I wonder how many know the truth of the strike?
Every 3 years the WGA renews its contract with the studios. The last time it was due to happen was 2020 when they happily kicked the can down the road for the sake of the pandemic.
But the pandemic also blew up the streaming market.
Previously a writer would come up with 26 episodes of a TV series over the year and would have a steady stream of income. Residual cheques would keep coming for repeats and they had enough money to make a living. Nielsen ratings ensured that the big performing shows paid the best rates. It was easy enough for networks to sell advertising slots to big companies which paid for it all.
With streaming writers are being paid for a 10 episode run with little residuals going forward. The studios do not share rating metrics and so that cannot be a part of the contract. Subscriber numbers can be fickle and not relied on for profit forecasts.
And now we throw AI into the mix. Maybe its not good enough yet but a writers team wants to know its not going to get replaced by a GPT-generated script that has just been modified by one person to make it sound human.
The same applies to actors. You scrape a living as an extra and they might offer you $100 for a small part and a 3D scan. That then gives the studio rights to use your likeness in anything going forwards as a CGI extra. If that studio sells that database to a lesser company it might end up in some unsavoury places, all the whole the original extra is getting zero recompense for the use of their image.
Whilst any strike comes down to money, the writers are asking for a 2% cut of profits. 2% of the hundreds of millions the studios rake in every year so they can put food on the table and enjoy work in a creative industry. They also want it in writing that AI isn’t going to replace them at any point. The Actors also want the same conditions.
The 2008 strike was a success to raise the profile of the job and I wish them every success in getting their dues. At the end of the day if Hollywood has no writers it has no Hollywood.
(I’d also be interested to see if anyone attempts another Dr. Horrible-style self-funded internet project to prove that they can make content that is talked about for years without the studios)
