The Hollywood Writer's Strike and Awards

The writers are the backbone of the movie industry in Hollywood but the brain is the producer.

Without the brain, nothing can function. What if the studios all decide to close shop for 6 months or make novel adaptations using writers from abroad? Hollywood would collapse as the writers cannot pay the other members of the movie industry.

That is why the strike by the WGA is not only silly but senseless.

It is even worse that the actors are boycotting the ceremonies in the name of supporting writers. The Golden Globes not happening caused a lot of problems for the others -- the technicians, art directors, and even journalists. The Oscars of 2008 will be a landmark as it would be the 80th in the history of Hollywood.

If it doesn't happen, the writers of WGA would be successful in shooting their careers dead while the actors can always act in a British, European or Asian movie.

Let us think about this for a moment.

What is the actors' problem? If they wish to show solidarity or empathise with the writers why don't they just take the same pay packets as the writers, work for free and give their money to the writers or go on strike with them? This is the height of absurdity and pretense.

Unfortunately, WGA are not the sole custodians of scripts in the world as they seem to think so. However, Hollywood studios have a lot of money with them to spend which they can do on a non-WGA script.It is true that without stories, movies don't get made but without the money of the producer nothing can ever get made. So blackmailing employers is not really a good idea.

Does this mean the producer should be allowed to dictate all terms and the writers have to simply accept it? Nope.

If you don't like the terms, you can try to re-negoniate it or go to another studio. If that doesn't work you are free to approach someoneelse in Europe, Australia, Japan or India to produce it. Or maybe the Hollywood actors will put their money where their mouth is and produce the films themselves and help out the writers by giving them the copyrights for each Internet download, re-run, etc. After all, several actors have production houses too.

The writer's strike is also affecting cinematographers, stunt people, art directors, etc. and is not just writers vs producers.

Probably, the cinematographers can go on strike next, refusing to visualise the script by writers or show these actors in good angles as they are also not given their cut in each download or re-run. Then the stunt people can follow as they risk their lives and are not paid a cut each time the stunt is shown or watched in any part of the world.

Maybe like writers, everyone from cinematographers, stunt artists all the way to the clap boy should be able to copyright their style, move, angle, etc. so they own it and they too can negotiate their rights and payments with the studios.

This way the writers of WGA will have effectively shown how to kill the American Movie Industry.

Strikes are a public nuisance. The strikers are essentially a group of blackmailers not working ( usually a few blackmailers with the rest following as they have no choice or say in the matter ) and not caring how many others are affected by their actions. Also, all those who go on strike don't necessarily do it by exercising personal "choice" but more due to "force" or "pressure" from the guilds.

Writers should be the ones to know there is no such thing as a collective stomach or a collective brain.

So is there a way out ?

Yes. Dissolve the guilds and negotiate your own contracts and terms as far as the rights go. If you feel you are being exploited, have a Hollywood Chamber for Complaint Redressals, re-negotiate or sue the studio as a last resort for rights violations.

Writers, take a close look at the WGA and see who are the ones who are dictating the strike as it is not possible that all members of WGA woke up one day and agreed to go on strike. Isolate these people and question their motives. If you personally agree with their explanation, then go ahead and continue. If you are one of those sick of the strike, get out and negotiate your own contract with the studio. Guilds are meant to help support your rights and not create conditions where your right to survive is at stake.

If you find the studios won't work with a non-WGA person, then get out of the USA for better pastures in the rest of the world. This is the global age.

The only thing that is making me grin is the fact that the Indian Movie Industry which is the prime competitor to Hollywood in terms of following and number of movies produced annually is gaining ground thanks to writer's strike. However, these idiots are yet to use the Hollywood Writer's strike to make a killing in the world entertainment market.

If the Hollywood writers and actors keep this up, they'll be outsourced and finally we'll have a truly competitive entertainment market.

© 2008 by Deepa Kandaswamy, All rights reserved.

9/11 and the War on Terror

Today marks the sixth anniversary of the WTC attacks.The war on terror has failed horribly. The Taliban is on the rise in Afghanistan and Osama still eludes capture while Al-Qaeda appears to be growing.

9/11 happened. Unlike other attacks with the exception of wars, it was spectacularly executed like a scene from a Hollywood action thriller.

It had horrific results and watching it on a TV screen, as a non-American one could condemn it and feel sorry for the people who perished in it -- over 3000 people from 80 nations around the world.

What I fail to understand even today is the way the USA, especially the government reacted to it.

This is the same USA which during the Cold War which spanned for over 50 years was calm though there USSR nuclear missiles targetted on it and which could be set off at the press of a button.


NO FEAR
The Americans were not afraid. Instead, they went about their work and America reached heights like never before. Americans were not driven by fear. They didn't fear the Russians or attack USSR immigrants. They challenged government control over their lives even when the US govt. used terms like "patriotism" and "national interest" to justify their wars.

Knowing atom bombs could rain down on their cities and later nuclear missiles, American citizens didn't espouse a philosophy of hate driven by fear. Instead, Americans concentrated on the issues and challenges they thought were important. They put a man on the moon, got rid of homegrown apartheid, valued civil liberties and freedom of their fellow citizens. They were happy even though the Russians and the other "Commie" sympathisers cum groups could have killed them. Fear was not an option.

The bravery shown by the Americans won over even hard core Communists, made America the destination of choice and captured the imagination of the world. It also led to the collapse of the USSR ending the Cold War.

CLIMATE OF FEAR
After 9/11, Americans are afraid of an organisation called "Al-Qaeda". Their elected representatives including the Senators, Congressmen and their govt. are saying Americans should be afraid. They are ruining their economy and lives of young people by sending them off to wars because some "Al Qaeda" members got hold of a few planes and crashed them into the Pentagon and the World Trade center. The govt. issues "color" alerts that sends Americans into a frenzy. Both Republicans and Democrats are responsible for this climate of fear.

Americans are now driven by fear -- an irrational fear that they will be attacked anywhere and anytime because of their citizenship. Some are scared of their neighbours because they look different. Most are okay with their government violating their privacy in the name of "security".They think anything is valid including violating the civil liberties of their fellow citizens and tourists to their country because 9/11 happened.

If Americans continue to be driven by fear, then Osama doesn't need to do anything to win. Six years and he has done nothing except go into hiding as he sees the Americans do it to themselves. Fear leads to grief which leads to hate which leads to mindless violence and it becomes a vicious circle.

WILL AMERICA BECOME BANKRUPT?
The USA that most people in the rest of the world loved, admired and aspired to be will be no more if Americans continue to live in fear because their elected representatives say the boogie man will jump on them tommorow.

Bin Laden said in his tape released on November 1, 2004.
"It is easy for us to provoke and bait this administration. All we have to do is send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written Al Qaeda, in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their pivate companies.

So we are continuing this policy of bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. That being said ... when one scrutinises the results , one cannot say that Al-Qaeda is the sole factor in achieving these spectacular gains. Rather the the policy of the White House that demands the opening of war fronts to keep busy their various corporations, has helped Al-Qaeda achieve enormous results.

For example, al-Qaeda spent 500,000 dollars on the events while America in the incident and its aftermath has lost more than 500 billion dollars."

Simply put Osama says the aim of the attacks on 9/11 ( the events he refers to in the tape) were to create chaos and fear, so America will spend and continue to spend money until it becomes economically bankrupt. As long as Americans elect a govt. that is scared and gets into other wars, Osama will achieve what he set out to do. Same goes for private companies, American and other countries which see only $ signs on this so called War On Terror
And as long as the US govt. keeps invading countries in the name of protecting Americans, anti-Americanism will spread and young Americans will continue to die.

WAY FORWARD
In Cuppola's movie "Apocalypse Now (1979), Col. Kurtz played by Marlon Brando says,"I've seen horrors... horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that... but you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face... and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies. I remember when I was with Special Forces. Seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a camp to innoculate the children. We left the camp after we had innoculated the children for polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn't see. We went back there and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile. A pile of little arms. And I remember... I... I... I cried. I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want to forget. And then I realized... like I was shot... like I was shot with a diamond... a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought: My God... the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we. Because they could stand that these were not monsters. These were men... trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love... but they had the strength... the strength... to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral... and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling... without passion... without judgment... without judgment. Because it's judgment that defeats us."

The above passage describes not some enemy but the terrorist today. Cuppola was wrong in glorifying it. You cannot make a friend of fear and horror but need to overcome it. Other countries face terrorist attacks too.

We need to rebuild our world free from fear and the media generated hysteria. Americans need to value the civil liberties of all citizens guaranteed by the US constitution more than their fear. The threat will remain but Americans need to reclaim their country.
Osama maybe Darth Vader but you are the Luke Skywalkers. The force will be with you as long as you refuse to be afraid. You have to consciously choose not be afraid. You've faced nuclear missiles in the past. Osama says you should be afraid of planes and your own neighbours!

Like the Cold War generation, while Americans should take precautions and not ignore terrorist threats, today let Americans pledge to live like they did before 9/11 --a country of individuals without fear -- the land of the brave.

Copyright © 2007 by Deepa Kandaswamy, All rights reserved