This spotlight is dedicated to the writers of the Daily Show. As much as I love to hear John Stewart say what he does…I love the genius of the writers behind those words.

What is this writer strike really all about?

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 11 — As Hollywood digs in for a second week of a strike, the screenwriters might want to send a few angry picketers over to Will Smith’s place. Or Steven Spielberg’s. And maybe the studio executives should think about joining them on the line. As it turns out, the pot of money that the producers and writers are fighting over may have already been pocketed by the entertainment industry’s biggest talent.

That is the conclusion of a surprisingly bleak new assessment of financial dynamics in the movie industry titled “Do Movies Make Money?” The researchers’ answer: not any more.

The New York Times has the full story: Hollywood on Strike

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Here is a video to summarize what its all about:

What do you have to do  to make $10,000 in 30 days?

Questions like the above force you to think outside of your normal paradigm and come up with creative solutions. One of the ways that independent producers make their money is via DVD distribution.  I was looking at different methods that are available and here are the options I know of:

No upfront investment:

• Createspace.com — this is a service owned by Amazon.com. They offer downloads and on-demand DVD purchasing, where you send them a master copy and have it listed on Amazon.com. With no upfront investment there is a down side.

Say you price a DVD at $14.99…there is a $4.95 charge for making the DVD, 15% charge off the sale price for having is listed on their E-store, and IF if you want it on Amazon.com, thats another 45%. In the case I’m selling a DVD for $14.99, Createspace.com keeps $7.20 (fee + e-store listing) while I would keep $7.79. Not bad for not having to do much work other than marketing the product.

If i want to list it on Amazon.com…that’s another 45% off the sales price ($6.25). I’m left with…$1.54. Not a smart idea.

With upfront investment:

• Discmakers.com — Lets say I get 1,000 DVDs made at the cost of $1,800 ($1.80/DVD), after which I have it listed on Amazon.com where Amazon takes 45% ($6.75), and I keep $8.24. By putting up $1,800 there is a difference of $0.45.

Is the extra $0.45 worth the extra time and investment? Note that I didn’t factor in shipping costs. In the end it would come out to about the same. The advance take of using Discmakers and shipping it to Amazon.com is the quality of the product. Createspace.com doesn’t offer slick looking digipacks.