The Hollywood writers’ strike is entering day 100, and the far-left Washington Post would like to share some tales of woe about a group of people who hate us.
One writer is down to her last three months of savings.
Another writer has had to return to his old job as a man-whore gigolo male escort, where he clears $8,000 to $10,000 a month.
Another writer is currently filing for bankruptcy.
Did they vote to strike? It sure sounds like it. So what did they expect?
You know, I tried and failed to be a screenwriter. I made some money, and had some success, but ultimately didn’t succeed. But during all that time, I was also working full-time as a bill collector, which is not easy when you’re hitting rewrite deadlines and attending development meetings. On top of that was all the spec work (writing for free, hoping to get paid), the rounds of studio interviews, developing pitches… Then I quit my bill collector job and spent two years working on a movie for free… Two years of zero pay. When it was all over, I realized I didn’t have what it takes to make a good living and moved along.
If you can’t make a decent living at something, you have to find something else. That’s life, and life ain’t fair. And in a field as competitive as screenwriting, where everyone who watches a Tarantino movie decides to be a screenwriter, you will not earn much money. As much as I flamed out, I still had more success than 99 percent of the people who moved to Hollywood to work in The Biz. That’s the silver lining in my cloud of fail.
You see, nobody owes me anything, especially a fair wage or guaranteed standard of living. And if artificial intelligence ever costs me my job here at Breitbart News, I won’t whine and complain about how unfair it is. I will do what I did before—move along to something else, knowing I don’t have what it takes.
This writer’s complaint, I understand:
Barrante said she hadn’t worked in Hollywood for long before she discovered how common it was for producers or directors to ask her to essentially work free, asking for small changes in scripts that would end up requiring large-scale rewrites for which she received no compensation. That’s an issue the WGA is attempting to address in the contract negotiations.
“It’s death by a thousand notes, and suddenly what was supposed to be a fair wage for a writer on my skill level … they take advantage of the fact that you love this story and want it to get made,” Barrante said.
Yeah, that stinks.
This complaint, however, is laughable:
[N]ew threats are emerging, namely the advent of AI, which some writers and actors have come to view as an existential threat that could eliminate much of the work they do today — if studios get their way.
The only way A.I. can eliminate your job is if a robot can do a better job—a robot that doesn’t strike, has no artistic temperament, and works 24/7 for free. No sane person can expect studios to turn that down.
The delicious irony here is that these strikers are the same people who hate a working class who had their own jobs decimated by automation. You hate us, but now we’re supposed to whip out a violin for you?
No.
Here’s the other thing…
Most of the product these strikers have been creating over the last decade or so is absolute crap. On top of the fact that most of their product is designed to dehumanize 50 percent of the country and groom little kids into sex objects, it’s also bad, as in bad art.
Maybe if your product didn’t suck so bad, these streaming services would be making money instead of losing billions. You all say you want a piece of the pie, but there is no pie. There are no profits because your writing sucks.
You hate me and suck at your job and want my sympathy?
No.
You know what might make these writers better writers? A little taste of real life, a little time outside the Hollywood bubble, and the kind of hardship and setbacks that create empathy, wisdom, and humility.
I don’t hate these people.
I’m hating them back.
They started it.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.