Coda for the WGA Strike --

[alfreda89]

cabri729 suggested checking out this post by writer John Rogers:

"There's an excellent blog post by John Rogers (Transformers screenwriter) on why a writers' union is a necessity in Hollywood. I sort of knew most of the points he makes, but it's kind of horrifying to see it all in one piece."

Correction: J. Michael Straczynski has seen nothing of the net percentage a contract promised him -- apparently because WB can charge ANYTHING to costs, thus erasing all profit from Babylon 5 -- which has made millions on TV, on DVD and tapes, etc. etc. As other writers on the show have seen residuals, he should have, too.

It's called Hollywood accounting. And folks -- every time you go to a crap movie with a sucky plot and characters, you're encouraging those vultures to think they don't need a writer.

It's like buildings that have no architect. It's not required, many places, for buildings to have architects. (Explains a lot of ugly buildings, doesn't it? Let me take you on a tour of recent and current Austin construction sometime. We are talking UGLY....)

Comments

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

I still dont understand how the companies can write off their losses that way, I know if any of us tried to keep our books that way, we would be on the Al Capone Memorial Blockhouse.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

It is rather astonishing, isn't it? Publishers are lousy accountants, too, but SFWA scared them badly 20+ years ago. There were five figure royalty checks owed for YEARS that were written literally hours before the auditor hit certain sections of the publishing houses....

[cabri729.livejournal.com]

Oh, so it's just like all those crap tract houses built in the '70s! I understand parfickly now.

[christymarx.livejournal.com]

Ummm...sorry, but that statement about JMS is pure crap. I've gotten residuals for years off one episode of B5, so JMS has sure as hell gotten ten times as many.

Hummmm.....

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Christy is quite correct -- I was remembering his net cut. Joe has undoubtedly received payments on the scripts he wrote. The creative B5 accounting is in the net (and is why some big name actors insist on a percentage of the gross. Wonder if that still doesn't show a profit, in some magic way.)

This is direct from the B5JMS digest. I suggest you NOT repost: Joe hates being misquoted.

"I have a share of the net profits of B5. But by the terms of the deal that was made, WB takes 60% of all monies in overhead, and can charge almost anything they want against profits. If a stage used on some other WB project being shot in Bolivia burns down, they can charge it against B5. Consequently, B5 has never shown a profit even though it's made half a billion dollars just in DVD sales, leavinng out foreign sales, syndication, merchandising and so on."

Can you see why collective bargaining is critical? A writer challenging this type of thing might possibly win in court. And then will never work in Hollywood again.

Re: Hummmm.....

[christymarx.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, on the producer end, I totally believe it.

[sheilagh.livejournal.com]

That's horrible!

Aside, a Lyme article that starts out frustrating, which fits hand in glove with how it turns up at the end:
http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/Leslie-Buterin-1050/Lyme-Disease-20703.php

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, co-infections. The Babesia responded quickly -- the Bartonella cleaned my clock first. See the latest Internet article I posted a link to --