#bc all of their scenes filmed for the s5 opener could presumably already be filmed...

[chirpsythismorning]

hi some twitter users are saying that the pre-production of st will start in late october :( we have to wait for so long…

Interesting...

Regardless of whether this is true or not, this is a possiblity. I'm like 50/50 rn, considering Netflix said they had 6 months of backlog at least, they’re presumably willing to hold out that far on their end at least.

Although even still, I have been cautiously hoping that the writers could reach a fair deal with the studios sometime in late July/August, but that’s still a best case scenario rn.

It’s possible the strike could end sooner than October, as nothing is set in stone obviously, beyond Twitter speculation.

The reality is, the writers have no intention of dropping all of their demands anytime soon if it means returning to work without any changes. That would make the strike thus far pointless. With how far they’ve come, it only makes sense to keep going and see it through until they get something fair out of it. And that could mean holding out for longer than any of us want.

It’s probably not sustainable for ALL writers across the board to strike for 6+ months, without pay, nor do I think the studios would be willing to have production halted for over half a year and potentially beyond that. This is why late October has always been a possibility, bc that is the 6 month mark. I think by then not only would writers be ready to make some sort of deal, but the studios would also be desperate presumably by that point, so hopefully by then they would be willing to get closer to meeting their demands so that writers can get back to work and do what they love.

If ST5 didn’t start filming until late Oct this year, that would mean filming would go until Oct 2024. This is because it was already stated by multiple sources that filming for s5 was originally going to be from June 2023-June 2024 before the strike, so a year of filming was already in the cards.

I know most fans hear one year of filming and freak out, without understanding what warrants that much time for filming in this case. This does not mean one full year of nonstop filming for every actor. It means that the massive cast will have to plan a schedule that allows their availability to align with the other actors, so that they can accommodate and make production go a lot smoother, throughout a whole 12 month period.

For example, while the Duffer’s did say Amybeth (Vickie) would play a major role in events to come, and so she will presumably have more scenes in s5 than she did in s4, that doesn’t mean she’ll have anywhere close to as much screen-time as someone like Millie. This means that Amybeth won’t need to be on set near as much as the main cast. All it means is that she needs to be available when the other top billed cast is available, specifically whoever she is slated to have scenes with. It costs money to house an actor for days, weeks, months at a time so that they can be near the production location(s). Someone like Amybeth who is based in London, is obviously not going to be in Atlanta the entire run of filming. From what I recall, when filming for s4 Amybeth was only in Georgia for like 2 weeks, and I’m guessing that she was only filming for half of that time.

It makes sense that the top billed cast, who needs to film the most, gets first priority, and as it goes down the line, the actors with less screentime are going to be working around that, also assuming they have much more open schedules because they're also not as high in demand as the top billed cast.

In a perfect world, if everyone in the cast was available at a moments notice, maybe they could film s5 in about 8 months. But adding another 4 months to sort of make up for holidays and other contractual obligations, like cons or any other filming/work priorities, makes up for all of those short and maybe even large breaks in between for certain cast members for various reasons. There's people like David, who has said he was going to have to film Thunderbolts simultaneously while filming ST5. So there we have the second top billed actor needing to make his schedule align in that regard. Then there's Noah who attends Penn during the school year, and while I think it's likely he was probably planning on taking classes online this next upcoming year, it's also possible they were making a point to rush him to start filming s5 as soon as possible so that maybe he could have more time off set later on (hence why he might have been one of the few to start in May).

All of those schedules need to overlap based on who has screentime together basically.

So while I'm not a Finn and Noah were 100% going to start filming in May truther, I don't think the arguments against it were all necessarily based in the reality of the magic of film.

The beauty of film, is that it makes its own rules. You you could literally have actors who are in the same scenes, not filming on the same day, in the case they’re not in the frame at the same time.

One example of this from Stranger Things is the reunion for Mike and El at the end of s2. The Duffers made a joke that they 'ran out of Finn time', meaning that he was unavailable to do those scenes when the time came, which meant they had to wait. But then Millie insisted they do it anyways because she was available.

Not to mention, again, you don’t need every actor available 24/7 to film, which is why Finn and Noah in particular filming in May, as they both said multiple times they would have started then, was entirely possible. They could have scenes together or on their own with no other actors, and it could have taken like 2 weeks to complete them, right in time for June when some of the other actors availability opened so they could then join the mix.

I just remember Redditors specifically getting all up and arms like it wasn’t possible for Finn and Noah to start in May bc certain other actors weren’t available, but that’s not how it works always. I mean, even with filming starting in June, Sadie was always going to be unavailable to film ST during that time bc she was going to be out of the country filming for a different project until July. That doesn’t mean the actors that are available couldn’t film some scenes that they have together and that don’t include her.

I think those fans just got upset bc the possibility of Finn and Noah filming on their own for a week or two, might mean they have multiple scenes alone with no one else, and that terrified them. It’s funny though, bc I’m certain that if Millie and Finn were said to start in May before the others, it would have been quite easy for them to consider the reality of what that meant, being that they presumably had multiple scenes alone together. But in this case, they weren’t willing to even consider it.

Basically filming is complex and to think that it should be done all at once with everyone present is not realistic.

So while I know the 1 year timeframe is daunting to many, know that it's for good reason. Actors don't need to be overworked, nor do those invovled BTL making it happen. The production value from s1-s5 is just not even in the same wheelhouse, so using past metrics from past seasons as to why s5 will be faster to film is not based in what is actually most likely to occur because of so many different factors that are out of anyones control rn (some factors however are...Netflix... PAY YOUR WRITERS!).

There is a light at the end of the tunnel with this news though, believe it or not.

With the strike going on, many fans have accepted that Summer 2025 is the most likely scenario right now. This means that even if filming takes a year after Oct, that puts us at filming ending and post-production officially starting in Oct 2024, which is the same time roughly that s4 filming ended (Sept 2021). And in that case they managed to have s4 premiere the following year with Vol 1 in May and Vol 2 in July.

So even with filming not starting until late October, we're still likely looking at ST5 premiering in summer 2025, maybe with a June/August release if it's two volumes. Or maybe just July/August with one season on it's own.

Right now, I think it would be wise of fans to think about what they want to be doing long-term. In the case that filming doesn't start until October, what do you want to be doing in the meantime while you wait?

You do not have to be here if you don't want to be. Fandom shouldn’t be an obligation. Take a break.! I know I should... But I don't want to, so... yeah.

ALSO I think that realistically, with the strike going on, there could be some stuff we as fans could focus on highlighting in that regard. I know we're not very united or anything, but I've seen fandoms like LOTR and OFMD and even more recently Julie and the Phantoms coming together to fundraise and support the strike. For those that don't know, Julie and the Phantoms literally got cancelled after like one season... So the fact that they're out here supporting writers while the ST fandom, with one of the biggest audiences in the world, is mostly silent beyond acknowledging the strike happening, is sort of embarrassing...

Now this is NOT me saying that each of us as individuals is bad or anything, we're all just existing and I do think that accepting whats going on as this sort of reality has been our way of coping with something we feel like we can't impact at all. And again, we're not very united, which I think is important if you want to see an impact at the scale we are capable of, but are not able to achieve for obvious reasons.

Still I at least wanted to throw this out there, that if we know we're going to be here for a while, might as well make the best of it and support the writers, so that when they do come back it will be a feeling of like relief and excitement to return to writing these characters and their endings, as opposed to like just disappointment from the literal biggest fandom in the world being mostly silent about it.

To be fair, the writers themselves have been very cryptic about it compared to other writers from other series. Of the two pictures we've got from them, they did not show their faces. We have not seen any of them at the picket lines, which is something that I think if they did do it would actually get fans hyped up enough to do something more substantial. I know it's complex, but it is sort of a confusing situation right now, with how they're handling it and how they presumably would like for us to handle it.

In the mean time, I'm just going to go with the flow and accept everything as it comes to us.