At 12:01am tomorrow, November 5, 2007, a major step in the cinema revolution will take place. When the WGA members go on strike, there will be many in this country whose lives are affected. Beyond the audiences who will be losing out on programming, some immediately, many people in this great industry will be out of work until the strike ends. As one of the people whose employment will be on the line should the strike last for months, my heart goes out to all of these people.
However, there are bigger issues at hand.
Hollywood is broken. The business of media creation has not been able to keep up with the creation of new media, and the problems therein have now boiled to the top.
Hollywood is based on an archaic system; a great system. Gone are the glory days of studios’ vertical integration, keeping all workers in house, pumping out hundreds of films a year. But we long for those days long gone: the golden age.
Summer 2007 was like no other season, ever, in any business. The money poured into the studios like never before. It took a mere seven months for Paramount to post a billion dollars gross this year. Audiences are dying to see movies, and they are forking over their cash even as our economy slopes to new lows. Houses and movie tickets have never been this expensive, but that isn’t stopping anyone from purchasing.
The point is that now, Hollywood is broken. It has reached a saturating point and burst.
So we must take up the reigns where they cannot get their act together. I would never promote being a scab during this or any forthcoming strike.
Rather, be aware that there is a gap, many in fact, that must be filled. The chasm between producer and writer could soon turn into a widening hole between film and audience. Especially since this years as-of-yet snoozy oscar season appears to be shortly followed by an even blander summer 2008.
The revolution has begun.
Fill in the gap.
