re: this special gem of reportage, courtesy of msnbc...
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41784396/ns/today-entertainment/
I've been going back and forth on putting this into electrons, but this article inspired me to hit the keyboard. One, I'm really puzzled by the reporting media's sudden apparent concern and hand-wringing over lost production crew jobs. Shows go down all the time, every few months. Don't recall seeing such media concern over crew employment on any one particular show, in the past. Shows go down as a direct result of producer, talent, and corporate asshattery all the time, too, and this is the first time I've noticed such repetitive "but what about the poor crew" reportage, either. So am I suspicious when I see this "concern" now? You bet I am. I think the main story is "look what an a-hole Charlie Sheen is" and useful gravy for the sale is "and look at those poor working people, just like you, who are hurting as a result." Well, yes, working people aren't going to get anything good out of this, but I don't much appreciate my professional brothers and sisters being cynically exploited, kicked-puppy-style, for the sake of some extra story flavor to sell some more copy.
And - for the benefit of people who work in other trades, who aren't familiar with life in the entertainment business - this is not the horror story it's being made out to be. You may be uncomfortable with the prospect of losing your job and chasing down a new one every few months or every couple of years, but for us that's business as usual: a years-long gig, season after season after season on one show is not life for the majority of production professionals, certainly not those of us who spend most of our time in feature production. And frankly, we're really pretty well-compensated, even at love-to-*****-about-it first-season-single-camera-TV-contract rates, certainly when compared to the going rates for labor in other sectors of the economy. Knowing how capricious the business can be, you have to salt away the $$$ while you are working so as *not* to wind up in meet-the-mortgage panic when the infantility of talent interferes with your adult obligations. We all know there are zero guarantees when we take a show, and it's kind of unbecoming to come off all hurt and surprised when an overpaid coked-up performer with delusions of godhood behaves like, well, an overpaid coked-up performer with delusions of godhood.
I don't like being cast as a victim, or as a member of a victim class, and by association I kind of feel that's what the complainers - who I don't deny may have very pressing personal reasons for complaint - are doing, here. What do the above-the-liners owe me, beyond honoring the terms of the contract we sign? Nothing. Bupkiss. Past adhering to contractual terms, they don't owe me *sh-t* (although basic day-to-day good manners are appreciated, when and as they're practiced). And for my part, past performing to the best of my ability in my professional capacity, I don't owe *them* sh-t, either. I don't swear to work for them forever, and for their part they don't promise to employ me forever, either.
Like most any A-list production team, the people who crew for 'Two and a Half Men' are *good* at what they do. To use the cheap and mildly objectionable studio term, every member of that crew is an asset. And if those assets are no longer needed on Sheen's desperately labored and un-funny show, they *will* find work elsewhere. I don't mean to minimize the stress of being between jobs, but unless we're talking about people on the run-in to retirement anyway, this isn't going to be anybody's last gig (save perhaps for the star of the show, himself).
And as for that "worker bee" crack - f--- you, pal. F--- you with a rototiller. If you worked in the high-end production business instead of pimping lowest-common-denominator gossipy crap suitable for mutants and farm animals, maybe you'd know enough to display some f---ing manners when talking about the legion of professionals whose work makes your parasitic existence possible.
So, see you all in the movies - that is, all of you who, like the "Two and a Half" team are employable pros, as distinct from the know-nothing pinheads who sit, monkey-like, flinging their crap from the sidelines.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41784396/ns/today-entertainment/
I've been going back and forth on putting this into electrons, but this article inspired me to hit the keyboard. One, I'm really puzzled by the reporting media's sudden apparent concern and hand-wringing over lost production crew jobs. Shows go down all the time, every few months. Don't recall seeing such media concern over crew employment on any one particular show, in the past. Shows go down as a direct result of producer, talent, and corporate asshattery all the time, too, and this is the first time I've noticed such repetitive "but what about the poor crew" reportage, either. So am I suspicious when I see this "concern" now? You bet I am. I think the main story is "look what an a-hole Charlie Sheen is" and useful gravy for the sale is "and look at those poor working people, just like you, who are hurting as a result." Well, yes, working people aren't going to get anything good out of this, but I don't much appreciate my professional brothers and sisters being cynically exploited, kicked-puppy-style, for the sake of some extra story flavor to sell some more copy.
And - for the benefit of people who work in other trades, who aren't familiar with life in the entertainment business - this is not the horror story it's being made out to be. You may be uncomfortable with the prospect of losing your job and chasing down a new one every few months or every couple of years, but for us that's business as usual: a years-long gig, season after season after season on one show is not life for the majority of production professionals, certainly not those of us who spend most of our time in feature production. And frankly, we're really pretty well-compensated, even at love-to-*****-about-it first-season-single-camera-TV-contract rates, certainly when compared to the going rates for labor in other sectors of the economy. Knowing how capricious the business can be, you have to salt away the $$$ while you are working so as *not* to wind up in meet-the-mortgage panic when the infantility of talent interferes with your adult obligations. We all know there are zero guarantees when we take a show, and it's kind of unbecoming to come off all hurt and surprised when an overpaid coked-up performer with delusions of godhood behaves like, well, an overpaid coked-up performer with delusions of godhood.
I don't like being cast as a victim, or as a member of a victim class, and by association I kind of feel that's what the complainers - who I don't deny may have very pressing personal reasons for complaint - are doing, here. What do the above-the-liners owe me, beyond honoring the terms of the contract we sign? Nothing. Bupkiss. Past adhering to contractual terms, they don't owe me *sh-t* (although basic day-to-day good manners are appreciated, when and as they're practiced). And for my part, past performing to the best of my ability in my professional capacity, I don't owe *them* sh-t, either. I don't swear to work for them forever, and for their part they don't promise to employ me forever, either.
Like most any A-list production team, the people who crew for 'Two and a Half Men' are *good* at what they do. To use the cheap and mildly objectionable studio term, every member of that crew is an asset. And if those assets are no longer needed on Sheen's desperately labored and un-funny show, they *will* find work elsewhere. I don't mean to minimize the stress of being between jobs, but unless we're talking about people on the run-in to retirement anyway, this isn't going to be anybody's last gig (save perhaps for the star of the show, himself).
And as for that "worker bee" crack - f--- you, pal. F--- you with a rototiller. If you worked in the high-end production business instead of pimping lowest-common-denominator gossipy crap suitable for mutants and farm animals, maybe you'd know enough to display some f---ing manners when talking about the legion of professionals whose work makes your parasitic existence possible.
So, see you all in the movies - that is, all of you who, like the "Two and a Half" team are employable pros, as distinct from the know-nothing pinheads who sit, monkey-like, flinging their crap from the sidelines.
Seriously, the crew really hit the sitcom jackpot. There are many, many talented people who work twice as hard and never make it.
