We stole this comment from another blog (that no longer exists) pertaining to the upcoming writers strike. The blog post was trying to make sense of the strike, what it means to industry personnel and also what it might mean to us: the fans. A commenter, who claims to be part of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), put in his/her own terms…

I’m a WGA member (and one of the people striking on Monday)… Let me try to clear some stuff up, at least from my POV and to the best of my understanding.

     There are a lot of unresolved issues on the table, but the main two issues, IMO, are (1) DVD residuals and (2) New Media (basically Internet)

     DVD: Current residual formulas come to about FOUR CENTS per DVD. Yes that’s right. When you buy a DVD, the writer gets 4 cents. In comparison, about THIRTY cents go to the company that presses the DVD. This formula has been around since the days of VHS, when writers bought into the studios/network’s argument that home video is an “untested market”, agreed to the formula, and have resented/been screwed by it ever since. The problem is that when the formula was first set up, the companies argued that home video could wipe out, that VHS tapes were really expensive to make, etc. But then two things happened. (1) Home video became a runaway success. (It’s currently where studios make the majority of their money, esp. now that they’re releasing old TV shows, etc. In fact I’ve heard that theatrical releases of movies are now basically advertising for the DVD release) and (2) DVD replaced VHS. DVDs, as you know if you’ve bought blanks, cost almost nothing to make compared to tapes. Ie, the costs of manufacturing went down in 25 years. Unfortunately, the writers formula never changed in that period, and the writers still make… four cents. The writers are currently asking for about 8 cents per DVD.

     Issue #2, “new media”: Again the companies are arguing that this is an “untested” medium. Everyone knows it’s going to replace DVDs eventually, but the AMPTP (ie, the companies) are saying “no, it’s too new. It’s untested. We can stream online, we can sell online, but we can’t really pay yet”– sound familiar? It’s the 80s all over again. So when you watch streaming TV episodes on the Web today, the writers typically aren’t getting ANYTHING. Even though you may have noticed these videos are usually advertising-supported. Meaning the companies ARE getting paid. Jon Stewart made this point well on his last show.

     The companies have offered to use the DVD formulas for shows PURCHASED (as opposed to streaming) by customers online. They call this something like “online DVDs” or “online DVD sell-through” This is the equivalent of spitting in the writers faces, as the writers have been pissed about the DVD “home video” formula for 25 years. Totally unacceptable. Using this formula, the studios would pay the writers like four cents for an online download even though the studios’ costs to deliver to the customer would be practically zip.

     One last bit on the Internet. From what I’ve been learning, the current negotiating proposal from the companies is that “promotional” streaming to customers not pay the writers anything…ever… even if the “promotional” streaming is showing the entire show/movie AND even if the companies DO make money (such as via ads). In other words, they reserve the right to show ad-supported free streaming of shows online and pay the writers zip. Or looked at another way, they could move their entire networks to online streaming, still supported by ads, and the writers would make nothing.

     What this strike is really about: According to the company’s proposals, writer’s residuals for TV would disappear as content moves from broadcast to online. Current TV residuals would disappear to zero online residuals. (Residuals are the payments writers currently make that– for most writers– allows them to live in between gigs.)

     The issue mentioned above about writers not making money until the show does is totally a non-starter. Whether a show makes money or not is (1) subject to stuff like scheduling, advertising, editing, casting, and a million other things that the writer has nothing to do with, and (2) Hollywood accounting does not have the best reputation, as anyone who followed the lawsuits over Lord of the Rings, which supposedly made no money might know. I also heard that the “Simpsons” is officially a money-losing show. Yeah, right. It’s funny how many of these companies tell their investors “Our industry is doing great! The Internet is the future!” and then tell the writers “Oh we’re doing terrible. The Internet is untested and could go away.” Puhlease.

     I’m not a particularly active WGA member or anything, so the above is all to the best of my understanding. I recommend you check out http://www.unitedhollywood.com for some writer blogs or the WGA (www.wga.org) for more info.

     Blah. Sorry for rambling, but I guess that’s what editors are for Hope this helps.

A WGA member

     Obviously this is an industry personnel’s opinion and only from one side’s perspective of the argument. Still, it helps to put thing into place so we can all understand.

     From what I hear, the WGA also wants royalties paid out before the studio and distributors even break even. So the writer gets paid for his/her work, but as of now, they also get a certain perentage of ticket sales even if the movie is a bomb. AMPTA (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) believes that royalties should not be paid out until the production company breaks even. As I understand it, this actually makes sense. The writer should receive their royalties along with everyone else; i.e. when the TV show or movie is a hit. If I’m wrong on this, please correct me. But in this regard, I believe AMPTA to be in the right. As for DVD and internet distribution profits, the WGA definitely has a leg to stand on with their argument.

     Recently a member in my extended family narrowly escaped the clutches of succumbing to breast cancer. It took us all by surprise and really raised our awareness of things we can do to help fight it.

     So lo and behold in my inbox today is an email from “DVDs for the Cure” administrators asking if I wanted to help out. All I have to do is post some info on the MoviePatron blog about this great program. Becasue of recent family events and the fact that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, of course I said yes.

Here’s how it works:

FOX and MGM have joined up with
Susan G. Komen for the Cure on a multi-title DVDs For The Cure promotion. Fox and MGM Home Entertainment will donate 50 cents from each DVD sold to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, with a guaranteed minimum contribution of $250,000. Susan G. Komen for the Cure is one of the leading research organizations in the fight against breast cancer.

As part of the promotion the following titles will be reissued in a special pink packaging, and proceeds from the sale of each DVD will go toward this worthy cause.

An Affair to Remember
A Walk in the Clouds
Entrapment
Ever After
In Her Shoes
Legally Blonde
Mermaids
Moulin Rouge
Never Been Kissed
Say Anything
Thelma & Louise
There’s Something About Mary

     This is sort of old news, but the specially packaged DVDs should be more visible and accessible throughout October. It doesn’t take much to help support a good cause. You’re gonna buy a DVD this month anyway, might as well be one of theese. I can’t say I’m too thrilled with the color pink, but I guess it’s a color lacking from my DVD shelf. And anyway, I should’ve bought a couple of these titles long ago anyway.

     Last night I was dinking around in the iTunes store looking for various audio and video podcasts to put on my iPod for the trip up to Toronto for the After Dark Fest. I came across one completely free video podcast called Cult of UHF. Each month a new full length B-movie of yesteryear is added for a fee download.

     Many of the titles I hadn’t heard of, but many I had like Plan Nine from Outer Space and the original Night of the Living Dead. Many other too; including Little Shop of Horrors, House on Haunted Hill and Reefer Madness. There’s a bunch of Kung-fu movies there as well if that’s your thing. Some whacky titles I hadn’t heard of like Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter and Destroy all Planets. There’re a ton more and I recommend you check it out. Especially if you have a video iPod, as these are formatted and all ready to go to your mp3 player.

     As a side note, Kurt sent me a link to another public domain movie site with all sorts of crazy shit you can download for FREE, like the original White Zombie or The Grass is Greener starring Cary Grant, Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons.

Enjoy!

This post is mostly just me rambling about how good my library is and to make sure everyone else thinks about checking their libraries out for DVDs. Yesterday I had to drop some educational type videos at the library for my wife. While there I decided to check out their selection of movies. They had an amazing selection of older movies and I’m sure if I browsed through their computers I’d find even more terrific movies.

Here is what I ended up taking home with me yesterday:

• 3:10 to Yuma
• Aguirre: The Wrath of God
• Solyaris
• The Sweet Hereafter

I don’t really have the time right now to watch them all so I just ripped them to my hard drive and will watch them coming up shortly. I returned them this morning and picked up:

• The Battle of Algiers
• Bicycle Thieves
• Blow Up
• and I reserved for later pickup as it was out Yojimbo

I think I’m going to stop hitting the Blockbuster Video for a while and just hang out at the Library. They don’t have all the new movies but damn they have some good old ones.

     Just wanted to let you all know I have started a new show on the NowLive network called Movie Talk! I did my first show today, it isn’t very good (As I don’t have a co-host among other things) but give me a break it’s my first try! So every now and then drop in to Now Live and check when my show is on.

highlight to read

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     No, this is not an article on Uwe Boll’s Postal (which I totally want to see). No, this relates to the United States Postal Service’s commemorative stamp releases. Back in March, we reported about the USPS Star Wars stamps that were released (and are awesome by the way). Now, in continuing on with their “Legends of Hollywood” series, the next stamp to be released will be that featuring the likenes of Jimmy Stewart.

From USPS.com…

     James Stewart, a quintessential American film hero whose lanky physique, drawling speech and naturalistic acting style made the characters he played seem “real.” Art director Phil Jordan designed the stamp using a portrait of Stewart by Drew Struzan, who based his work on a photograph taken during the taping of The Stratton Story. The painting on the selvage, also by Struzan, shows Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the 1939 film for which he received his first Academy Award nomination for “best actor.”

     Also upcoming within the year, will be an “Art of Disney: Magic” series; featuring characters from various Disney movies who are in some way, Magical. These don’t interest me as much as the Jimmy Stewart stamps, but they’re nice none the less.

Magic is the fourth in the “Art of Disney” series. The first to honor the Art of Disney was on the theme of friendship. The second focused on celebrations and the third on romance.

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     Just wanted to say thank you to all of you out-of-towners (and out-of-country-ers) who took the time to email or voice chat with me last night to make sure me and mine were OK; what with the crisis in Minneapolis last night. That was really cool and I appreciate you thinking about me. Some of you I’ve never even met in person! Crazy. Thanks again for your thoughts and checking in on me. I appreciate it.

     And still as far as I know, all my friends and family are safe. Thanks again; it’s very heart warming.

Cheers.

     The inner blockbuster fan in me decided to go and see a showing of Transformers (you can read my full review here). For the first time ever in my life I went to see a midnight showing and I was very much looking forward to having a semi-empty hall to enjoy the film in. To my very much surprise the midnight showing of Transformers was almost full. Now this gave me the added bonus of the overall experience being more fun because I was in with more people and could laugh/jump/be amazed/be embarrassed (etc etc.) along with everyone else. But at the same time it was in fact annoying having to almost rub shoulders with audience members I didn’t know (just a personal annoyance).

     Now like I said I was alarmed to find that at that late/early of a time there were so many people. I think that has, for the most part, to do with the fact that it was the first showing of the Transformers around this part of the country and everyone was just dying to see it.  But I was just generally wondering after it; what time do you all choose to go and see movies? Do you pick a certain time to go whenever day (and what day?) you go? Or do you vary your times? (I know it depends on the theatre timetable but what time do you try to go see a movie?)

     The Internet Movie Database, where pretty much everyone goes for their movie info needs, has introduced a new feature that is quite interesting. They call it the movie synopsis. This is a new feature in which under every film title’s profile page, you can click on “plot synopsis” and a page will pop up that pretty much describes the ENTIRE movie for you point for point.

     As I browsed movie titles I noticed that very few of these synopsis’ (what is the plural of synopsis? synopses? synposi?) have actually been written yet, but I think as the service grows older we’ll start to see more and more of them.

     These are generally fan or user written synopsis’ that include everything about the film; INCLUDING SPOILERS. Kind of a neat little attribute IMDb has added here and will be sort of the Cliff’s Notes for a film. Very interesting I think. We’ll see how accurate they are as time goes on.

     On their main page, they give The Matrix synopsis as their example. I found a couple more like Star Wars and Jaws. Here is the full synopsis for Kubrick’s The Shining. Remember that this includes the whole story of the film and therefore INCLUDES SPOILERS! Having said that, you can skim the first couple paragraphs and nothing will be ruined for you, but you can at least get a sense of the feel for a synopsis. Or head over to IMDb and look at the synopsis for a movie you’ve already seen. Unwrap the text below to get an idea of what this new “IMDb Synopsis” is all about.

UNWRAP TEXT or SHOW **SPOILER**

     I stumbled across this site last night that knows the rating for every blog or webpage out there in the blogosphere. According to them…

Based on the following criteria:
This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

hell (5x) crappy (1x)

Nice, but I think I might start using more cusses and see if I can get us to at least an “R” rating. Though an NC-17 would be fun too.

     Starting yesterday, you can now download movies using your video game console. Microsoft and Xbox Live have signed a partnership with Disney Studios (which includes Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures and Miramax Films) to allow Xbox Live customers to rent these films as soon as they become available. Already available are titles such as Bridge to Terabithia, Miramax Film’s The Queen, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Fountain and Touchstone Pictures’ Déjà Vu. The movie can be downloaded in both standard and hi-def formats. Xbox live is the only market right now offering downloadable films in Hi-Def.

From the Xblox Live website:

Currently offering more than 2,350 hours of premium entertainment content from 15 partners, Xbox LIVE Marketplace is the only online service offering downloadable movies and TV shows in high definition. In a little more than seven months since video content was launched on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, there have been nearly 10 million downloads of entertainment content.

High-definition new-release movie rentals are 480 Microsoft Points each, and standard-definition new-release movie rentals are 320 Microsoft Points each. Classic feature films in high definition are 360 Microsoft Points each, and classic feature films in standard definition are 240 Microsoft Points. Guess what? I have no idea what this translates to in dollars, pounds or Rubles. I also don’t know what “renting” means. How long do you get to keep the download for would be my question. And Since I’m a lazy ass and have to go to a concert now, i’ll let you guys research that for me and put it in the comment section.

I don’t have an Xbox 360 anyway, so…

     Here is a cool little ad for European Film:

     Besides my 100 Films project, I’ve also decided to put up a my favorite quote each week from my favorite critic, Mark Kermode of the BBC. I may have to put more than one per week, but these are just gems that I look so forward to each week. So, for this first installment…

regarding the film, Captivity:

“Everyone involved [in the making of this film] should be hit with a rubber hose.”

from the AP and Newsday.com:

     ABC’s most recognizable film critic, Joel Siegel of Good Morning America died Friday after a bout with Colon Cancer. He was 63.

     Siegel had a bunch of Emmy awards for his journalism and he’s been around forever. He’s one of those critics that I remember from when I was a kid; back when there was only a handful of critics and you had to choose one of them. There were Siskel & Ebert, Gene Shalit, Leonard Maltin and Joel Sigel. Sure there were more, but these were the ones everybody paid attention to.

     What I remember most about Siegel (unfortunately maybe) is his spat with Kevin Smith a year or two ago in which Siegel stormed out of “Clerks II” shouting expletives that it was the worst movie he’d ever seen and was the first film he’d walked out of in 20 years - or something to that effect. Smith discussed it with him on a live radio broadcast later on and the moment is pretty much gold. Here’s the audio from that broadcast:

 Joel Siegel vs Kevin Smith [15:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

     As much as he kind of came off like an ass in that whole debacle, his reviews were taken pretty seriously and he definitely carried some clout in the world of critics. His stories were witty and his critiques relentless. He seemed like a naturally decent guy and this news is just… too bad. It’s truly sad especially in the critics world, so hat’s off to you sir - you were one of a kind and wil be missed by many.

     MoviePatron Blog has installed a new feature: Click Quick Comments. For those that don’t want to write a bunch and just wanna say good job or whatever, they can click on one of the buttons below and tally a comment for each post. A commenter can click more than one button per post. You can still leave regular comments as always, but now you don’t have to leave your email address or type anything if you just wanna say, “I was here.”

     Is this stupid, cool or neither? Leave some “real” comments or click a button below.

Current Mood: Confused & Mischievous

     In regards to last week’s Cinecast on Sicko, watch this trailer for the film. About one minute into the trailer, Michael Moore mentions that the US slips to #37 in the WHO’s rankings list, “just slightly ahead of Slovenia.” Notice which country is just UNDER Slovenia…

     If you know about Moore’s newest piece of celluloid, the third act in the film demonstrates how great the health care in country #39 is and it’s a shame that The US can’t follow suit. There are some explanations I thought of to explain this discrepancy in the film, but I wanted to hear yours.

     Today I went to see the new horror film Turistas (or Paradise Lost as it’s called over here in the UK. You can read my full review here) and I can’t wrap my head round how this, and most other horror films nowadays, are so damn formulaic and predictable. Since the start of the 21st century I have come across countless examples of horror films that are completely predictable in every single way. 

     So I ask you this question; why is that? Why are there no original horror films nowadays?

     I recently came across some new footage from the highly anticipated summer blockbuster Transformers. It’s pretty bad ass, check it out below:

(For a bigger, better quality version visit michaelbay.com)