The W.G.A. strike, a laypersons' opinion
Nov. 19th, 2007 07:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anysiaStudios are forgetting one major fact. Whether it's television, or movies, if it weren't for the writers, you wouldn't have scripts, no scripts means no production. Pay the writers and stop screwing them over.
The studios are quibbling over money, residuals and other monetary items the writers rightfully (no pun intended there) deserve. If money is such an issue, how about not paying actors $40 million to do one movie? Maybe cut back on that $250 to $750k per TV episode payment to actors. I am not begrudging actors their daily bread, but their salaries have gone to the extreme polar opposite of what used to happen to them when they were paid a pittance for their work. And how about those corporate perks that number in the hundreds of millions?
And now the studios, in an attempt to strong arm the writers into submission, are halting production of many major, and new, laying off the entire casts of TV shows, but not releasing them from contracts so they can work elsewhere. So, not only are they pissing off the writers, they now have the SAG pissed off at them.
Studios suspending actors without pay and not outright terminating their contracts, which prevents them from finding work elsewhere, has SAG pissed. Per SAG's agreement, studios can opt to suspend members for five weeks with half pay; suspend them with full pay; or release them from their contracts. Even if the actors are fired, they're supposed to be immediately rehired under their original contract terms once production recommences.
The lines have been drawn, and some boxing gloves are needed. This is gonna be a dirty fight.
The studios are quibbling over money, residuals and other monetary items the writers rightfully (no pun intended there) deserve. If money is such an issue, how about not paying actors $40 million to do one movie? Maybe cut back on that $250 to $750k per TV episode payment to actors. I am not begrudging actors their daily bread, but their salaries have gone to the extreme polar opposite of what used to happen to them when they were paid a pittance for their work. And how about those corporate perks that number in the hundreds of millions?
And now the studios, in an attempt to strong arm the writers into submission, are halting production of many major, and new, laying off the entire casts of TV shows, but not releasing them from contracts so they can work elsewhere. So, not only are they pissing off the writers, they now have the SAG pissed off at them.
Studios suspending actors without pay and not outright terminating their contracts, which prevents them from finding work elsewhere, has SAG pissed. Per SAG's agreement, studios can opt to suspend members for five weeks with half pay; suspend them with full pay; or release them from their contracts. Even if the actors are fired, they're supposed to be immediately rehired under their original contract terms once production recommences.
The lines have been drawn, and some boxing gloves are needed. This is gonna be a dirty fight.
