After 18 years Indiana Jones is Back! OK technically he won't return until next year after 19 years away from the screen, but just look at that picture above, it's obvious he's back.
Yesterday Ain't It Cool News posted 3 new pics of Indy from the new movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The first, seen above shows Indy back with his trademark Fedora, Whip, and Gun. And it's amazing, Harrison Fod is clearly older, but he still looks like Indy. May can't come fast enough! (I'm already lining up a babysitter for that weekend.)

Next is a pic of Indy and Son (Played by Shia LaBeouf) crouching down in a cave looking at something. Is Indy teaching his son to follow in his footsteps? I guess well have to wait until May 22 to find out. Personally I can't wait.


You can click on either pic to see them much larger, and you can click the link above and head over to Ain't It Cool News to see a third picture.

Labels: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

So over at Empire Magazine's site they have been slowly revealing the first full image of The Joker from next summer's Dark Knight. Revealing a little each day with the final full image supposed to be released tomorrow.
But JoBlo somehow managed to get the cover image from Empire's January issue featuring the aforementioned picture of the Joker, which can be seen below.


It might still be worth checking out the Empire sight tomorrow as that image won't have all of the magazine text on it.

Labels: Joker, The Dark Knight

Well the cable was back on this morning, thank goodness, as tonight's Chuck was phenomenal!! Brice came back, There was an amazing fight scene in the Buy More, and it expanded the series mythology. All in all an amazing episode! Plus wonderful news that Chuck has been picked up for a full season!

Didn't get a chance to see any movies while in Texas, as we were given tickets to see the Spurs play on Friday night. We had some amazing seats (11 rows from the court!) and had a blast watching the Spurs win. Belows a pic i took with my phone from our seats.


Turned in on paper today, have another finished to turn in tomorrow, and will work tomorrow to finish a third. I'll also be taking a personal day Thursday so Jeri and I can get some stuff done, and just hang out together before school gets super crazy for awhile. Then its time to study for my first final and do some more research for my final big paper, on the writers negotiation and strike.

Speaking of the strike, today the WGA and the AMPTP began meeting to hash out a deal. Today over at Deadline Hollywood Daily one of Nikki Finke's sources told her that a deal may have already been reached through back channeling thanks to Agents (because if writers and actors aren't working, Agents aren't making money!) The source claims nothing will be settled by the end of this week, but that the deal should be done by Christmas.

My questions is if a deal is already in place, why won't we hear about it until Christmas? I imagine that if this is true, the deal is just a tentative one set out through the agents that both sides agree with. But now that they are meeting both sides will try to get a deal they see as better, while settling for the "deal" if it goes no where. So in essence this "deal" may be the sides BATNA or Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement, or the fall back position.

Here's hoping this thing ends soon, so all those great new shows with full season pick-ups can give us the episodes we want to see!

Home from our Thanksgiving trip, had fun, glad to be home, Texas bother my allergies horribly.

New fire in Malibu, we are fine, campus is reopened for classes tomorrow.

Cable is completely out we are only getting ABC, presumably because of the fire.
On the good side: More time to do school work and study
On the bad side: It sucks, I want my TV back!!!!!!

WGA and AMPTP meet again tomorrow hopefully a resolution will follow shortly.

It's late I'm going to bed.

Goodnight! (Or Good Morning depending on when you read this)

I've been out of town since Tuesday with no internet access for much of the time. But thanks to Grubbs (my site designer and logo creator) I'm bringing you this post.

Today I just want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and let you know I'll be back next week. Hopefully I'll be bringing new reviews with me. It all depends on if I get to see any of the movies I plan to see this weekend.

Labels: Holiday

From United Hollywood:

Send Pencils to Support the Writers! A Buck a Box!

Here's what's being done by fans for the WGA strike: "Now is the time to save ALL our shows. MAIL PENCILS pencils to the AMPTP and to any studios whose shows you enjoy...
Maybe we can help the studios see just how much support the WGA has. And maybe, just maybe, we can give them a graceful way out (not because they're buckling under the writers' demands, but because they care so much about their audience. Us. And isn't that supposed to be their job?"

Okay, what is Pencils2MediaMoguls?
We’re asking people to use our site to buy pencils to send to the six media moguls who run the six corporate conglomerates.

Why pencils?
A lot of different fan sites were suggesting that people send pencils to networks and studios. United Hollywood and Strike Points met with some of the television showrunners, and together we decided to follow the fans’ lead.

Pencils have become the symbol of our cause: We are putting them down until we get a fair deal.

Symbolism, whatever. Let’s face it -- isn’t this kind of a waste of pencils?
We were worried about that too, so we found a vendor who makes environmentally sensitive product: California Republic Stationers. Their pencils are made from sustainably harvested wood, which means they don’t deforest.

We’ll also send the media moguls suggestions about where they can donate the pencils to non-profits that teach kids how to write. After all, the CEOs aren’t writers. It’s not like they can use them.

What happens to the money from the pencils?
Anything we have left over from our costs will go into the Union Solidarity Fund, which was created to help non-WGA members affected by the strike.

So who are these “media moguls”?
They are the six men who run the multi-media conglomerates, the companies that control almost everything you see on tv or in the movies. These individual CEOs have the power and influence to make a fair deal and end the strike, if they choose.

Leslie Moonves, President, CEO
CBS Corporation
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019
www.cbscorporation.com

Jeffrey Immelt, CEO
General Electric (NBC/Universal)
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608
www.nbcuni.com

Rupert Murdoch, Chairman, CEO
News Corporation (Fox)
1211 Avenue of the Americas
8th floor
New York, NY 10036
www.newscorp.com

Jeffrey L. Bewkes, President, COO
Time Warner Inc. (Warner Brothers)
1 Time Warner Center
New York, NY 10019
www.timewarner.com

Robert Iger, President, CEO
Walt Disney Company
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521
corporate.disney.go.com

Sumner Redstone, Chairman
Viacom
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
www.viacom.com

Why can’t I just buy some pencils and mail them myself?
You can! We just wanted to take our fans' great idea and make it easier. We’re taking a leaf from the Jericho campaign in which fans contracted with one vendor who could pool all their purchases together. That way, instead of individual bags of nuts, fans sent truckloads of nuts to CBS.

We’ve contracted with a single vendor to buy all the pencils for the same reason. We can deliver all of them in bulk, a truckload at a time, so the impact will be (we hope) greater.

You can mail pencils yourself if you want to, but joining together seems to have a better chance of getting noticed. It’s worked in the past.

If you do decide to mail pencils yourself, just make sure they’re not sharpened. And please be polite. (We know how hard that is. Trust us.)

How come it’s a buck a box?
That price covers purchase and delivery of 12 pencils. (They’ll probably be packed by pallets instead of in individual boxes.)

And did we mention the “sustainably forested” thing?

All right, responsible pencils, I get it. But in the end, what are you trying to accomplish here?

We want the media moguls to start negotiating in good faith. We want the strike to end with a fair deal for both sides.

If we get a fair deal, it helps the actors, the directors, and the below-the-line crew members. Their deals are directly tied to ours.

Click (top right) to send a message to the moguls: It’s time to make a fair deal. We’re all on the same page.

Labels: Strike

The WGA and the AMPTP have each released press statements saying they are coming back to the table on November 26th.

This does not mean that everything is solved but it's a step forward and hopefully means that it will be resolved shortly.
Here's the WGA release, thanks to United Hollywood, since I took the statement from them. Keep heading there for more information.

CONTRACT 2007 NEGOTIATIONS STATEMENT

LOS ANGELES – The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) have issued the following statement today:

Leaders from the WGA and the AMPTP have mutually agreed to resume formal negotiations on November 26. No other details or press statements will be issued.

For more information about the Writers Guild of America, West, please visit www.wga.org. For more information about the Writers Guild of America, East, please visit: www.wgaeast.org.

The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) represent writers in the motion picture, broadcast, cable, and new media industries in both entertainment and news. The unions conduct numerous programs, seminars, and events throughout the world on issues of interest to, and on behalf of, writers.

Maybe we can get our shows back into production before the end of the year, or at least early next year.

Labels: Strike

Today as I worked on doing research for papers I decided to check out my Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chosen Collection Box Set. I was looking for something to watch and decided during this time of papers and finals, when I like to work with somehting on in the background I'd start watching the Buffy-verse from the beginning, which means once I get to Season 4 I'll be watching Buffy and Angel. But First up is Season 1.


Episode 01.01/02 - Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest
Following the events of the movie, Buffy has been expelled from her school in Los Angeles for burning down the gym (to her credit it was filled with Vampires, also in the movie she doesn't actually burn the place down, but she did in Creator Joss Whedon's original script) and she's now moved to the fictional Sunnydale, CA. One her first day of school at Sunnydale High she meets her soon to be best friends Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris, two geeky outcasts who are tormented by the queen bee of the school, Cordelia Chase, and their best friend Jesse.
Looking for books Buffy stumbles into the library where she meets her watcher, Rubert Giles, an uptight British former museum curator whose real job is to groom the Slayer to save the world. And finally Buffy meets Angel, the dark mysterioso who would become her life's love, and a spin-off of his own, who her looks younger, but otherwise the same. Angel dishes out cryptic, hard to understand clues that will hopefully lead her to defeat evil.
But Buffy doesn't want to be "The Chosen One" instead she want to live a normal teenage life, but that dream ends when a body shows up in the girls locker room, with all of its blood drained. Soon Willow and Jesse are both taken by the vamps to feed their Master, a horribly ugly ancient vampire whose stuck underground for reasons unknown. Luckily Buffy is able to save Willow, but Jesse's not so lucky.
What will happen? Will Buffy accept her place as The Chosen One? I'm not saying, so go rent or buy the show for yourself.
I have to say the show stands up pretty well 10 years later (yes the show started way back in 1997) although some of the dialogue is pretty lame, and the shows first few episodes are a bit cheesy, its still a great show, with a great metaphor anyone can relate to: High School as Hell.

Episode 1.03 - Witch
Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles (notice Jesse's no long around hmmm I wonder what happened?) must figure out whose hurting the school's cheerleaders and why they're doing it. Stop for a second and think about the episode's title, it might help you figure out what's going on.
I'll be honest this is one of my least favorite episodes of the show (along with episode 8 "I Robot, You Jane") and in both cases, I think it's just because these are the two episodes that were constantly rerun in the first couple of years, so I've seen them far too many times. It's still a decent episode, and I'm sure it's a good one, just not my personal favorite. It is the episode that showed Buffy would be about more than just Vampires.

Episode 1.04 - Teacher's Pet
As Buffy tries to settle into her new life, and get past being "the girl who burned down her last school" to all her teachers, her science teacher tells her he things she has promise and gives her hope that she'll be ok. So it should be no surprise when he turns up dead, missing his head.
Enter the new substitute teacher, a beautiful woman who has all the boys drooling. But strange things start to happen when she asks some of the boys to stay after class. When Xander succumbs to her charm will he be the next victim? It's up to Buffy, Willow, and Giles to find out what's going on.
Overall another decent episode, but once again full of cheese, and the monster is pretty cheap looking. But some great early character moments.

Episode 1.05 - Never Kill A Boy On The First Date
Once again Buffy wants to have some sibilance of a normal life, this time its going on a date with the super dreamy Owen. Unfortunately her date coensides with a prophesy about "The Vessel" rising from the ashes of "The five" and Giles demands she skip her date to go a slaying. Which she reluctantly does. When nothing happens Buffy rushes of to find Owen in the arms of her enemy Cordelia. Of course later that night there's a bus crash caused by a gaggle of vampires which lead to the death of five people.
The next day Owen asks Buffy out again, understanding that she couldn't make it. Unfortunately while she's on her date Giles goes to investigate on his own and gets trapped by some vamps. When Buffy tries to go save him, Owen follows her and tags along which leads to action packed hilarity.
This is a great episode as it deals with Buffy trying to be normal and Xander's feelings for Buffy, as he grows jealous of Owen. The episode also furthers the Master storyline that overarches throughout the first season. (This would become the normal Buffy format with each season having a "Big Bad") Plus it has a mean twist at the end you (hopefully) won't see coming.
Overall a grand episode. The banter is witty. The action is packed. And the ology is mythical.

It's great to look back and see how the series began and see the pieces that started to fit together to form the amazing series that it would one day become. I can't wait to see what's next, again!

Labels: Buffy, RetroTV

Here's a 3D sonogram pic of my son, taken yesterday. He was kind of hiding so we only got a couple of shots of his whole face. But the best part was when we were trying to get him to move, I started talking to him and you could see a little tiny smile, it was amazing. I can't wait to hold him in my arms.

This Friday, Nov. 16 at 8pm, TV Land and Entertainment Weekly are presenting "The 50 Greatest TV Icons," a 2-hour special that celebrates the classic and contemporary stars who have made the biggest impact on TV history.

There are a lot of people you would expect like Johnny Carson, Bob Barker, Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, and Lucille Ball (Blah, I never Loved Lucy) But there's also some people who might surprise you, like a recent Vampire Slaying Girl, A Friend whose hair cut swept the nation, and a cartoon dad.

If you can't wait until Friday you can see their list i full here.

I have to be honest I was surprised at a few names that didn't make the top 50 like, Fred Rogers (who may have had an effect on more people than the 7 I mentioned above combined with his beloved children's show, still in reruns), Ron Howard, and Rod Sterling, the man who took us all traveling through another dimension. A dimension, not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination.

You can also play a game to see how you rank against the top 50, but since the top 50 list is already published it seems a moot point (or a "Moo Point" as my own beloved TV icon, Joey (Matt LeBlanc) might say) but if you want to play you can go here.

I may have to DVR the show so I can watch some of the classic clips, but I'll guarantee you one thing, I'll be pressing the fast forward button as soon as Lucy comes on the screen. (My bet is it's the "classic" candy factory assembly line, gag me)

Labels: 50 Greatest TV Icons, TV Land

Labels: Solidarity, Strike

Here's Two New Wonderful Videos from over at United Hollywood:

First from a Striking Writer:



Next from Joss Whedon (Thanks to Shea for the heads up on this one):

Labels: Strike

I'm trying to keep up with Strike goings on here, since apparently the Media isn't going to do it, so I'm just going to dump a bunch of links here for great stories, websites, etc with strike info, as I'm very busy today.
If you're wondering why there's not much coverage blame the fact that most of it is owned by one of the giant corporations who the Writers are up against.
If there had been a protest/rally of 4000 (WGA estimate) to 5000 (LAPD estimate) people in any other city, or industry in the country it would have been on the front page of most papers across the country and all over CNN, Fox News, local news, etc. And I'm not sure how it is across the rest of the country, but here in LA where this is happening, it's been buried.
The LA times buried it in the Business Section, and not even on the front page. Most of the news broadcasts that did cover it, placed it well into the broadcast, if not at the end, and only did about 15 to 45 sec on it. In fact one channel had a story about kittens being brought into a police station to catch mice, which was at least 4 times as long as the WGA Rally coverage.

So here's some enlightenment:

As always United Hollywood is one of the best.
Also check Deadline Hollywood Daily, well daily.
Good Pictures Here.
Entertainment Weekly tell us why the writers are right.
Ask a Ninja: WGA Strike Special!
This guy made a pilot deal and was given the greenlight to write the script, the Friday before the Strike began.
Another Gentleman has set up a site selling Strike Swag including shirts and bracelets, with profits going to the WGA.
Fans4Writers have a Flickr site with Strike pictures (mine should be added there soon)
Lost's co-creator Damon Lindelof wrote this Op-Ed piece for the New York Times.
Exerpts of an e-mail written by Dale Alexander, a key grip on NBC's The Office, can be found here.
And finally here's a wonderful proposal to bring this all to an end from Michael Schur, a producer of "The Office"

And I will be posting my review of "No Country For Old Men" sometime in the near future, as well as that promised transcript of my interview with Kal Penn. I just have to finish a paper before then.

Labels: Strike

The crowd gathered in front of the Fox offices, maybe better known as Nakamura Plaza from the first Die Hard (Above). Rage Against the Machine's frontman Tom Morello played a few songs, then handed the mike over to Jesse Jackson (I have no idea why he shows up to all these things). Afterwards a few other people spoke, possibly WGAW President Patric M. Verrone and Screen Actors Guild President Alan Rosenberg, who were supposed to be there, but I couldn't really hear and honestly was kind of distracted by these guys:
I was standing right next to the writers from The Office, plus Rainn Wilson. They were quite funny and some great entertainment. I overheard Mindy Kaling (The sole female in the picture) say that tons of actors and showrunners had asked to take pictures with her and thank her for what they've done for the strike. (If your wondering Mindy, BJ Novak, and Paul Lieberstein were the first writer hyphenates to not cross the line. All three are both writers and actors and they stuck together and picketed their own show until it was shut down, you can see a video about it here.)

The whole Rally had the feel of a giant reunion. Everywhere you turned there were people introducing people to each other in ways such as this:
"This is Jake, I worked with him on Wish Kid, years ago."
Or people were just walking up saying hi and asking "What are you working on these days?" (The answer there is "The Picket Line" Ba-Da Ching! It's super late as I add this, so just go along with it) But all in all it was just a feeling of joy, excitement, and for the most part, fun. I'm glad I could be a part of it and go out and make some new friends/acquaintances with people I'd never have meet otherwise.

One person I was lucky enough to met today was the one and only Joss Whedon. I had made a point to look for Joss as I was marching, as I'd heard he'd been out several other days as well. Sure enough he passed by me while I was making the loop that was the picket line (or picket blocks as it were) I waited a minute then introduced myself and asked if I could get a picture. He said sure and after we took the picture(seen below) he talked with me for a few minutes. One thing we discussed was his return to television, something I've been hoping for for some time as his other 3 shows are among my favorite shows ever. (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly) He said he too was looking forward to his return to television and it was seemed to me he was itching to get to writing his new show, Fox's Dollhouse. And it was clear how much the strike meant to him as he was out striking even though he was clearly feeling very sick.


According to one writer I talked to at least one showrunner doesn't think the strike will end anytime before January. Which means a lot more picketing, and possibly more rallies at other studios. Some of which I hope to be at.

Now I have to admit, I did use some of my time down at the rally getting to met some people and taking some pictures, enjoy:

Muhney may be the nicest person I've ever met in the industry. He was genuinely happy to talk to me, sharing his hopes for the strike to end soon, as he has a pregnant wife. I mentioned I too had a pregnant wife and we spoke for a couple of minutes about that. He told me about his new show Family Practice which was supposed to go into production in January, but now who knows. He said he was looping for CSI:Miami today a few blocks away and just decided he had to come out and show his support. Although he played a complete jerk on Veronica Mars, he's nothing like that in real life.

Labels: Strike

Today I went down to Fox Studios in Century City and joined the picket line of the WGA strike. While there I talked to quite a few people just to get some information and just to pass the time. I also did a couple of more interviews.

Later I hope to post the transcript of my interview with Kal Penn,(Left) star of House, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, and latter's upcoming sequel. (I'm hoping tonight, but as I've got to work on a paper and I'm super tired from my 4 hours of walking it may be this weekend)

Among those picketing were The Simpsons' creator Matt Groening, The Simpsons' Producer Al Jean, The Office's Mindy Kaling, and many others I recognized, but whose names I can't think of right now.

Updated: Some of you are probably wondering why I'm so supportive of the writers and this strike. Simply Put: I may be one of them one day. My best friend and I have been slowly working on a script (We'll we were before the strike), and I've got about 10 other ideas floating around my head at any one time. So if one day I were to sell any of these scripts, chances are I'd become a guild member. And if I become a member of the WGA, I'd like to know that I'm making money off the fruits of my labor and not just handing more money to the studios.

If you need clarification as to what's going on watch the video below, it clears it up pretty good.



Personally I won't be watching any more streaming videos, or downloading any tv shows or movies from iTunes until the strike is over and the writers are getting a portion of the profits. But that choice is yours. If you want to know more about the Strike or what you can do to support it, you can head over Here, Here, or Here. Or you can read about it in the media, in publications which are mostly owned by the same companies that own the studios, and might be a little bias. You can also sign an online petition to support the WGA here and here.

Tomorrow Morning I'll be heading back to Fox, where all of the WGA members and supporters will be converging from 10am to noon. I'm sure I'll have some more interesting videos for you.
For now I'm going to do some work on one of my papers.

Labels: Interview, Strike

I'm doing a paper for one of my classes on the WGA strikes, so I had set aside today to do research on the topic. Instead of spending the day sitting in front of my computer I decided to head down to the Picket Line at CBS Radford.
I got the chance to talk to some wonderful people and I'm going to post a couple of the video interviews here.

First up is Pamela Ribon, a writer for the new hit comedy series "Samantha Who?" special thanks to Pamela for helping point me in the right direction and get some people talking to me. I should note that the video below was the second interview we did as I, somehow managed to make the boneheaded mistake of not recording the first interview.
You can read her blog here. Thanks to Pamela for linking here, and welcome all you new readers.
Also I should note that my computer has very limited Video Editing Capabilities at the moment so sorry for the crudeness of my edits.




Second is Donald Todd, the Executive Producer/Showrunner on "Samantha Who?" Todd was nice enough to share his thoughts on the strike.




Thanks to everyone who talked to me. Thursday morning I plan to head over to the Fox Studios as I don't have any classes. I'll try to put up whatever videos I can when I have the chance.

Labels: Strike, video

So it seems everywhere you go online it's all about The Strike. Some folks are even calling it Black Monday. But what does the strike mean to us, the people who just enjoy watching good tv or going to the movies and sit in a dark theater while eating popcorn and enjoying a nice film?

First off it means no new Late night shows. Dave, Jay, Conan, Craig, et al. are officially in repeats starting tonight. Why? Because there are no writers to keep the material flowing. Last time this happened Letterman returned with such fun stuff as "Network Fill Time" when he just let a crew member ramble for several minutes. Apparently people think Letterman will be back within a couple of weeks in order to keep the rest of his crews' jobs safe. And once Letterman returns it's thought that the others will follow suit, but how entertaining will they be without writers? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Second it means no new SNL. Having seen a bit of this past week's episode starring host Brian Williams, I can say it might actually be a loss for the first time in years as the show seems to be getting funnier as the season goes on.

Next up will be the fall of network TV. Since "pencils are down" this means the networks can only produce those scripts which are already in the can. These means that depending on how many episodes have been filmed and how many have been written shows may have as many as 10 more episodes to air, or in the case of 24, possible no new season at all, since it wouldn't allow them to wrap the show in 24 episodes.
Writers are not allowed to do any writing during the strike (although that doesn't mean they can't "think" really hard), if you wonder what all this means here's a rundown taken from Javier Grillo-Marxuach's blog:
a) cutting for time
(b) bridging material necessitated by cutting for time
(c) changes in technical or stage directions
(d) assignment of lines to other existing characters occasioned by cast changes
(e) changes necessary to obtain continuity acceptance or legal clearance
(f) casual minor adjustments in dialogue or narration made prior to or during the period of principal photography
(g) such changes in the course of production as are made necessary by unforeseen contingencies (e.g., the elements, accidents to performers, etc.)
(h) instructions, directions, or suggestions, whether oral or written, made to a writer regarding story or screenplay

Some shows like Scrubs may forever be hurt by the strike as this is their last season. If the strike isn't cleared up the show will only air 12 episodes this season, meaning they will loss the last 6 episodes to wrap up the series.

Steve Carrel, reportedly, did not shown up to film The Office this morning. 30 Rocks' Tina Fey was on the picket line although she apparently said she's still an actor, implying she'd be in the few episodes they have left.
Show runner Shawn Ryan of The Unit, The Shield, and the forthcoming Oaks will not set foot on a set until the strike is cleared up. This means he'll miss the Series Finale of his breakthrough show The Shield, and the pilot of The Oaks.

But the people most affected will be the little guys. The middle-class crew members and writers who make a living like most of us, working day to day. If the strike goes on too long, these guys will be out of work, which could mean they no longer can support their families, pay rent, bills, etc. These are the people who the strike hurts the most.

But the strike needs to go on until the Studios budge. You see while the studios are blaming the revenue from DVD as the sticking point, it's apparently a lie. The Studios are trying to say that the Writers won't budge on the fact that they want to make more than 2 to 4 cents per DVD (yes writers get 2 to 4 cents on a dvd which retails for $20, why the studios think this will make them look better I will never know, it makes them look like greedy jerks)
But last night during the final negotiations the WGA, begrudgingly took DVD revenues off the table, leaving the only issue to be determined, New Media.
New Media means things like selling episodes of TV shows or movies on iTunes, and streaming episodes with commercials online. The studios currently pay Writers, Directors, and Actors nothing for this.
That means that everytime you or one of the other hundreds of thousands of people who pay $1.99 to download a show from iTunes, the studio keeps all the money and doesn't share it with anyone who worked on the show. The studios want to keep things this way, the problem is, that it would appear that New Media is the future of tv.
This season as TV ratings drop, more and more people are downloading via iTunes or another pay service or watching streaming episodes online. And it seems that as time goes by more and more people may be watching TV this way. Yet if the Writers don't get some revenue from this now, they may never get it.
In one interview I read a writer put it this way, I'm paraphrasing, the future is New Media and it's estimated that in the future 80% of revenue will come from New Media. So imagine if your boss asked you to take an 80% decrease in pay to do the same job.

To put it frankly, it sucks and being as without Writers there is no TV Shows, no Movies, no anything, shouldn't we pay them that way? Why do Directors, Producers, and Actors get all the glory and all the pay, while Writers, the people who pour their hearts out to create the Scripts, get next to nothing and almost no recognition?

Labels: Strike