The Energon Pub

Variety magazine has published an online article detailing the Hollywood writer's strike and how it will effect films like the sequel to the blcokbuster Transformers Movie.

The article mentions that, if the strike does not go on for too long, the film could still be set to start filming in June.

Read the whole article on Variety by clicking here.

DreamWorks/Par's "Transformers 2" is far enough along to proceed with pre-production, location scouting and advance VFX work, but will face serious issues if the strike continues for several months. Michael Bay's megabudget sequel isn't set to start filming until June.

Beat me by a minute Skowl!

I dont think this strike will be resolved quickly, guess that means more time for pre-production and designing of the new characters...

I can't see this strike delaying anything. The Daily Show and a few others went right to reruns, but once advertising revenue starts to drop one side will give.

I know there's rumors of this spreading to BroadWay, but I was listeng to the weather report on the radio, right after I heard that, I heard commercials for like ten new productions, so...

OK!

it's plain and simple and it
isn't like rocket science
get the voice cast with a few or more new
members added to the cast
Get the live action cast not tooo many new faces
in that department because i don't to see
tf 2 with more new people than new transformers

and tell petter cullen to give recommendation to
micheal bay say i think prime in the last battle
in the 1st movie screwed megatron voice may i
think frank to play him

and give Gregg Berger a call saying hay gregg we've got
the dinobots in this one fancy about doing grimlock again

and lastly get me a fine ass looking jet
i think ya know whats coming that makes you
think the words holy god i wish i could fly
that sucker let it be a leader class figure class
and get jetfire in there because me want to see
a knock down drag down air fight between
starscream and jetfire

Frank as Metal Monster Megatron? You got to be kidding me.
Leave him to elderly Fred Jones.

Anyone else, was it just me or did Hugo sound like an angry Prime?

i_amtrunks wrote:Beat me by a minute Skowl!

I dont think this strike will be resolved quickly, guess that means more time for pre-production and designing of the new characters...

i doubt it will last long. The tv stations, and movie makers are loosing millions everyday. They'll havta give the writers what they want. Mayby not exactly but a close enough one that tf2 can come out when expected.

What is it these days? Cant people just get on with it? Freaking strikes everywhere. Just get on with your freaking jobs and if it doesn't pay enough then find a different job! I hate strikes.

Anyway...im looking forward to the day we start to see leaked concept art for the new characters.

Sonray wrote:What is it these days? Cant people just get on with it? Freaking strikes everywhere. Just get on with your freaking jobs and if it doesn't pay enough then find a different job! I hate strikes.

Anyway...im looking forward to the day we start to see leaked concept art for the new characters.

well in this case i understand it....i mean they get squat from dvd releases and considering that they're the reason those shows exist.....they do deserve something....i mean if music artists are allowed to get paid for having their music used on tv-on-dvd releases even though they never ask for money for the reruns on tv......writers for sure deserve some too.

Bouncy X wrote:

Sonray wrote:What is it these days? Cant people just get on with it? Freaking strikes everywhere. Just get on with your freaking jobs and if it doesn't pay enough then find a different job! I hate strikes.

Anyway...im looking forward to the day we start to see leaked concept art for the new characters.

well in this case i understand it....i mean they get squat from dvd releases and considering that they're the reason those shows exist.....they do deserve something....i mean if music artists are allowed to get paid for having their music used on tv-on-dvd releases even though they never ask for money for the reruns on tv......writers for sure deserve some too.

yeah my english calss was talking about the strike and he said that for every DVD they sell the writers get 4 cents kinda sucky pay if you ask me

Actually it's not so much about dvd sales, it's more about the revenue generated from shows that are streamed over the internet after they've gone to air.

The writers currently receive no share of that money.

Dont the writers get paid a lump sum to do the job in the first place? If thats a decent amount whats wrong with settling for that? It has to be more than what any of us make.

Seriously...they sit on their ass and type at a computer....its not like its super hard labor or something.

Some may get paid a lump sum but most would opt for a % of the revenue generated.

If you were hired to write a script for a movie that may or may not be a financial success, would you opt to be paid $5000 or a % of the revenue generated?

I'm sure you'd be kicking yourself if you opted for $5000 and the movie raked in $800 million ...

And contrary to what you obviously believe, it's not a case of just sitting on their arses and typing. There's research, meetings, writers block and who knows what else to deal with. And really, "hard work" does not necessarily involve physical labour. Writing is a mental thing and mental labour can be pretty bloody strenuous. Trust me, I work with numbers all day long "sitting on my arse and typing at a computer" and I still go home at the end of the day pretty bloody knackered.

sounds good?

"megabudget"...got that damn right. lol

Excellent news.

Burn wrote:Some may get paid a lump sum but most would opt for a % of the revenue generated.

If you were hired to write a script for a movie that may or may not be a financial success, would you opt to be paid $5000 or a % of the revenue generated?

I'm sure you'd be kicking yourself if you opted for $5000 and the movie raked in $800 million ...

And contrary to what you obviously believe, it's not a case of just sitting on their arses and typing. There's research, meetings, writers block and who knows what else to deal with. And really, "hard work" does not necessarily involve physical labour. Writing is a mental thing and mental labour can be pretty bloody strenuous. Trust me, I work with numbers all day long "sitting on my arse and typing at a computer" and I still go home at the end of the day pretty bloody knackered.

I have no sympathy for people who go home knackered even though all they have done all day is sit and type. My wife used to do that, but she is a different situation because she was mentally ill at the time and shouldnt have even been working.

Try working your guts out as a builder in the searing heat all day, lifting boulders and building houses with your bare hands just to scrape together enough to put food on your table, then get back to me about hard work.

Sonray wrote:

Burn wrote:Some may get paid a lump sum but most would opt for a % of the revenue generated.

If you were hired to write a script for a movie that may or may not be a financial success, would you opt to be paid $5000 or a % of the revenue generated?

I'm sure you'd be kicking yourself if you opted for $5000 and the movie raked in $800 million ...

And contrary to what you obviously believe, it's not a case of just sitting on their arses and typing. There's research, meetings, writers block and who knows what else to deal with. And really, "hard work" does not necessarily involve physical labour. Writing is a mental thing and mental labour can be pretty bloody strenuous. Trust me, I work with numbers all day long "sitting on my arse and typing at a computer" and I still go home at the end of the day pretty bloody knackered.

I have no sympathy for people who go home knackered even though all they have done all day is sit and type. My wife used to do that, but she is a different situation because she was mentally ill at the time and shouldnt have even been working.

Try working your guts out as a builder in the searing heat all day, lifting boulders and building houses with your bare hands just to scrape together enough to put food on your table, then get back to me about hard work.

Ok, here's the problem I have with that.

Just because writing is not physically draining, doesn't mean it's not hard work.

I have been writing for years, everything from essays to short stories (which will officially be published in a few months! yay!), and I can tell you, sitting in front of a screen and trying to create a story from scratch can be just as exhausting (my masters thesis in Canadian Literature will prove that once I start writing it in a few years).

In fact, scientific studies have shown that the mental exhaustion after a day of intellectual work is about equal to the physical exhaustion after a day of physical work.

I agree with this writer's strike 100%. These people create the foundation on which just about every tv show ad movie is built. It's like writing a novel and having your royalty checks go to other people. It's not right. Hollywood has taken advantage of the writer's guild, and it's time they realised that these professionals can't be bossed around.

People who say "you should just suck it up, and if you don't like it get another job" obviously have no idea how unions actually work, or why they exist in the first place.

Believe me, all I do is sit and type all day, and I come home knackered too. No, I don't build buildings for a living, but I do a job that is exhausting in a whole different kind of way. Try telling to some of the world's most famous writers, who spend years writing and researching books, that all they do is "sit and type all day".

No, I couldn't build a building if you asked me to. But then again, you probably couldn't write something nearly as good as Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude or Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath.

Try doing some hard physical labor yourself, then tell me writing is more stressful.

How about you dig a hole out of solid rock, move boulders with your bare hands and carve out a beautiful swimming pool with no help or machinery at all. All whilst the sun is beating down on your back all day at 45+ degrees celcius. And then at the end you get screwed over with the paycheck and theres nothing you can do about it.

Yeah...thats SO MUCH easier than writing.

Dont bother to question me on this, as im talking from experience, from both ends of the argument.

Its Hollywood, these writers have plenty of money, they are rich Americans living in LA, of course i have no sympathy for these rich, new-car driving writers who sit in their cosey air-conditioned, luxury rooms all day tapping on a keyboard. Now if they was living out on the streets and had literally nothing then maybe id feel different about this.

But as it is, its just a case of greed and laziness.

Sonray wrote:Try doing some hard physical labor yourself, then tell me writing is more stressful.

Yes, I've done physical labour. Yes, it's tough. But so is writing. Physical labour might be more difficult, but don't say that writing is not 'labour', or exhausting in any way.

Sonray wrote:How about you dig a hole out of solid rock, move boulders with your bare hands and carve out a beautiful swimming pool with no help or machinery at all. All whilst the sun is beating down on your back all day at 45+ degrees celcius. And then at the end you get screwed over with the paycheck and theres nothing you can do about it.

Nothing you can do about it? Maybe you should think about joining a union... they'll protect you from stuff like that...

Oh wait...

Sonray wrote:Just get on with your freaking jobs and if it doesn't pay enough then find a different job! I hate strikes.

Skowl wrote:

Sonray wrote:Try doing some hard physical labor yourself, then tell me writing is more stressful.

Yes, I've done physical labour. Yes, it's tough. But so is writing. Physical labour might be more difficult, but don't say that writing is not 'labour', or exhausting in any way.

How about you dig a hole out of solid rock, move boulders with your bare hands and carve out a beautiful swimming pool with no help or machinery at all. All whilst the sun is beating down on your back all day at 45+ degrees celcius. And then at the end you get screwed over with the paycheck and theres nothing you can do about it.

Nothing you can do about it? Maybe you should think about joining a union... they'll protect you from stuff like that...

Oh wait...

Sonray wrote:Just get on with your freaking jobs and if it doesn't pay enough then find a different job! I hate strikes.

[/quote]

Not everyone lives in a "perfect" union filled world, where their jobs are safe or have a back up plan. Some people actually have to work for themselves, and fend for themselves. Ever heard of self employment? And yeah, it would be kinda hard when you are trying to scrape together a living in a foreign country, where practically no one knows you even exist.

Jesus dude...have you ever been outside that little box you seem to be living in?

I've done physical labor and I've done jobs where it's mostly mental. Both could be draining.

These writers deserve the right to strike just as much as garbage collectors do when they strike. The work these writers do goes on to make a lot of people a lot of money. Over the past 10 years or so, that work has made even more people more money AND doubled as advertising in some cases. They asked for more money, were told to STFU, and their union voted to strike on it. I don't see anything wrong with that.

Sonray, no one is saying your job is easy. They're saying that both mental and physical labor can be hard. Just because one thing maybe be harder than the other doesn't mean the other is easy. If you think writing is easy and it pays better, than why wouldn't you just become a writer? Why in the world would someone take a hard job and just barely scrape by when they could take an easy job and live the good life? If only things were that simple, no?

Devastator wrote:Sonray, no one is saying your job is easy. They're saying that both mental and physical labor can be hard. Just because one thing maybe be harder than the other doesn't mean the other is easy. If you think writing is easy and it pays better, than why wouldn't you just become a writer? Why in the world would someone take a hard job and just barely scrape by when they could take an easy job and live the good life? If only things were that simple, no?

If only, the world would be a better place.

I just dont believe (while i know it can be hard) that simply sitting down and typing at a computer can even compare to breaking your back, ripping your muscles and griding your bones-physical labor. I have tried writing, and i sucked at it, but it wasn't nearly as hard. Like i didn't go home sweating and smelling like a pig and covered in all manner of dirt with blood and scratches all over my body. (nothing serious but accidents always happen in such an environment)

And this was from years ago btw, it wasn't my job and isn't my job, i never claimed it to be, BUT my dad was a builder in Spain and i often went to work with him and helped, and whilst i barely took the strain off of him i knew how hard it was, specially at the ripe old age of 10. Just watching what he had to do was exhausting sometimes.

Sonray, by your own logic, these nine-to-fivers are doing work that a monkey could do. They are lucky to not have their jobs shipped out to China or automated entirely. They should be happy just having a job in today's modern world.

Work is work. Sometimes it's physically draining; sometimes it's mentally draining. The difference is that when something is physically draining, you can go home, shower it off, and pass out. When something is mentally draining it stays with you after you "clock out." It can make it very difficult to sleep. That's what happens with jobs that have some consequence to them. It's something that a person doomed to physical labor will never understand. Look at the consequences of failure. So you dropped a bag of cement. That sucks. Pick it up and keep carrying it. Turn in a terrible movie script and you'll have millions of people, many of whom will never even meet you, cursing your name for years.

I think there's a song written about this somewhere. Money for Nothin', I believe.

Professor Smooth wrote:Sonray, by your own logic, these nine-to-fivers are doing work that a monkey could do. They are lucky to not have their jobs shipped out to China or automated entirely. They should be happy just having a job in today's modern world.

Work is work. Sometimes it's physically draining; sometimes it's mentally draining. The difference is that when something is physically draining, you can go home, shower it off, and pass out. When something is mentally draining it stays with you after you "clock out." It can make it very difficult to sleep. That's what happens with jobs that have some consequence to them. It's something that a person doomed to physical labor will never understand. Look at the consequences of failure. So you dropped a bag of cement. That sucks. Pick it up and keep carrying it. Turn in a terrible movie script and you'll have millions of people, many of whom will never even meet you, cursing your name for years.

I think there's a song written about this somewhere. Money for Nothin', I believe.

meh, i dont see it that way but whatever.