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Hollywood strike gives aspiring writers hope

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by Steve Lampiris

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

I may be a cynic at heart, but I always at least try to find the silver lining in any negative situation, if only to say I tried. I suppose something as negative as the recent Writers Guild of America strike should present a case that would be difficult for such an endeavor.

All of television that is not "reality TV" is either off the air or close to it, as no new scripts have been written past what some analysts say is January — though networks would have us believe they have scripts extending to the end of the season next May. Who is to be believed is anyone's guess. But, seriously, how could something like the laying off of the entire staff of "The Office" — 102 people — be a good thing in any light? When stated like that, probably nothing.

I am not a fan of clichés, yet the saying "When one door closes, another opens" might well fit this particular situation. While there may be no union writers penning new episodes of "Lost" or "24," nonunion and amateur writers ("scabs") are certainly presented with the opportunity of a lifetime. If there was ever a likelihood of an undiscovered Quentin Tarantino or Alan Ball getting his or her work seen by an executive at a major Hollywood studio, now would be the time.

Our generation — the YouTube, MySpace and Facebook generation — has a golden opportunity through this event to literally revolutionize the way Hollywood produces film and television. Imagine, if you will, some kid in his dorm room with an unpublished screenplay sitting on his computer. Before, this kid came to the realization that his work may never see the light of day beyond, say, friends and family. He knows he has little chance of ever successfully selling his script to a Hollywood producer, much less having the chance to pitch his idea at all, considering Hollywood employs hundreds of professional writers for their projects.

But wait. This kid never envisioned a writers' strike encompassing all of Hollywood. Now his script, once thought to be nothing more than just something he wrote, could actually be worth something to a Hollywood suit. The script went from competing with hundreds of others for production down to zero. There is light at the end of the tunnel, after all.

So, I urge all of you writers with your rough drafts and manuscripts to take that step forward and present your work to a studio. Worse comes to worst, it gets rejected, but you lose nothing if no one produces it. But there is always that possibility that someone green-lights your eloquent, yet understated dialogue. Really, there is no reason not to submit your work.

Now, this may read like a call to arms, and perhaps it is, but I am probably the wrong guy around which to rally because of said cynicism. My goal here was to possibly inspire some young writer among us Badgers to either finally write that future Best Original Screenplay or Pulitzer Prize winner, or to just have his or her work published and seen by someone who can do something with it. It does not even have to be someone from this school — not even someone from Generation Y.

Some of us are not writers; I know that. But let us not forget the YouTube generation's most important contribution to television and film: the remix. I mean, who hasn't seen "The Shining" recut as a family comedy? Even as I write this, I just discovered a new remix of the "The Office" recut as crime thriller, complete with "Hello Zepp" as background music — it is absolutely brilliant. Our generation has found a way to entertain ourselves by creating and recreating, all at the cost of nothing. All one needs is a computer with video editing software in order to remix something. That, or one could go "old school" and make a film with a 16 mm camera for around $27,000 and have it make millions like Clerks did.

Filmmaking Cinderella stories aside, Generation Y does not need television and film anymore, as we just create our own little fantasy worlds for ourselves to enjoy. Then we take our digital realities and upload them to social networking sites for others to partake in our enjoyment. In this way, we are all "scabs" — arguably worse, considering we have made writers as obsolete as Windows 95 with the remix.

It would seem to me that if anyone in Hollywood were smart, they would realize the literal ATM staring them in the face. Imagine that kind of marketing potential: You could sell a screenplay for $1,000 to Hollywood and they could use YouTube for free publicity to spread the word about the final product, written by you. Hell, it could be shown for free. The studio would rake in cash from an ad or two shown before the video.

Perhaps the gentle readers of this column have at this point found my optimism to be borderline naiveté. True, there is always the chance that I am wrong or I have overstated my case as a result of wishful thinking. In that instance, if this strike does continue to what could be considered ad infinitum to Hollywood and the public alike (read: months), then I guess Generation MySpace always has their PS3s and Xbox 360s to fall back on. Or we can try reading — during the summer. Maybe that is naiveté.

Steve Lampiris is a senior majoring in political science. Any manuscripts sent to slampiris@badgerherald.com will be politely but firmly deleted.

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Anonymous (November 21, 2007 @ 11:23am):

Horrible idea. You'll be blacklisted by the WGA for crossing the picket line and when the strike is over, your writing career is over.

How bout standing in solidarity with fellow writers instead?

Anonymous (November 30, 2007 @ 10:20am):

I hope the strike never ends. And I hope this bloated monster called The Hollywood system dies the death it should have tasted years ago. We are no longer bound with chains to get our entertainment from Hollywood. We can make our own. Take back the control. Instead of these writers demanding more from their corporate overlords they need to create they're companies and produce their own content. If they're such awesome writers then they should be able to do this with ease. Instead of hiding in a union and crying for "fairness". Ha, like getting paid eternally for working once is fair. Wake up and get a real job!

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