Reality is not black and whit_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Reality is not black and whit

On the other hand, producers say movies don't really make that much money. The studios depend on new media, such as DVDs, to break even. Besides, if writers obtain a certain percentage of the profit, it'll get the ball rolling and everyone will ask for a piece of the growing pie.

The funny thing is, big stars and big directors - and of course, producers themselves - get most of the money, even from an unprofitable project. They get so-called "participation deals", in which they share a significant portion of the revenue, sometimes as much as 25 percent in total, leaving even a high box-office film in a sea of red ink.

Where do they get this kind of power? In short, from us. We swarm to movies with A-list stars and directors. If we chose what to watch from the quality of the scripts, the writers would have more bargaining chips on their shoulders. But how many people would go to the cinema simply to enjoy ingenious plots and witty dialogues? Only after watching a bad movie do we complain about the lack of decent writing. And that happens mostly to Zhang Yimou's costume epics.

To quote a Chinese proverb, when we observe a phenomenon like the American script writers' strike, or the French transport workers, we are really "watching a fire from across the river or the sea". Truth is elusive. Our attempts to identify the good guys or the bad guys often turn out to be frustrating.

Our traditional notion is simple as black and white: one party is ripping off the other. As the theory goes, the exploiter is exploiting the exploitee. In reality, both parties are resorting to legal means to protect their legal rights. It is important that people know their rights and the proper channels to safeguard them. A strike may be more "visual", but ultimately it is a form of negotiation by using brinkmanship. We need to rid ourselves of old thinking before we rush to the defense of either party.