Hollywood versus Hollywood - why both sides are wrong in the WGA strike! by dmfaust

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 21:13:23 PST

All too often lately I see people voicing uninformed support for the WGA strike that is ongoing, and it just drives me crazy. All I hear is "Writers deserve to be paid more!" or "The producers/directors/random villianous entity #7,283 is evil!" yet nary there be an actual argument to support the strike in sight despite numerous statements on why to oppose it.So now it is time to lay out some good old fashioned education, the kind that they've banned in schools.

So here's the deal people. The WGA is not your cuddly little New England Mafia founded labor union, nor your soviet bloc idolizing socialist let's-all-be-equal-even-though-we're-not paradise seeking union. Most unions have a membership that has roughly thet same income level. You don't see a truck driver barely making ends meet alongside a truck driver living in a mansion inside of a bigger mansionand eating cavier off as many dead hookers are they want. The WGA is a rare beast among union organizations, one that has an extreme variance in the finances of its membership. Now you may be asking yourself at this point "So what?". Well union lovers, welcome to hypocrisy. The point of a union (or at least what is supposed to be the point of a union) is to protect the poor workers against the big rich white guys who eat babies... yet... the WGA leadership and elite members ARE the big rich white guys who eat babies. We're talking some of the biggest names in show business are WGA members. Something's wrong with this picture already, and I haven't even gotten to the strike.

So keep all this in mind as we continue on this little journey of discovery.

The main point of contention on the strike is residuals on digital media. Now, allow me to do a quick explaination of this. Most shows, as in out of every show that has ever aired... well, they ain't going to be making a damn penny out of these residuals. And then just as many shows are going to be making so little it might as well not even be the same damn penny. Damn pennies. The people who stand to make money out of this are those who *ALREADY HAVE SUCCESSFUL OUTLETS*. As in *ARE ALREADY RICH AS HELL*. This isn't a move to protect the average WGA writer, it is a move to further pad the pockets of the WGA elite. If they really wanted to help the average writer they'd be asking for something much more simple - higher initial salary. In other words, money on the front end. Not only would it equal more money for most writers outright, it would safeguard them in case the show or movie was not a success. Add into this, a salary increase is then applicable to below the line worker's contracts(see below) while residuals are not, so further helps the common man the unions love to claim they represent.

The general behavior of the WGA has also been simply vindictive. They are demanding people who serve in dual roles not fullfill their non writing duties, despite being contractually bound to, making ridiculous demands of members(they literally said don't bring high end food to the strike, what the hell), and to top it all off choose the single most destructive time possible to strike. Many WGA members have expressed confusion on why the strike was not held sooner, and the answer is simple. The WGA elite wanted to do as much damage as humanly possible to flex their muscles. They could have easily striked in Spring or Summer and caused far fewer jobs to be lost and hurt fledgling television series virtually not at all, while acheiving their goals, but specifically waited for the height of the fall season to make their move. That is just playing dirty no matter how you cut it.

Now let's take a moment and look at the strike repurcussions. Because contrary to popular belief, when you do something, something else usually happens as a result, and then something else happens as a result of that, and so forth. In the case of this strike... well, let's see.

1) Below the line workers are laid off. It is just simple economics, can't blame the studios for this at all. (Below the line workers are the people who no one really cares about and whose name you will never bother to remember unless they are your uncle. Cameramen, grips, assistants,caterers, those guys who hold up cue cards, make-up artists, and Pauly Shore.) We're talking dozens, sometimes HUNDREDS(yes, HUNDREDS) of people who work on TV shows and movie sets. Just out of work. Bam. Oh, but hang around because you never know when the strike could end, so have fun finding a temp job that will take that into account assuming you are even trained for anything else. And remember, Wal-mart can only hire so many greeters. And to top it all off, all those fancy residuals don't help these guys at all - the only residuals they ever see are sent to union funds which are subsequently plundered by organized crime(and Pauly Shore, he's got sticky fingers).

2) Writers with active fledgling projects... well, suddenly they ain't in such a great position to keep their fledgling shows afloat. Any show currently struggling will find itself without a chance to come back, seasons are cut short harming return viewership, and suddenly... bam. The people the strike are supposed to be helping are out of a job.

3) People who serve dual roles on productions, such as Writer/Producer or Writer/Director or even Writer/guy who holds cue cards, are pressured by the WGA into not fullfilling their non writing duties... placing them squarely in breach of contract city.

4) And other stuff.I'm getting bored of writing this so I'm coping out and just saying other stuff. Other stuff is bad.

BUT BUT BUT.. YOU SAID BOTH SIDES ARE WRONG! WHY ARE YOU JUST TRASHING THE WGA AND LEAVING US?! Calm down bucko, we're getting there, I wouldn't leave without trashing the other side too. Fortunately this is a bit easier to explain, so we'll do another fun numbered quick list.

LIST OF WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE PRODUCER TYPE PEOPLES AND THE NETWORKS AND JUNK... GO!

1) They are obviously full of crap when they state certain things are promotional use only. It is a strange thing to be lying about, as it only helps the WGA in their PR war.

2) They are idiots. Now, to be fair some are only moderately idiotic, but a lot are just incredibly, monstrously idiotic. Show cancellations that are just bizarre(Veronica Mars), completely unfair treatment of many shows(Drive, Jericho pre-resurrection), and just all around retarded moves on programming in general.

3) They don't have the best grasp on economic returns on proper investments, and prefer to put out reality and game shows galore simply because of cheap production cost resulting in higher profits for lower ratings... while refusing to cultivate new shows and attempting to try anything remotely risky. They want their new incarnations of Friends or Raymond to be hits from Day 1, and if they don't topple American Idol in their 8:30 Wednesday death slot right out of the gate then they couldn't care less about them. Combine this with #2 and the entire culture of American entertainment continues its ever steepening decline.

4) I have seen one, ONE, statement by a producer about the strike that was well thought out and accurate, and it was buried in the comments section of an L.A. Times blog. What the hell? Maybe they've started to outsource their PR to India now, I mean if it works for tech support why not.

5) Anyway, what it really boils down to is this, their idiocy aside... The major networks, their studios, and their pet producers(not so much the more independent ones) have some of the most atrocious business practices possible. It would take hours to write up a full list of their outright borderline crimes. Forget the oil companies, these guys are the communications giants(Comcast and AT+T) are the real crooks.

So, in short... Both sides suck, and people need to get over their mindless support of the WGA simply because they have the better PR machine going.Don't forget that we, the viewer, are thelosers here. Oh. Uh, and I guess those guys who lost their jobs for no gain lose too, but it's hard to think about them when I only have a few more episodes of CSI New York to watch before I start going into Gary Sinise withdrawal. (He's like ecstasy and chocolate chip pop-tarts rolled into one.)

There's a lot more to be said, and a lot more I want to say, but no one is going to read this anyway so who cares, back to playing Super Mario Galaxy.

The plague of the gaming industry spreads unabated, and its name is EA by dmfaust

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:13:58 PDT

EA continues their attempt of monopolization of the gaming industry - slowly turning every good developer into a shadow of their former itself. Bioware is the latest victim, with Flagship(formerly Blizzard North) just before them. And with Flagship's Hellgate a scant 2 weeks away, it will bea serious show of how much EA can screw someone over as these former Diablo 2 developers are forced to rush out a title when their history is that of waiting until it is well and truly finished.

Another recent story that should be mentioned as a prime example of their incompetence is the EA acquisition of Mythic. Mythic are best known for currently working on the Warhammer MMORPG. They have a solid background in the genre having created the excellent and oft overlookedDark Age of Camelot(which to this day remains the best PvP experience there is), and while certainly not a flawless development house are far above most. Upon the EA take over of Mythic, with Warhammer looming on the horizon and receiving plenty of press and hype, they did one of the most bizarre things ever... EA pulled Mythic employees off of Warhammer to work on an Ultima Online expansion. Ultima Online. UO. As in a game that is over 10 years old and has virtually no player base left. And now we recently have news that the Warhammer beta is going on a 2 month or longer hiatus, which is far from a good sign. So things are looking just peachy over at Mythic after EA showed up at their doorstep with the deal from the devil.

When will the nightmare end? It is more than past time to stand up against EA - stop buying their first party products altogether and avoid any company that is under the EA banner -unless it is one that needs to be supported to show EA who the true game companies are such as Bioware. Gamers must diluge EA with letters of complaint and statements of distaste for their business practices, not just e-mail but real postal mail as well.

Let us all take a moment to pray for Bioware Austin, who knows what will happen to the fledgling offspring and its mysterious projects now. Dead before it ever gets a chance to live? Quite possible with EA pulling the strings(both purse and puppet). We shall see soon enough I expect.

My fondish wish is that EA tries to throw its weight into the hardware arena. That competition and initial lack of profit can destroy even the best of companies, and I can't imagine EA pulling it out like Microsoft or Sony(PS1 and PS2 anyway, PS3 seems like something EA would do).

NEXT TIME! Whyblu-ray sucks! And find out who ate my goddamn leftovers ~we have a good old fashioned mystery on our hands.I'm hungry.

Dmfaust's profile on TV.com

Hollywood versus Hollywood - why both sides are wrong in the WGA strike! by dmfaust

The plague of the gaming industry spreads unabated, and its name is EA by dmfaust