Happy Thursday!

Today sucked because I was home sick. Not pleasant at all. The good news is that I feel good enough now to enter the workforce again tomorrow.

But the Writers Guild Writers will not be. Yes. I know that most people have heard about this strike. Maybe you’ve read an article or two slated in a specific direction or not. Me? I prefer to go directly to the source for my own conclusions. So… here’s a video from the WGA: WGA Strike Explanation and the Collective that represents the major Studios and producers the AMPTP My production companies are a taaaaaaaad too small to be a member.

I feel both sides present their cases eloquently. As an entrepreneur/small business owner and writer AND indie filmmaker, I understand both sides. Some folks may say that business is just business except I’d also like to share an article that states the salaries for the CEO heading up several of the folks that the AMPTP represents: Deadline Article on Salaries

I’m not interested in lecturing on corporate greed. You can read that anywhere.

My biggest message is that I believe that their contracts are too long. The world changes entirely too much over that time period since technology has been radically changing entertainment quite rapidly.

A crazy example is how a crappy 10-second video of my cat garnered thousands of views on a variety of platforms.

They honestly would be better off drafting shorter contracts where if either side makes a mistake… they aren’t stuck for so long. And it would be much harder to tweak the numbers thereby leading to greater transparency.

Just a thought to consider…

And yes… I’m an indie filmmaker except I won’t do any productions during the strike. Things are already convoluted. No need to insert myself to make things worse. They all already got that covered. And it hit me that giving advice about the contract length is inserting myself. Ugh. I’ll let it stand. What the hell… It’s like what our fave scriptwriting teacher talks about when he had us write 50 escalations: Only about two or three are usable.

Have a wonderful night.

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