Well the WGA strike continues, and it looks like some of the initial optimism from last weeks renewed talks has turned to pessimism. As reported before, one of the things writers are doing to ask for fan support is join in the Pencils2MediaMoguls campaign where you buy $1 boxes of pencils and send them to studio executives in the name of your favorite show. Now showrunners from Battlestar Galactica, Eureka, Lost, and Smallville are offering up prizes to fans who send in the boxes.
The message to Lost fans from Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof (who co-created Lost with J.J. Abrams and is co-producer of Star Trek):
Please join us and support all the writers of your favorite TV shows. So many of you guys have asked what you can do to help and this is it! We’re gonna offer three prizes (chosen at random) — Every box you buy [and enter “LOST” in the “show you’re supporting” box] gives you one shot at the raffle.
GRAND PRIZE: A personal thank-you call from us (Carlton and Damon) AND Matthew Fox where we shall do our bestest to answer your questions about the show’s mysteries AND a Season 3 DVD set.
FIRST PRIZE: A signed finale script by writers Damon and Carlton and a surprise cast member!
SECOND PRIZE: Signed Season 3 DVD Set (standard and blu-ray!) by the entire writing staff!
Thank you for all your support. We love you and miss you all. And we really hope to get back to work soon!
Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse
And a message for BSG fans from creator (and TNG & DS9 writer) Ron Moore:
For BATTLESTAR GALACTICA fans:
PRIZE 1: A Hockey Game with the Chief. Aaron Douglas will take one fan to a Canucks hockey game, along with another buddy of his up in Vancouver. Type in "BSG Aaron Douglas" to enter your name in that raffle. In the event that the winner of the Aaron Douglas raffle is not in Vancouver, or cannot travel there (on their own dime), Aaron has offered to make a personal phone call to that fan and send a piece of signed memorabilia.PRIZES 2-5: Calls from Mary McDonnell, Tricia Helfer, Michael Hogan, or Michael Trucco. All four have agreed to make a personal phone call to fans who win the raffles in their names. Type in “Battlestar Galactica” and then the name of one of these actors, and your name will be entered into a raffle, with the winner in each category receiving a personal phone call from that actor. You can buy boxes of pencils for more than one actor, but each box can only be assigned one name.
PRIZE 6: Jamie Bamber’s Towel
Showrunner Ron Moore writes:
No, I haven’t turned this into a porn site.Or at least, not yet. I hear it’s quite lucrative.
Instead of a phone call, Jamie has offered to sign and donate three worn (as in actually worn, not threadbare) towels to the Pencils campaign. The first two will go to the fans who buy the most pencils in Jamie’s name, while the third will be raffled off at random. The towels will be yours to do with as you wish (insert your joke here) but any and all cloning will be subject to the appropriate international treaty restrictions.
This particular raffle has generated quite a bit of fan interest.
More info on the prizes at United Hollywood
Sci Fi Women Writers Picketing Paramount Tomorrow
Jane Espenson (writer for BSG, Buffy, DS9 and other genre shows) has announced on her blog that she will be picketing Paramount Pictures on Tuesday along with other women writers of sci-fi (she says to look for the pink hats). It is not known if any other former Trek writers will be joining her.
Well, sign me up.
Oh durn, broke my pencil!
First
Who wrote the letter describing the prizes? I thought they were on strike from work related scribing?
Hey I sent in some boxes, who else put their money where their locution unit is?
I also supported Heroes among others even though no contest was mentioned.
Well, frack me! I’d rather have the call from Mary McConnell than Jamie’s towel, if it’s all the same to everyone.
I’m definitely with the writers on this, and will seriously consider sending my #2 Tychondarogas. Obviously, the studios are answering to investors who are demanding MORE profit (the figure doesn’t really matter, but it must be an upwardly sliding percentage.) Meanwhile, the shows are no better, but we’re paying more for tickets, DVDs (and thru seeing a greater chunk of the alotted hour given over to commercials.) It seems as though we should be heading into an age when the social gathering is motivated by the work, not the release date (or tv season.) Shouldn’t it be just fine and dandy for a show to sit in a database or on a video store shelf for a year or two before word of mouth makes it a hit? Do we ALWAYS have to decide whether a movie or tv show is a hit or dud instantly, whether we feel like viewing that night/weekend or not?
OK, rant over. Here’s to hoping the strike ends soon!
With my luck, I’d get the call from Tricia Helfer and my wife would answer the phone….
#5. Well said.
We took up a collection for those poor, suffering Hollywood types this Sunday at church. The plate ended up containing:
1. One nickel and three pennies.
2. A previously-chewed piece of gum.
3. A love note meant to be passed from the choir director to the pastor, but it got in the collection plate by accident.
4. A pew pencil.
So please someone give me the address so I can send this stuff into somebody so I can collect my prize!!
ok now this bologna is getting absurd!!
*slap*
get your heads out of your rears!! making less than 2 million a year is not a big deal. my parents and everyone they know pull it off making (often) far less than 100 grand a year. stop being morons and get back to work you greedy idiots!!
All the stuff I enjoy watching has already been written and produced.
9. Lou – December 3, 2007
If you produced a product that was in demand, wouldn’t you want to be paid for the work regardless how it was used or seen?
Or would you rather get paid for part of the product’s lifecycle or useage and just say hell with the rest?
Those writers are not asking for your $2 million. Calling hard working people “morons” and “idiots” gets you nowhere except being labeled as a flamer.
10. Stanky McFibberich – December 3, 2007
and someone got paid to do it, even if it was years ago. Your point?
re: 12
My point is that the current writers’ strike does not affect me much because I rarely use their product.
Oh look they offer trinkets for support.
“Be our friend. We got candy! Give ya 20 bucks!”
-cs™
How frustrating would it be to be Abrams these days, and think of a great line that you’re not allowed to include in the film.
Here’s something that would improve the quality of the product that I’m making, and work in aid of more aptly expressing my creative vision, and I’m just going to swallow it.
Well, I hope that Abrams cheats. I sincerely do. Conspire with the actors. Attribute the new lines to their improvisation. Do whatever you have to.
A nod’s as good as a wink to a Tiberian bat.
Now, if Kristen Kreuk from Smallville was one of the prize participants, I would buy enough pencils to endanger a small forest!!
GROWRR……heh……heh…..heh…….:)
Let Moore, Lindelof, et al, buy their own damn pencils. They’re making a hell of a lot more money than most of the people they’re appealing to. I am unmoved by highly compensated writers attempting to leverage more compensation out of incredibly wealthy corporations. Either way, they’re all making more money than I am, so I won’t be buying any cutesy pencils.
Dang. I don’t like any of those prizes. Especially some dude’s rancid, mildewy towel.
Well, I hope these writers and the corporations get their act together before we’re overwhelmed with reality shows. I just saw a preview for a reality show called Battle of the Chorus Bands. How depressing is that? Writers may no longer be needed if the reality shows breed like tribbles if you get my drift.
Worn towels – how low can you go…?
This is pretty funny, and yes writers are still annoying.
#11
“If you produced a product that was in demand, wouldn’t you want to be paid for the work regardless how it was used or seen?”
*Sigh.* The writers who think it is such a great business decision to strike *do not* produce a product.
When any other business builds a product, engineers create blueprints. Workers assemble it, fasten screws, etc…
The writers on strike are *workers.* They show up, they do their job, they go home. There’s nothing wrong with this. Many are very good at what they do.
But they do not *produce* anything on their own. The studios do.
Studios and production companies did not *magically* appear one day. Individuals took risks, put up the capital, and started companies.
If digital media is such an amazing potential…. what is stopping these talented writers from *starting* production companies and *creating* solutions?
It’s happened before. It will happen again.
Standing in lines and asking for pencils (!) will only get you so far in the long run.
Mister Benjamin:
Writers are not workers assembling something that businesses created. Did ABC create LOST? No, writers did. Did a company, corporation, or some other business create Star Trek? No, a writer did. His name was Gene Roddenberry. Businesses BUY pilots (TV shows) from writers and then (hopefully) put them on the air.
What you have written is just as bad as a studio executives comment when discussing if writers should get paid every time their product is aired. He said: I don’t pay my plumber every time I flush the toilet.
The writer is not a plumber. The writer is the water in the pipes. The network of pipes, well, that’s the networks. Get it? Good.
“What you have written is just as bad as a studio executives comment when discussing if writers should get paid every time their product is aired. He said: I don’t pay my plumber every time I flush the toilet. ”
That’s pretty funny.
And accurate.
As corrupt as the studios can be, I’ll side with them on this one.
CW – Writer’s rightfully want to be paid for their online content just as they are paid for the content you watch on television. The studios are claiming their online content is worthless–therefore they can’t pay the writers while at the same time Viacom is suing Google (owners of YouTube) for billions of dollars for making Viacom content available on YouTube for free. Is their content worthless, or worth billions? Google should pay them for the posting their shows online but they shouldn’t pay the hard working people who created and wrote those shows? Here a great idea CW–you work for free. See how you like it.
Heh… I’d find a better job altogether. Maybe they should do the same.
If they won’t get the compensation they want, then they shouldn’t write it now should they?
Who cares if Cavemen is streaming over the internet. The show sux and they already got paid for writing it.
sigh
26. CW – December 4, 2007
“Heh… I’d find a better job altogether. Maybe they should do the same.”
A word to the wise then.
Don’t bitch when all you find on TV is reality shows and re-runs of Leno. Or find there are no writers willing to GIVE AWAY their creative ideas for, let’s see… Star Trek XII or other movies.
22. Benjamin – December 4, 2007
” The writers who think it is such a great business decision to strike *do not* produce a product.”
When any other business builds a product, engineers create blueprints. Workers assemble it, fasten screws, etc…
You have got to be joking… this is your actual view of the industry? Where did you think stories.. of any kind… come from? Under the cabbage leaf?… stork brought them?
I suggest you read #23 and rethink your beliefs.
There is nothing wrong for being paid for your creative work in all the mediums it is used in. Many of you are pissy because you have the conception that these writers make more than you.
Some of them do…some don’t.
If you dislike what you think they get paid, then become a writer. Or if you find the job too easy, take this advice from #26. CW – December 4, 2007…
“I’d find a better job altogether. Maybe they should do the same.”
You guys make it sound like they aren’t getting any pay at all… and we all know THAT’s not rue.
Be honest- they arn’t striking ecause they haven’t goten a single paycheck n 10 years; they’re striking because they want bigger piece of the pie.
Right?
Look, I will never hold it against someone for wanting to do better… but every one on strike voluntarily took their jobs-bad conditions and all.
So quite frankly, I relly don’t se why a plumber needs risiduals whenever a oilet is flushed. What- because they are “HOLLYWOOD WRITES”, that makes them more special than everyone else, entitled to more than what everyone else gets?
“Don’t bitch when all you find on TV is reality shows and re-runs of Leno. Or find there are no writers willing to GIVE AWAY their creative ideas for, let’s see… Star Trek XII or other movies. ”
As if what they have been producing has been worth bragging about to begin with.
“If you dislike what you think they get paid, then become a writer. ”
Do you think we’re that stupid? What do you think we are? Hollywood writers?
Who wants to watch re-runs? WAIT, isn’t that how Star Trek became popular?
31. cw – December 4, 2007
Since you are here to just argue and not actually consider what’s being offered, knock yourself out. Based on your responses, you should not consider writing as a vocation anyway
I’m sorry-
was something being offered?