http://www.whedon.info/Joss-Whedon-Writers-Guild-of.html

Not stats, just a concisely stated opinon on the matter from my aforementioned source.

This isn't corporate BS, this is people refusing to work. My question is this, do the writers who write good material make enough money to live comfortably?

If that is the case then you let their skill determine how much they get paid. If they are a good writer then the studio or group they work for should be willing to pay them fair value for the work otherwise someone else will be willing to pay them fair value. If nobody is willing to pay you a wage you consider fair value then perhaps you have a missconception of what is fair.

Plain and simple this is people who want more than what they have and are essentially extorting it out of the industry.

There wasn't anything in there (unless I just missed it) about pay. It was one person's opinion and it happened to be someone who stands to gain from holding that opinion and stands to lose from not holding it.

Edit: For the record I know exactly who wheddon is, I was never fond of Buffy but I did enjoy his work with Firefly and own the DVD of season 1 as well as the movie DVD. But my liking his work doesn't mean I automatically forfiet my opinion on the situation and substitute his in its place.

@sqrl - Sorry that wasn't meant to be authoritative, it was an opinion that I thought stated a lot of the reasons that people weren't taking this seriously, quite well. I'm not substituting his opinion in the place of my own, I'm just saying I agree with him, and he said a lot of it better than I could.

"If that is the case then you let their skill determine how much they get paid. If they are a good writer then the studio or group they work for should be willing to pay them fair value for the work otherwise someone else will be willing to pay them fair value. If nobody is willing to pay you a wage you consider fair value then perhaps you have a missconception of what is fair."

That's a very rose-colored glasses vision of how capitalism works. Go read up on the late 19th century for a bit. Just because people are making enough to live comfortably on (which is like, $30,000/year, by the way - far, far, far less than is made by a single show of television) doesn't mean they're getting a fair share of the money that is being earned from their work. What you're basically arguing, as far as I can tell, is that because you're not getting your weekly dose of television entertainment (which is produced in no small part by these writers), they're jerks for not letting hollywood take a larger percentage of the money than is fair. In situations like this, without unions, corporations have all the power.

Now if you want to argue that too much money is funneled into the entertainment industry, go ahead. But that's a different story entirely.

Yep it does, and it sucks. I watch 4 shows on TV: House, Back to You, Til' Death, and 24. All 4 are impacted by this bullshit strike. I blame the writers and the suits because they're both too stupid to come up with a compromise that makes everyone happy and the viewers, who ultimately run these little shindigs, don't get screwed in the process.

BUT! Too late for that. Every show I watch, production has been halted.. 24 won't even air in January next year according to Fox because of this strike. The entire strike is dumb. They're all grossly overpaid. Do you honestly think any of them are struggling to put food on the table? Ridiculous.

I love House and South Park.

I think I read somewhere South Park isn't affected.

Yep here it is.

http://tv.ign.com/articles/832/832730p1.html

I think all the people are being bitches. Networks and the writers.

I see Sqrls point, and largely agree,

but the screenwriters are the ones doing the actual work producing the material and the art. They should be entitled to more money.

But really, who gives a crap about the money, is basically how I feel. I mean stop bitching over if you're going to make 8 million instead of 6.5 million a year. This is art, this is something you love to do, and you surely can live comfortably. You shouldn't squabble over this crap and just be happy to make a living out of something you love to do.

Why does it always have to be about the money?

Screw all the people involved with this. I don't even care I don't watch tv

But that's the thing Avalach. I think that maybe 0.5% of the screenwriters make that kind of money - or even 1/10th that kind of money. Yes, they make more than your average construction worker, but they're not rolling money the way actors or even directors are.

Though yes, there are a decent number of them who make a decent bit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenwriter's_salary

But to put it in perspective: M. Night Shyamalan was paid 2.5 million for the script to one of the most successful movies of the 90s. It made... 672 million dollars. He made less than 1/200th (given that the budget was about 60 million) of the profit for the movie, for fucking writing it. He probably made a bit more for directing it - but this money mostly ends up in corporate pockets. And according to wikipedia (yes, i know, wikipedia) that was amongst the 40 or so highest amounts paid for a script. There have been thousands and thousands of scripts made and produced that didn't make close to that much.


Like I said, though, the issue of too much money being funneled into hollywood is a different one, with different grounds to fight on. If you want to fight that battle, do, but if you're willing to support hollywood by watching its movies and shows, than don't complain when the people who actually make the shows want a fair share of that money.