BRITTANY YEAROUT
Perspectives Editor
On his way to work Taylor Williams squeezes through determined demonstrators as writers, actors and supporters swarm the entrance into the building. The crowd chants and Williams glances at his former co-workers who walk the picket line with posters that read: “Writers Guild of America on strike.” He steps into the building, hoping it won’t be his last day — if the strike continues Williams will be looking for his third job since he graduated from Pepperdine in April.
Williams is one of many graduates whose passion is the entertainment industry, but he is also one of thousands who will lose his job if the strike continues. Williams is the office production assistant for ABC’s “Ugly Betty,” a comedy/drama show about Betty Suarez, an intelligent, sweet and hard working girl.
“There are thousands of people already out of work and thousands more that will soon be,” Williams said. “This is an extremely volatile industry with a high turnover, but when getting into this work you wouldn’t expect that the entire industry is going to shut down.”
The strike started Nov. 5 when the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) could not come to an agreement regarding residuals for DVDs and for shows and movies streamed over the Web and on cell phones. WGA is also fighting for benefits for writers on reality TV programs.
The strike can potentially be worse than the last one in 1988, which lasted 22 weeks and cost the entertainment industry about $500 million, according to a Nov. 5 article in the Los Angeles Times.
Screen and television writing adjunct Professor Nancy Dodd said it is a difficult issue but it is not fair for the studio to continue to make money on new streams of revenue and not the writers. She said without the writers the work is diminished.
“It has to do with creativity,” Dodd said. “If you don’t get residuals than it is saying your creativity is less important than the money going into financing the project, that the producers or the studios money is more valuable than the writer’s creativity.”
Williams expects to be looking for another job by the end of next month,
He said the strike has the potential to last for a long time and believes that the actors and directors will join the strike if it continues until June, when their contracts expire.
“From an academic standpoint the writers have a legitimate claim and they are not getting as much of the profit as they deserve, as the producers make an unprecedented amount of money,” Williams said.
But not everyone takes the same stance as Williams. Vivien Killilea, also a 2007 graduate from Pepperdine, was told to start looking for another job after already spending three months working for HBO on a vampire show called “True Blood,” which is suppose to air next year.
“Writers are not the only people who make a TV show happen, the production designers and directors of photography get absolutely no residuals and if writers feel they are entitled to residuals then a lot of other significant people on the production crew should be as well,” Killilea said. “It is selfish that they are taking away a lot of jobs because they want more money. The writers already make a lot of money and salaries.”
Killilea, who is from Zimbabwe, already has interviews lined up in post production and photography. Killilea said she was making $650 a week and will start relying on her savings.
“If I don’t get a job soon, though, then I have to leave the country because my visa entirely depends on having a job in the entertainment industry,” Killilea said. “This is all because writers want more residuals for DVDs. This is absolutely ridiculous.”
In 2005, the average salary for male TV writers was $94,400 and women made $94,100. For male film writers the average salary was $90,000 and women made $50,000, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Killilea and Williams agree the strike is not just about the writers. With everything shutting down, fewer jobs are going to be available in the industry, meaning more competition.
“I am in more luck than others,” Williams said. “I am extremely flexible in that even though I am losing this job I can turn around and go seek another job anywhere; like Internet start up or reality TV shows, as opposed to somebody who has been a prop master for their 20-year career. It is going to be a lot harder for them to find jobs.”
In addition to affecting professionals, the strike also has the potential to affect students wanting to go into the entertainment industry, according to Dodd.
“I appreciate what they are doing because I want to be a writer and in the future it is going to be my livelihood,” sophomore Timothy Maki said. “Even if the writers end up not getting what they want, this strike will be enough to get the point across that writers are important and need to be treated fairly.”
Maki said if there are no scripts to produce then there are no jobs.
“The writing is the recipe for a TV show, you can have an amazing chef, people who want to eat the food, even a place to eat the food, but if you don’t have the recipe nothing is going to be made and no one will enjoy the final product,” Maki said.
11-15-2007
