Still More on the Writer's Strike

You're probably getting tired of me talking about the Writer's Strike. It's not like I'm part of it, but to me it's important. I see a lot of words being thrown about how the writers are trying to rip people off, how they should be happy making what they're getting, etc and etc. In the scheme of the creative people involved in the making of the movie or tv show: the writer, the director, the actors; they are probalby the lowest paid of the bunch. And in most cases command the least amount of respect. Everyone calls the director a genius if the movie is good, but he's following what the writer put down on the script. There's an old joke about how dumb the starlet trying to break into movies is that she screwed the writer for a job. I guess since I like to write a little and always have hopes of one day doing more my heart belongs on the writer's side of things. But think about it, without the written word at the beginning there is no movie, there is no tv show. Why shouldn't the writer get a piece of the pie? If a movie makes 10 million dollars the writer should be able to reap part of that windfall. And finally, yes there are some writers that are making a lot of money, but there are a lot more that don't make much. If you sell a script for ten thousand dollars but don't sell anything else that year, your yearly income is only ten thousand dollars.

Ok, here's another video that explains the strike better than anything I've seen so far.