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Rebecca Jansen
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: February 12 2018
Location: Canada
Posts: 3994
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| Posted: May 29 2023 at 4:29pm | IP Logged | 1
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I made around $80 per month delivering morning newspapers in the early-mid '80s. I had two big apartment building, a gas station, and one street (except for when I took a second all streets/houses route for some other carrier's vacation). I got the cushiest route and I know the boys had some jealousy about not having had the chance at it. There was a paper shack but I never hung around it, just timed myself usually to just after the papers would have been dropped. That and pop bottle collecting was comic book money. Collecting from the customers was the real work! or if the truck dropped my bundles at the wrong place (I would trek to each other known drop off to find mine the only bundles there).
I'm sure a lot of L.A. writers have had to have similar 'side' jobs to get by, same with actors, so they should have a lot in common: little security for most.
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Andrew Bitner
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: June 01 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7388
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| Posted: May 30 2023 at 1:38am | IP Logged | 2
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Closest I came to delivering papers was getting up at 6am Sundays my senior year of high school to put papers together at 7-Eleven. Had to go back in the evening to bundle up and tie papers for returns.
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Mark Waldman
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: August 16 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 1248
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| Posted: May 30 2023 at 7:47pm | IP Logged | 3
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Writers in Hollywood have always been disrespected. While a civilian may not identify, if you don't have good writing you have nothing. You can have the best actors or the best director but without a great story, you have nothing. The most important and most unsung role in TV and film, at least in what ends up on screen. Hoping for a resolution as strikes are inevitably going to end and compromise is the obvious solution.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: May 11 2005
Posts: 130363
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| Posted: May 31 2023 at 2:31am | IP Logged | 4
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Post-WKRP, Tim Reed had a single season show called FRANK’S PLACE, about a guy who inherited a bar in New Orleans. In one episode, a film crew is using the bar as a location. One of them mostly lurks in the background, being largely ignored. By the end of the episode, Frank has figured out what’s doing on. “Oh! You’re the writer!”
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Dave Kopperman
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: December 27 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2897
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| Posted: May 31 2023 at 3:13am | IP Logged | 5
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At the risk of total thread drift: MAN, I loved Frank's Place.
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Eric Smearman
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: September 02 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 5728
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| Posted: May 31 2023 at 8:06am | IP Logged | 6
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I'm currently reading William Goldman's ADVENTURES IN THE
SCREEN TRADE and he shares the following anecdote about
attending a screening for the film HARPER (1966) for which
he wrote the screenplay.
"There was a publicity guy guarding the door and I said my
name was Goldman and he looked at the small list in his
hand and then eyed me, truly, with suspicion.
'What're you doing here?' he said then.
I hadn't expected the question and couldn't come up with
anything, but (his wife) Ilene, with emphasis, said 'He's
the writer.'
The publicity guy didn't budge or change expression.
'Yeah?' he said finally. 'Well, what're you doing
here...?'"
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: May 11 2005
Posts: 130363
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| Posted: May 31 2023 at 11:43am | IP Logged | 7
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Goldman’s books are real eye openers.
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Andrew Bitner
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: June 01 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7388
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| Posted: May 31 2023 at 8:33pm | IP Logged | 8
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ADVENTURES IN THE SCREEN TRADE and WHAT LIE DID I TELL? are both fantastic books. If you like Hollywood behind-the-scenes stories, they are packed.A comparable one that connects to Goldman would be AS YOU WISH, Cary Elwes' memoir of making the movie. Many of the cast and crew (including Rob Reiner, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Billy Crystal, Wallace Shawn and more) include their own bits, fleshing out the story wonderfully. (The audiobook is astonishing; I recommend it because they all recorded their own segments.) They talk about Goldman's novel extensively.
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Andrew Bitner
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: June 01 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7388
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| Posted: May 31 2023 at 8:35pm | IP Logged | 9
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As to the subject of the thread, a friend said he doesn't think the DGA will ultimately support the WGA strike wholeheartedly, but he's open to being pleasantly surprised. It appears SAG is, with many actors on the picket lines (I heard several of the cast of YOUNG SHELDON were out today), but who knows how this will shake out?
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Doug Centers
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: February 17 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 5167
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| Posted: May 31 2023 at 11:08pm | IP Logged | 10
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Gawd! I hope this doesn't launch another bevy of "reality" shows.
Wait, they're all written also, whew.
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Marc Guggenheim
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: April 29 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 484
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| Posted: June 01 2023 at 12:36am | IP Logged | 11
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I'm a member of both the WGA and the DGA. Like most, I fantasize about the three major Hollywood unions pulling a Voltron, I don't believe that the directors have an obligation, moral or otherwise, to strike when the DGA leadership feels like it can make a fair deal for their members.
What concerns me more directly is whether the DGA will take a hard stance and achieve gains that benefit directors, who are suffering just as much as actors and writers are.
We'll see...
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