Cold, Grey and Quiet.

There are few things in this world as wonderful as sitting and writing while listening to music with my gorgeous cat Sam sitting by my side. Sure she is a bit of critic (I don't think she likes Björk) but in general she's the sweetest thing.

In case you're wondering, I'm enjoying my first day off in the last two months. That's not entirely true as it isn't exactly a day off. I'm catching up on some correspondence with people I've not made contact with in over 6 months.
I'm writing scripts and I'm reading stories. But most importantly I am home, on the couch, with my cat. Outside the world is grey and cold, in here there is warmth and good lighting.

Speaking of music I've fallen in love with online radio. My latest discovery is Radio Paradise. Probably the official radio station of Something Wicked. If you've not heard of it I would strongly suggest you go an have a listen at www.RadioParadise.com or click here.

24k AAC+

It is an awesome collection of eclectic, alternative, ambient, acoustic, folk, glam, world music, blues, jazz and classical. In any given hour you may hear Radiohead or Elbow, beck or Björk, Depeche Mode, Regina Spektre, Tori, Jethro Tull, Peter Gabriel or even Beethoven, Simon and Garfunkel and a whole slew of bands and musos I guarantee you've never heard of but whose albums you will be purchasing very soon.
Being stuck with Telkom's restrictive bandwidth policies means that I have to listen at 24kbps instead of the awesome crystal clear 198kb bit rate. But still this radio station has seen us through more deadlines than anything else.

So today I'm hoping to start some work on the next batch of scripts for Cool Catz (E-TV weekdays at 14:30). My best friend got me this gig and it's been a bit of a mixed blessing. On the up side it means I can actually earn a salary through the Cape Town off-season (when most actors are unemployed for 6 months), on the down side it has its moments of utter despair.
I've never written professionally for a deadline before (not fiction anyway) and so I was not expecting the total despair that comes with staring at a monitor for four hours as the clock ticks closer and closer to dawn and all you've written is the first page of a 19 page script. I am in awe of the people who can do this every day of their lives. I'm sure it gets easier but so far it's still like pulling teeth. Except for the times when it isn't. I wrote a couple of episodes last month that took about three hours from start to finish. Unfortunately that is the exception rather than the rule, but practice makes perfect, as they say.

So that is my Tuesday in a nutshell. Write, Read, listen to music, cuddle cat.
I actually have a voice booking for tomorrow so that means I can pay my rent this month and Wednesday there is a peaceful protest outside the SABC building in Sea Point.
If you're in the area why not pop on down - wear something red.
What are we protesting? The usual, better pay, better working conditions - but more importantly, when dealing with the SABC, we're protesting for the right to own our work. To be able to make a continued living for the work that is created and televised again and again and sold off to other channels and broadcast on satellite to millions of people. You know, just the little things. It's called Intellectual Property and it works very much like real property.

Imagine, if you will, that you have built a house. You designed it, you paid for the land and all the equipment, (the bricks, the cement, etc) and you built the entire structure by yourself.
Now normally as the owner of property, you have a choice, you can rent it out, or you can sell it. The equation is pretty simple - if you're selling the cost is high, if you're renting the cost is low but ongoing. Now the way the SABC, and indeed most of South African television works, is like this: You either sell your property to them for a very low price and receive nothing else ever again, or you can go unemployed.
The lack of competition in (everything) broadcasting in South Africa means that the broadcaster lays down the rules and if you don't like it then you don't work.
Scripts get sold for anywhere from R300 to R6000 in South Africa - when you consider the amount of time it takes to write a script even a R6000 (minus tax) per script salary is not awesome, BUT it would be a fair price if the writer got some royalties from the screening of the programme, or from DVD sales. Unfortunately as things stand at the moment, even the creator of a programme never sees a penny of royalties. Even if their series is the biggest selling DVD in the country. Imagine an author or musician who didn't earn royalties - they'd be destitute.

If you are a disgruntled television viewer in South Africa please understand that most of the reason South African television (mostly) sucks is because producers/ writers/ actors are not being paid enough. The SABC keeps dropping its budgets lower and lower and lower.
As far as I know the entertainment industry is the only industry in the world that is expected to continue creating product at a rate of negative inflation. At this time where every single industry is putting up their prices to deal with the recession, we're being offered less money than we were earning in 1997! I shit you not!
I've done work recently for rates that were average in 1997 - and yet we're expected to keep producing the same level of quality and product.
It is simply not humanly possible.

So the next time you see a piece of shit South African television programme know this: those producers, writers, crew and cast are probably doing the best they can do for the very little that the SABC is offering them.

Anyway - rant over.
See you on Thursday!

Joe is currently reading:
SW submissions

And listening to:
Radio Paradise