Wed, 7 November 2007
You might have seen this before, but I thought it was worth posting, just in case. The striking writers/producers of The Office posted this short video clip to YouTube yesterday:
In the video, Mike Schur suggests you go to UnitedHollywood.com (a WGA blog of the strike) to get more information on their side of the story and to follow the events as they unfold. As one proud union member, I'd just like to throw in my support for the staff of the best damn show on television. Solidarity, my union brothers. Solidarity.
Category:general
-- posted at: 9:12pm EDT
Comments[7]
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It is a well known fact that those of us who work behind the scenes (*cough* costume department *cough*) get paid far, far less than the actors so I\'ve been incredibly impressed that The Office actors have recognized this discrepancy and have supported their writers! Yeah Office cast! That being said, however, I hope this gets solved soon because I\'m going to be sad without My Office. P.S. Marc, I didn\'t think they were being smug at all. A little sarcastically bitter, but not smug. Maybe I\'m biased . . .
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No offence, but the Unions are an albatross killing the American economy right now. It one the most outmoded and outdated agencies operating today, producing a self-serving, lazy, and complacent workforce with an assumption of self-entitlement. It’s the whole \\\'solidarity, my brother\\\' mentality that’s preventing the nation from working hard, moving forward and becoming a better nation. ps...I’m also a union guy.
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A couple observations: a) Greg Daniels noted 7 million iTunes downloads (and at $1.99/download, that\\\'s only $14 million of revenue as a ceiling) b) Showings of episodes on NBC.com are considered \\\"promotions\\\" even though they include advertising and NBC collects revenue. Presumably this is different than the mechanics of collecting writers royalties for TV airings or DVD sales. c) Sounds like they didn\\\'t get paid much to create \\\"The Accountants\\\" webisodes, and they\\\'re bitter about it considering the fact that NBC is still showing those on the website (along with advertising). Of course, those were created during \\\"let\\\'s save the show any way we can\\\" mode, so I\\\'m a little unsympathetic about that. The DVD cut that writers get is awfully terrible. They seem to be focusing on this internet stuff, which is a good long-term view. However, given the very very paltry revenue to date, I wonder if this is a \\\"win the battle and lose the war\\\" situation for the writers. Maybe they could settle the DVD stuff and worry about the internet stuff in a couple years.
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While I understand the whole need for this strike because of -- to use a term Neo-Ryan surely would -- the paradigm shift of content delivery and availability, I thought they all came off a bit smug and snotty in this video. That aside, the rules do sort of need to be set and now because things are a-changing. Unfortunately, at least for the time this will take to work out, the producers\' side isn\'t just negotiating with the writers. What they do here basically sets the formulas for all the other guilds when their new terms come up. The same is true for the writers. They aren\'t just negotiating for themselves. They need to settle on some formula that, when propagated out is favorable to all the guilds (lest there be...hard feelings). So the other guilds will support them because the WGA is the 300 (if you choose to see it in those terms; I don\'t know if I do, but I just dug the analogy), and the producers will do what they can to make sure they aren\'t bled out after all of the next rounds.
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