Kristen, I love each and every part of this story, starting with your very lovely idea (you so totally rock), continuing with the generous response by people, and, of course, the "I read Allyson's book" part.
Oh, and we were talking about strikes in general here (as I posted way way upthread, Israel currently has two big ones: highschool teachers, and universities' senior staff), and I mentioned that there are other strikes going on in the world, like the WGA's strike, in the USA. And then I mentioned you, my online friend who is a writer and on strike. One of the people in the room, who just got back from a Post-Doc of two years in Boston, asked me which shows you worked on. I said that the first job was on a show canceled after only three episodes, and that yours never got to air. Since he was watching American tv for the last couple of years, he asked which show it was, in case he'd heard of it.
When I said "Drive", expecting a blank look and a "never heard of it", he nearly jumped out of his seat, all "Yeah, how come they cancel a show so quickly?" and "it was a really well written show" and "which episode was your friend's, again?" and "it was a really well written show!".
I felt so proud (um, without ever having watched a single episode yet. Even the scripts are still waiting for me). As if it had anything to do with *me*. And I don't care how silly that is.
I got behind on my reading this weekend, and noticed this yesterday. After Sony apparently got away with suspending their actors without pay but without letting them work elsewhere, Universal/NBC did it also.
Obviously someone at SAG failed to hire the RPG (Rabid wolverine Parachutist Guild) that I suggested earlier here to nip this in bud (or stripped to the bone and then crushed for the marrow as the case may be).
All humor aside, hopefully this will be resolved quickly according to terms of their contract. Because if the contracts no longer can constrain bad behavior by any party, a lot more bad behavior will come out...
I kinda wonder when the SAG contracts are due to come up, and whether we'll see an actors strike.
That's why, IMO, the studios are driving such a hard line. They don't want SAG negotiating for a higher share of new media either.
DGA is right after SAG.
Yeah, that was why the writer's strike was a little bit of a surprise, because some people thought the writers would wait until the DGA and/or SAG negotiations, to try to leverage it all three of their unions together to get a better deal. But that hasn't worked well in the past.
Didn't the DGA screw over the WGA somehow last time around? For some reason, that's the impression I had, and I don't know where it comes from.
Well, the DGA is the weak link, because their guild has the reputation (deservedly or not) of being very producer friendly. And if the DGA agreed to a crap deal, it would be very hard for anyone else to get anything better. Which is probably one of the reasons the WGA chose not to wait.
In 2004 the DGA negotiated their contract early, dropping the VCR/DVD residuals issue, in exchange for some health care funding, I think. The WGA wanted to do something about that issue then, and they were already negotiating it when the DGA undercut them by agreeing to a new deal early that didn't address the issue.
I think. People with a deeper understanding of the issues, please feel free to correct me.
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i'm really glad the writers have youtube as a creative outlet. hee!
