The Writers Guild of America reached a tentative three-year deal, which, if ratified, would end one of Hollywood’s longest labor disputes. The WGA and AMPTP are still drafting the final contract language. Now it’s time for the AMPTP to get back to the table with SAG-AFTRA and address the needs of performers.However, that first day back at work is gonna be weird. “Sorry I said you should lose your house.” “Yeah, well sorry I called you the spawn of satan on my picket sign” It’s not a coincidence that Q4 starts on October 1st and the Studios would have to tell their stockholders why their earnings have cratered since the strikes started. I can’t wait to find out what the deal is, especially with regards to AI. Hopefully it’s robust enough to hold off developments for the necessary time for studio heads to lose interest in this shiny new toy and move on.
Some rumored specifics of the deal that have not been publicly shared yet:
-AI’s will be allowed to script, but in order for the stories to be meaningful they will be designed to feel pain.
-Batgirl will finally see release.
-Bob Iger has to work at least 25 full shifts at Disney World in an air-tight Buzz Lightyear costume.
-One lucky writer gets to remove David Zazlav’s veneers with a pair of pliers (to be determined by lottery.)
-At least one head on a pike.
-Writers will benefit from much higher residual payments from streaming.
Obviously, I kid.
I am extremely curious as to how the streaming residuals deal was made, because that will also give a guide as to how the SAG strike will get settled. I do hope they get a true way to measure streaming data that would be great (both for the industry and for fans). Netflix’s “235 million minutes of this show were streamed last month!” is the most useless metric I’ve ever seen. The increased sweatiness of how numbers read is a real problem, even if they’re accurate. It also might be a sign of direction in the overall business – if it raises fixed costs per show while making more data available to outside investors, then you’ll see a lot more pressure on the studios to focus on making large hits at the expense of the more narrowly focused but well-budgeted shows that were a big part of the Streaming Gold Rush in 2017-2021. In other words, like the Theatrical Business.
Once ratified, If the unions did not have to cave on much … Well, that would be FANTASTIC news. It will only serve to prove the value of collective bargaining. This strike was an acid test in a world trying to rid itself of unionization, through legal means or turning the public against their own interests. Miss me with the standard “I don’t understand how unions work” and “unions are bad because my company told me so” mentality. When your particular job/skill is somewhat of a commodity you need to negotiate together to have more bargaining power. Simple.
Why let people fight for our future? Why hire a specialist instead of being a rugged individualist and learning the damn thing for the next year? Why elect people to decide things? Hell, why let anyone do anything for you? From now on, we should do every damn thing ourselves and die burnt out and useless at the age of 25 or 30 like they did 2000 years ago. (hyperbole) Look, chuckles, we live in a society- (meme regurgitation.)
Why let others decide our future for us? What’s the alternative? I mean past a certain point of personal ability, things will no longer be in our hands on an individual level. Things become too big, at which point we’ve evolved socially to decide things for ourselves via elective representative proxies who are more specialized in doing the things you can’t individually.
We achieve more collaboratively than we do individually. The very cells in your body discovered this when they started clumping together and working as organisms instead of being predated on by phages. We are more than the border between the rest of the universe and the brains contained beneath our skins. In unity there is strength. Out of many, one. Literally E Pluribus Unum. That’s how this works.