Anyone can hold a camera. Anyone can be shown how to put on makeup. Aren’t that many that understand how to tap into that creative genius that is inside us.

Producers want to receive income forever on their product (Movie, TV Show)

They don’t think the writers should.

Doesn’t anyone else see the hypocrisy here??

My opinion the advertisers pay the producers, we pay the advertisers, so in the end the PUBLIC owns it, so it should be FREE after that. mmm, makes sense to me! There problem solved.

This should be a negotiating point in individual contracts, not something decided at once for everybody who ever bothered to join your little union. And if you don’t like the terms the hollywood corporations offer you, refuse to contract and get another job. If you’re worth residuals, you certainly should be capable of finding another good job.

My lord, stop whining already, will you? The entire world would benefit greatly if you people would break up your union and compete with each other, so that those of you that actually can write are kept busy and the rest of you end up in other fields better suited to your talents. The crap writing in so many places is probably directly attributable to the existence of a “writer’s union”.

If his argument had been that, however, I doubt he would have concluded with “Do your job, get paid, go home… shut the hell up.” I think his argument was that writers don’t deserve more money in any form and certainly not in the form of residuals which he appears to consider… well… uncapitalistic? I can’t quite tell what the issue is. Greedy?

Brad, writers aren’t the only people in society with performance-based incentives (which is what residuals are). Aside from other people involved in movies and tv shows (producers, actors, editors, maybe even some of the crew) you can count fund managers (salary for managing the fund; bonus for fund performing well), insurance agents (salary for selling insurance, small percentage for as long as client keeps the policy), any employee who gets stock as part of a salary deal (company does better = more money). Whether or not you agree that this type of compensation structure is just, there is certainly wide precedent for it. There is even an argument to be made that if an ad or logo or layout you design nets your client large profits you should get a piece of the action. Perhaps you can band your fellow designers together to unionize!

When you, as a graphic designer, are offered work below what you consider the value of your work to be, do you take the job because, hey, someone offered you a job? Are you morally bound to take any work that’s put in front of you?

Residuals are the issue, but thinking of residuals as bonus pay just confuses the conflict. The real issue is that the management wants the writers to write for less than the writers think their writing is worth. They’re not bad people for thinking their labor has a certain value.