WGA Strike 2023
The WGA strike is still going strong. In this episode, we discuss the reasons behind it and what the future holds. Will the WGA strike spark flames in other unions? How long is it predicted to last? Why is this strike the most important so far? Listen in as we discuss!
Transcript
. This is Film Center, your number one show for real entertainment industry news.
Speaker:No fluff.
Speaker:All facts.
Speaker:Now here are your anchors, Derek Johnson II and Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:Hello everyone and welcome to Film Center.
Speaker:I'm Derek Johnson, the second.
Speaker:I'm Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:Hey Nicholas.
Speaker:What are we getting into today?
Speaker:Today we are getting into the writer strike.
Speaker:On April 18th about 97 point.
Speaker:85% of members of the Writer's Guild of America, which is the WGA Labor Union
Speaker:for screenwriters in the United States.
Speaker:Just in case you are someone who doesn't know what that is.
Speaker:Voted to go on strike if they cannot make a deal with the producer's union.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so with the producers union there's been a lot of.
Speaker:Interesting talk with the producers union.
Speaker:I mean, technically it's the Alliance of Motion picture and
Speaker:television producers, right.
Speaker:But is shortened to the producers union.
Speaker:A pretty major one.
Speaker:Something that a lot of creatives had said for a while is that why was the producers
Speaker:needed union, but a everyone else had one.
Speaker:The WGA had one, the DGA ad one, the sa G ad one sag, and then ara and.
Speaker:As of today, you know, sagging after are actually one and the same.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They merged.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So when these deals are already happening, the big people, quote
Speaker:unquote at the top, are the producers.
Speaker:So for a while we've been like, why are they even have a union?
Speaker:But I guess it's for things like this, because now the WGA is going
Speaker:against the producer's union.
Speaker:So one May 1st they did not reach a deal, so on May 2nd they proceeded to strike.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Me and Nicholas have visited the strikes.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Ourselves.
Speaker:But one of the things that I wanted to ask you was what do you as a
Speaker:writer think about this going on?
Speaker:I can definitely see how someone who only makes money from writing is like,
Speaker:I mean, this is their everything, right?
Speaker:There's also a bit of perspective here because there is a lot of people
Speaker:who went to these strikes, right?
Speaker:Where they were striking outside of Disney.
Speaker:They were striking outside of Universal, you know, and WJ does
Speaker:a good job of keeping everyone like up to date on what's happening.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But really this feels like it was a long time coming.
Speaker:Actually, it feels like this strike should have happened a while ago.
Speaker:I'll break it down to people who, who don't really understand why
Speaker:streaming is not paying writers.
Speaker:. The median pay for a screenwriter has fallen by 14% since 2018.
Speaker:And the writer, producers pay has fallen by 23% over the last decade.
Speaker:People aren't getting paid as much as they used to, but , it used to be that
Speaker:, you get put on a show and your show, as long as there are reruns and stuff
Speaker:like that on the television, you get paid because those networks have ads.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:That's how they're getting their money.
Speaker:It's through ad revenue.
Speaker:. That's why Nielsen was such a big deal.
Speaker:Cause I say, oh, We have X amount of people watching, so we can
Speaker:charge X amount of dollars right, and get X amount of revenue.
Speaker:However, we're streaming, they only get paid once.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:People are watching it again and again and again.
Speaker:And then they get paid that once because there are no more ads.
Speaker:I mean, the only, and we, we talked a little bit about this before.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:The really, the only streaming sites that are making any money is Amazon and Apple.
Speaker:Am I making money, I mean, can sustain themselves because they're
Speaker:not reliant on strictly shows.
Speaker:Right, right.
Speaker:It's all about the money.
Speaker:And then on top of that a lot of people are being treated as gigs.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Instead of actually hiring them to be on the show . A lot of people
Speaker:were really worried, especially when we went to the, strike, right.
Speaker:We were, yeah.
Speaker:We were striking outside of Disney.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Well, and I'll just leave it at that.
Speaker:We got a surprising amount of honks from people coming out of the studios.
Speaker:You can tell who and who was not going to honk.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:The people with the really nice cars were not honking.
Speaker:They were just looking at us like in disgust.
Speaker:Yeah, they are these peasants and it's ridiculous.
Speaker:You can tell who it is.
Speaker:I mean, it's the guy who's wearing a button-up shirt under a sweater vest.
Speaker:In his, you know, in his brand new Tesla or whatever.
Speaker:I'm not, well, to be fair, it's not like none of the people in the WGA
Speaker:have those cars either, to be fair.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:However, we're the ones getting screwed over here, so it's a little different.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You know, the crazy part is, is that other than the 2007 strike, actually
Speaker:this is the fifth strike in history.
Speaker:, the very first strike was in 1960.
Speaker:And what exactly it did was it compensated writers for their work.
Speaker:Gave them pensions.
Speaker:It's amazing how.
Speaker:Easily, they wanna just screw over the writers.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:. Right.
Speaker:But it's amazing how like you can't have anything without it being written.
Speaker:There's no hiring actors, there's no hiring directors.
Speaker:There is nothing to produce.
Speaker:. There's nothing to show without there being a first a script.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And somehow these are the people that , they often try to overlook
Speaker:and often try to screw over.
Speaker:Well, correct me if I'm wrong, right?
Speaker:The producers saying that they're going to AI the writer's room,
Speaker:the problem is producers don't even know what a writer's room is.
Speaker:the producers don't understand is this is how writers' rooms work.
Speaker:So what ends up happening is they make a script, right.
Speaker:Send it to the studio and they order a series.
Speaker:, each writer's room is a little bit different by the way they operate.
Speaker:I've been in some writers' rooms where everything is people talk a lot more and
Speaker:they're more like loosey goosey with it.
Speaker:I've been in some writers' rooms where you gotta come
Speaker:with , just a huge list of ideas.
Speaker:But it's all head by a showrunner, regardless of which
Speaker:, if , we're in a writer's room.
Speaker:The series has already been ordered.
Speaker:They're at least gonna get a season.
Speaker:It's crazy how Hollywood used to be.
Speaker:I'm not saying that people weren't grandfathered in before because they
Speaker:were just like they are now, but back then they were grandfathered
Speaker:in to the lowest level compared to now where a lot of people are being
Speaker:grandfathered in at the highest level.
Speaker:So they're skipping.
Speaker:It used to be producers.
Speaker:They would spend some time in the writer's room before they got that position so they
Speaker:could see how the whole machine works.
Speaker:For example, right?
Speaker:If you wanna sell cars, you gotta know how a car works.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:That is not happening in Hollywood.
Speaker:You just have a whole bunch of car sales who know nothing about cars.
Speaker:The way that it usually works is you usually hire one to two
Speaker:really experienced writers.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:These are high level, highly qualified writers, and then you hire about two
Speaker:or three mid experienced writers, and then you hire one or two writers.
Speaker:The new guys.
Speaker:The new guys, right.
Speaker:So you have someone to train, right?
Speaker:Cuz we're training the next generation.
Speaker:But the way that it's come to now is that you can only afford to hire those two
Speaker:really experienced writers and they have to do everything., I have a prediction.
Speaker:I believe that the studios might die.
Speaker:Eventually, I think this is the first sign of that.
Speaker:? Studios are not willing to put in the effort and the time
Speaker:to really find new revenues.
Speaker:, Of cashflow in this modern world.
Speaker:Studios or distribution companies, they just are the ones
Speaker:with the money and they're the ones who are able to distribute.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:But I'll give you an example.
Speaker:Steven Spielberg does not need any distribution company.
Speaker:No, Steven Spielberg doesn't care.
Speaker:Siemens Wilmore fires the studio.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:Because he's that big of a creator.
Speaker:It's kind of like that for a lot of people who create online.
Speaker:People have seen giant YouTubers who they interact directly with the audience.
Speaker:They don't need a studio either.
Speaker:And as long as the studios keep screwing over the people who are working for them,
Speaker:eventually those people who are working for them are gonna say, you know what?
Speaker:I'm gonna go off and do my own thing.
Speaker:I like Michael Jamon.
Speaker:Michael Jamon was a writer for king of The Hill and a couple other shows, not
Speaker:a couple, actually a lot of other shows.
Speaker:And if you follow him on his Instagram, he's now selling , a class of his.
Speaker:Guaranteed.
Speaker:If he made a show and then he put it out just like on YouTube or Vimeo
Speaker:or had some like paywall behind it, people would probably go for it.
Speaker:I'm not gonna say this person's name, but I know a showrunner,
Speaker:who was originally gonna have a show with discovery, right.
Speaker:And they've been kinda like backpedaling.
Speaker:And now that we're in the writer strike, it's like it's all muddy now, right?
Speaker:. Right.
Speaker:However, Previous to it, they didn't want to do his show like
Speaker:the way he wanted it to be done.
Speaker:They had a whole bunch of notes that he kind of didn't agree with.
Speaker:Like one of my one of my executive friends always says, not that I'm defending them.
Speaker:It's kind of like being a therapist for some showrunners.
Speaker:Your job is to keep them off the ledge cuz they are right to bring their creatives
Speaker:is their show, their show running it.
Speaker:They're very defensive, however, He was like, screw it.
Speaker:I'm gonna use Kena to tell my version of the story that I want to, and I'm
Speaker:gonna produce your version of it.
Speaker:So the last strike was like 15 years ago, right?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And one of the differences between the 2007 strike and the the 2023 strike.
Speaker:I think it's referred to as the 2008 strike,
Speaker:Is the thing was Netflix and Hulu and all the streaming services
Speaker:were just coming into play.
Speaker:The producers were kind of divided on how they wanted to make their money.
Speaker:. So it was easy to make them in fight.
Speaker:Disney was like, I really want to invest in streaming, mm-hmm.
Speaker:And Warner Brothers was like, actually, I just wanna keep doing the same format.
Speaker:Nowadays the writers are having much more leverage.
Speaker:Because , there's such a need for original content.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:They don't want it over produced.
Speaker:They don't want it over polished.
Speaker:They're like, no, we just want original content.
Speaker:. It gives the creatives a lot more leverage cuz it can't be over corporate now.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:For the past, I wanna say decade you have had a lot of writers who traditionally did
Speaker:only film, move directly to television.
Speaker:Not only was it making more money, but one of the things a lot of writers
Speaker:were saying, hey, you know what?
Speaker:I get more power.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And so with that being said, they're demanding more profits
Speaker:from the streaming services.
Speaker:I think they were gonna have another wave of.
Speaker:Alright, quote unquote inferior TV and movies.
Speaker:I don't know the future, right?
Speaker:But you gotta think of a Fabian example, quantum of Solace, James
Speaker:Bond, hot off casino Royale.
Speaker:Now, first of all, casino Royales are priced.
Speaker:Everybody, including myself, of how good it was.
Speaker:It was phenomenal.
Speaker:I love that movie.
Speaker:But the Sequel Quantum of Solace people barely talk about that movie, why it
Speaker:was affected by the writer's strike.
Speaker:I have a quote here.
Speaker:The quantum of so solace was made into trash because of the last strike.
Speaker:The script was left unfinished and the studio went to production.
Speaker:Anyway this is according to an interview with Daniel Craig
Speaker:from timeout Magazine, right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:, you could feel the writer's strike because shows and TV were just being
Speaker:made haphazardly, and it wasn't as good as it used to be, right?
Speaker:This time you have on top of it of ai., AI is gonna have a lot harder
Speaker:time writing scripts and writing creating stories than with art.
Speaker:It's the reason why a lot of AI art, you don't see a lot of good AI
Speaker:art that can create hands and feet.
Speaker:So here's how AI works.
Speaker:AI works by inputting a bunch of examples.
Speaker:It makes a pattern and then it tries to replicate that pattern . So one
Speaker:reason why it's so good at creating interesting faces, right, is because
Speaker:a face is basically a pattern., the brain is able to recognize a lot of
Speaker:different faces cuz it goes like this.
Speaker:Two eyes on top.
Speaker:Nose in the middle, mouth on bottom.
Speaker:That is a pattern across the board, but with hands and hair and like toes, they
Speaker:can be any source of which ways, right?
Speaker:That there's not really a pattern to it.
Speaker:That's kind of how writing is, right.
Speaker:Where okay, it's a comedying.
Speaker:Yeah, but so what, do you know how different and unique
Speaker:every single guy there is?
Speaker:Not.
Speaker:Variables are endless.
Speaker:Even, you can even say that movies that are formulaic, comedies
Speaker:are still different from each other on some level, right?
Speaker:So and there are some genres that thrive off a formula that are
Speaker:still different enough to be quite enjoyable, like a romantic comedy.
Speaker:Romantic comedy is two people who aren't in love, then they fall in love, then
Speaker:something happens that makes them fall outta love, but then they end up together.
Speaker:That's the formula.
Speaker:Part of the rider strike is to make sure that that AI programs
Speaker:don't learn from our scripts.
Speaker:? Because once again, there's that fear of being replaced.
Speaker:Well, I think the thing is, is like, or them at least trying to, so.
Speaker:What came out of the 2008 writer strike was reality tv.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Everybody was striking and the, the studios were like, we
Speaker:still have to put out content.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We still have to do something.
Speaker:I think that the studios and the writers are smart enough
Speaker:behind closed doors to know that.
Speaker:AI is not going to be able to compete with the human mind to write, but I
Speaker:think what they're worried about is that it will be able to do it enough.
Speaker:To produce profit.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And it's not gonna be a way, that's a word.
Speaker:It doesn't need to be an Oscar . Most movies that have been the most
Speaker:successful, why successful?
Speaker:Mean straight up box office revenue, not only box office, but just revenue, period.
Speaker:Straight profit.
Speaker:As in after the budgets have been made, after all the marketing's been paid
Speaker:back, da, da, da, straight profit.
Speaker:The most profitable usually are not Oscar winners.
Speaker:No, the likelihood of you having an Oscar winner, especially nowadays an
Speaker:Oscar winning script that also produces over a billion dollars is so rare.
Speaker:You know star Wars didn't get an Oscar and it's Star Wars and I'm sorry.
Speaker:I said, and it's Star Wars.
Speaker:Wars War.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it didn't get an Oscar, so it's like, what are we doing here?
Speaker:But Lord of the Rings was really amazing and it got a ton of Oscars.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But Lord of the Rings also was one of the, I think one out of two movies
Speaker:to get a clean sweep at the Oscars.
Speaker:True.
Speaker:Also written by one of the most prolific writers of our time.
Speaker:Made by one of the greatest directors of our time., I think that is an outlier.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then I also think that as far as the WGA is concerned,
Speaker:they want more transparency from the streaming surfaces Yeah.
Speaker:Of how things are divided up.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Instead of just being like, oh yeah, here you go.
Speaker:And they're like, yeah, but what's the pie?
Speaker:What part of my getting, what did you, what did you take?
Speaker:What was operating costs and what is, what's me like?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:That's what I want to know.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:And then also the WGA is facing a more united front than it did in 2008.
Speaker:There is a lot more writers nowadays, and this is also something the WJ
Speaker:has been very adamant about in this strike, is trying to get these newer
Speaker:writers a position as you know.
Speaker:Because everything is based off an ip and because they all hire these
Speaker:experienced writers, they don't really, studios aren't really willing to pay
Speaker:for people to be trained, basically.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So, like I was saying before, the reason why they were pretty much able to end
Speaker:the last strike is the studios were divided over how to handle the strike.
Speaker:Now the producer studio is now much more united.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And, you know, there's, and prepared to take a much harder
Speaker:line in negotiations with the wga.
Speaker:Right now I would like to say we're recording this May 31st.
Speaker:There is a lot of talk already of the DGA and SAG also going on
Speaker:strike alongside the wga, so we're gonna have to see how that handles.
Speaker:They might, I mean, the Director's Guild is in negotiations
Speaker:currently during the strike.
Speaker:Right, right.
Speaker:And lemme tell you something, SAG only has a year left before they negotiate.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:That's what we're talking about.
Speaker:You know, it's like if SAG is kind of saying, oh, cuz there was a lot of SAG
Speaker:members out there striking with us, right?
Speaker:I see the writing on the wall with the writers, if that's what they're gonna do
Speaker:to the writers, then the directors are like, well, what are they gonna do to me?
Speaker:And then the actors are like, But what are they gonna do to me?
Speaker:I'm like just the actor.
Speaker:Right, exactly.
Speaker:So I mean, if there's a front of a W G A DGA and TAG front
Speaker:against, they can ask for anything.
Speaker:This is way bigger and way more important than the previous strike.
Speaker:I think that there is gonna be something really good coming after the strike.
Speaker:I'm not saying that reality TV is my favorite genre of TV it's not, but show.
Speaker:But I was gonna ask you, what do you think is going to come out?
Speaker:reality TV really came out of the 2008 strike What category do
Speaker:you think is going to come out?
Speaker:Why did reality TV get so popular after?
Speaker:The strike.
Speaker:Last strike.
Speaker:It's cuz it's cheap.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Easy to make, but who makes a lot of the reality tv prior to then?
Speaker:It's really almost like independent stuff, right?
Speaker:I think out of this strike we're gonna see a lot of people say
Speaker:People still wanna see my content.
Speaker:I know that if I put it out on the internet, someone might
Speaker:buy it, someone might like it.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:And I have a lot of fans myself, especially cuz I know I'm good at this,
Speaker:who says, I can't make you myself.
Speaker:I think that's what's going to happen.
Speaker:, it's never been cheaper to pick up a camera.
Speaker:Now can you compete with the stuff that's studio backed?
Speaker:Probably not.
Speaker:But audiences are way more forgiving nowadays.
Speaker:Well, that's what a lot of standup comedians are doing nowadays.
Speaker:Like the most recent example is Andrew Schultz.
Speaker:So Andrew Schultz went to one of the big streaming platforms.
Speaker:It was like, here's my special, mm-hmm.
Speaker:And they gave him X amount of dollars, , but you have to take out these jokes.
Speaker:. And he was really considering like, do I take out these jokes or do I not?
Speaker:And he said, people told me , just go put it on YouTube.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:Just go put it on YouTube.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:He said A lot of comedians are really doing well by just putting their special
Speaker:out on YouTube their whole entire special
Speaker:. Produced and everything.
Speaker:. And.
Speaker:They're able to connect directly with their audience.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:The only issue that I see with the WGA facing this strike is they're in a much
Speaker:more difficult financial situation.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So in 2008, the WGA had a large war chest that could be used to fund the strike.
Speaker:However, the Wgas war chest now is much smaller.
Speaker:So they'll be facing a number of financial challenges the
Speaker:longer the strike goes on.
Speaker:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker:There were a lot of people who are really concerned about if
Speaker:they able to like feed their kids
Speaker:I mean, it's gonna mess something up.
Speaker:You personally have already.
Speaker:Been reached out to multiple studios trying to get you to Yeah.
Speaker:Do some, what do you call it?
Speaker:they call us . Scalpers.
Speaker:Basically what they're trying to do is they're trying to find
Speaker:any writers that they can, that will cross the line, so to speak,
Speaker:so when the strike is over, hey, guess what?
Speaker:Those same studios and production companies that you worked
Speaker:for, they're gonna kick you out for those WGA guys, right?
Speaker:Every single time.
Speaker:And, and then the W WGA is going to hate you, right?
Speaker:And you'll never be able to work with them again.
Speaker:. There are some production companies that are not on the list.
Speaker:I encourage our listeners to go to the WGA website and find out what's going on.
Speaker:If you're like a small YouTube creator, you can still write your own
Speaker:TV show, like web series, and you're not gonna be banned from the wga.
Speaker:, it's actually very specific on who they're targeting.
Speaker:It's not just random.
Speaker:Like that's why we're still able to make this podcast.
Speaker:It's because you know, the strike doesn't really affect this podcast.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Our, our parent company isn't being struck out.
Speaker:Quick shout out to ComicCon Radio.
Speaker:Also, the thing that makes this.
Speaker:More prudent strike and a and a more comprehensive strike.
Speaker:Is the public's more supportive of writers today?
Speaker:. Like you were saying, the audience is more forgiving.
Speaker:The audience is more well vested in the production of things happening.
Speaker:I think it has to do with exposure,
Speaker:the technology is just so developed now.
Speaker:People like everything.
Speaker:They like original content.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:They like how it's produced.
Speaker:. They want to know how it gets made.
Speaker:I was watching YouTube the other day and this guy was like, yeah, I spent a hundred
Speaker:thousand dollars on this little animated pilot., and that pilot was really good.
Speaker:I was like, wow, this is just somebody like let's just, no studio
Speaker:him and a couple of other artists who just has some talent they were able
Speaker:to spend over a hundred thousand dollars on this just from their previous
Speaker:YouTube ad revenue, which is crazy.
Speaker:Know what I'm saying?
Speaker:So they're more likely to understand the issues that the writers are facing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Plus the WGA has more allies today than it did in 2008.
Speaker:That's true.
Speaker:Why this user are kind of feeling like they can say, screw you.
Speaker:It's the pandemic, right?
Speaker:The pandemic.
Speaker:There was a huge backup of shows.
Speaker:. All people were doing movies right.
Speaker:And well, you know when when things shut down, all the productions holded, right?
Speaker:So everything that was undeveloped, finished getting developed while
Speaker:nothing was getting made, right?
Speaker:So they're super stocked up anyway, so they're like, oh, you know what?
Speaker:We kind of don't need you for a while.
Speaker:I think that they might hold out a lot longer than they
Speaker:did in 2008 because of this.
Speaker:The producer's union is a lot more united than it was the last time around.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Because the producers could sit there and say, Hey, listen,
Speaker:we're all going to make money.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:We're all making record profits.
Speaker:Well, yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:If we all been together, Yeah, we can keep it this way.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:, screw everybody out they resulted to reality TV cuz they didn't have
Speaker:anything to make that it's not the case this time and not saying that 2008
Speaker:was a small dispute because it wasn't
Speaker:then this is like two larger titans this time, right.
Speaker:Each side has so much leverage.
Speaker:. The WGA has more leverage today than it did in 2008.
Speaker:It didn't have much leverage in negotiations.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And then the studios are saying, Hey, guess what?
Speaker:And we don't need you,
Speaker:That public is demanding more original content with the
Speaker:rise of streaming services.
Speaker:You think the studios care about?
Speaker:Let's be honest here.
Speaker:, yeah, of course studios care about their audience cuz they're
Speaker:the ones who come see it.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker:And I'm not gonna talk bad about like literally all studios, cause
Speaker:most of 'em are, are run differently.
Speaker:But let's be real here.
Speaker:How many times have studios really sat down and be like, let me
Speaker:really think about their opinion.
Speaker:That's why the rest of the industry is worried about AI
Speaker:because the producers don't care.
Speaker:As long as it's good enough to make money, that's all they care about.
Speaker:we're gonna have to rely on the audience to not watch it.
Speaker:And unfortunately, I don't see that happening because, Audiences are.
Speaker:So starting with content, they're like, oh, well, as long as it's
Speaker:being made, I might still watch it.
Speaker:And especially since this new thing, this catching ways, hate watching,
Speaker:they might just watch it even if it sucks, because it sucks, right?
Speaker:. Like what happened with Thelma.
Speaker:Thelma came out.
Speaker:But a lot of people did not like it.
Speaker:, I personally don't either.
Speaker:It's not a very good show.
Speaker:I haven't seen it.
Speaker:I'm not gonna talk too much about it, but basically because of its
Speaker:notoriety and not being good, right?
Speaker:A lot of big content creators on YouTube watched it.
Speaker:. And they were like, oh, we're reacting to how much they didn't like it, which
Speaker:then made their audiences watch it right to eight, watch it themselves,
Speaker:and then boom, what happened?
Speaker:They get tons of views.
Speaker:HBO says, oh, we have tons of views.
Speaker:And then they're about to make a season two based off of all that hate watching
Speaker:but I think though that the WGA is willing to take a longer strike today.
Speaker:Then back in 2008, there's way more at stake this time because
Speaker:the, the WGA was not willing to take a longer strike last time.
Speaker:It's willing to do that today because it's got more power now.
Speaker:It's also the future of writing AI is going to happen.
Speaker:Whether we like it or not, this is like the future of their jobs, you know,
Speaker:this is the future of writing, right?
Speaker:We will have to work with AI in terms of writing, right?
Speaker:That's what this is all about too.
Speaker:I think the regulatory use of AI is what we are fighting for.
Speaker:It's really about making sure that their AI aren't using our scripts
Speaker:to learn how to write better.
Speaker:Cuz once reach that good enough stage, they're gonna say, we
Speaker:don't need to writer's room.
Speaker:I'm just gonna press play now.
Speaker:Which very also very interesting is that these people who are claiming they
Speaker:can do this, don't know how to use ai.
Speaker:, they're in a past generation.
Speaker:I think they're relying too much on something they don't understand.
Speaker:They just know what it has the potential to do and for them, that's
Speaker:good enough., writer's pay has gone down drastically in the past 10 years,
Speaker:and they're being employed less, like we said, it's, they're being hired
Speaker:as if it's a gig instead of a job.
Speaker:. The studios are trying to turn writing into.
Speaker:Find, you know an Uber driver . Instead of it being a career.
Speaker:Give me health insurance, give me residuals, give me
Speaker:money so that I can live.
Speaker:I'm not gonna say about this with riots, but there are some people who still
Speaker:continue to work at the studios because the strike working in these smaller jobs
Speaker:even down to the security, that walk around the lots . I don't really have a
Speaker:super big problem with them because at the end of the day, Bills have to get paid.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And if you're not in the wga, you're not really covered, are you?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Not saying that everyone in the WGA has the same pocket size.
Speaker:. But what I will say is that you're standing with the WGA in, you're
Speaker:in a union for a reason, right.
Speaker:When things go sour like this, they have your back for the most part.
Speaker:, it's, all about unity.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So if you're not part of the union, I kind of get why some people might
Speaker:scab, especially if it's like, okay, well my bills are due next
Speaker:month and my children are hungry.
Speaker:What do you want from me?
Speaker:I think, it's just the progression of what the entertainment industry needs.
Speaker:I was saying before, this is the fifth strike.
Speaker:We have to get with the times., in 1960, . The Writer's Guild of America
Speaker:struck, which lasted for about four months and resulted in significant
Speaker:changes to the way writers were compensated for their work, improved
Speaker:rights and pensions for script writers.
Speaker:Writers won the right to receive residuals for showing of theatrical
Speaker:films and on free television.
Speaker:The next strike was in 1973, the Writer's Guilt of America struck,
Speaker:which lasted about three months and resulted in significant changes in the
Speaker:way that they were paid for residuals.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:For movies shown on video cassettes and paid television.
Speaker:And then the next one was 1988.
Speaker:The writers struck for about five months, which resulted in significant losses for
Speaker:film and television industries, mm-hmm.
Speaker:The writers ended by winning a percentage of the revenue from home video sales.
Speaker:So we're striking each time with the change of technology.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:To make sure that our buying power stays the same . And stays relevant.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:It's not that you guys are asking for anything more, this
Speaker:is the change of the industry.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And you're trying to cut me out of it.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Instead of taking me with you and into the future.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:This writer strike.
Speaker:I will say this.
Speaker:, I think it's gonna be a long one.
Speaker:I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker:I think that if you're, if you're listening right now and you're a
Speaker:writer who's not in the WGA , and you have dreams, doubt, join the wga.
Speaker:You should not scalp.
Speaker:You should not scalp, do not let you will get calls.
Speaker:I talked to people from Sony.
Speaker:I talked to some people from HBO and some other studios.
Speaker:Not saying that these people fully represent those studios Right.
Speaker:Who have reached out to me.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I'm not saying that they fully represent those studios, but
Speaker:they are associated with them.
Speaker:And I happen to know that these people are looking for, Rider to cross the
Speaker:picket line, and I would encourage you not to do it, mainly because if you do,
Speaker:wga will know, you will not be able to join wga, and when this strike is all
Speaker:over, you'll be left out in the cold.
Speaker:I think of it as a family.
Speaker:. Whenever you have a family fight, let's say you have a girlfriend, Hmm.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Let's say me and you are a family, . We're brothers.
Speaker:. We both have girlfriends.
Speaker:. Now we have a fight.
Speaker:. That's fine.
Speaker:That's family.
Speaker:You know, I'll say some stuff . You'll say some stuff . Yeah.
Speaker:And then that's what happens, right?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:No problem.
Speaker:You'll forgive me and I'll forgive you because we're, because we're brothers
Speaker:and because we're brothers but let's say the girlfriends start saying some stuff
Speaker:. Your girlfriend says some stuff to me, or my girlfriend says some stuff to you.
Speaker:I'm not gonna forgive the girlfriend because you're not family to me.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I don't care.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Even after the issue is settled, that best to settle and, and you're like,
Speaker:Hey, listen, I kind of got caught up in the emotion and all of it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'm not gonna care.
Speaker:Because I don't know.
Speaker:You like that.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:You like that.
Speaker:And even if you were the wife, , you don't have the same amount of protection.
Speaker:And so if you're gonna be that person on the outside, they're
Speaker:gonna kick you to the cold.
Speaker:, according to the LA Times, the strike is costing 'em about a
Speaker:hundred million dollars a day.
Speaker:. And earlier this year, prior to the strike happening, they talked a lot
Speaker:about how studios were having , a hole in their rocket basically.
Speaker:They had to dip into the reserves, , although these are not poor companies.
Speaker:We're not talking about some small, chain of gas stations or something
Speaker:like that in some desk workers or we're not talking about coal minors
Speaker:both sides have a lot of power.
Speaker:So when you're talking about losing a hundred million, I mean
Speaker:that's a lot to people like us.
Speaker:I'm not saying it's not a lot of money cuz it is.
Speaker:. But , those studios can apparently afford it.
Speaker:Or else they wouldn't be doing it
Speaker:if it was that big of a deal, this strike would be over already.
Speaker:This strike has been is, is May 31st.
Speaker:We're kind of, we're kind of late making this podcast on this,, first
Speaker:of all, we were marching right.
Speaker:Second of all, say, first of all, we was actually there on the ground.
Speaker:Second of all there is so much.
Speaker:Talk of the G G A and SAG also striking.
Speaker:We were just like, be a Ga Dora situation.
Speaker:Right, right.
Speaker:So might as well talk about the GA Dora instead of just one hand.
Speaker:But it seems like they haven't done it officially as of May 31st.
Speaker:Who knows that tomorrow it could happen.
Speaker:And then we'll just have to make a following up to this.
Speaker:Nicholas, how long do you think this right strike might happen?
Speaker:I think it's going to last a lot longer than all the other strikes.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Because, like you said, the backlog of content,
Speaker:Had it not been a pandemic, I think this would be very similar to the 2008 strike.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I honestly believe what's going to happen is that is going last till probably.
Speaker:We would need some miracle to make it end in like the next month or two.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:I think they're not even talking.
Speaker:, At the long end of it, they hit November, we're not going to be done
Speaker:with this thing until probably like February, March, because there's a
Speaker:dead zone between November to January, right, where nobody does anything,
Speaker:where nothing knew he does anything.
Speaker:Well, yeah, those are our predictions.
Speaker:I've been Derek Johnson the second.
Speaker:I'm Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:And this has been film Center.
Speaker:This has been Film Center on Comic-Con Radio.
Speaker:Check out our previous episodes at comic-con radio.com.
Speaker:You can follow the show at Film Center News on all major social media platforms.
Speaker:. Until next time, this has been Film Center.
