coolmite

A friend of mine, Abdul “Ab” Williams, is a screenwriter in Los Angeles.  He’s been writing for several years and has sold some scripts–unfortunately, nothing has ever made it out of development.  Still, he is in demand.  He has a lot of projects in the hopper, including one that I’d like to see if it ever gets made.  I’ll just have to cool it now for a while.

 You see, Ab, like the rest of the TV and movie writing world is on strike.  I asked him how he was doing and he told me that he was ok for now.  Money would not be that tight for a few months.  He does have a mortgage and car payments–in Ohio that’s one thing; in California, quite another.  He is willing to forego work on his projects to honor the strike.  I didn’t understand it until I watched this film he sent me.

I get it now.  Back when the last strike happened in 1988, the kerfluffle was all about revenues on VHS tapes sold.  DVD’s didn’t exist yet and neither did the Internet, so that was the only aftermarket venue after movie runs for writers to make extra money from residuals.  Currently, they make four cents per VHS tape sold.  They’re asking for the same cut for DVD’s and consideration–which, I’ll admit I’m vague one–for revenues that come from times that an episode, TV movie or feature film is run on the Internet, which the studios believe isn’t a sure thing to use as a revenue stream for residuals for writers (Lying A-holes, those studios.  Ever since I’ve known them, I never did like them.). 

The writers want respect.  The studios want to cut them out entirely.  If they can keep residuals from writers like they did from animation writers and reality show writers, they will.  Bet the house on it. 

I’ve read forums where people, who don’t seem to be all that intelligent about the process, say that these writers shouldn’t strike and they should all just suck it up and get real jobs.  Here’s what these trolls don’t understand.  Writing for TV and movies IS a real job.  You can’t do it; I can’t do it.  If I could, I’d have more than just this blog.  It takes a certain amount of skill, practice, and ability to sell said project to a studio, even if the project a professional screenwriter wrote is pure garbage.  Their pure garbage trumps what 99 percent of the rest of America could write.  They have a talent, and therefore, a market that demands their services.  Should they take less than they deserve?  It’s not like screenwriters work for studios and receive salaries.  They’re paid by the project.  Approximately half of them are unemployed at any given time.  They have a union to keep the studios honest, because, frankly, if the studios had their way, they’d put reality shows on all day and pay writers nothing if they could get away with it.  Sadly for them, the public demands good TV and movies–at least most of them do.

While that is still the case, and screenwriting is still considered a noble venture that you can build a life around, the writers need to put the studios on their heels for a while.  After all, maybe some of the audience might not come back…