Reality TV Shows = Unions = ???
The Writers Guild of America is demanding that companies that produce shows such as "The Apprentice" and "Supernanny" provide union wages and benefits to people who sift through hundreds of hours of footage to craft story lines.
The WGA claims reality shows have become cash cows for the networks in large part because producers don't have to pay union wages and benefits.
The union says people who work on the shows are forced to put in long hours without days off and in some cases placed in dangerous conditions.
"They want to keep the fiction that it's not written so they don't have to pay us what they pay fiction writers," said Rebecca Hertz, a 28-year-old writer who has worked on shows such as "The Swan" on Fox and "Big Man on Campus" on the WB.
The WGA said it has received nearly 1,000 signed cards from reality TV workers requesting representation by the union.
Unlike a sitcom or drama, a reality show doesn't often employ "writers." Instead, people with titles such a "field producer" or "story producer" make sure each episode follows a script that's often conceived in advance.
In other cases, editors have the job of finding dramatic story lines in hundreds of hours of tape. Producers might boil down 400 hours of footage to create a single 44-minute episode of a show, said Jeff Bartsch, a 26-year-old editor.
"Audiences want to see conflict and resolution. They want to see a progression, to see the characters learn something," he said.
That process, argues the WGA, is called writing.
Uh......yeah. Sure.
*walks off, shaking her head*
I always knew they were scripted and rehearsed.
It always seemed a little... contrived... to me.
But anyway, I guess if they're technically writing the shows, then they deserve to be unionized and payed the same wages as people who write real television shows.
In other cases, editors have the job of finding dramatic story lines in hundreds of hours of tape. Producers might boil down 400 hours of footage to create a single 44-minute episode of a show, said Jeff Bartsch, a 26-year-old editor... That process, argues the WGA, is called writing.
Uh......yeah. Sure.
In creating a history textbook for an educational publisher, a writer might sift through millions of pages of collected knowledge and condense it all into a fifty-page chapter concerning the Romans and intended to keep a high-school audience interested. If that writer is paid the same wages the Union is referring to, then I see no reason why a reality-show editor wouldn't be eligible for the same pay, by virtue of the fact that his job is exactly the same thing.
Story telling is not writing.
These people do deserve union representation, but the WGA is not the union to represent them, the Editors Guild www.editorsguild.com/ fits their job description much better. Taking lots of footage and reducing it into a coherent story is what editors do.
However, this could be just an attempt by the WGA to boost membership the same way the Service Employees International Union has been targeting jobs that really belong in other fields.
Jimro
My heart aches!!
I always watch reality tv, but to know it's scripted makes me want to cry.
Oh well, *twitches* it was nice while it lasted.
*starts hallucinating*
If so-called reality TV is actually scripted, doesn't that mean that it's not actually reality?
I always knew that these things followed a general script, so that they could make things interesting.
But the WGA doesnt seem to be the right place, they should either create a sub branck or their own...
Quote:
If so-called reality TV is actually scripted, doesn't that mean that it's not actually reality?
We've known that it isn't truly 'reality' for some time now... MY reality's not that interesting... >_>
Anyway, I agree with Jimro: it's more editing than truly writing.
