The Film and TV Industries

Would the involvement of a Federal mediator also complicate things for the studios on the AI front?

That would depend on how tech-savvy the mediator is or how inept the studios are at dogwhistling "we want to drive entire industries into poverty so that I can buy my 69th Gilded yacht".

Not directly, but the mediator will point out that the studios gave into the DGA's AI demands and will ask why they don't just do the same thing for writers and actors.

A lot of the time, the third party mediator will act in favour of the huge company, but here, the studios are behaving like silicon valley companies that have basically never needed to deal with a mediator and they probably won't be prepared for it.

It's not even a tech savvy thing. The studios can't actually produce anything at this point to indicate that AI is helpful or useful to them. So it's gonna be the studios going "well, we don't want to completely write off the possibility" and the WGA going "hold off for three years until the next negotiation."

Edited by Zendervai on Jul 11th 2023 at 9:29:26 AM

Hollywood Studios’ WGA Strike Endgame Is To Let Writers Go Broke Before Resuming Talks In Fall

Capitalism, everybody.

Hopefully the SAG stands in solidarity with the WAG and refuses to budge.

That statement legit sounds like a freaking Cyberpunk villain someone made up. Oh my goodness.

At least the WAG never gave an end date on their days-long protests unlike some I know.

Do the WGA accept donations? If they don't, I imagine they'll start when they hear about this. I'd love for the execs' plan to blow up in their faces because their consumer base values the writers more than they're given credit for.

People on Twitter are saying it’s propaganda and the studios are actually scared.

Haven't they already lost a ton of money? And SAG striking could make it way worse.

Basically, if SAG-AFTRA strikes, Hollywood’s just shut down completely. Some people say that Hollywood will pivot to international productions to bypass stuff…but if they did that, they’d have to write off literally every production occurring within the US and a whole lot of the ones happening in Canada and the UK and basically would need to start from scratch.

The thing is, even with international productions, they’re usually still using WGA writers and, depending on how they handle them, a lot of the actors at least try to join SAG-AFTRA to try and break into the Hollywood market directly. Like, sure, Apple could basically go “we’ll produce a lot of Korean stuff now!” But that means almost everything currently in the pipeline is just gone if they try that.

The easiest and cheapest way out for the studios is for them to commit less than two percent of their profits across the industry to actually pay writers and actors properly.

The question is: will they do it?

I feel like the Writer’s Guild strike this time is affecting studios less than the last big strike did. In 2007, TV shows predominated over streaming. Now, with streaming predominating, a strike doesn’t mainly mean reruns and bored customers, it just means that people will find something older on the streaming service to watch for a while.

Similar, movies are more often watched on streaming now, with theatrs way down since COVID.

So the studios may not be hurting as much as we’d like.

Well the SAG strike might help.

Something else helping the WGA strike is they have successfully shut down EVERY active production in LA thanks to the support from other Unions like the Teamsters, refusing to cross picket lines and thanks to things like social media, texts and group chats its really easy for the word to get around on when and where a shoot is happening so a picket can be set up within an hour or two.

There is only so long the STUDIOS can hold out to be honest eventually SHAREHOLDERS are going to get twitchy as they see article after article on how many projects are being postponed because of the strikes.

Oh and if SAG strikes, that’ll be it.

The WGA accepts online donations through an official fund that they have.

Promising News: The Deadline article has been updated with an official statement from the AMPTP saying they’re dedicated to solving the strike:

It makes sense the article was basically a propaganda piece by the AMPTP to try and break the WGA's resolve and get them to accept a sub-optimal contract, what with SAG-AFTRA also on the brink of going on strike.

EDIT: To note, it's likely the studios put out that Deadline piece because SAG agreed to a mediator, but not another extension to the negotiations. They're all in on a strike, which officially going to happen in a little over 12 hours from this post. The studios were probably hoping for another extension when they brought up bringing in a mediator, so SAG stonewalling them on that has them scared shitless.

Edited by ITNW1989 on Jul 12th 2023 at 11:16:19 AM

IIRC part of the WGA's dues goes into a fund that is made to help members keep their homes and food on the table in case of a long strike. I remember various WGA posts stating that though they do have a method of donation to give money first for the behind the line services that will be hurt more by the strike since they don't have a fund to cover them when productions eventually shut down.

So SAG is due to strike in the next day or so?

Like I said, in a little over twelve hours from this post. As soon as the clock strikes midnight Pacific, SAG-AFTRA is officially on strike alongside the WGA unless the mediator can somehow get the guild and the studios to strike a deal by then. Based on SAG-AFTRA's statement, they're not confident that they'll be getting one.

SAG will only stand down if they find the deal satisfactory. If not, then the strike happens and Hollywood is shut down for the time being. And it’s not likely they will be satisfied (and they should not be).

Edited by SatoshiBakura on Jul 12th 2023 at 3:12:50 PM

IIRC they want allot of the same things WGA wants, concerns about streaming and payments from streaming projects, AI projects and 'replacing' actors with CGI versions. Some of these have been agreed to for the Directors so the AMPTP are going to have a tough sell on why the Directors get these concessions but the Writers and Actors do not.

Which is most likely why they are shitting their pants over a Federal Mediator because that person is going to say the same thing

Except the studios were the ones who wanted a federal mediator in the first place. SAG agreed to it, but not to another extension, which was probably what the studios were hoping for, since that happened in 2007 when a mediator was brought in.

Question. Supposed there is a stalemate on the strike for 5 months at least. Would foreign powers (read: mostly China) swoop in and offer a contract (indirectly) to the WGA that is at least in lines with their demands? If so, are there any legal barriers to the WGA accepting these terms?