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Post by masterdoctor on May 2, 2023 17:49:49 GMT
With the WGA (Writer's Guild of America) having voted unanimously to go on strike last night, I thought it worthwhile to start a thread to keep anyone who cares (imo you should, because this will have major effects on all aspects of American film and television.) apprised of the ongoing strike. Firstly, why did the WGA go on strike? Currently, the strike has been called because of two major issues, streaming services and artificial intelligence. Streaming is probably the issue most people are aware of, with Warner Brothers/HBO and Discovery being the major catalysts for this conversation in the public eye. Through the proliferation of streaming and streaming exclusive shows and films, companies such as Disney, Netflix, WB and others have used loopholes and vague language in contracts to minimize paying writers, writer's assistants, staff writers and other jobs apart of the WGA. In addition, during negotiations with studios, the WGA looked to have concrete guarantees that AI could not be used to write or rewrite scripts, which would effectively kill many many careers. Below is a great article from Vulture giving a base level understanding of what the issues are, the events leading up to the strike and where the strike can go from here. The Writer's Strike 2023 Explained
Now, how will this affect entertainment going forward. The short answer is that it really depends on how long the strike goes. Immediate effects include late-night shows such as The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers have been shut down starting tonight and re-runs will begin airing in place of new episodes. Right now, we have no word on whether SNL will shut down, but it is very likely. WGA Strike Shuts Down Late Night Shows
Scripted shows in the middle of pre-production/writer's rooms such as Cobra Kai's final season have been halted and will stay that way until an agreement has been reached. This will also likely effect shows that start writing in the summer, which includes many network shows like Abbott Elementary, NCIS, Chicago Fire etc, as if agreements aren't made before then, writing will not be able to happen. Streaming shows are going to be more complex in which shows will be affected and which won't. Often streamers have shows written and filmed months or years in advance, and any shows with scripts already written will be able to film them, however they may run into issues if they need to rewrite any scripts during production. As mentioned in this LA Times article, The Mandalorian Season 4 has already been written and House of the Dragon Season 2 has begun filming, so those shows are currently safe, but shows like Stranger Things will potentially be affected. What Shows will be affected by the WGA Strike
In regards to movies, a lot is in the air on how things will go, but any movies that are in any stage of being written will likely be put on hold during the strike. For fandoms, expect movies from Marvel, Star Wars and DC to be delayed, however, these delays won't come into effect until potentially a year down the line due to how many shows are filmed and banked at a time. Some specific examples could potentially be upcoming Marvel projects such as Blade, Thunderbolts those these two or less likely, and potentially all of Phase 6. Star Wars projects such as Ahsoka, Skeleton Crew, The Acolyte and Andor will likely be fine, but upcoming movies helmed by James Mangold, Taika Waititi, Dave Filoni and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy could easily be delayed from current release dates depending on what stage scripts are in. DC could be affected the most by the WGA strike as James Gunn begins his revamp of a flailing brand, as the strike could delay almost every DC project, aside from The Penguin, Joker 2 and Creature Commandos the only projects that are either filmed/recorded or in the process of. Other fandoms will be affected, but I can't give many specifics quite yet. And for anyone interested in how the last WGA strike went, here is an article from The Hollywood Reporter giving a overall understanding of the 2007-2008 strike. The WGA Strike of 2007
I will post more when I have it, and if anyone has any questions, I'll try my best to answer them. P.S. This won't affect Doctor Who (or at the very least it shouldn't.)
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Post by nucleusofswarm on May 2, 2023 17:57:54 GMT
Solidarity with the Guild, pay the talent properly for their work. If anyone wants to know what happens if the execs get their way, you end with screenwriting as a gig economy, like in the UK. No job security, no protections. And well, I could tell you how not-pretty it is, but here's someone from Who, who can explain it with more detail and colour (updated):
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Post by masterdoctor on May 2, 2023 18:01:44 GMT
Thanks Nucleus, I expect that you and I will be the two posting these updates, so I appreciate it ahead of time.
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Post by masterdoctor on May 2, 2023 18:14:37 GMT
And just to make sure this is crystal clear, this is not a bunch of rich Hollywood writers striking to make even more money. Most writers in Hollywood live pay check to pay check and can struggle to even get paid properly for the work they do. Some first-hand accounts can be found in this AV Club article. WGA Member’s First-Hand Accounts
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Post by aussiedoctorwhofan on May 2, 2023 20:13:01 GMT
This ^^ all the above. Pay them what they are worth. They put words in your mouth and make you Millions+ . Be like Keanu Reeves and treat the crew accordingly.
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Post by nucleusofswarm on May 2, 2023 22:59:33 GMT
I'll likely only post here when there's something major. I know I have something of a rep for, well, going on about the business side of media (Full disclosure, I'm not a member of the WGA, or directly linked to anybody involved in the strike). I do so, however, because an informed fandom can only be of benefit to everyone. Something which came up when the Zaslav mess happened, which this links back to, was to respond to the situation with a 'Well, I didn't/don't like what they're making, so why should I care?' I'm not saying that response is out-of-line, but more not seeing the wood for the trees: the culture that is stripping away money and resources from writers, while the execs make millions, likely played a big hand in why those movies and shows sucked. And this impacts the stuff you did like as much as the stuff you don't: the people who made what you have liked aren't getting compensated properly, which means they can't survive in this business and go on to make more stuff you will also enjoy, which then means those jobs go to people whose work you may not enjoy. Fair pay means more people can stick it out and have a shot at making that next big something - you want the endless sequels and remakes to end, or for better franchise stuff? This is a step to that.
And if you're wondering 'but why do I keep seeing news about crazy budgets for shows?', well, it's not going to the staff. Read this:
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Post by masterdoctor on May 2, 2023 23:20:05 GMT
Sharing this twitter thread from Adam Conover, who has shared in full transparency, the full list of WGA proposals and the AMPTP's (the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, of which represents the studios and execs) counters, or in many instances, outright refused to make any counter at all
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Post by nucleusofswarm on May 3, 2023 15:11:28 GMT
Unfortunately, I can also confirm this is so. Mini-rooms are a blight on TV.
Still, more global solidarity from other writing unions.
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Post by Kestrel on May 5, 2023 0:04:36 GMT
This is a very long time coming. Streaming has completely dismantled writers' capacity to make a living from their work. And it's nice to see the WGA finally standing up for their members rather than punching down at other writers.
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Post by masterdoctor on May 5, 2023 0:10:57 GMT
This is a very long time coming. Streaming has completely dismantled writers' capacity to make a living from their work. And it's nice to see the WGA finally standing up for their members rather than punching down at other writers. I agree it's been a long time coming, but I'm curious as to why you think that the WGA has punching down on writers, and what seems to be the implication that they've chosen to do nothing, when they couldn't strike until May 1st because that's when the current contract expired.
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Post by Kestrel on May 5, 2023 9:56:01 GMT
This is a very long time coming. Streaming has completely dismantled writers' capacity to make a living from their work. And it's nice to see the WGA finally standing up for their members rather than punching down at other writers. I agree it's been a long time coming, but I'm curious as to why you think that the WGA has punching down on writers, and what seems to be the implication that they've chosen to do nothing, when they couldn't strike until May 1st because that's when the current contract expired. WGA isn't a Union for all writers, only some writers -- they're very Hollywood-centric. Game writers, academic writers, technical writers, freelance writers (EDIT: and, apparently, also routers for animation, for some reason) -- they're left out on the cold. A lot of people would benefit enormously with inclusion in the WGA. Most of the time the WGA's been in the news over the past several years... it has not been for advocating for better pay/conditions. And when I say it's a long time coming, I simply mean that these've been a huge problems for a very long time. The WGA does good work and I support 'em, it's just... well, frustrating. It's nice to see 'em making headlines for the right reasons, is all. And it's also worth pointing out that the last strike occurred in late 2007, the same year Netflix introduced its streaming service and two years after YouTube. The problems the WGA is dealing with today weren't completely unforseeable back then, I think. EDIT: And in fairness I don't think there's a single Union in this country without any points of annoyance to their name.
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Post by nucleusofswarm on May 5, 2023 10:38:50 GMT
I agree it's been a long time coming, but I'm curious as to why you think that the WGA has punching down on writers, and what seems to be the implication that they've chosen to do nothing, when they couldn't strike until May 1st because that's when the current contract expired. And it's also worth pointing out that the last strike occurred in late 2007, the same year Netflix introduced its streaming service and two years after YouTube. The problems the WGA is dealing with today weren't completely unforseeable back then, I think. In the last strike, they did touch on getting money from internet content and ads (which streaming basically is) but at the time, internet video was in a very different place. Youtube weren't the first to try it, but most other video sites had flamed out due to cost and revenue. Nobody saw Netflix basically upending the market the way that they did by going so hard on prestige shows like House of Cards with huge names as opposed to more internet novelty, and in particular, the invasion of tech industry culture into Hollywood where insidious worker exploitation for exponential (and unsustainable) growth is the norm. What they asked for couldn't match what ultimately has happened.
Partly, streaming and even Netflix was able to get away with it because they first sold themselves as, in a way, a return to 70s New Hollywood - valuing creator freedom and letting you pitch whatever you wanted, unshackled by broadcast demands and demographics. They weren't gimmicky like Youtube viral hits, by contrast - look, we have David Fincher and the most respected American dramatic actor of the time Kevin Spacey, and it's a remake of a famous BBC series which is about 'serious' topics like politics, not some silly kid with wacky voices like Fred.
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Post by Kestrel on May 5, 2023 11:27:47 GMT
It was definitely a different place, but I don't think it would've taken too much imagination to see that digital distribution was the future -- for every form of media. The DMCA was passed in 1998, with the big Napster lawsuit occurring the following year in 1999. iTunes launched in 2001 along with the first iPod, by which point it was clear that digital music was the new norm; for video games, the PC market of the early 2000s had all but been destroyed by rampant piracy, but was finally starting to come around by 2007 thanks to Valve's Steam platform, which launched in 2003; and GOG launched the year the WGA strike ended, in 2008. Meanwhile, oddly late to the digital party, the Amazon Kindle came out in 2007 (though ereaders had been around since 2004).
The prior WGA strike occurred right at the tail end of the digital revolution: the shift in video consumption wasn't a question of "if," but "when." And while House of Cards was indeed a big deal and presents an easy target for when that paradigm shift occurred... I think it has more to do with the "prestige" or cultural relevance of streaming platforms than anything else. When Netflix started, its relied on streaming older shows -- basically on-demand reruns -- and I think it should've been clear that the writers of those shows should be compensated just as much for those viewings as for cable reruns. At the time of the strike, there were already plenty of writers being cheated.
EDIT: should probably note that I wasn't quite old enough to follow all of this when it was happening, but even as a kid I remember largely abandoning physical media -- discs and whatnot -- in favor of digital around 2006-ish, and a good half of my PS3 games then were digital, too.
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Post by nucleusofswarm on May 5, 2023 11:44:10 GMT
It was definitely a different place, but I don't think it would've taken too much imagination to see that digital distribution was the future -- for every form of media. The DMCA was passed in 1998, with the big Napster lawsuit occurring the following year in 1999. iTunes launched in 2001 along with the first iPod, by which point it was clear that digital music was the new norm; for video games, the PC market of the early 2000s had all but been destroyed by rampant piracy, but was finally starting to come around by 2007 thanks to Valve's Steam platform, which launched in 2003; and GOG launched the year the WGA strike ended, in 2008. Meanwhile, oddly late to the digital party, the Amazon Kindle came out in 2007 (though ereaders had been around since 2004). The prior WGA strike occurred right at the tail end of the digital revolution: the shift in video consumption wasn't a question of "if," but "when." And while House of Cards was indeed a big deal and presents an easy target for when that paradigm shift occurred... I think it has more to do with the "prestige" or cultural relevance of streaming platforms than anything else. When Netflix started, its relied on streaming older shows -- basically on-demand reruns -- and I think it should've been clear that the writers of those shows should be compensated just as much for those viewings as for cable reruns. At the time of the strike, there were already plenty of writers being cheated. EDIT: should probably note that I wasn't quite old enough to follow all of this when it was happening, but even as a kid I remember largely abandoning physical media -- discs and whatnot -- in favor of digital around 2006-ish, and a good half of my PS3 games then were digital, too. All that is very valid. If I could throw something in, I would say from the WGA's pov at the time, they knew 'when', but not necessarily 'how much' and also 'how much tech loves to hide the data you need to know how much'.
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Post by Kestrel on May 5, 2023 13:35:48 GMT
So many of the problems with modern society are rooted in everyone just giving the big tech companies free rein in the early 00s. It's wild that Netflix (and other Streamers) were just... allowed to keep all their traffic info secret.
And not to derail the thread or anything, but apparent,y Netflix itself doesn't even value the normal things people value when it comes to content -- like viewing habits. Apparently the main metric they use to determine a show's success is how many new subscribers are subscribing for a specific show, which is why they wind up cancelling so much.
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Post by nucleusofswarm on May 5, 2023 15:42:58 GMT
Not derailing in the slightest, that's a very important point and very directly intersects with everything discussed above.
A lot of the chat has been on TV, but the films guys aren't doing much better. Given the bottom's fallen out of home media, and streaming don't do residuals, you can end up writing a George Clooney movie, grossing almost 200 mill, and still not be set, like this guy:
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Post by nucleusofswarm on May 5, 2023 23:13:03 GMT
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Post by nucleusofswarm on May 6, 2023 21:56:07 GMT
Sarandos is going to feel it soon.
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Post by newt5996 on May 8, 2023 14:09:12 GMT
It might because I’m much more aware of politics than I was during the 2007 strike but I can’t help to notice that this strike seems to be a potential first domino in a bunch of other strikes coming down the road, which will ultimately be a good thing for America since our labor laws and protections are a mess to put it nicely.
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Post by Kestrel on May 8, 2023 21:37:49 GMT
It might because I’m much more aware of politics than I was during the 2007 strike but I can’t help to notice that this strike seems to be a potential first domino in a bunch of other strikes coming down the road, which will ultimately be a good thing for America since our labor laws and protections are a mess to put it nicely. I think I've been... fairly aware of politics for the past decade, give or take, and I can't comment on whether strikes are becoming more prevalent or not, but I think media coverage certainly is. I think it helps that we're just coming out of a pandemic where we saw incredibly shameless price-gouging in just about every industry, with huge companies reporting massive increases in profits while simultaneously bemoaning the difficulties of finding and retaining low-wage (often minimum-wage) labor. There's definitely a sense that things are coming to a head soon and that "business as usual" is not sustainable. There've also been some recent high-profile unionization successes in the last few years, which is fantastic. And the next step from there is even more (necessary) strikes.
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