#SAG AFRA

[bylertruth3r]

bringing this back, there were 2 byler signs, Kate Trefry, a st writer wrote the first one and took a pic of it and then a man (who I'm assuming is a st writer) made the other byler sign

Kate liked a byler almost kiss art

[daniegraceg]

I paused Pedro's interview and this was what stayed on the screen 🤣🤣🤣

[guelyury]

Pedro Pascal waking up last night to the phone call from Ridley Scott.

[dgct2]

"We'll have what they're having."

[trayzen-the-infinite]

Ultimately the reason why I don’t support the writers strike is just because the whole thing feels greedy and self entitled and I mean on both ends, yeah Hollywood won’t give writers more money and would gladly let them starve but also those writers really don’t need that money. Do you realize how much Hollywood writers make? It’s more than I could make in a lifetime, more than most of you could make. The issues with streaming services should be addressed but that’s only one of the very small, barely a handful of issues. Sure the CEO gets paid much higher margins and yes we should talk about that as well, no one needs that much money. The Writers could easily live off of what they make extremely comfortably but the ones saying they can’t are saying it because they want to live beyond their means. In short the rich want to be richer. It’s rich elites fighting rich elites because both of them want to get richer at everyone else’s expense.

Meanwhile Teachers in America are quitting in droves. We’re in a shortage of teachers because many are quitting because of politicians and activists keep insisting on interfering with classes, the government refuses to pay them a living wage and schools aren’t being properly funded. Some states are already resorting to hiring students training to become teachers and paying their tuition to become qualified teachers while doing the job of qualified teachers. WE’RE HIRING UNQUALIFIED TEACHERS WHO HAVEN’T EVEN GRADUATED THEMSELVES TO TEACHER OUR CHILDREN!! In short being a teacher in America isn’t worth it because it means living in poverty while having political activists and politicians breathing down your neck. They should be the ones striking and they’re the ones that should be supported. Yet everyone is whining and complaining about entitled writers who haven’t produced a single good product in years and contribute nothing to society.

[ahhvernin]

Legitimate question. How do workers on strike pay their bills???

Most strikes happen due to poor work conditions, bad contracts, bad salary. If salary is already a stressor, and folks are already unable to make ends meet....How are they getting by when they are on strike? Like this generation is already constantly living paycheck to paycheck and most people don't have a savings. So... how are these folks getting by? Like, if they dont have savings, and they are not working, how are they getting funds to feed themselves? Is there like a general fund to make sure all these folks are able to eat and make rent?

Sure like I know some folks have part time gigs or working spouses, but what about those who rely on THIS job to survive? Are they allowed to get unemployment? What about their health benefits?????? Medications? Food? Rent? Overall bills??? I've never seen or read anything about how this logistic is ever addressed, and its been plaguing my mind ever since I was a kid and learned what a strike was and no person in my life has ever been able to answer this question. ESPECIALLY when some strikes go on for MONTHS.

[ultramaga]

Leftists: Haha, the peasants are losing their jobs to automation! Learn to code, morons!

Leftists: what? We are losing our jobs to automation?! Do they not realise that WE represent the common man?!!

[memingursa]

Wait hold on Tumblr girlies have been carrying that show on netflix for well over 10 years now and even the guy responsible for it hasn’t gotten a GOD DAMN DIME?????

[lg5]

It's crazy that these strikes are happening given that all the writers and actors are asking for is less than 0.3% of the revenue these studios make.

[gingerswagfreckles]

I spoke to my dad who's been on strike a few hours ago, and he said this is absolutely true. The studios were still hoping they could starve out the writers, and didn't expect the general public to be so strongly on the union's side still 5 months in.

He's lived through four WGA strikes, and he says the energy and solidarity he's seen both inside and outside the union has been far beyond what has ever been present before. The internet ate Drew Barrymore alive for scabbing, and within days the studios were back at the negotiating table giving in to almost every demand.

Thanks guys. This really was a team effort ❤️❤️ #eatthefuckingrich

[queerxqueen]

SAG AFTRA WON BABYYYY

[msclaritea]

"Movie lovers were supposed to breathe a sigh of relief last week when Warner Bros. Discovery announced the un-firing of Turner Classic Movies head programmer, Charles Tabesh. This move was in response to a deafening howl of outrage from a passionate community that, increasingly devoid of quality options at the multiplexes, cherishes the long-running cable channel as a vital outlet for intelligent, well-crafted adult fare from a time when cinema ruled the entertainment roost. It kinda did the trick. Knowing Tabesh, one of the most respected film programmers in the world, would still be around to complement beloved classics with the deepest of cinema cuts meant TCM wouldn't become the "Casablanca"-every-other-day channel.

WB Discovery also continued to hype the programming/curation input of Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson — which is a terrific PR win for embattled CEO David Zaslav but does little to move the needle outside of the industry. It's actually more heartening to know that creative oversight of TCM has shifted from Discovery veteran Kathleen Finch to Warner Bros. Pictures honchos Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy. You'd much rather have the genuine film buff who greenlit "Seven," "Boogie Nights" and "Magnolia" co-leading TCM than a reality-show-driven exec who lists "90 Day Fiancé" as one of her proudest artistic achievements.

But De Luca and Abdy are movie people tasked with restoring Warner Bros. Pictures to its former glory by making movies. They don't have time to manage TCM, nor does the Spielberg/Scorsese/PTA triumvirate. So if this group is genuinely committed to the survival of the cable network, and venerating the studio's vast, varied library, they've got one screamingly obvious option that'll allow cinephiles the world over to exhale.

A wolf in a movie buff's clothing

Warner Bros

If Zaslav is the classic film fan he repeatedly claims to be, he should be familiar with the observation, "It's no trick to make a lot of money, if all you want to do is make a lot of money." This saying applies to saving money as well.

Zaslav, who inherited a debt-ridden WarnerMedia when the company merged with his thriving Discovery, is currently in slash-and-burn mode to please shareholders and, perhaps, make the studio flippable somewhere in the near-ish future. Per his company's own PR, he's personally due nine-figure compensation if he more than doubles the company's stock price. So he's doing the easy part first: firing as many people as possible, and selling off assets (like half of its music, film and television catalogue).

It's filthy business, but Zaslav has his Hamptons reputation to worry about. Still, as ruthless as he promised to be when he seized control of WarnerMedia, he assured movie lovers that he was one of us. He valued WB's history. He fell in love with movies as a regular, middle-class kid growing up in Brooklyn, and dreamed of running a studio. He works from Jack Warner's desk in his office, where TCM is always playing in the background. He spoke at last April's TCM Classic Film Festival (alongside Spielberg and PTA), and assured the audience the channel's future was secure.

Prioritizing vanity projects

Warner Bros.

His first greenlight after the merger was to blow the dust off of Hamptons lunch-buddy Nicholas Pileggi's "Wise Guys," a gangster project that had been kicking around the studios since the early 1970s; attaching Barry Levinson as director (who hasn't made a commercially successful film since 1997's "Wag the Dog") puzzled several industry insiders with whom I've spoken. It was old Hollywood chumminess that reeked of rich white-guy back-slapping, and this was before Zaslav erased Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah's already finished "Batgirl" movie. Shot on an apparent $50 million budget, the film is in post-production, and has a slated release date of February 2, 2024, although that could always change.

So when Zaslav cleaned house in June by firing five of TCM's top execs, while slashing the staff from somewhere around 90 to around 20, cinephiles were furious. You don't need an MBA to know that a personnel cut that deep is meant to hobble, not sustain. Zaslav didn't care; however, his Hamptons buddy, Steven Spielberg, didn't appreciate being used as a rubber stamp at the TCM Fest. A Zoom call was arranged, which resulted in an empty press release assuring viewers that the three aforementioned filmmakers would mind the short-staffed store. When absolutely no one bought this, Tabesh was reinstalled as head programmer.

Zaslav must make TCM whole again

Warner Bros

Though I'm amused that Zaslav has turned Tabesh into a rock star amongst movie lovers, he is but one man. Tabesh can't do what he's done so brilliantly alone. He needs a team steeped in every facet of film history to help him track down and license those obscure titles that nourish our desire for, ironically, discovery. Basically, he needs everyone Finch and Zaslav axed.

On a practical, strictly corporate level, this should not happen. TCM is currently only available on cable (streaming-wise, no one associated with the channel has anything to do with that embarrassingly shallow hub on Max), and cable is speeding toward total obsolescence. Its 70% profit margin is evidently meaningless to Warner Bros Discovery. If Zaslav hadn't so shamelessly dampened Spielberg's backside over the years, TCM could've easily been shuttered last year.

According to a recent Hollywood Reporter article by Kim Masters, Zaslav underestimated the widespread industry love for TCM (even Ryan Reynolds leaped into the fray). But what jumped out to me in that piece is that he was most miffed that outsiders "were telling him how to run his business," which is not the sentiment of a chastened man. Indeed, that he's still holding firm on the decimation of TCM's staff — which, to give you a sense of the petty scope of this brouhaha, was hastened by a $3 million cut in the channel's budget — suggests that he's still determined to win this battle. And if that's all he wants, TCM is living on borrowed time.

You bought it, you honor it

Warner Bros

What's his endgame? My most charitable read is that he'd like to have a boutique outlet that flaunts his prestigious industry connections, e.g. Scorsese presents "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre." This is where the directors he supposedly worships need, as gently as possible, to remind him that in acquiring WB, he became a steward of Hollywood history. Name-dropping a handful of black-and-white movies as evidence of his love for classic cinema won't get it done. Sitting at Jack Warner's desk is the emptiest of gestures if you're disinterested in sharing his studio's output with the public.

TCM is small potatoes financially, but, as a reflection of the company's dedication to the art that made it what it is today, it's invaluable. You re-staff, eat that $3 million, and declare the channel off-limits. You run it at a (presumably minuscule) loss if need be. If Zaslav does this one, culturally good thing, and once he pays his writers what they're worth, his legacy might not be a disaster in the long term (though I know the short term is where his CEO ilk lives). He also might actually earn the love he seeks from the directors he purports to adore (which will make it so much easier for De Luca and Abdy to lure Christopher Nolan back into the fold, not to mention build out the studio's stable of top-tier filmmakers).

This isn't easy in our fiercely risk-averse age. Because while it's no trick to make a lot of money, it takes vision and fearlessness to make a lot of good movies. It is, however, financially feasible to show a lot of great movies 24/7 on TCM. 

Probably costs less than a summer of fine dining in the Hamptons — and, uh, which card are we using out there, David? Because that's an easy snip..."

Zaslav & Crew are deliberately killing 1000s of Hollywood jobs to hurt the economy and Zaslav gets rewarded with an Academy of Motion Pictures membership.

Academy officers[69]

President – Janet Yang

Vice president – Teri E. Dorman

Vice president / Secretary – Donna Gigliotti

Vice president – Lynette Howell Taylor

Vice president – Larry Karaszewski

Vice president / Treasurer – David Linde

Vice president – Isis Mussenden

Vice president – Kim Taylor-Coleman

Vice president – Wynn P. Thomas

Chief executive officer – Bill Kramer

Governors[69]

Actors Branch – Whoopi Goldberg, Marlee Matlin, Rita Wilson

Casting Directors Branch – Richard Hicks, Kim Taylor-Coleman, Debra Zane

Cinematographers Branch – Dion Beebe, Paul Cameron, Mandy Walker

Costume Designers Branch – Ruth E. Carter, Eduardo Castro, Isis Mussenden

Directors Branch – Susanne Bier, Ava DuVernay, Jason Reitman

Documentary Branch – Kate Amend, Chris Hegedus, Jean Tsien

Executives Branch – Pam Abdy, Donna Gigliotti, David Linde

Film Editors Branch – Nancy Richardson, Stephen E. Rivkin, Terilyn A. Shropshire

Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch – Howard Berger, Bill Corso, Linda Flowers

Marketing and Public Relations Branch – Megan Colligan, Laura Kim, Christina Kounelias

Music Branch – Lesley Barber, Charles Bernstein, Charles Fox

Producers Branch – Jason Blum, Lynette Howell Taylor, Jennifer Todd

Production Design Branch – Tom Duffield, Missy Parker, Wynn P. Thomas

Short Films and Feature Animation Branch – Bonnie Arnold, Jon Bloom, Marlon West

Sound Branch – Gary C. Bourgeois, Peter J. Devlin, Teri E. Dorman

Visual Effects Branch – Rob Bredow, Brooke Breton, Paul Debevec

Writers Branch – Larry Karaszewski, Howard A. Rodman, Eric Roth

Governors-at-large[29] (nominated by the President and elected by the board) – DeVon Franklin, Rodrigo García, Janet Yang

[misagenda]

[dgct2]

McDermott and his friend Dermot Mulroney briefly joked about how often they’re confused for one another while chatting with Deadline, before quickly pivoting to the serious issues at the center of the dual strike.

“Fair is fair and we have simple proposals that are being ignored right now, and it’s disturbing,” said Mulroney, who currently stars in Marvel’s Secret Invasion. “So, in an unprecedented show of unity between the actors and the writers…”

“…we came out together on this important topic because it’s time for wages to increase as well as residuals and to protect ourselves from AI,” added McDermott.

After reading the list of demands released by SAG-AFTRA and the responses from the AMPTP, McDermott said he didn’t think the actor’s union “was asking for that much.” Adding, “I was shocked, actually.”

“This whole thing’s based on the post-payment program is sort of poorly constructed to begin with,” said Dermot Mulroney. “We appreciate our union has tried so hard to keep track of people’s money all these decades, but it’s a very, broken system and it doesn’t apply to how much the industry has changed. We’re just trying to simply upgrade to newer standards in the industry.”

[trayzen-the-infinite]

My Hot Take on the Writers Strike

I’m going to get this off my chest because it’s been killing me and I’m seeing too much of one narrative go across my recommended. I’m known to be very blunt and will undoubtedly hurt feelings. For those who don’t want to read it and block me without reading do it now. For those who at least want to hear me out, thank you.

Most of the people in support of it just strike me as bootlickers. The Unions involved are all very abusive, manipulative and hypocritical. They’re in support of it because they tricked themselves into believing this will somehow hurt Hollywood and thus are willing to excuse absolutely anything no matter how horrible. They let big name celebrities continue to do work while barring small time members of the union to essentially starve. Tell influencers who aren’t even a part of the union what to do, as well of cosplayers, and will attack people who’re not part of the union and are just working on independent film by calling the Scabs, while allowing their own union members to do the same thing they attacked indies over. These unions aren’t good people, they’re running a Mafia style racket. You’re doing nothing but perpetuating the suffering of these poor Union members forced to do the bidding of the Union like slaves but you don’t care, because you’re sticking it to the corporations. Not remotely true by the way, they decided that if people don’t want to work for them then they can just automate the process and keep on trucking. The strike is just convincing them to replace writers and actors with machines. So congratulations, you’re solving nothing.

Another thing is that the reason why the general public doesn’t give a rats ass cheek about the strikes is because the actors all act like entitled brats, and writers like pompous royalty. They’ve released Bomb after bomb and whenever they bomb they immediately run to Social Media and insult both the actual viewers and random groups they don’t like as if they can bully people into liking it. When you want men to watch your movie, don’t insult them beforehand and say “it’s not for you” or “if you don’t like it then don’t watch it” because they’ll take you up on that offer, so don’t be surprised when no men show up to watch the movie.

On another note. Years back Lego did a study to understand how to better market to children. They would give kids some toys to play with and separate them between Boys and Girls. They would have the same toys to play with. With some minor outliers the conclusion was this: When Boys played with Batman toys they would stick to the canon, do the Batman voice, have him on adventures fighting crime, beating the Joker and even doing the Batman voice. When Girls were given those same toys, they did not do this. Batman would be a boyfriend or a husband, they’d do things Batman wasn’t known for or did at all. This carries over into general adulthood, Men care about action and Women care more about the Drama. Obviously theirs always outliers but this is the general trend. On YouTube or even TV when having things like building a Cabin in the middle of the woods the majority audience will be Men, their may be some women audience but it’s a male dominated interest. Women on the other hand devour stuff like Crime Drama and is a majority Female dominated program.

I say this because with all the shows being made now, the people making them are behaving like 5 year old Girls. They disregard canon, established Lore or characterization, Season 3 of Picard is beloved by Trekkies that actually stuck around because that’s the Star Trek the fans know. Picard up until that point was unrecognizable as a Star Trek. The Sequel Trilogy was hated by long time Star Wars fans befit spit in the face of Star Wars. Rey was uninteresting and too perfect, the story was nothing like a Star Wars story, and it disrespected the original characters that started the franchise. The removed everything that original fans loved about these properties and made it into something unrecognizable from its name. They keep doing this, hoping nostalgia and Brand Recognition will be enough to reel in old fans while not putting forth any effort to stay true to that brand.

THIS IS WHY ALMOST NO ONE CARES ABOUT THE STRIKE. Because the writers and Actors are entitled brats who forget that their audience pays their bills. If what they write isn’t successful then the company doesn’t make back its investment, if it doesn’t make back its investment it starts losing money, and if it does make money then the writers will stop seeing that cash. Now think back to every Box Office Bomb that blew MILLIONS OF DOLLARS for nearly a Decade Straight and then wonder why these Hollywood Corporations are unwilling to give raises.

Everything Must Add Up Or You’ll Be Subtracted From The Equation.

[misalpav]

j saw the percy jackson announcement which is great and I'm excited as hell but let's take a moment to recognize that disney is still not meeting the demands of its writers and actors!! a huge company like disney where the ceo makes ~$20mil/yr should be able to pay writers and actors, without whom disney would not exist at the scale it does today, a livable wage.

edit: I wanted to add for clarification: currently neither wga nor sag aftra are asking us to boycott the shows. since this show was made before the strike, you can and should watch it legally bc as ppl in the notes have said it gets the actors and writers their much needed royalties.