Can we strike the word strike please?

I'm annoyed by all the talk of SAG going on strike. It's particularly annoying because all these rumors started before negotiations did, which means there was a great deal of pressure to just take whatever deal was offered by the studios.

If you look at the deal the WGA took the writers are fucked (my analysis of course) because they still aren't really getting paid for new media. There is a waiting period after a show runs and no payment for anything streamed during that time. So my friend M. who watches House online watches it within that timeframe, no payment to the writers.

The writers are supposed to wait years to see if the internet is going to pan out. Um, right. We all know it's just a fly by night soap bubble, here today and gone tomorrow.

This is essentially what happened when video sales started, the writers took a deal that paid very little while everyone waited to see if there was going to be a market. Of course there was but the amount of pay per sale didn't go up, at least not until the strike a few months ago. So if you bought a copy of season two of Buffy for eighty bucks or whatever, Joss Whedan got five cents. But then wouldn't he have had to split it with all the other writers who wrote that season? I'm not completely clear on that. Maybe he got a ha'penny for all I know.

The writers were asking for twice what they were getting, which may sound like a lot, but worked out to ten cents per DVD. And for new media they wanted some money instead of no money. Isn't it funny how in the end most people like to get paid for their work?

I saw an article during the strike that said that an executive for a studio got a raise that would have covered the entire demands for the entire WGA. That's interesting isn't it?

So now we, meaning SAG, would like to get paid for our work that is going to appear online. Certain big name actors paid for full page ads saying we should get to the table while our union was still talking to actors and seeing what our concerns are. Very frustrating.

Anyway, this article in today's WaPo brought on my post today:

Good luck. Isn't all this uncertainty hurting the industry?

The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. estimated that the writers' strike cost the county $2.5 billion in lost income. A lot of TV executives (and writers and talent) think that the strike hurt their scripted television shows, as viewers turned to other fare, such as reality programming.

Oh my god, shut up! We are NOT on strike!! We're not taking a strike vote! Enough already.

And you know what, the writers strike was very difficult for everyone but you know how much money 2.5 billion is in Hollywood? Let's look at some numbers. (These are domestic and foreign combined.)

Ratatouille grossed $620,421,654. This is box office only.

Iron Man grossed $559,979,318. This is box office only.

Spider-Man three grossed $891,930,303. This is box office only.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull grossed $713,085,447. This is box office only.

With this type of money to be made I've no idea why the studios didn't try harder to at least negotiate. I would have thought they would have wanted to prevent exactly what occurred.

What do I want? For now I'd like both sides to be able to meet, talk, bargain, etc without a lot of pressure and rumors making that job next to impossible.

One final quote, from an email from our president, Alan Rosenberg:

“We have taken no steps to initiate a strike authorization vote by the members of Screen Actors Guild. Any talk about a strike or a management lockout at this point is simply a distraction. The Screen Actors Guild national negotiating committee is coming to the bargaining table every day in good faith to negotiate a fair contract for actors.”

Nuff' said.