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What is "My Two Bits?" My Two Bits is the official editorial page for the editor of Techtite.com. Techtite will accept reader submissions, for reviews as well as any editorials deemed well written and pertinent to this web site's audience. ----------------- A Sampling Of Past Editorials: ---DEATH to pop-up window commercials! ---PG-13: An Asset, or a Curse? ---Is Chrissy Snow in Charge of Disney...? ---This Editorial Can Be Closed By Clicking This TINY LITTLE DOT! ---100 Years to Live...? Poor You! ---Brad, Jen, Angelina, and those who give a flying... ---"Big Brother," Kaysar, and The Value of a Game... ---Paranoia, Box Office Destroy-a... ---"State of the Site" Address, 2006. ---Why Hollywood Needs Its "Stones" ---The X-box 360's "Three Red Lights of Doom" ---The Bizarro PSP/360 Switch! ---Is PSP Too "Good" For Its Own Good...? ---What Is Big Brother All Stars Minus "Six"? ---Why Lara Croft Won't Do Playboy(!). ---What's in Your Wallet Brain? ---Baby, If You Ever Wondered What 'ART' Is... ---Season Finale Reactions: '07 ---The Great Bottled Water Debate. ---Big Brother 8: Edited for Sanity ------------------ Sidebar: -------------------- No sidebar comments for this review. Yet. |
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My latest Two Bits to share: Writer's Strike '07.------------------------------------------------------------------- So the Writer's Guild went on strike...again. Very little kids who weren't conceived until after the "first" Bush administration, may not remember the last time the Writer's Guild went on strike, "way back" in 1988. That strike lasted 22 weeks and reportedly cost the entertainment industry 500 million dollars. We can only hope that Hollywood has "matured" a little since then, and won't drag this latest strike out as long. Or will they...? It's not like anyone wants a strike. That goes double for the people affected by this strike who aren't a producer, director, actor, or writer. Every strike has repercussions beyond one "boss" and one "employee." There are a lot of hard working folk who don't get paid a whole heck of a lot, and no, they aren't all writers. This strike is effecting everyone: set builders, costumers, makeup artists, and on and on. They're all out of work, while the writers have their little powwow. I'm not trying to bad mouth the strike. I'm just saying. If there is a "moral" to this strike, here it is: you get what you pay for. The problem is that this can be viewed both ways. Think of all the summer movies where the script writer clearly slacked off. Spider-Man 3. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Shrek the Third. Let's forgo the fanboy jibber-jabber and admit it: all three of these "blockbuster" movies were disappointing. The problem was not with FX or budget or the characters. The problem in each case was...wait for it...the script. However: was that because the writers weren't paid more, to give more? The strike would have you believe so...and with reason. A better paid writer might think: "Gee, if I do a better job, the movie will make more profit, and I'll get higher residuals. I have to work harder!" A well paid writer is a better writer...hopefully. The strike is also being supported by several A-list celebrities, which is a good thing...to a point. Yeah, it's great that so many celebrities are marching for the writers right alongside them; would they mind sharing some of the spotlight with them? We could care less if an actress who never wrote a single line of dialogue in her life is "participating" in the strike. Isn't the whole idea here that writers not get condescendingly thrown into the background? Show us the writer of the last season of Sopranos, the first season of Lost, or just about any season of 24 (except the last one; sorry!). Put a face on the strike. Do not make that "face" a sitcom star. That's the problem with celebrities; put too many of them in one place, and suddenly a soap box turns into a sound stage. On November 9th, a big rally in front of FOX Studios consisted of around 4,000 writers...and SAG members. The whole thing looked more like a party than a "strike." The music group Rage Against the Machine began the rally, with a two song performance. Time out, please: musical guests...? Sure, people want to show their support, though come on, now. It's not like someone at FOX Studios was going to end the strike, if the strike resulted in free live music outside their offices! Now is not the time to make the strike into a party. Concentrate on ending the strike. Such an end may not be easy. To hear supporters say it, "all" the writers want is more money for their work. That's all well and good for blockbusters. The problem: movies are rarely "blockbusters." What about all the cinematic turkeys that had awful scripts, yet the writer is bulletproof from the aftermath? Catwoman, one of the biggest bombs in recent years, grossed 40 million. While that number sounds nifty: the film cost around 85 million to make. Someone had to endure a 45 million loss. That "someone" was not the writer. He wrote a horrible script, and just walked away, paycheck in hand. Would the Writer's Guild agree to suffer losses from bad movies, as well as profits, from a good movie? Of course not. The writers want to keep being bulletproof from bad films, yet they want profits from a film, if it's good. So much for being "fair." Consider that, before you think of studios as the bad guys. There are two sides to any coin. That's what makes strikes so complicated. What will become of this strike? Nobody knows, yet. The Writers are busy picketing outside the now-empty studio lots, while the producers and directors are at home in their mansions. Yet at the same time, all the cameramen, grips, set builders, set decorators, costumers, makeup artists, and all their similarly underpaid colleagues are unemployed as well. They're at home, jobless, and perhaps even penniless, all thanks to the Writer's Guild. Yet to be fair: the Writer's Guild is doing this for a good cause. Let's just hope that "good" is good to us all. As Always: I'm Techtite,
and these are My Two Bits...
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