Outside Hollywood Studios, Writers make their case

The Writers Guild of America vs. the WGA: What is going on in the writers’ room? Analysis of the 2018-2019 WGA Strikes

Writers and production companies are grappling with how to reconcile drastically different ideas of how the media business should handle streaming platforms. It’s a new version of their perennial disagreement over residual payments — the money that writers get when their material is reused. New players are involved in the strike compared to the last one.

The last WGA strike in 2007 and 2008 lasted 100 days and was credited with tipping California into a recession, causing a loss of around $2.1 billion to the state’s economy.

Shows like Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon will be the first affected and are expected to immediately stop production. Other TV shows like scripted dramas or soap operas are also expected to be impacted, either cutting production short (and thereby reducing the number of episodes per season) or halting entirely. If the strikes go on for a long time, the movie industry could be affected, even though studios, networks, and producers have raised production levels in preparation for this outcome.

She said it’s common for studios to use this tactic when trying to create script for a six- or 8-episode season. That’s led to claims that writers are being treated as gig workers: Rather than joining a show for what could be a successful and lucrative run, writers in a mini room commonly earn union-guaranteed minimum rates for short assignments.

The union’s demands include increasing minimum wage rates and residuals payments, addressing the “abuses of mini-rooms,” and increased contributions to the union’s health and pension plan. Ensuring that artificial intelligence cannot be used to rewrite work already done by human writers is one of the demands of the Writers Guild of America.

The statement provided by the AMPTP said that it had offered generous increases in compensation and that they were willing to improve that offer. Even though it was unwilling to compromise on these demands, it did agree to have companies staff shows with writers even if they aren’t needed.

The AMPTP and theWGA have been at odds over contracts for a while. The last full-fledged contract negotiations took place in 2017, reaching a tentative agreement minutes after the previous contract expiration deadline had passed. The covid pandemic then made it difficult for both sides to negotiate terms for the following three-year contract agreement in 2020.

By many accounts, the TV and film industry is overdue for a reckoning, after the pandemic made the 2020 contract bargaining season a dud. That prevented writers and their employers, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, from reaching new agreements on emerging technology and business practices.

“Nobody cared if you went on strike in spring of 2020. It just didn’t matter, because nobody was working anyway,” Kate Fortmueller, an assistant professor of entertainment and media studies at the University of Georgia, told NPR.

On the Scenes of the Netflix Era and the Impact of the Streaming Companies on the Writers’ Role in the Entertainment Industry

We have not seen them in these negotiations in the past. “So I believe that is not a wild card and it does change some of the stakes.”

She said that video game companies have the same key characteristics as streaming companies and that their labor conditions and standards differ from Hollywood’s.

There are fewer writers employed in “mini rooms” where the number is less than in a traditional room. Where some rooms traditionally employed around seven writers (or more than twice that, for some series), mini rooms get by with a handful of them, on a short-term basis.

“Effectively they’re creating shows, albeit shortened-season shows, for a fraction of the price,” Fortmueller said. She said that the streaming companies are not paying writers more over a longer period of time.

“I’m doing absolutely all of the work that I would do in a full writers room, and I’m paid a fraction of my normal quote,” one writer recently told Indie Wire.

The strike was the scene of the crime, with some writers describing the company as the scene of the crime. That is because Netflix popularized and, in some cases, pioneered streaming-era practices that writers say have made their profession an unsustainable one — a job that had always been unstable, dependent on audience tastes and the whims of revolving sets of network executives, has become much more so.

She said it was probably better for her to invest her time in shows that had better working conditions that are helping keep people employed. But when people reach decision fatigue, she added, “the lure of the minimal commitment is pretty strong.”

The Biggest Loser and Project Runway are examples of new reality TV shows that are defined as “real” shows. In 2020 people again went toreality and watched Tiger King.

“As far as the impact is concerned, I’m not quite sure that it will be very strong in terms of what we’re seeing,” Fortmueller said. She says the spring and summer are not the strongest seasons for TV because there are streaming platforms that have content from international markets.

“If they want to continue to grow their business, they’re going to need to find a better way to attract new subscribers with new shows.” So ultimately, it can only last so long before it starts to hurt them.”

They had similar scenes in the entertainment capital. Surrounded by more than 400 writers, a few supportive actors, including Rob Lowe, and holding picket flags with slogans like “Honk if you need words” and “Despicable You”, the Paramount Pictures writers gathered to wave pickets. Screenwriting titans like Damon Lindelof (“Watchmen,” “Lost”) and Jenny Lumet (“Rachel Getting Married,” “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”) marched outside Amazon Studios. A writer playing drums on empty buckets next to a sign that said “What we are asking for is a drop in the bucket” caused acrimony outside Walt Disney Studios.

“If you only get a 10-week job, which a lot of people now do, you really have to start looking for a new job on day one” said Alex Levy, who has written for Netflix shows like “Grace and Frankie.” I have not been able to get a writing job for months. My family has been willing to lend me money to pay my rent.