Bollywood is cool

So, I saw That Film That Started With S, and it was awesome despite the whole “mobile phone confiscation, no idea where you’re going” thing.

Here’s what I told Lisa about it.

What sort of tv are you watching?

Are you watching streamed stuff from the US?  Are you downloading from the official station sites, watching clips on You Tube, buying official dvds from ebay before the shows come out here?

You might want to stop that.

The Writers’ Strike is officially on in the States.  Pencils down means pencils down, people, and that is… totally sucking for people who are doing what they love for a living, but have been told by their union that it’s strike time, and can’t in good conscience continue (and I know enough of the people who read me here to know that they wouldn’t cross a picket line, either).  They have a point, but maybe I’m biased.  Here’s a beginner’s guide to the writers’ strike, from the writers’ pov.

Writers currently get nothing at all in residuals for internet stuff (which is sold on iTunes and through official sites for yes, actual money)(as opposed to the pirated stuff, which I can thankfully still watch – hey, the industry is screwing the writers, let’s screw them!), and, even worse, they’re not getting a share of the dvd sales.

Yup, you read that right.  If you finally, FINALLY get a gig on a show like Friends or Dexter or Veronica, and you do the dance of joy, and you think your life is about to change?  Well, no, sorry, it isn’t.  You’re gonna get paid when it shows on tv, once, and then you’re gonna get paid every time it gets replayed.

The major problem is that for a niche show like Farscape or Trek (god, Trek?  Goldmine!) or Veronica, the major sales point is dvd.  Cult shows make their money from dvd sales.  They don’t get replayed, because people in the main didn’t love them, but nutters people like me buy them.  And buy them, and buy them.  You’ve (almost certainly) seen my dvd shelves.  If I like it, I buy it.  I can’t keep to appointment television, so I just go “Yes, I like that show, I’ll pick it up and marathon it.”  And the writers get nothing from that.  Which sucks (enough to make me look in horror at my shelves, and not watch them while the strike is on.  But not ever enough to make me toss them.  Straight to Hell for me).  I mean, yeah, there are actors and producers and directors and the companies that invested in the show in the first place, but every single show that I love or that you love started out with one guy at a computer thinking “what if,” and working from that to a spec script.

Even if that guy gets totally shunted into the background once Ackles and Padalecki and Bell and Cross and Hatcher sign on, he was there first.  Every week’s tv we see had a table of eight to ten people sitting around, spitballing ideas, putting words into the mouths of every character we see on screen.  I mean, Joss never wrote every word of every show he created.  What the hell is Jane Espenson getting paid when I buy my Buffy dvds?  Because I love her eps, and if I could cut the Marti Noxon ones out, I would!

It’s hellish hard to get started in the industry, no matter how good you are, and like any industry, beginners deserve a guaranteed level of compensation for their work when they’re coming at it so grateful to have a job that they’d take, I don’t know, free tickets and the glamour of seeing their name around?

I’m not comparing myself to Pamie in this, but about half of my close friends are writers, and everyone has that dream of making it, even if they dream of making it medium.  And the industry is taking advantage of that right now.  So it’s pencils down until things get worked out.  Pamie is working her arse off.  She’s just nabbed a new job as a staff writer on Samantha Who  (Christina Applegate vehicle), and everyone on staff loves it, but they’re all off.  She’s Strike Captain.  Lots of stuff to read about here: http://www.pamie.com

So if you’ve some time, scroll through some Pamie.  She’s awesome and she’s strong.   And even though I’m not always pro-strike (I don’t know, I sometimes think from the other side it must feel like negotiating with terrorists)(yeah, I’ll hand in my lefty card at the next meeting) I can’t help but support what she’s doing right now.  I’m dead proud of my internet community sometimes, so I am.