14 DAY TRIAL // The strike that's been going on for about four weeks now has turned to the Internet, the original dissent reason. The writers are upset with the payment they get for their work that gets aired both on TV (for which they are being paid) and on the Internet (for which they are not).
The talks to solve this problem were set to be taken up again today and further details of the meeting and its proceeding or specific topics have not been yet leaked. Gary Gentle of Associated Press says that "Studios, networks and producers, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, say it is too early to know which business model will succeed on the Web. They want flexibility to experiment without having to be locked into payment formulas."
The writers have started using social networking sites, including MySpace and Facebook, to communicate among themselves and it's irony at its peak that they use MySpace, owned by media conglomerate News Corp, the very same that is currently being struck by writers with the strike going on.
The writers have every bit of confidence that the financial conflict will be solved pretty soon because the "stash" of episodes shot before the strike had commenced is running low and, after that, the regular Joe watching TV will have to be happy with reruns of his favorite shows or go back to the roots and watch the old shows over and over again. You can obviously see that this cannot grow to be the case, so a move to either stop the strike or hire new writers (and the latter is not going to happen, as it will completely change the orientation and approach to many, if not all the shows currently running) would be a solution.
A campaign entitled "Speechless" is well on its way, including A-list stars like Sean Penn or Holly Hunter among its ranks and it will feature as many as 50 videos if need be. Gentile notes that "In one video, Penn silently mouths words while staring into the camera. In another, Hunter calls the screenwriter from the set of a movie, only to be connected with a clueless customer service representative in Bangalore, India." I wouldn't want to go up against such a creative and well supported force, that's for sure!