#writer's guild of america

[gingerswagfreckles]

Hey y'all. With the Writer's Guild of America on strike, you might be hearing a lot more about something called "residuals," which are payments that the writers get for the studios continuing to air their work on reruns and such. Already I'm seeing people trying to frame the union trying to bargain for better residuals as greedy and unreasonable, so I just wanted to give you guys a peek into my dad's full, 100% real residual payments for writing some of the most watched episodes of American late night television.

Yeah lol. If u hear anyone trying to frame the conversation around residuals as writers being greedy, please do me a favor and punch them straight in the face ❤️🙃🙃

[aquitainequeen]

Thoughts from David Slack on 'AI' and copyright

(the voice theft in particular is really depressing)

[savagegood]

Reader, it has happened already. Less than a month after it debuted, the Black Mirror episode Joan Is Awful has already become the unlikely figurehead of the strike. It's the story of a woman who, at the end of each day, realises with horror that her actions have been folded into a Dropout-style biographical drama, where all her bad traits and regrettable decisions are played out onscreen by Salma Hayek. Except, as the episode goes along, we learn that it isn’t Hayek at all; it’s an AI-generated likeness of Hayek, commissioned by unethical executives working for a monolithic streaming platform. It couldn’t be more timely. A sticking point of the Sag-Aftra strike is the potential that AI could soon render all screen actors obsolete. Chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland laid bare the AMPTP’s so-called “groundbreaking AI proposal,” which holds the potential to wipe out an entire pathway to breaking into the industry, as well as a reliable source of income for many. The reported proposal hinged on the ability for background actors to be “scanned, get paid for one day’s pay” and for that company to “own that scan of their image, their likeness, and to be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation.” It’s a similar line to the one currently taken by the striking WGA writers. Eventually, they claim, technology will advance enough to make an AI-generated script that is indistinguishable from one created by a human. These scripts would be cheap and instant, and – even though they’re essentially composite jobs, made by scraping existing scripts – they would immediately put an entire profession out of work.

fellas, we're really in it (a black mirror episode) now

[tittiedshrek]

For those worried about their favorite TV shows and if they would continue or not, while I completely understand your concern, do you know what you would continue to get if the WAG weren't striking right now? All of your favorite TV shows continue to get canceled after its first season cliffhanger to avoid paying residuals. Getting invested into a good show, but having it get canceled on a cliffhanger - leaving you with a hollow conclusion and a feeling that you wasted your time. Having to advertise, beg, and plead streaming services to renew your favorite shows. Spending all of your time making fanart, writing fanfic, creating AUs, and sharing gifs to promote your favorite show in order to find out that Netflix deemed it not popular enough for it to be renewed and canceling it due to pure corporate greed. I have spent the last two years seeing Netflix and everyone else do everything in their power just to avoid paying their writers anything above starving wages, and seeing all of my favorite shows suffer as a direct result of that. I have seen so many fandoms grow and then completely flatline the very moment it's officially confirmed that it's canceled. I know people who don't watch new content at all, or they wait until the entire show is available and concluded in full, specifically because the future of media in streaming services is so uncertain.

Your favorite TV shows were already facing a bleak and dark future before the strike. Don't believe the big studios when they say that the strike would cancel or delay your favorite shows. We got here in the first place because they were more than willing to kill good art in order to actively screw over writers.

[dynared]

Hot Strike Summer rolls on as the WGA rejects the latest APTMP offer as insufficient.

This is particularly notable with Labor Day approaching, which in addition to being a bad look for the studios to force their employees to picket during, has also been cited as a crisis point in timing. Not only is that the last day most studios believe they can start to write fall programming and have any shot at salvaging the fall network television season (AKA look forward to a lot of unscripted programming, pro wrestling, and sports), but it's also the day according to many trade paper articles that studios and streamers will feel like they have the green light to cancel a lot of bubble programming that may have survived to Season 2 thanks to studio politics and outside optics but that aren't financially desirable.

More cynical analysts have alleged this may have been the goal for streamers from the start, to have the green light to cancel projects with bloated budgets and low returns, but they didn't want to take the heat on canceling a show from a big-time producer or go full in on canceling female-led or LBGTQ+ led programming.

The next two weeks will be very interesting for all involved.

[nerdyvocals]

A word of advice in the coming days:

Given the amount of outrage that is pouring out toward Paramount at this time, in addition to people cancelling their subscriptions left and right, they will probably release a statement in the next few days to try and do damage control. I would put money on them blaming the writer’s strike.

Do not let them fool you. Do not let them redirect your rage. More than likely, the cancellation would have happened regardless and the strike will be used as the scapegoat.

The strike is not the villain here. The strike is not the reason of the cancellation. Do not let them convince you otherwise. It is possible for shows to get renewed AND for people to get paid fairly. It is necessary for people to be paid fairly if you want to continue to get good content.

Direct your hate and outrage where it matters: To the rich white people who only care about fattening their wallets, not about art, or stories, or the people who make them happen.

[tenpixelsusie]

jesus fucking christ

[unhinged-jackles]

fate or destiny or whatever

[werewolf-cuddles]

It's okay to be disappointed that something you were looking forward to has been delayed because of the WGA & SAG-AFTRA union strikes.

But your anger should be directed not at the unions, but at the companies they've walked out on. If the studios had just met their demands in the first place, this strike would not be necessary.

And here's the thing; they want you to blame the strikers. If you bitch and moan about the strikes delaying Deadpool 3 or The Boys season 4 or whatever it is you were excited about, then congratulations, you're playing right into corporate hands.

Be patient. Your entertainment can wait.

And remember, strikes are supposed to be disruptive.

[thena0315]

2007-2008 WGA Strike lasted 3 months and 8 days

November 5, 2007 – February 12, 2008

2023 WGA Strike lasted for for 4 Months and 23 days

May 2, 2023 - September 24, 2023

[gingerswagfreckles]

This is so funny lol. Get fucked.

[aquitainequeen]

Speak it, friend!!!

PAY YOUR WRITERS. DO THE WRITE THING.

[aficionadoenthusiast]

tv companies asking for public support against the strike as if I don't have dvds going back to the 1970s and enough fanfiction to last me into the 2070s

[z34l0t]

[sergeant-spoons]

Writers Support Writers

If you are an American writer of any kind - any kind, including fanfiction - and you don’t support the WGA’s strike, you need to take a step back and evaluate your status as a writer. Writers must support other writers. Without unions like the WGA, we’d have no protection as creators, no ownership over our ideas and our talents and our intellectual properties. We wouldn’t be able to make a living as writers—and many still can’t, which is why the WGA has gone on strike.

Here are a few informative articles I’ve read on the subject since the strike began:

https://www.vox.com/culture/23696617/writers-strike-wga-2023-explained-residuals-streaming-ai

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-05-01/hollywood-writers-strike-after-talks-over-pay-conditions-in-streaming-age-fail

https://apnews.com/article/writers-strike-hollywood-wga-926179281803e10b1d501dcab93e305d

(Vet these sources at your own discretion - I’ve personally found the Vox article to be the most descriptive and in-depth without getting too technical).

WRITERS MUST SUPPORT OTHER WRITERS.

If we don’t, the kind of future we’re looking at is a world where writers are heavily and unapologetically devalued within and beyond the Hollywood industry—

And that’s not a world any writer should ever want to see.

[nerdygirlreviews]

Hey all... hat-in-hands moment... I am so sorry for not posting anything about the break I've been on... but sadly I'm still figuring out how to navigate this podcast with the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes still ongoing... the long and short of it is, I'm no longer going to be putting out the content I've been putting out. I hope to get back to it soon. But until the writers and actors are given what they deserve, I have to stand in solidarity with them for a number of reasons... I hope this short listen provides some answers and solace.