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Post by newt5996 on May 9, 2023 4:00:25 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. I’m very fascinated by a lot of the dissonance with some of the reporting on the strike. There’s a lot of media framing that really wants to make the public go against the strike because I honestly think it might mean the US domino effects into something better for workers. That and the fact that the studios have already lost more money from the strike than the demands would cost.
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Post by nucleusofswarm on May 9, 2023 10:43:50 GMT
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. I’m very fascinated by a lot of the dissonance with some of the reporting on the strike. There’s a lot of media framing that really wants to make the public go against the strike because I honestly think it might mean the US domino effects into something better for workers. That and the fact that the studios have already lost more money from the strike than the demands would cost. That and a number of the publications have ties to or are owned by some of the same entities as the studios. A number of writers have been calling out some of the coverage from Deadline and Hollywood Reporter.
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Post by nucleusofswarm on May 9, 2023 10:47:53 GMT
newt makes an important point about domino effect - a number of people such as Scott Derrickson have predicted that an industry wide strike could well be on the cards, especially given more of the other guilds' contracts are up for renewal.
The dominoes fall in more areas than just strangling the power and pay of writers - the power of development (the guys whose entire job is, well, to develop new shows and movies) is also getting hamstrung for similar reasons. This hurts what can get made. Here's someone from Freeform highlighting this:
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Post by Kestrel on May 9, 2023 23:18:42 GMT
I’m very fascinated by a lot of the dissonance with some of the reporting on the strike. There’s a lot of media framing that really wants to make the public go against the strike because I honestly think it might mean the US domino effects into something better for workers. That and the fact that the studios have already lost more money from the strike than the demands would cost. I think it's just fear. Corporate media is never gonna be pro-worker, and a writers-strike is just about the most visible action for unions, as a whole to take. After all, everyone watches TV and movies, and thus everyone is affected. Which makes it just about the biggest possible advertisement to workers in every other industry that unions are are the path forward.
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Post by nucleusofswarm on May 10, 2023 13:17:56 GMT
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Post by nucleusofswarm on May 12, 2023 20:42:14 GMT
SAG (actors union) seems to be spicing up.
And now
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Post by mark687 on May 14, 2023 14:17:55 GMT
I probably am going to be controversial
85000 as an average start pay is pretty good money
Protect the right to be a credited and paid Full Season Staff Writer by all means (though paradoxically I don't see why a Showrunner/Head Writer having the 2 separate incomes is acceptable, but them doing re-writes isn't and it should mean extra £$ for the EP Writer)
Now the residual return percentage rate, definitely bring your 1st years percentage for the "Lower" (1-3 Million) budget productions in line with everything else, but 80% annually for everything available 2 years and longer seems a little overkill. 70% (double the current rate), seems more realistic.
The "Bigger Names" standing in Solidarity is a double edged sword as they can afford not to, or are still able to do non union work.
Its a fascinating situation though.
Regards
mark687
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Post by elkawho on May 14, 2023 15:15:45 GMT
I fully support the WGA and hope they get everything they are asking for. As the mom of a kid in Film School studying animation and screen writing, I am now certainly biased. But even if I didn't, I would feel the same. They deserve the wage much more than the studio heads do, that's for sure!
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Post by nucleusofswarm on May 14, 2023 16:27:25 GMT
I probably am going to be controversial 85000 as an average start pay is pretty good money Protect the right to be a credited and paid Full Season Staff Writer by all means (though paradoxically I don't see why a Showrunner/Head Writer having the 2 separate incomes is acceptable, but them doing re-writes isn't and it should mean extra £$ for the EP Writer) Now the residual return percentage rate, definitely bring your 1st years percentage for the "Lower" (1-3 Million) budget productions in line with everything else, but 80% annually for everything available 2 years and longer seems a little overkill. 70% (double the current rate), seems more realistic. The "Bigger Names" standing in Solidarity is a double edged sword as they can afford not to, or are still able to do non union work. Its a fascinating situation though. Regards mark687 A couple of writers have addressed the money thing - it gets eaten up by a lot of factors (agents, managers, lawyers, taxes, guild, LA being mad expensive, basically everything else America makes you pay for), meaning what the writer takes home is often less than half. Sometimes even a third. Plus bear in mind, with the way things are at the moment, career progression is badly stalled meaning one's ability to jump from show to show, like in the old days, and thus have a better income is suffering too.
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Post by masterdoctor on May 14, 2023 16:43:24 GMT
I probably am going to be controversial 85000 as an average start pay is pretty good money Protect the right to be a credited and paid Full Season Staff Writer by all means (though paradoxically I don't see why a Showrunner/Head Writer having the 2 separate incomes is acceptable, but them doing re-writes isn't and it should mean extra £$ for the EP Writer) Now the residual return percentage rate, definitely bring your 1st years percentage for the "Lower" (1-3 Million) budget productions in line with everything else, but 80% annually for everything available 2 years and longer seems a little overkill. 70% (double the current rate), seems more realistic. The "Bigger Names" standing in Solidarity is a double edged sword as they can afford not to, or are still able to do non union work. Its a fascinating situation though. Regards mark687 A couple of writers have addressed the money thing - it gets eaten up by a lot of factors (agents, managers, lawyers, taxes, guild, LA being mad expensive, basically everything else America makes you pay for), meaning what the writer takes home is often less than half. Sometimes even a third. Plus bear in mind, with the way things are at the moment, career progression is badly stalled meaning one's ability to jump from show to show, like in the old days, and thus have a better income is suffering too.
Also, depending on the project, that average pay could be for years of work (feature scripts especially)
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Post by nucleusofswarm on May 15, 2023 11:26:34 GMT
Reality TV has come up in discussions of if they benefit. Here's one former reality producer's view
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Post by mark687 on May 16, 2023 13:22:22 GMT
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shutupbanks
Castellan
There’s a horror movie called Alien? That’s really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you.
Likes: 5,676
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Post by shutupbanks on May 16, 2023 22:59:27 GMT
Quite a lot of folks I follow on Twitter are striking at the moment, but this is the first breakdown of what the “demands” being made by writers would look like that I’ve seen. It’s quite small beer, tbh:
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Post by nucleusofswarm on May 18, 2023 9:09:36 GMT
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Post by The Brigadier on May 18, 2023 10:14:22 GMT
Now that is interesting on two fronts : the fact that the board of SAG-AFTRA* unanimously agreed to act early in advance of their own negotiations and at the same time fire a warning shot across AMPTP's bow...and that it raises the possibility that if things go south in those negotiations the actors could go out on strike - something that from memory I don't think SAG members have done in about forty years (please correct me if I am wrong on that bit). *and if like me you loathe trying to work out what acronyms actually stand for : SAG-AFTRA - Screen Actor's Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists AMPTP - Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers Admittedly acronyms are easier on the fingers when typing...
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Post by whiskeybrewer on May 18, 2023 13:37:41 GMT
SAG (actors union) seems to be spicing up.
And now
They did this last time as well. Its why Season 7 was so short and Season 8 was made up of episodes unfinished or nearing completion from 7
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Post by nucleusofswarm on May 20, 2023 22:24:47 GMT
This thread's covered a lot of the big stuff, but I think it's worth highlighting something on the ground, and frankly, horrifying:
Been seeing lots of junior writers and assistants voice exactly this (wish I had the tweet to hand, but there was a young TV writer who said the only proper meal they ate on any given day was the writers room lunches, because that was covered). Think about it - you write on shows that cost millions, often on hard deadlines, and yet they don't pay you enough to feed yourself.
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Post by nucleusofswarm on May 31, 2023 21:58:39 GMT
Remember, execs 'don't have the money' to pay the writers.
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Post by mark687 on May 31, 2023 22:27:01 GMT
Remember, execs 'don't have the money' to pay the writers. Torpedo's any argument against pay raises for any area of the creative aide going forward I'dve thought Regards mark687
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Post by nucleusofswarm on Jun 4, 2023 10:52:16 GMT
Okay, so seems the studios cut a deal with the DGA to avert them striking. What's this mean? Well, a lot of the strikers already guessed this would happen - hierachy plays differently in the director's union and has a habit of doing this type of stunt. They're not famous for collaborating. It also means that the studios will try to do the same thing with SAG, so wait and see there.
However, there is an interesting caveat - the studios gave them concessions on AI, something they refused to do for writers: ''AI is not a person and that generative AI cannot replace the duties performed by members.'' This could be a key bargaining chip in future negotiations, so while far from proper solidarity, the director's guild may have thrown a lifeline.
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