Writers Strike - are any of you affected or striking yourselves?

[Chris W]

It's weird to me that it feels like yesterday that the last one happened. Time files as it was 15 years ago.

Hollywood Writers Go on Strike, Halting Production (Published 2023)

The dispute, which pits 11,500 television and screenwriters against the major studios, has shattered 15 years of labor peace in the entertainment business.

nyti.ms

The primary sticking points, according to the studios, involve union proposals that would require companies to staff television shows with a certain number of writers for a specified period of time “whether needed or not.”

The unions representing the writers, the East and West branches of the Writers Guild of America, said “the companies’ behavior has created a gig economy inside a union work force, and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devaluing the profession of writing.”

...

The W.G.A. painted the dispute in stark terms, saying that the ascendance of streaming services and the explosion of television production have eroded their working conditions. It has described this as an “existential” moment, and that “the survival of writing as a profession is at stake in this negotiation.”

That last comment is pretty darn stark.

I also found this interesting:

The writers have raised numerous grievances. In a very of-the-moment twist, the writers are seeking to put significant guardrails around the use of artificial intelligence. But the most pressing issue to them is compensation.

Fear of AI? Interesting. And makes sense.

I'm in the editors guild and I work in reality television currently so I won't be affected by the strike. I've always thought our producers should unionize. In fact producers (and some predator editors like myself) on reality shows should get writing producing credits since I practically write all the shows I work on as well.

I hope the strike works out and the WGA gets what they're asking for. They're worth it.

Budgets are tightening all around. I know they want to get our episodes to network rough cut now in 5 weeks which is full on craycray for the series I'm on. We'll see. That is unless a rough cut goes back to really being a ROUGH cut and not the practically airable rough cuts that they get now but even that will be hard with this schedule.

I'm not sure what the solution is. That budget trimming and this strike is probably all stemming from advertising and streaming not paying the bills anymore?

I found this passage fascinating as well:

The unions have taken particular aim at so-called minirooms, which have proliferated over the last decade. There is no one definition of a miniroom. But in one example, studios convene a small group of writers before a show has been given an official green light to compose a script. But writers are often paid less to work in minirooms, W.G.A. officials have said.

Writers have also said that the sudden growth of minirooms has also disrupted the decades-long art of learning how to make a television show. Mike Schur, the 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 learned how to write a script, rewrite, edit, work with actors and became familiar with specialized crafts like set design and sound mixing.

“This is not stuff you can read in a book,” he said. “This is stuff that you have to experience.”

But because of minirooms, writers are sent home after as little as 10 weeks, and frequently are not around for the production process at all, he said.

This has an interesting parallel to the editing world I'm in. I started off as an assistant editor on music videos in the early 2000s. I digitized all the footage, sunc it up, and organized it how the editor wanted it. Then I worked directly with the editors and made final changes when they started their next one so I was "quickly" able learn, prove my worth, and get moved up to full time editor.

Now assistant editors serve solely a technical role (at least in unscripted) and are off elsewhere and don't work with the editors at all. This problem had been exacerbated since the pandemic as most of post is still remote and they definitely aren't working with editors now. I've been editing remotely since January 2000.

Anyways rant off.... Back to the topic at hand.

Are any of you affected be the strike? Do you know anyone who is taking part?

 

[Chris W]

@alanray are you on strike?

 

[alanray]

@alanray are you on strike?

I'm not in deep enough yet to be apart of the strike, but my sentiments are surely with my writing brothers and sisters in arms

 

[Chris W]

Yeah I hope it works out. Definitely sounds like there needs to be some changes.

How about you @Septopus7 ?

 

[alanray]

Yeah I hope it works out. Definitely sounds like there needs to be some changes.

How about you @Septopus7 ?

Yes for sure.