No Writers Means No Content

So, if you have even a passing interest in film and filmmaking then you are probably aware that there is a strike happening at the moment. But what was the catalyst that set it off and what does it mean for content moving forward?

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In March of this year, the Writers Guild of America released an article [1] that explained how writers have been negatively impacted by the advent of streaming services. The article detailed the severe decline in pay since 2013-14 (around 23% once adjusted for inflation) and in the amount of time a writer will work on a streaming production coming out to a minimum of 14 weeks in some cases. For perspective, a showrunner can work up to 52 weeks on a production reflecting a similar schedule to a broadcast series. These factors combined mean any writer working on a show for streaming will have significantly less time working with a much smaller paycheque.

And streaming has also affected writers on feature films as well. The overall pay for feature writers hasn’t increased since 2018 and if we account for inflation this means it’s actually decreased by about 14%. On top of this, the way that contracts are managed means that writers often get the short end of the stick when it comes to being paid for their work; as the article explains “Many writers are also employed on one-step deals, guaranteed only a single draft, but subject to endless demands for free rewrites. These demands contribute to lengthy employment periods, as writers who are still owed 50% of their fee for delivery are frequently held hostage to requests for more unpaid revisions.”

About a month after the article was released the Writers Guild of America called a vote to strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP); the association responsible for negotiating industry-wide guild and union contracts, and on April 17th it was announced that the WGA was going on strike after receiving an overwhelming (97.85%) yes vote. The demands of the strike included: “increased minimum compensation in all areas of media, increased residuals, appropriate TV series-writing compensation from pre- to postproduction, increased contributions to pension and health plans, the strengthening of professional standards and the overall protections for writers, and more” [2] including proper protections against the introduction of artificial intelligence to the industry.

Now you may have also heard about actors going on strike as well. So, when the heck did they get involved and why?

On July 17th the SAG-AFTRA organisation released a document detailing what had been discussed in their negotiations with AMPTP. For actors, the world of streaming has introduced similar concerns to those of writers involving reduced pay, particularly in regard to compensating for inflation. On top of this performers have concerns regarding the use of their image in artificial intelligence and understandably want some protections around this. There were multiple other concerns as well including better residual payment structures for shows that continue to be streamed, better consideration for diverse actors from the makeup department, and more compensation for actors who need to relocate for long shoots away from home amongst other things.

April and July were a while ago now so how come these strikes are still ongoing?

Well, the negotiating has gone about as well as you might expect. Over the course of the months spanning from March before the strike up until now, both sides have been going back and forth with various accounts of how well or not well the negotiations have been coming out in the press. It’s safe to say that the reason the strike is still going on even now is that no one has reached a conclusion they are happy with.

In the most recent meeting on August 22nd, the offer on the table from AMPTP included more notable points of compromise including an increase to wage minimums, though not as much as WGA would like, a 10-week minimum employment with at least two mid-level writers per show, a mere 4 short of what WGA were asking, and reports on streaming hours watched released to the guild on a quarterly basis. Unfortunately in regard to AI, it would appear that since anything generated by AI would not be considered “literary material” the writers would receive no compensation despite the fact their work would be used to train the AI in the first place. [2] In terms of the SAG-AFTRA negotiations neither party has come back to the table yet but there have been plenty of marches particularly in New York and LA with many celebrities and industry professionals turning up to show their support for the action.  

So, everything is still at a bit of a standstill which begs the question, what is going to happen to our content? I imagine most people will of heard about the strikes because of the effects they’ve had on some of the most anticipated productions of the next few years. Most notably I think Deadpool 3 which was one of the first major productions to really be affected by the strike; shutting down production on July 14th.

But what is the true extent of the impact? Should we be worried that our movies and TV shows are about to disappear? Yes…yes, we should.

The impact ranges from ending promotional tours for films and TV shows all the way to shutting down productions entirely. And to see the sheer extent of content impacted you can check out this Wikipedia article. Just a few of the shows that have been impacted by the strike as of May 2023 include:

• Yellowjackets

• House of the Dragon

• Cobra Kai season 6

• Stranger Things Season 5

• Rings of Power season 2

• Abbott Elementary

• Dune Part 2

• Deadpool Three

• Poor Things

• Good Omens

Also, the strike was the reason that the Oppenheimer press tour was cut short and the Haunted Mansion premiere only had Minnie and Mickey Mouse in attendance. The release of films and shows moving into 2024 is clearly going to be hit hard by these strikes but the impact of not seeing a change in the way writers and actors are paid and protected would be much worse.

Now there is the counterargument from the general public who really couldn’t care less about Hollywood types not getting a “big” enough paycheque because in the eyes of the average person those who work in Hollywood get paid millions whilst we struggle to afford food and rent. But this strike isn’t really about A-listers getting paid more. In fact, around 90% of the industry doesn’t make a living from what they do with many actors and writers having to work multiple jobs just to keep the roof over their heads. There’s a great article by Mother Jones that interviewed some of the real people who have been struggling with the way the industry is structured. Actors like Barry Brisco (Blindspotting, White Men Can’t Jump, Lucifer) said in his interview, “I literally have just got a residual check in the mail yesterday that was for $0.46. I mean, it costs more to mail it. It’s going to cost me even more money to drive to the store to cash that check. What the hell is that? Actors that you see on television every day—that you think are banging out here in Hollywood—are driving for Uber, are delivering for GrubHub, are walking dogs for Wag. They’re doing whatever they possibly can do to pay their bills.”

The issue with having big-name celebrities be the face of the strike is that it seems to be taking away from the message. Hollywood has always stood as this unobtainable land of luxury where everyone is exorbitantly rich, owns five homes and 7 cars and has a waiter at home ready to cook them food, but if you look at the large number of people working to create the movies and tv shows you love only a fraction of them actually live that way and in fact, the people who are more likely to have that Hollywood lifestyle are the CEOs and investors of the companies that AMPTP represents. Plus the high-paid celebrities turning up to march are there in solidarity with the larger percentage of actors and writers who don’t get paid enough for their work, not necessarily to get paid more themselves.

I understand there may be more immediate issues going on in the world for most people but having fair and equal working conditions is important and something people have been striking about for years in many different industries. Imagine you are asked to write a report at work or are working on a project relevant to your own industry, but the bosses hold onto half your paycheque whilst forcing you to keep making changes to the report and not paying you in the meantime for the extra work it takes. And then imagine that they use this report to train AI to generate similar reports from now on without any compensation to you for creating the blueprint. Oh, and you’re also being paid 23% less than any other person doing the same job at another company. Just because these people make movies doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have a fair place to go to work. Artists are often overlooked as not being valuable to society but don’t forget that the things you entertain yourself with be that music, films, art, and video games were all made by artists.

So, can we expect the strike to end anytime soon?

Well, the longest that the writer’s guild has striked in the past was 154 days are we at 127 at the time of writing so it could be over soon? The truth is this won’t be over until the WGA and SAG get reasonable concessions from the AMPTP to improve conditions. And things could take another turn for the worse with the video game industry prepared to strike any day now too…

REFERENCES

[1] https://www.wgacontract2023.org/updates/bulletins/writers-are-not-keeping-up

[2] https://www.vulture.com/article/wga-strike-2023.html

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_productions_impacted_by_the_2023_Writers_Guild_of_America_strike

[4] https://www.scribd.com/document/659772785/SAG-AFTRA-Negotiation-Document#from_embed

[5] https://www.motherjones.com/media/2023/09/hollywood-writers-actors-strike-photos-sag-aftra-wga/

[6] https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/tv-shows-movies-affected-wga-writers-strike-2023-1235601094/

[7] https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/writers-strike-wga-four-months-amptp-1235711029/  

[8] https://www.wgacontract2023.org/videos/as-we-get-started