Chris,

I found the early part of this show a little startling; it came off (to my ears) as a call for scabbing for an industry outright refusing to pay its creative talent. No thanks! (If this seems like an exaggeration, bear in mind that the royalties for writers on, for example, streaming of shows they worked on are, in fact, zero.) If I had a vidcast (like you, I keep stalling because I want to do it Just Right), I'd be thrilled if the strike meant people had a chance to see (or hear) what I'm doing on the internet -- but I'll be just as thrilled if the writers on strike take the step into doing new media without the producers, who in my mind, can go blow. I certainly wouldn't be looking to cross strike lines to help them out (luckily, they aren't looking for me to do so, I suspect.)

In a way there's a real parallel for me to what guys like you and me have been saying about the recording industry for some time now -- that the creative types aren't getting their piece of the action, that that's wrong, and that we hope that new media will help them break loose and interact more directly with the consumers for the benefit of both. Now THAT'S an idea I can get behind for writers (and actors, and crew, and in general people who actually do the creative work.) I'm not sure we're there yet, though, so in the meantime if they need to apply pressure to the industry they've got to screw them just a little bit less, I'm in support of that.

Anyhow, at least you know I'm listening to the show, right? :)

Random

Random,

I am with you actually - it was something I struggled with internally a bit before deciding which way I felt about the strike. I TOTALLY agree with unions banding together and doing things like 1) making sure members receive a fair wage, 2) making sure working conditions are safe, and 3) negotiating contracts. I believe that since the WGA members are not in unsafe jobs and do get paid well for their work, this is not about protecting them. It is about more money. At that point, it is just a contract negotiation (either side winning doesn't bother me at this point.)

I am not talking about crossing lines or scabbing, I am talking about taking power AWAY from the producers by getting PEOPLE to move toward us - not signing with producers. I am talking about busting the entire system of a few industry insiders controlling whose stuff makes it in front of people. I am talking about people turning away in droves from that system and finding us on the web. I'm talking about a revolution.

Yeah, like I say, I'm all for changing the industry.

I'm not sure I agree about this not being about fairness of wage. Most WGA members are, in fact, not paid well, certainly by time spent. (Indeed, at any given time, half of WGA members aren't employed at all.) I make a heck of a lot more per hour of work than the vast majority of writers (and not just writers for tv and film, although that's who we're discussing here.) The point being: writers depend on royalties to alleviate that crunch.

But more to the point, it's just capital-w Wrong for the suits to use someone's creative work and not be willing to pay for it. There's a remarkable story told be the writers on Battlestar Galactica recently where the studio told them "we're going to have webisodes." They said "great!" and got to work. Then the studio said "but we're not paying you for them." And the writers said "wrong!" and stopped working on them. This went around again with the studio saying yeah, we'll pay, but we won't give screen credit, blah blah.

So I guess to me there's something fundamental going on here more than "we want to be paid (a little bit) more" -- it's recognition that the creators should be the ones rewarded for creating. Same reason I'm interested in recent developments from Radiohead and Saul Williams -- not just because the RIAA is a pain in my posterior (which obviously they are, since I play music on my show), but because ultimately I want the creators to get my money when I spend it. (And yes, I'm aware in film and tv the writers aren't the only creators. But they should get a piece of the action, even when some suit says it's only "promotional" and rakes in money off of ads.)

Anyhow. If you think this is long, you should've seen it before I realized I should keep it quick. :)

R