The Artful Strikers

The best place to get the lowdown on the Hollywood writers strike is a blog called the Artful Writer, written by a couple of industry professionals. There's a lot of need to "control the message" with these types of negotiations, so it's a quite interesting peek behind the kimono of the entertainment industry - especially the comments.

It's an issue that confuses me - what do "rights" mean in this era of ubiquitous content? At the end of the day, media companies don't seem to treat creative people very well, be they rock bands or joke writers. A couple of thousand dollars and your name on the credits - it all seems very dazzling, especially when there are thousands of others trying to crack into the business. But when economies of scale allows the media conglomerate to profit exponentially - and that's the key concept, and the economic difference - and when writers have leverage (which is the key distinction versus other types of labor markets) - they would be foolish not to exercise that bargaining power when they are obviously undercompensated.

Storytelling, being funny, developing compelling characters and narrative arcs - those are extremely specialized and difficult tasks. Big media production is a collaborative exercise, and they are only word on a page until directors, actors, effects and cinematography folks add their talents. But the words are primary and irreplaceable.

How will this play out? The late night talk shows will go dark almost immediately, but other than that, the public won't notice until it drags on for months. It could end up like the baseball strike - with no sympathy for either side, and mounting public disgust. Whatever happens, I do hope the situation is resolved in such a way that gains are made for writers and creative types, since the transformations that are being wrought on the entertainment industry by the Internet age are likely just the beginning.

Tags: Writer's Strike, Hollywood, WGA