Above is a photo of Woody Allen making a video for the "Speechless" campaign on Thursday in his offices at NYC's Manhattan Film Center on Park Avenue. George Hickenlooper (pictured above) directed and Alan Sereboff, Jill Kushner and Kamala Lopez produced the spot. The 45-second "Speechless" video features Woody sipping tea silently to a canned laugh track and debuts late next week.
Great thanks and a happy birthday to Mr. Allen!
Comment by Lorelei — December 1, 2007 @ 6:30 am
Okay, I guess I should wait until I see this video, but doesn’t it say something about this industry when it takes 3 people to produce a spot featuring Woody Allen simply sipping tea?
Comment by binzbok — December 1, 2007 @ 8:12 am
This is great. We need more items like this demonstrating a wide unity between Writers, Actors, Directors, and Crew.
Comment by Captain Obvious — December 1, 2007 @ 12:08 pm
It always takes a lot more people when everyone is working for free.
Comment by Anonymous — December 1, 2007 @ 12:20 pm
Welcome Studio Shill Binzbok!
Three people seems excessive? Who came up with the concept, got people excited about doing the work (for free!) secured the location, got all permissions legally required, contacted the talent, rented or borrowed the equipment, made sure that there was liability insurance, insured the equipment, found a camera person, found someone to light it, discussed and agreed on the improvised content (since it wasn’t froma written script) made sure everyone got to the location safely and on time, made sure there was food and water and whatever was needed to keep people comfortable during the shoot, secured the editing equipment and a location for that, either found an editor or handled editing the raw footage, agreed on the final cut, made sure that the final product had a premiere outlet (this site) so that everone’s donated time wasn’t wasted and had an important impact, and then secured another website where the content could be archived, which involved getting a domain name, designing a website etc.
That three people were willing to do all that for free, in order to dramatize the importance of one group of artists says a TON about this business. It says that actors and directors and ACTUAL producers (as opposed to financiers) and crew people respect the writers who face the blank page and originate the content we all make a living from.
And it says that we writers respect their hard work and artistry as well. We writers respect and are beyond grateful to our collegues for this effort, for the hours spent by so many on the picket lines and for the painful economic sacrifices we are ALL making because this is the fight of every person who actually WORKS in the making of filmed entertainment. Our fates are linked, and we all seem to realize it.
That’s what it says about the working people of this industry. I’m proud of that.
I personally give my thanks to Mr. Allen and all of the actors, producers, the director and the crew of this series of videos.
Sorry that you don’t get that what it says about our industry is actually very moving.
But that’s not what you’re being paid to say, so I get that you’re just doing your job.
Wow, what a crap job.
Comment by WGA Writer with Business Sense — December 1, 2007 @ 12:37 pm
Just curious, is the canned laughter a swipe at multi-cam shows? That’s not very nice.
Comment by multi-cam writer — December 1, 2007 @ 1:21 pm
While reading the political message boards, it is clear we have come to a point in public discourse where there are very few differences of opinion… there is a only “us” and “them”. The other guy is a Rethuglican or a Demonocrat, a lunatic of wingnut. People aren’t “wrong” or “misinformed”… they are evil or stupid.
Can’t we aspire to more than this?
We’re writers, many of us, who make a living trying to express thoughts or opinions or illuminate some darkened corner of society, or give voice to an idea or a goal we hope can reach a broader audience even if it’s an audience of one.
Can’t a poster make a comment calling to question why it takes X-amount of people to do X-amount of work, without the poster being a “shill”? (And yes, s/he was being snark.) Isn’t it within the realm of possibility the poster genuinely believed it seemed like a lot of people for what — to the untrained eye — seemed as simple as aiming a video camera at the subject? Yes, everything Business Sense writes in response (the editing, the travel, location, etc…) are all very valid needs that have to be addressed for a shoot even as deceptively simple as these spots (and bravo to everyone involved)…
But can’t we have these conversations without the name calling and bile and the “I’m right and you’re Evil” tone that infects so many other places on the Internet? Can’t Carson Daley make decisions we might not agree with without us calling him an “anorexic” “no talent” “a joke” and a “douche”?
When the comment sections were first opened up, we got long thought out letters like Marjorie David’s words from the writers room. The initial voices hereabouts were insightful and passionate. If the best we have to offer each other is “you’re a hack!” and “you’re a shill!” and “I wish I hit him with my own car!”… maybe we’re better off saving our bon mots for private e mails.
We haven’t seen Woody’s spot yet, but based on the description, he’s going to convey more with a few sips of tea than all the name calling and accusations and insults that can be found in the comment sections within.
Really — is it impossible to carry ourselves with just a little bit of dignity? Can’t we find a better way to express ourselves using the same words we’re fighting for?
Comment by Holly R. Thanthou — December 1, 2007 @ 3:29 pm
Wow, first it was overlooked, poverty-stricken and desperate “below the line”-ers who were studios shills, now it’s people who make comments about how many people it takes to film Woody Allen. I thought you were better than that, WGA Writer with Business Sense. And don’t you have more important things to be writing about 4 paragraphs about? That said, yes, binzbok, that’s how many people it takes. Think you can do it in fewer? Go prove it.
Comment by Caitlin — December 1, 2007 @ 5:51 pm
Holly R. Thanthou said…
But can’t we have these conversations without the name calling and bile and the “I’m right and you’re Evil” tone that infects so many other places on the Internet? Can’t Carson Daley make decisions we might not agree with without us calling him an “anorexic” “no talent” “a joke” and a “douche”?
NO.
Comment by e — December 1, 2007 @ 6:51 pm
Fair criticism of me and most likely I overreacted to this post, and if I was being over the top and this person was seriously asking why it takes three people to produce this spot, well then, I am very sorry. My answer was honest, but my tone was disrespectful and that was a bad notion on my part.
I guess I overreacted because I was feeling foolish for not realizing that some of the people on here who are posting comments are doing so at the behest of their bosses. And to be totally honest, I have an agenda as well, though my agenda truly is for all sides to realize that we must come to a realistic compromise, and get everyone back to work, with a deal that will most likely not be beloved by any, but reasonably fair to all, at least this time around.
I’m frustrated that the companies can be so blind as not to realize that they have already lost more money this year on this fight than they would have spent if the WGA’s VERY SPECIFIC figures are correct.
50 million dollars a year. It’s really very little money. Not worth tanking the entire business model of network television. It doesn’t benefit the companies and frankly, it doesn’t benefit me, or anyone else I can think of. As someone pointed out elsewhere here, the ADVERTISERS would love to have pilot season and upfronts go away, but it doesn’t benefit any of us working here.
Since the AMPTP refuses to specify whether their 130 million dollar figure is per year, per three years or per infinity, it seems like we’re not even dealing with actual business people, because what kind of business person would cite a specific number and not be able to say what period of time it covered? Certainly not professional managers of enormous conglomerates who spend 60 million dollars just to fire one of their own, as in the case of Tom Freston’s exit from Viacom.
I can’t believe that any reasonable person in a position of power would destroy so many lives, and potentially their own very lucrative livelyhood, for so little money. It defies common business sense for anyone who has ever run a normal enterprise.
So I launched off on someone who may NOT have been a shill and may have honestly been asking a question as to why does it take so many people to shoot a spot with no dialogue. For my incivillity, I apologize, my bad.
Note to moguls: I just now realized, apologizing isn’t that bad, it actually feels good! And truthfully, you won’t even have to apologize, you’ll just have to make a resonable deal. Then people won’t be mad at you any more. It feels nice. You don’t have to feel like a bad person anymore. You should try it.
It would be the best Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa present you could give anyone, including yourselves.
Comment by WGA Writer with Business Sense — December 1, 2007 @ 9:25 pm
For lack of anyplace better to post this, I strongly agree and disagree with many posters on this site. And that’s okay.
One thing I agree with is the bad-mouthing is getting very tiresome. Us vs. Them has changed strongly in composisition. Who is Us and who is Them at this point? It’s so devisive.
Can we just agree on some points and move on?
We all know that is starts with the written page. But that doesn’t need to be used as a battering ram to bully and shame other factions. It should just be a cogent point. It seems when that point is being made, it is used to chagring BTLrs or some talent. I can tell you as a producer, the first thing I tell the PA’s on the show is that “You wouldn’t be here without the writers, so when it seems like they are acting crazy and making silly demands or treating you poorly, remember that you owe them your job. And if you can’t take it, you won’t survive in television.” That is the reality that I try to impart to them. I also tell them if them and the crew that if they had the talent for it they would be doing that job and making that money. But most people don’t have it. The crew is well compensated, as am I, for the jobs that we do. But these speeches really only work on them within a “working” enviornment, so the crew and production staff DO get bitter during a strike because they have often been mistreated or treated at almost a subhuman level because of the writers’ egos. You are upset because you are being hurt in the pocketbook, and so are they. But they didn’t ask for this strike. If you want these people on board with you, don’t continue to treat them the way that so many of you do.
The writers ARE getting cheated. There is no doubt about that. Many writers do make a ton of money. But many do not. There are a lot of different niches in this business, working at different pay scales. Many writers started on crappy shows and low budget features and move up. A talented writer, in any format, is just as valuable as the other. It’s funny how all the primetime and feature writers mock the Disney and Nick writers but fight and push and call in favors to get their kids onto the sets of Hannah Montana and Zoey. Then 3 days later you’re making fun of their writing again.
Some of the showrunners ARE mini-moguls and act like it.
Some showrunners are among the nicest, most generous and most intelligent people I’ve ever met. Like any other industry, people are different from job to job.
If you want to get people to unite, unite amongst yourselves, and to get the support of other industry workers, you need to get them on board by BEING NICE TO THEM. Not by hurling insults and being patronizing. That only works when you’re working and people have the choice to deal with it in return for a paycheck. Now there is no paycheck for them.
I want this strike to end. And I don’t want the writers to get cheated in the outcome, which means that some patience must be had by all.. But if things continue to degrade the way they are now everything is just going to get a lot worse. Take a wake-up call and start treating each other and other industry workers with respect. And if you don’t like the way certain people are behaving in regard to honoring your strike, try to convince them of the reasons their behavior is harmful to your cause and eventually theirs. Don’t just jump on their backs and start pulling out their hair while you hurl insults at them and shoving flyers through windows. It hurts the writers more than anyone.
You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.
Stop eating your own. It’s like watching a bunch of hyaenas. You’re all better than that.
Comment by Oh Come On — December 2, 2007 @ 9:21 am