On the writer’s strike …
January 8, 2008 | World Events
Two thoughts stick in my head about this:
First, the union. It often baffles me that there are a “union” of writers in a place like Hollywood. But California is one of the last bastions where unions work. I just wonder how much longer the splintering of unions, as David Letterman and Jay Leno did, will continue. How much deeper can you splinter before the splinters are all that are left? It has been corporate and recent government policy to break apart unions. Besides, how much do you really miss original TV programming with the wealth of reruns and other programming that exists?
Second, entertainment. This isn’t water or food. It’s just time passing fun. The multitude of entertainment choices has opened up considerably, even since the last writing union negotiations. In most homes now, there’sa separate idiot box we call the PC/Mac. And there’s plenty of idiocy on that, too, from Web pages to YouTube to MySpace, that can occupy about the same amount of time as television. Throw in video games (not sure if their writers are part of the strike) and their ability to connect us, and, well, legacy entertainment writers are anchored in a weird space. In short there’s other stuff to do and the viewership of ‘Lost’ was flagging anyway.
Could be that the industry is in the embryonic stages of what the music recording industry has suffered? I have access to an HD camcorder with 24p, editing software and, if I hit my local community theater, actors. So do hundreds of thousands of others. In other words, the voodoo of movies has gone household; commonplace. Further, I can put it together to make something entertaining. Those of us who’ve watched Star Wars fan boy movies or almost anything mashed up on YouTube can make a case that plenty of other people can, too.
The shine is worn off. And that happened to a great extent with the music industry, too. The technology became available and simple enough to use (4-track recorders; then programs like Cakewalk and Acid). So, where’s the industry to go? And how will writers remain a vital part of that process? Maybe the union is asking that question. Really, it’s probably just asking for more money and better health benefits (and I should read more about this). The Boston Legals and others will be on life support soon. In fact, just tossing this out, hold this date in your pocket: February 2009. That’s when all television stations must switch to a digital signal. Just how many analog people will follow and what will squeeze in between to capture eyeballs so they won’t.
Golden Globes are the first casualty. To be fair, the Golden Globes were just a press conference to begin with. But eventually, writers have to eat and pay for their West Hollywood apartments. The real deadline to watch will be Oscar night, which is late March or early April. That will be interesting to see the 5 W’s come to life.
