No doubt by now everyone knows what is happening in La-La Land these days – the Writers are on strike, and the studios won’t budge. I fully agree that if the writers are producing scripts for studios to make money off internet broadcasts, they should get their share of profits derived – of course I am just brushing the surface of the disagreement that is causing the WGA strike, but that is not the point of this post.
For those who don’t know where I live – my apartment is literally across from a Hollywood film set in downtown Los Angeles. I woke up one Saturday morning at 10:00a.m. to people screaming out the words from Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer”. For a moment I thought perhaps American Idol decided to audition downstairs, only to discover that there was actually a protest downstairs and a shoot at the same time.
What I observed was a sequence where the protesters, WGA-picket-waving individuals, would hold their megaphones and gongs but remain silent while the film crew was getting the set ready. The moment the director yells “action”, the megaphone broadcasts a rendition of Bon Jovi that would make William Hung proud, while his cohorts start banging on their gong while screaming like they’ve been robbed.
While I agree with what the strike is about, I am totally appalled by what these (specific) protesters were doing – not only are they protesting against their formal colleagues, but they are purposely sabotaging their livelihood. I would compare that to protesting across the street from a planned parenthood clinic versus stalking a patient to her workplace and announcing that the patient had just visited a planned parenthood clinic.
If I was a director and this happened to me, I would personally go over to find out who these individuals were, so that I can make a point to never work with them again, with or without a strike.