Golden Globes Cancelled

[BLUMENKOHL 1,064]

OK seriously, what would be wrong with make-up artists or the sound guys demanding royalties?

When a studio executive is making $200,000,000 in pay and stock options a year, and someone spending 18 hours per day for 360 days on sound effects is getting $20,000 a year....just so he can move up the ladder.

The nature of Hollywood is not one where you get $500,000 on a movie so you make $500,000 or $1,000,000 on year to year basis. It's you get $500,000 on a movie, and for the next two years you might be out of a job, and the year after you might only make $30,000. That's where royalties come in. When they're not dispersed through the food chain, they all end up in the pockets of 6 men and women and their closest friends.

But most people only see the top 2% of Hollywood, and make judgements based on that.

[Red 73]

Boy, that People's Choice Awards was a waste of time.

[SturgisPodmore 0]

The main issue that they're on strike for is that the writers aren't getting paid anything for the selling of their work online. The studio execs claim that iTunes downloads and other priced downloads are just "promotions" and not actual sales of their work, which of course is ridiculous because the CEOs are the ones making money for the writers' products. The writers want a small share of Internet profits and they deserve it.

I think they also want to double the share they get from DVD sales from like .4% to .8% (I believe those are the right numbers). They were assured that the percentage of video sales they would get would go up later when the VHS home-movie-buying industry was relatively new in the 80's, but their share hasn't gone up since then, and they just want what they were promised and what they deserve. Lots of Hollywood writers (probably the majority) aren't lucky enough to write for popular shows with great longevity, but will go from employed to unemployed on a regular basis, so they need to get paid like the next guy. They're on strike to get what they deserve (and even then it probably won't be enough to equal the work they put into the creative process). So if that means I'll be without my favorite shows for a while, it's okay with me.

~Sturgis

[John Crichton 4]

I always understood that online material was a large part of this too. Galactica's Ron Moore is one of the most vocal in favor of the strike, and a big thing for him was those Galactica "webisodes" that were shown on Sci-Fi's website before the start of season 3, which ran with no credits for cast and crew and the network apparently claims as 100% their property to use however they want with no fee or royalties. Including those on the DVDs is probably part of the reason for the long delay on S3's release (which has finally been dated for the end of March).

I've always been interested in how writers get treated in Britan vs. the US. On pretty much any British TV show I've ever seen, the very first non-acting credit you see is not the director or producer, but the writer.

[Ray Barnsbury 8]

The nature of Hollywood is not one where you get $500,000 on a movie so you make $500,000 or $1,000,000 on year to year basis. It's you get $500,000 on a movie, and for the next two years you might be out of a job, and the year after you might only make $30,000. That's where royalties come in. When they're not dispersed through the food chain, they all end up in the pockets of 6 men and women and their closest friends.

Exactly, and that's what I think people don't realize (at least, I didn't before the strike). The vast majority of people working in Hollywood, like the writers, aren't making a steady income like most of us.

I always understood that online material was a large part of this too. Galactica's Ron Moore is one of the most vocal in favor of the strike, and a big thing for him was those Galactica "webisodes" that were shown on Sci-Fi's website before the start of season 3, which ran with no credits for cast and crew and the network apparently claims as 100% their property to use however they want with no fee or royalties. Including those on the DVDs is probably part of the reason for the long delay on S3's release (which has finally been dated for the end of March).

Yes, that's a big part of it...as Sturgis said, the studios are putting full episodes online and dubbing them "promos" so they won't have to pay writers, directors, actors, etc. However, they're selling advertising for these "promos," so the studios are making money off of them. And with the role of online material quickly increasing in the television industry, not being paid for such material is a scary thing for the people involved. The studios claim the future of the Internet is uncertain and that's why they can't afford to pay writers for it right now. However, they claim just the opposite to investors and share-holders, promising huge returns from online material (which they've already been seeing). So the execs are really just double-talking in order to withhold payment from the people responsible for creating the content.

Yeah but the next thing you know the sound guys and makeup artists will go on strike demanding royalties.Maybe that's what the studios are fearing

The most pressing issue as far as this line of thinking is concerned is the actors and directors guilds (SAG and DGA), whose contracts are up within the next year, I believe. The resolution of the writers strike will likely affect the outcome of the other guilds' contract negotiations.

[Elmo Lewis 6]

I wish I knew how this goes in the U.S., but at the least in the Spain the "authors" of a scripted audiovisual product (TV, film) are its director, writer and composer. They are the ones to get royalties off the intellectual property - I guess it doesn't go like that in Hollywood.

[Richard Penna 2,082]

Yes, that's a big part of it...as Sturgis said, the studios are putting full episodes online and dubbing them "promos" so they won't have to pay writers, directors, actors, etc. However, they're selling advertising for these "promos," so the studios are making money off of them. And with the role of online material quickly increasing in the television industry, not being paid for such material is a scary thing for the people involved. The studios claim the future of the Internet is uncertain and that's why they can't afford to pay writers for it right now. However, they claim just the opposite to investors and share-holders, promising huge returns from online material (which they've already been seeing). So the execs are really just double-talking in order to withhold payment from the people responsible for creating the content.

Yes, it's this double standards thing which really gets me - telling two different things to different audiences in order to get exactly what they want. Seems to happen in every media industry.

And I simply don't buy the 'can't afford' argument from executives. Can't afford means that after all other expenses have been taken care of, there is nothing left to pay them - but as long as I see executives driving around in limousines, I refuse to believe there isn't money lying around to pay these good people.

And Sturgis - you hit the nail right on the head - it's about what they deserve.

[Luke Skywalker 1,284]

the Spain

Sounds like said in olde Spanish

[Elmo Lewis 6]

Yeah, silly typo. Still, it was 9.30 am. It's lucky I managed to type a whole post without swearing that wasn't just random characters or a wordless picture of David Hasselhoff.

[Kendal_Ozzel 32]

And we do appreciate it.

[Morlock 9]

Apparantly Dario Marienelli won for Atonement. Nice.

[Romão 1,931]

Great to see Daniel Day Lewis winning too.

[Kendal_Ozzel 32]

Yeah, I tried to watch that for about 5 minutes and then gave up. I cannot stand those Access Hollywood people.

[Jeshopk 8]

It's a reality that without musicians and writers getting paid enough to pay for their own healthcare and get repayment when their work makes more money, there would not be very good musicians and writers to bring us the high quality entertainment we want in the first place. Writers and musicians are basically independent contractors, and they deserve their small piece of the pie as well, when their work is being reporoduced and resold throughout the rest of their lives. At the level we're talking here, which is shows backed by millions of dollars, which MAKE millions of dollars, I do not see how paying royalties on downloads is going to hurt anyone.

[Elmo Lewis 6]

Well, at least David Duchovny won for his work on Californication.

[Mr. Breathmask 480]

I do love webcomics...

Anyway, Golden Globe winners here.

[artyjeffrey 20]

Well, at least David Duchovny won for his work on Californication.

My wife is best friends with the sister of the show's creator, John Kapinos. Though he lost his nomination, they were happy (and surprised that Alec Baldwin didn't win) that at least "double D" won.

[Luke Skywalker 1,284]

Congrats to Javier Bardem

[indy4 152]