Was Ellen Right To Cross The Writer's Picket Line? - Page 2
Normally, I'd say yes. No crossing the picket line. But, this is more than just writers striking for their fair share of residuals. This is affecting people who aren't striking, but who are being put out of work because of the strike. You've got makeup artists, hairdressers, gaffers, cameramen, set designers, and all the so-called "little people" who work behind the scenes to consider as well. And it is those people whom Ellen has said she is going back to work for...which is exactly what the studio bigwigs want her to do.
Of course, it is worth mentioning that Ellen is legally bound by the no-strike clause mentioned above. Basically, she couldn't strike even if she wanted to. She could be in big legal trouble if she did, and she already has to make up one day because of the day she took off for the strike. Could she afford to break her contract? Perhaps. Could the below-the-line people afford to lose the show? Probably not.
So why are the writers striking, anyway, if most of them make more money than most of us ever will? This post over at MetaFilter by a poster named "headspace" puts it pretty succinctly (all emphasis theirs):
As a working screenwriter, we need the strike, and aspiring scabs might want to really look at why this strike is getting ready to happen before they offer their services.If you write an episode of Metafilter Towers, you get paid according to scale for the script; you get paid according to scale for residuals when the show goes into reruns. You always wrote the script, the show is still making money, consequently, you're entitled to some of that. That's the current contract.
But TV isn't just first run and reruns anymore. People can also watch episodes online- free to watch, courtesy of ad revenue. The actors get a sliver of the ad revenue for online display; the producers get a sliver of the ad revenue for online display. The writers currently don't get any of that ad revenue.
Because television is going for the value-added model, Metafilter Towers also has a website that features along with the usual forum, gallery, and fantoys, mini-episodes which complement the aired episodes. The actors get paid scale for appearing in these mini-sodes; the writers may or may not get paid for writing these mini-sodes because there's no established scale for them.
Continued on the next page
Follow Technorati