I've been out in LA the past few days and people are scared. This afternoon I was walking around a small town north of LA with some friends in the film business. We were talking and strolling and occasionally shopping. In each store we entered the merchants talked only of the strike and how they are already feeling the impact. I learned that each striking writer is required to spend at least 20 hours on the picket lines. That adds up to a lot of writers when there are more than 6,000 members of the Writers' Guild.
But what has convinced me that they will win is this - a little piece on YouTube by a striking Comedy Central writer:
The truth about strikes like these in the past is that the writers had no outlet for their voices or their creativity. The studios controlled all of that. The Internet changes the dynamic. The writers will humanize the strike and chide the studios into submission.
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Most people don't realize that all of Hollywood is unionized- the writers, the grips, the makeup artists, the set decorators, the lighting electricians. Each "below the line" (behind the scenes) job has it's own IATSE union.
All the Hollywood unions are connected (similar to the national worker's unions). If the strike persists, the other Hollywood unions will strike in solidarity. According to my very own Hollywood insider - everyone is scared that they may be out of work in a couple months if this doesn’t resolve.
Think about it: No makeup, no lighting, no sets painted... eventually the studios are left with a bunch of actors and directors with no one to make them look pretty or turn on the cameras. The studios are really hamstrung.
Hollywood as a whole may seem frivolous, but those "below the line" folks are experts in electrical lighting, construction, hazard prevention, choreography, and writing. They work with far bigger egos than we see here in DC.
Editors are creatures of Satan!
I'm sure finding this having to think for myself to be trying. Lord, have mercy and end this strike so we can return to that for which we were created - a perpetual vegetative, Zombie-like existence.
Well, as someone who remains unemployed due to the strike, I think it will last a long time. I am prepared. I have decided to spend the Holidays back east with my family. I'll worry about it in January. I'm looking at it as a multi-month vacation.
What a skewering of Sumner Redstone. Complete hypocrisy on his and Viacom's part.
It may win the writers the strike, but I wonder if this guy will still be working for the Daily Show when it's over ...
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