Looks like the swimming pool quip didn't go down well at all. To me, this seems like a guy who would charge for autographs. He grates me the wrong way. Okay, I had no idea most blockbuster movies are written by amateurs for nothing. That's a big eye opener, although it makes sense with a lot of the crap that comes out nowadays.
It just seems to me he's placing the blame on the victims rather than the perps.
I guess the above is another "quip" loquax -- you must, in your own way, be advancing -- the "they've got enough money" idea.
Which is that, "Well gee, those rich Hollywood writers (presumably including Harlan Ellison) have got enough money -- so why are they bitching about things like getting paid for doing a DVD commentary, or about getting paid for this, or getting paid for that. It just seems like greed."
The answer is three-fold.
First, The majority of screenwriters aren't "amateurs writing for nothing."
They aren't amateurs at all.
That would be you. You are, I'm guess, an aspiring screenwriter.
What you write nobody is paying anything for. What you write probably isn't even worth stealing -- maybe I'm wrong, but that's how the odds stack up. It's true and always will be true for overwhelming majority of aspiring *anything* -- and certainly for aspiring screenwriters.
Harlan is speaking for those of us whose work has value in the professional world -- that *others* can sell and profit from.
Second, the majority of professional screenwriters aren't making millions from it. They work in television writing, which is very much an on and off job. You can make a decent living at it when you're on a successful show, but when you're not -- you make nothing. And you can make nothing for years at a stretch.
Working as a writer of features, excluding a very small percentage that work at the highest level, it works in a very similar way. You can sell a script or get an assignment or two and make quite a lot of money in a very short time. Or you can go for a year or two years or longer and not get any work at all.
That's the nature of the business. So your implication (and I'm presuming that *was* your implication and that you don't really believe that multi-million dollar movies are written for free by amateurs. You don't really believe that, do you?) that screenwriters are all wealthy -- and certainly that TV writers are all wealthy and "don't need the money" is simply wrong.
If you're a big Hollywood Screenwriter or, in TV, a writer/producer show creator, then you'll be in a small percentage of very wealthy people. But very few screenwriters ever achieve that status.
But third -- for all screenwriters, at every level, the expectation on the part of Studios and networks is essentially the same. They will always try to get as much as they can from you for free.
Whether you're rich or poor, you should be entitled to the full measure of what you have earned. The fact that you are rich doesn't give those you are working for (who are far richer still) the right to pick your pocket.
And rest assured, if they are looking to pick the pockets of the most powerful and successful screenwriters, they certainly have no compunction about doing it to the rest of us.
This business of "it's for the fans" is crap.
You can't value the people who are the end-users of your work if you don't place a value on it yourself.
And as far as people who charge for autographs -- there once was a time when people wanted autographs as keepsakes, because they actually cared about the people, cared about the books, or the baseballs, or whatever it was.
But now, it's just a commodity. It would be one thing if you could sort out people who wanted an autograph because it really meant something to them to people who wanted it because they were going to take the autographed "whatever," mark it up, flip it and sell it.
The same way that collectible stuff used to be just junk that crazy nerds collected -- and then it got coopted by people with real money and next thing you know, Star Wars memorabilia is going to be traded on the freaking stock exchange.
The point is, you're always finding yourself in a position where you're dealing with people -- producers, studio execs, network people -- who only really value things strictly in monetary terms, who will look you in the eye and invoke things like "passion" and "we're all a big family" and all of these immaterial things that *they* aren't prepared to give up anything for -- but they expect you to give up cold hard currency for.
And writers, who are often starved for any kind of praise, any kind of affirmation, any kind of drink in the desert, will go along with it.
Now the fact is -- if it's the only drink there is -- sometimes you have to drink it.
But don't kid yourself. You need to know what you're drinking.
NMS
