Harlan Ellison schools us: On Getting Paid

pitu

a perfect thing to watch if you're wondering about the Writer's Guild of America strike
or even if you're not

carnivore

Awesome!

quijibo

He nailed it!
For the creative community in general...

Scouring craigslist reveals all these ads that have the balls to put in
"PAY!" with an exclamation mark as if that were some sort of divine miracle

Clap! Clap! Clap Harlan!

jeffrey

WGA strike gets violent

jeffrey

Oh, and uh...

lilbangladesh

Yeah, no kidding. I'm fed up with all those people who expect me to work for free.

"It's publicity!"

It's extra work. I'm background. There IS no publicity value and you probably won't send me a DVD for my trouble, and that's assuming that any shot of me survives. Sorry folks, but if you want me to waste a day being bullied and ordered around, you gotta pay me. Rumor is that Cashmere Mafia doesn't pay it's non-union extras. If they call me, I probably won't accept.

And then let's mention all those other projects. My ex the producer doesn't pay his non-union actors no matter how big the role. And the question is, how are they supposed to pay the rent when they can't work paying jobs while doing your shoot?

As an actor, I've had to do my share of free scutwork to get experience, but it's ESPECIALLY insulting when people expect me to work for free (or way less than AFM wages) as a musician, a field I actually spent years training in.

What I do is work. What the writers do is work. Anyone who approaches their creative endevours with any bit of professionalism is working, yet we're expected to do it for nothing.

Go writers!

sprite

The Ellison clip is great. Thanks for sharing pitu!

jeffrey

The strike has apparently expanded...



And that music is somehow so hauntingly familiar.