| choirsoftheeye said: I majored in English in college. You're going to have a hard time convincing me that A) good writing is overvalued and b) good writing is easy to come by. The majority of, say, television writing, is absolute shit, with a handful of shows and writers being decent - and a tiny percentage actually being good. The industry either can't recognize good writers, or there aren't enough who want to deal with the BS that is hollywood who want to write there - either way, I will say that without the writers they have, at the very least, it would take them a long time to find similar levels of talent. As to which of those I could do? I'm an English major, not an Econ major. But as for a script worthy of said movie, like I said, that doesn't happen very often. I think it's absolutely ridiculous to say that intelligent raising, investing and management of money is in a different league of difficulty than writing, acting and directing. BTW - that's usually partially the producer's job. And the "that's Capitalism" excuse is rampantly amoral. |
Well I don't think I said the writing is overvalued but I think I could make an argument for that too if needed. For now I will just stick to the simple stuff.
So, if you want to ask the question "Why don't they just find other writers?" then I have to ask the question "Why don't these writers go off and work for people who are willing to give them what they want?" If they are truly undervalued then they should be able to capatilize on that disparity and profit from it.
And raising and managing money is in a different league of difficulty. The proof is that quite simply there are far more writers than there are millionaires and quite frankly a lot more people try becoming millionaires than try becoming writers.
As far as it being an excuse, I would call it a damn good reason. Capatilism as a system works very well and it has its own problems. But this is not one of them.
On the issue of who recognizes good writing, I would have to say you missed the point. The people at home choose what is good writing and that is at the heart of capatalism. So if the networks are getting better ratings on "Reality phone sex" than reruns of MASH...that is the people deciding and while I would personally agree I prefer MASH because it was a great show that the people decide by watching what they do like and not watching what they don't like. What is traditionally considered skilled writing and "entertaining writing" are not the same thing and if you are in the TV writing business to be a traditional writer you are in the wrong place.
Quite simply put up and coming writers with a fair bit of talent are basically a dime a dozen right now and until that changes you are going to have a hard time convincing the folks who do have the money that it is worthwhile to invest big bucks in each one that comes along. Big writers who make a name for themselves don't just bring their talent they bring their name to a project and in doing so they themselves are a commodity because they are a symbol of quality.
Honestly, the system isn't that complicated. And while pure capatalism isn't fair, this system is far from pure capatalism and is a hell of a lot more fair than any other system that I know about.
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| To Each Man, Responsibility |
