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Hollywood Hit With Writers Strike After Talks With AMPTP Fail; Guild Slams Studios For “Gig Economy” Mentality

bitbydeath

bitbydeath

Member
Here we go, the previous writers strike impacted a lot of shows including Heroes, Prison Break and House.

“Though we negotiated intent on making a fair deal – and though your strike vote gave us the leverage to make some gains – the studios’ responses to our proposals have been wholly insufficient, given the existential crisis writers are facing,” the WGA said in a message sent directly to members just now. “We must now exert the maximum leverage possible to get a fair contract by withholding our labor,” the guild leadership added. “Members of the Negotiating Committee, Board and Council will be out with you on the picket lines.”
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It’s the WGA’s first strike since the 100-day walkout of 2007-08.
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The companies’ behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce, and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devaluing the profession of writing. From their refusal to guarantee any level of weekly employment in episodic television, to the creation of a “day rate” in comedy variety, to their stonewalling on free work for screenwriters and on AI for all writers, they have closed the door on their labor force and opened the door to writing as an entirely freelance profession. No such deal could ever be contemplated by this membership.
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On the topic of AI, the WGA wanted to “regulate use of artificial intelligence on MBA covered projects: AI can’t write or rewrite literary material; can’t be used as source material; and MBA-covered material can’t be used to train AI.” The response from the studios was a rejection of the WGA’s proposal, and then a counter offer of “annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology.”
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as picket signs go up tomorrow, late-night shows on both coasts will be shutting down , along with writers rooms and any big-screen or small-screen project that still is fine-tuning or grinding out scripts.
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deadline.com

Hollywood Hit With Writers Strike After Talks With AMPTP Fail; Guild Slams Studios For “Gig Economy” Mentality

The Writers Guild of America is on strike, effective immediately, after the guild’s negotiations with Hollywood studios failed to reach a new contract deal.
deadline.com deadline.com
 
Cyberpunkd

Cyberpunkd

Member
Darkmakaimura said:
So I guess it's going to affect late night talk shows so they'll probably rerun a lot of those?

I'm still wondering how this is going to affect movies right now?
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Won’t affect MCU, that’s for sure.

Chris Hemsworth Thor GIF by Marvel Studios
 
kruis

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
On the topic of AI, the WGA wanted to “regulate use of artificial intelligence on MBA covered projects: AI can’t write or rewrite literary material; can’t be used as source material; and MBA-covered material can’t be used to train AI.” The response from the studios was a rejection of the WGA’s proposal, and then a counter offer of “annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology.”
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Oh God .... it was to be expected but still it's a terrifying prospect: Hollywood wants to start using AI to write movies and tv series... If you feed an AI program millions of hours of shit programming, that AI's not going to produce original masterpieces but only the most generic of plots we've seen millions of times written by a computer program that doesn't understand the human experience but can only mimic us.
 
Bragr

Bragr

Banned
Down the line, it's gonna come down to if the organizations care about employing people anymore, there has to be an incentive from the regulatory bodies to encourage it.
 
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TGO

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Good, some of the best episodes happen during writers strikes
 
J

jason10mm

Gold Member
I can definitely see a "Who's line is it anyway?" type improv show where the audience feeds suggestions into an AI and some actors have to do their best with the script. Problem of course is consistency, AI stuff always needs human curation.

Of course every producer and exec thinks they are gods gift to writing so I'm sure they feel like they can easily skim through an AI script for that final polish.
 
FunkMiller

FunkMiller

Gold Member
Queso de Grande said:
Who cares? The output of these writers has been so poor the past decade, I’m not sure if anyone is going to notice they aren’t working.
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This is objectively not true. There are as many great series and movies around now as there have ever been. Not everything is infected by the Disney mind virus. It's just that major contributors these days are having far more high profile projects fail prey to godawful writing and political ideologies. There's still plenty of fantastic writing out there, though.

I fully support this strike, as without writers nothing gets made, good or bad. Anything that fucks the greedy Hollywood corporates is fine with me. Writers should get paid fairly for their overwhelmingly important contribution. Except the ones working at Disney.
 
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Corpsepyre

Corpsepyre

Banned
This had a devastating effect on Hollywood back in 2007, with several TV shows and films impacted.

Had a positive effect on Breaking Bad, however.
 
BadBurger

BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
I listened to an interview with the lead writer of The Bear. He admitted that in between jobs he's broke. There's no reason a talented working creative in a business as stupidly rich as television and film should be getting paid so little and so infrequently. Writers, for some reason, are also very rarely granted residuals on the shows they create, and unlike other production and creative staff, it's rare for them to get the same week-to-week contracts, and hence no benefits or bonuses.

Hoping for the best outcomes for the Writers Guild. They've definitely been getting a raw deal for years.
 
B

Blade2.0

Member
Good, solidarity for all working stiffs. They deserve to get paid well for making content that makes millions, even billions off of their writing. Also, I'm still pissed Journeyman got canned after the first writer's strike but Heroes continued. Please don't fuck up my shows hollywood corporations. just pay people livable fucking wages for making you rich.
 
AJUMP23

AJUMP23

Gold Member
BadBurger said:
I listened to an interview with the lead writer of The Bear. He admitted that in between jobs he's broke. There's no reason a talented working creative in a business as stupidly rich as television and film should be getting paid so little and so infrequently. Writers, for some reason, are also very rarely granted residuals on the shows they create, and unlike other production and creative staff, it's rare for them to get the same week-to-week contracts, and hence no benefits or bonuses.

Hoping for the best outcomes for the Writers Guild. They've definitely been getting a raw deal for years.
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Is his creativity spent on Coccaine?
 
J

jason10mm

Gold Member
BadBurger said:
I listened to an interview with the lead writer of The Bear. He admitted that in between jobs he's broke. There's no reason a talented working creative in a business as stupidly rich as television and film should be getting paid so little and so infrequently. Writers, for some reason, are also very rarely granted residuals on the shows they create, and unlike other production and creative staff, it's rare for them to get the same week-to-week contracts, and hence no benefits or bonuses.

Hoping for the best outcomes for the Writers Guild. They've definitely been getting a raw deal for years.
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How much does he make? Is he blowing 250K in 6 months or struggling to make 40K last all year?

I mean, the guy could study chemical engineering and have a solid steady career if he wanted.
 
Pilgrimzero

Pilgrimzero

Member
On 1 hand, sucks some shows may die or get horribly delayed, but hey pay your writers.

On the other hand, streaming gives people access to a ton of content that will keep people going. I have a huge backlog of shows I plan to watch... someday. Like The Wire.
 
DeafTourette

DeafTourette

Perpetually Offended
DeepEnigma said:
This might be a blessing in disguise with the ripe shit they have been churning out the past several years.
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You and some others here seem to think the people who wrote the things YOU like are somehow exempt from this strike... They're ALL on strike now. You guys seem to think writing is something anyone can do. This includes writers of classics everyone likes, too. Most writers aren't rich.
 
DeepEnigma

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
DeafTourette said:
You and some others here seem to think the people who wrote the things YOU like are somehow exempt from this strike... They're ALL on strike now. You guys seem to think writing is something anyone can do. This includes writers of classics everyone likes, too. Most writers aren't rich.
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Don't put words into my mouth and try and think for me. Hollywood is a cesspool, I shed no tears.
 
Lord Panda

Lord Panda

The Sea is Always Right
Queso de Grande said:
Who cares? The output of these writers has been so poor the past decade, I’m not sure if anyone is going to notice they aren’t working.
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Perhaps if they weren't paid shit and subsisting off dirt and leaves and struggling to survive, they might collectively put out better material. And also attract better talent. Writers have always gotten a raw deal while those that profit from their work are living it up.
 
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AmuroChan

AmuroChan

Member
FunkMiller said:
This is objectively not true. There are as many great series and movies around now as there have ever been. Not everything is infected by the Disney mind virus. It's just that major contributors these days are having far more high profile projects fail prey to godawful writing and political ideologies. There's still plenty of fantastic writing out there, though.

I fully support this strike, as without writers nothing gets made, good or bad. Anything that fucks the greedy Hollywood corporates is fine with me. Writers should get paid fairly for their overwhelmingly important contribution. Except the ones working at Disney.
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I'm actually looking for a good show to watch. What are some recent shows with good writing that you would recommend?
 
eddie4

eddie4

Genuinely Generous
AJUMP23 said:


Good news.
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These shows are so boring, what is there really to write? A 5 min rant on who has the best jokes, then just "Say hello to our guest! How are you? What are you doing? Etc" This shouldn't take more than 1 person to write it. Get 2-3 good writers and pay them to make your show enjoyable to watch. You don't need 5-10 writers.
 
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FunkMiller

FunkMiller

Gold Member
AmuroChan said:
I'm actually looking for a good show to watch. What are some recent shows with good writing that you would recommend?
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Succession is excellent. Better Call Saul ended great if you liked Breaking Bad. Reacher was a very well done action drama. What We Do In The Shadows is hilarious. Last Of Us was amazing. Black Bird was a massively underrated show. So there’s a few off the top of my head.
 
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