write for those, but that the WGA may have said that they will refuse to let non-union people who do a lot of stuff during the strike into the WGA in future, or something, which would mean that they couldn't make the transition from (likely non-lucrative) webseries to writing for TV/movies for any entity that is part of the producers guild, which is pretty much all of the entities that pay people.

Who pays for the webseries?

My ex-boyfriend is a writer, and he's pissed off with the WGA because of the strike rules regarding writing content on the web. Apparently, the WGA is discouraging any writing for profit at all, even writing that isn't covered by the contract. I don't know how much they're enforcing it, or whether or not writers are following those rules.

A writer's blog that many of my writer friends admire: http://artfulwriter.com/

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
My ex-boyfriend is a writer, and he's pissed off with the WGA because of the strike rules regarding writing content on the web. Apparently, the WGA is discouraging any writing for profit at all, even writing that isn't covered by the contract. I don't know how much they're enforcing it, or whether or not writers are following those rules.

A writer's blog that many of my writer friends admire: http://artfulwriter.com/

I am sympathetic towards the writers -- I just don't see how they have any leverage. And I can more easily see people telling a poll that they are going to read books and magazines rather than going to movies or watching TV than I can see them actually doing that, long-term.

To the extent DVD-watching impacts sales of DVDs, watching DVDs doesn't seem particularly supportive of the writers, given that they are asking for more revenue-sharing on those, as well -- that implies it is mostly the studios who are profiting.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by notcasesensitive
In an interesting (to me)coincidence, an actor friend today sent me the link for her new webseries. Not sure whether the writers on that would be prohibited from working during the strike, but those are now out there. I've heard conflicting reports about the effect on blogs and the like. My guess is that if the writer is union, they can't write, but maybe it is easier to get non-union writers to write for internet alternatives?

can't write at all? Ben Stein did his column in the NYT last sunday and talked about being in the union.

[andViolins]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
My ex-boyfriend is a writer, and he's pissed off with the WGA because of the strike rules regarding writing content on the web. Apparently, the WGA is discouraging any writing for profit at all, even writing that isn't covered by the contract. I don't know how much they're enforcing it, or whether or not writers are following those rules.

A writer's blog that many of my writer friends admire: http://artfulwriter.com/

I'm not sure how correct this is. According to the "strike rules" posted on the WGA webpage:

"Non-traditional media
The Rules prohibit writing services performed for a struck company in connection with new programming intended for initial viewing on non-traditional media (such as the Internet and cellular telephones), and the option or sale of literary material for that purpose."

Thus, if the web page or other "new media" is connected to one of the struck companies, then the union member cannot "cross the picket line" and write for the company. If the website is not owned, operated or connected with any of the AMPTP companies, then the union could not prohibit the writer from writing for that site, blog, etc.

aV

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
My ex-boyfriend is a writer, and he's pissed off with the WGA because of the strike rules regarding writing content on the web. Apparently, the WGA is discouraging any writing for profit at all, even writing that isn't covered by the contract. I don't know how much they're enforcing it, or whether or not writers are following those rules.

A writer's blog that many of my writer friends admire: http://artfulwriter.com/

I wish I had been reading this at the time -- he had EXACTLY the reaction re: Teamsters and strike marching schedules that I did:

• I have to amend my “praise the leadership!” post from a few days ago.
  
  The one about The Teamsters.
  
  I praise the leadership for convincing everyone that the Teamsters were going to support us. In reality, the WGA is picketing studios between 9 AM and 5 PM.
  
  Trucks come in before 9 AM, and they leave after 5 PM, so this isn’t really conducive to getting Teamster support…
  
  Furthermore, I know that writers will be picketing Warner Brothers today…but at one gate.
  
  Warner Brothers has…I think 9 gates…maybe 8. But more than one.
  
  So I wouldn’t be counting on anything valuable from this alliance of the unions’ leaderships, although I still believe that the rank and file of the Teamster Brotherhood are behind us, and I know I’m behind them.