Friday, December 10, 2004

FOLLOWING UP ON "REALITY" SHOWS

Martine Page has gathered a lot of articles together about writing on reality shows ... interesting reads all of them. Here's another script for a reality show, "Meet My Folks."

The WGA is currently fighting for reality show writers to be protected by their union. Which means that one day the WGC will follow suit, I imagine.

I spent 4 months working in South Africa. It is very hard to find a skilled South African TV writer. That's because it's hard to make a living as a South African TV writer. That's because they get paid almost nothing per script. So who would become one? The one guy I was able to find who was good was writing for sitcoms and working at a bookstore. Producers, yeah, you may be saving some money now by cheaping out on writers. But in the long run, a well paid guild of writers helps you too by keeping a set of skilled craftspeople alive to work on your projects.

4:40 PM

1 Comments:

Back in October, when the WGA was working on their new contract with Hollywood, they had the opportunity to push the "reality" issue forward. Picking their battles, for better or worse, they chose to stall on it. But the guild also cracked open their door a bit in other areas like video games, getting a head start on what could have become an issue later.

It's all writing somewhere, creating a story somehow. The problems arise when new writers are faced with not having the credits to join the guild, yet being offered the opportunity to work as a story editor (which may lead to becoming a story producer). And some of these reality story people I've talked to don't necessarily want to join the union even if it becomes available. Couple this with reality shows that do not hire union workers, and you get an interesting mess.

I wonder if there needs to be a system that allows for multiple content types, flexibility within those types, and encourages junior and apprentice level members?

By  chrisdumler, at 9:23 PM  

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