Hollywood’s 15-year working peace was shattered Monday night. Film and TV writers said they would go on strike, halting many productions and hurting an industry that has been rocked by the pandemic and radical technological change in recent years.
The union representing the writers said in a statement that they “voted unanimously to call for a strike.” The writer will begin walking her line of pickets on Tuesday afternoon. His three-year contract with them was set to expire at midnight Pacific time on Monday.
The Alliance of Film and Television Producers, which is negotiating on behalf of the Hollywood companies, said in a statement that its proposal included “generous increases in compensation for writers.” He added that he was willing.
According to the studio, the main sticking point has to do with union proposals requiring companies to place a certain number of writers on TV shows for a certain period of time “whether necessary or not.”
The unions representing writers, the eastern and western chapters of the Writers Guild of America, said, “Corporate action is creating a gig economy within the union workforce and their steadfastness in this negotiation.” The stance betrayed a commitment to further devalue the union.” writing profession. “
The dispute has put 11,500 screenwriters at odds with big studios, including long-established entertainment companies such as Universal and Paramount, and tech industry newcomers such as Netflix, Amazon and Apple.
The WGA has harshly worded the controversy, saying that the rise of streaming services and the explosion of television production are eroding their working conditions. It was an “existential” moment, stating that “the survival of writing as a profession is at stake in this negotiation.”
The entertainment company, which has previously said it is entering discussions “with the long-term health and stability of the industry as a top priority,” faces a rapidly changing business amid plummeting network and cable TV viewership. facing
The most immediate effect for viewers is felt on talk shows and sketch shows. Late night shows like Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert could end soon. Reality series and some international shows not covered by Guild will air in heavy rotation.
The production process for new TV shows and movies can take months or even a year or longer, so long strikes are required before new TV shows and movies arrive late.
Prolonged production stoppages can harm local economies, especially the workers who support production, such as drivers, costume dry cleaners, caterers, set carpenters and lumberyard workers. In his 100 days in 2007, the last time the writers went on strike, the Los Angeles economy lost an estimated $2.1 billion.
Seth Meyers, host of NBC’s 12:30 a.m. late night show, hinted at the devastation of the final strike of the segment late last week.
“It’s not just writers who are affected,” Myers said. web-only video“It affects all the incredible non-writing staff of these shows. And what people have to go through, especially considering we’re right after that horrible pandemic.” is truly tragic.
Myers said he is a proud member of the WGA and feels strongly that what writers are asking for is “not unreasonable.”
“If you can’t see me next week, please know that it won’t be easy. I will miss you too,” he said.
The writer raised many complaints. In just a twist, the authors seek to put important guardrails on the use of artificial intelligence. But the most pressing issue for them is compensation.
The past decade has witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of scripted TV shows airing in the United States during what is often referred to as Peak TV. However, the writer said their salaries have stagnated.
In the days of network television, writers could get work on shows with 20 episodes or more per season and live a stable life for a year. But in the streaming era, the episode order dropped to eight or 12, and the median weekly salary for writers and producers dropped slightly, he said, according to the WGA.
The writer also wants to fix the formula for residual payments overturned by streaming. Until a few years ago, writers could receive a balance every time a show was licensed through syndication or DVD sales. However, global streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon are ditching these distribution departments and paying a flat balance instead.
Unions have taken particular aim at so-called mini-rooms, which have proliferated over the past decade. There is no single definition of a mini-room. But in one instance, studios convene a small group of writers before a show is given the official green light to create a script. But WGA officials say writers often get paid less in mini-rooms.
The proliferation of mini-rooms has disrupted decades of technology for learning how to make TV shows, writers say. Mike Schur, creator of “The Good Place” and co-creator of “Parks and Recreation,” said in an interview that when he was a young writer on “The Office,” he wrote, rewrote, and He said he learned how to edit. He worked with actors and became versed in specialties such as set design and sound mixing.
“This is not something you read in a book,” he said. “This is what you have to go through.”
But thanks to the mini-room, writers often come home after just 10 weeks and aren’t involved in the production process at all, he said.
“These companies don’t understand what’s going to happen,” he said. “And coming down the pike is a whole generation of show creators who are very talented and who might say a lot about the world but don’t know how to do the work that is functionally demanding. “
However, studio executives have privately said they have their problems, too, and now is not the best time to give them big raises.
For several years, Wall Street has rewarded media companies that invested in streaming services at any cost to grow their subscriber pools. But investors were frustrated with that philosophy last year, prompting studio executives to find ways to turn the loss-making streaming service into a profit engine.
The fallout was brutal. Disney is in the process of laying off 7,000 employees. Warner Bros. Discovery laid off and shelved thousands of titles last year as it tried to pay down about $50 billion in debt. Other media companies are adopting similar cost-cutting measures.
That being said, management claims it can survive the strike. Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive Officer David Zaslav said last month: Two weeks ago, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos suggested the streaming service was more protected than its competitors. “We can probably serve you better than most members,” he said.
Still, he acknowledged the impact from the strike would be significant.
“The last strike was devastating for creators,” Sarandos said. “It’s been really hard on the industry. It’s been a pain for the local economy that supports the production, and it’s been very, very, very bad for the fans.”
The screenwriter has walked away six times over the decades. Historically, they have endured protracted strikes. In addition to his 100-day strike in 2007, writers noted that in 1988 he also walked the picket line for 153 days. In mid-April, 98% of his union representative writers of over 9,000 approved the strike.
The writers will demonstrate in New York and Los Angeles, where most entertainment companies are based.
Images of the picket sign are already floating on social media with slogans like “Scripts don’t grow on trees!” and “The future of writing is at stake!”
