harlan ellison rants about being asked to work for free...

[Mike70]

by warner bros. apparently they wanted to stick some of his stuff on one of the babylon 5 DVDs without compensating him for it. this is his reaction:

http://www.trekmovie.com/2007/11/12/more-rumored-star-trek-plot-details/#more

the vid is just below the part about the guardian of forever. very funny. my favorite part:
when he asks for a copy of the DVD and they suggest he go out and buy it. "no, you go out and buy it motherf88ker."

[AcesandEights]

Harlan Ellison rocks! He's probably a complete, self-entitled dick in real life, but he does hit a few points dead on, now and again. I have a book of his collected editorials somewhere...

[EvilNed]

Everyone works for money. So I agree with him. Myself, I'd make sure I could get some cash out of it. Not alot of cash, but hey. Cough up a few.

[DubiousComforts]

Everyone works for money. So I agree with him. Myself, I'd make sure I could get some cash out of it. Not alot of cash, but hey. Cough up a few.
Ellison is amazingly consistent in his viewpoints. Even if you don't agree with him, very few people can claim the same.

The entertainment industry is loaded with asshats. The profits are huge, there is plenty of money to go around, but nobody wants to give up a nickel. In my younger and stupider days, I can recall freely offering supplemental materials to DVD producers and being turned down because they couldn't be bothered to release anything more than a bare bones piece of junk. Now they only thing anyone will get out of me is an invoice. ;)

[_liam_]

he's funny as hell, it was hilarious when he rinsed star trek and bigged up doctor who

[Skippy911sc]

That was a great interview they showed...I wonder if he was paid for it?

:D

I remember seeing him once and a while I think on the old techtv channel however I don't recall a whole lot about it other than I did not care for his opinion much. I do, however, agree with him in that interview and believe that is why the writers are currently striking. I think the remark about amateur writers making it more difficult for the professional writers was a bit harsh...I think at one point he was an amateur and made a few mistakes. Don't blame the player for paying the game.

[DubiousComforts]

I think the remark about amateur writers making it more difficult for the professional writers was a bit harsh...I think at one point he was an amateur and made a few mistakes. Don't blame the player for paying the game.
I agree with him 100%. You don't have to be famous to have a problem with the amateur mentality. I run into it all time in the live music/entertainment business.

There is plenty of money to go around, but the music venues don't want to pay and they don't want to do their job which is to advertise and attract a local crowd. They expect the artists to do everything and do it for next to nothing, and this attitude is reinforced by every half-assed musician or band that will work for free.

The bottom line is that most people with this amateur mentality don't really want to be musicians, filmmakers or artists. They simply want to be famous.