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I wish I had copy-pasta'd before I got reasoned discoursed on it.
We have competing analogies.
A plumber asked:
"So what you're saying is that after I install the toilet as agreed, and the owner pays me for it; then still owes me every time they flush?"
The actor replied:
"No. It's you installed the toilet and got paid; then the owner sells tickets for other people to use the toilet. The owner owes you part of what he's selling tickets to use your work!"
I wonder if the actor realizes that they just showed how stupid their little spat is.
Most people are in the, "do the work, get paid, done," camp.
Dragging the analogy further. Actors think that they should be paid for the toilet install, a portion of the use of the toilet if the owner gets any money for that use, a part of the proceeds if you sell the toilet to someone else and a portion of any money the new owner makes off of it.
Forever.
At a time when people are not paying for toilet installs.
PM in the comments gives a good link explaining how the actors and writers picked about the worst time to demand more money. There isn't more money, there's less.
Observing the Hollywood vs Monkeys war, brings to mind several comments/analogies but, on reflection, they were all used up during the Iran vs Iraq war. Which, thinking about it is a pretty good analogy right there.
ReplyDeleteWhen you look at the whole thing, it is just the union leaderships flexing their muscles to get more money for the union leaderships, and for the union leaderships to donate to more of the causes that union leaderships donate money to.
ReplyDeleteIf the unions win, the union membership won't benefit much or at all. Who will benefit is... union leadership.
This is why unions need to go away for the most part.
The Dancing Monkeys union and the Typewriting Monkeys union are killing their industry. Flailing the dead horse. It's classic MBA/Accounting thinking, except from the unions rather than industry leadership. Pull as much money out of the dying corpse. It's like, well, George Washington being ill and the doctors bleeding him more and more to get him better.
I am curious to see where this goes.
Good thing I have a reasonably large collection of DVDs and books in electronic format and hard copies.
What will be the result? Just like any union demanding "More Money" the industry will go offshore or to states that don't give a damn what unions think. Most likely, off to Canada and Mexico.
Beans nails much of it.
ReplyDeleteBut not all.
SAG-AFTRA, WGA, and IATSE, the three biggest unions in entertainment, are all of North America.
There's nowhere to run.
And if the Teamsters strike too, Hollywood grinds to a halt.
Since forever, nobody f**ks with the Teamsters. (There was a strike once, and it lasted about, literally, fifteen minutes. When no one would cross a Teamsters picket line, including food delivery and garbage pickup, the studios begged to settle, at the asking price, by about 8:15 AM on Day Zero. Strike over. Teamsters 1, Hollywood 0. Never repeated, nor even contemplated.)
It's also a fact that with the writers and actors, anyone making bank is usually a co-producer, thus ineligible to vote on striking, or not. Thus the working actors and writers, people with the most skin in the game if they strike, have no say, and the douchebag who was an extra in 1986 and is working at a real job for the last 37 years, but "still keeps his SAG-AFTRA card", or a guy who hasn't sold a script to anyone since 1991, is voting on whether or not to shut down a multi-billion dollar industry.
And that's who 80-90% of both SAG-AFTRA and WGA is composed of: non-working members.
It's like letting only homeless people vote on your property taxes.
But the repeat pay is a valid complaint.
The producer is re-using (and re-billing for) every use of that product.
In the rip-off days, the cast of Gilligan's Island got one-and-done remuneration, and maybe paid for one rerun at a reduced rate.
The show is in syndication 24/7/365/forever to this very day in 100 countries, and neither the original actors nor their estates got a dime after 1968.
If you made a stage actor do 80,000,000 performances, for which you were collecting ticket prices, you'd have to pay them.
Film and TV actors are simply asking for the same deal.
The timing of a strike now is definitely retarded, but the principle is a valid one.
Try showing Disney movies for free on your front lawn, and see how long before you got slapped with a cease & desist order by Bob Iger and Mauschwitz, Inc.
So what goes around, comes around.
Producers want a money machine. Actors and writers are asking for a continuing slice of the pie, and the only ones that get paid are getting paid for things that are still selling.
Just like writers of books and songs.
The difference between that and toilets is, you know that toilet is going to flush until it wears out.
With a performance or script, you don't know until afterwards whether it's going to work forever, or whether it should have been flushed down a toilet too.
Hence residuals are based on actual success.
Refusing to pay that is just legendary cheapskatery, and deserves a crotch kick.
Just probably not right after a 3-year pandemic hiatus, when the entire industry is struggling to get back on its feet.
But actors and writers are creative, not necessarily bright, nor generally very sensible.
So here they all are.
I remember how well off the line workers in Detroit were. And every year they jacked their employer up for more money. While Detroit was facing competition.. But, no reason to look at a recent model of Bad Ideas brought into Reality.. Besides,, when they finish wrecking themselves, America will have Another opportunity to realize how little importance they Really have and start appreciating the truck drivers and farmers. The actors and athletes are not the heroes.
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with residuals if everyone agrees to it.
ReplyDeleteMany actors can demand high salaries which small studios can't pay. $30 million up front or $10 million with residuals or $ 2 million with a cut of the profits. Little people get paid what get and like it until they leave for a real job or make the big time. If no one is making money, nobody last too long, yes Disney I am talking about you.