WGA authorizes strike with 96% vote | tentative agreement reached at 1am PDT

[Barnack]

Just now, GiantCALBears said:

Why has business news been so quiet on this story? No one cares so far. The media stocks are doing great today. 

 

I would assume that the fact they would continue to renew the rights to declare a strike was already fully accounted by the market, it was 99% certain, the members support is really clear on it.

 

It was a continuation of the statue quo more than something new.

 

 

[GiantCALBears]

Just now, drdungbeetle said:

A lot of movies are already in the can. TV will be hit much harder. Also cord cutting is killing many of the networks that will be most affected, just at a slower rate than this will do.

Netflix is hitting an all time high on massive volume today, rumors they are partnering with Baidu in China. Silly time to make a statement when there is so much other news right now. 

[grim22]

The WGA strike is a story about workers' rights, not how it'll screw up our binge-watching. Solidarity, entertainment critics/journalists.

— Sean T. Collins ? (@theseantcollins) April 21, 2017

[DAR]

Honestly I'm more concerned for the below the line workers.

[Nova]

You know what bothers me about all of this and I'm probably nitpicking but the way this is all written about is what bothers me. It paints the writers in a bad light. If the media is covering it, a headline reads "HOLLYWOOD WRITERS ON STRIKE!" And then the average joe is just like well why the hell are they striking! They make a ton of money anyways because they're in Hollywood (they don't but the average joe doesn't know that).

 

I know it's easiest to get clicks that way but most folks just read the headline and then complain about how the writers are ruining their entertainment. But that's not the case. I actually had to explain this to a fellow classmate of mine today who began complaining to me that the writers were striking again which means we are getting shitty reality shows and awful movies blah blah blah....and I know he's not the only one who thinks this way. 

 

I know some media outlets do a good job of explaining what's going on but most of them just put the strike headline and then go on to talk about how this strike effects the entertainment industry. It's really disheartening to me. But again maybe im

just nitpicking over something stupid. 

Edited April 25, 2017 by Nova

[Cookson]

3 hours ago, NoobSaibot said:

I'm just worried about muh Godziller.

 

It's been pushed back once already. I don't want to wait until 2020 to see Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Rodan, and Mothra on the big screen. But I don't even know if the script for Godzilla: King of the Monsters is even finished. Dougherty has been tight-lipped.

If a line isn't working while filming, Dougherty could just say "try this instead" instead of writing it down. Honestly I think GKOTM could be one of the safer ones.

[4815162342]

1 minute ago, Cookson said:

If a line isn't working while filming, Dougherty could just say "try this instead" instead of writing it down. Honestly I think GKOTM could be one of the safer ones.

 

Actually he can't even do that. During Star Trek 09's filming while the strike was going on, when a line wasn't working neither JJ, nor Lindleof (as a producer) etc could really do anything other than kinda meekly nod if the actors experimented with alternate lines and one eventually worked

[JonathanLB]

20 hours ago, Tele Came Back said:

 

No idea.  

 

 

 

Yes, it could be as simple as having to rewrite for a location. You can't.

 

Thats exactly what happened on my movie. We lost a location and there was no way to make the schedule without basically rewriting two scenes, because I needed key plot details to occur now in another scene, not the originally scripted one for which we lost the location. So during lunch (!) I had to skip eating and I had 30 minutes to rewrite this section. Somehow I came up with exactly what I wanted and it not only worked but in my opinion made for a thriftier, leaner section of the film. 

 

Little instances like that and yes definitely movies aren't finished scripting even when they are shooting. Things change during production. 

[DeeCee]

The studios are just biding their time.

 

https://arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2017/04/an-ai-wrote-all-of-david-hasselhoffs-lines-in-this-demented-short-film/

[Mojoguy]

QoS was badly affected by the last strike, Daniel Craig and Marc Forester had to do unofficial rewrites as the script was nowhere near ready.

Daniel Craig thinking he can write a movie script... lol

[JonathanLB]

I do hope they can somehow work things out because I still lament the episodes of great TV shows we lost during the last strike :/ I remember being in Burbank at the time (our office was there) and we would pass the writers outside some of the studios every day on the way to work. Somehow it's kind of a funny visual to see writers holding up signs - maybe because the very movies they write usually show blue collar workers on strike outside of factories not white collar writers outside of studios  LOL

[NoobSaibot]

1 hour ago, DeeCee said:

The studios are just biding their time.

 

https://arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2017/04/an-ai-wrote-all-of-david-hasselhoffs-lines-in-this-demented-short-film/

 

Yeah, as the years go by, more things are going to be computerized. Legal documents can be written by an A.I., so dialogue is not far from that category.

[Plain Old Tele]

9 hours ago, NoobSaibot said:

 

Yeah, as the years go by, more things are going to be computerized. Legal documents can be written by an A.I., so dialogue is not far from that category.

 

I don't think this is true at all, until/unless we reach a point where we have essentially compatible/co-dependent AI/human societies. There's an incredible amount of nuance and difference between a legal document and something that's supposed to feel like dialogue spoken off-the-cuff by a human being. 

 

And this puts aside the point that there's way, way more to screenwriting than typing up dialogue. 

[Goffe]

22 hours ago, cannastop said:

The strike doesn't affect WDAS, so I guess I'm OK with that.

you wouldn't be ok with it if they did? 

[Captain Craig]

I hope the strike lasts at least 6months. 

I'm way behind on completed shows that I might just find time to catch up on some of them. 

[Plain Old Tele]

49 minutes ago, Captain Craig said:

I hope the strike lasts at least 6months. 

I'm way behind on completed shows that I might just find time to catch up on some of them. 

 

Brutal, man. If that happens people like me are pretty much fucked.

[Nova]

Yes let's hope the strike lasts half a year just so I can catch up on my entertainment. Who cares about the people who will be out of work for that time....all that matters is  me. 

[Captain Craig]

17 minutes ago, Tele Came Back said:

 

Brutal, man. If that happens people like me are pretty much fucked.

I guess an emoji would've helped. 

I'm having a baby, I'm never getting catchup time. 

#toungeincheek

[BadAtGender]

22 hours ago, Nova said:

You know what bothers me about all of this and I'm probably nitpicking but the way this is all written about is what bothers me. It paints the writers in a bad light. If the media is covering it, a headline reads "HOLLYWOOD WRITERS ON STRIKE!" And then the average joe is just like well why the hell are they striking! They make a ton of money anyways because they're in Hollywood (they don't but the average joe doesn't know that).

 

I know it's easiest to get clicks that way but most folks just read the headline and then complain about how the writers are ruining their entertainment. But that's not the case. I actually had to explain this to a fellow classmate of mine today who began complaining to me that the writers were striking again which means we are getting shitty reality shows and awful movies blah blah blah....and I know he's not the only one who thinks this way. 

 

I know some media outlets do a good job of explaining what's going on but most of them just put the strike headline and then go on to talk about how this strike effects the entertainment industry. It's really disheartening to me. But again maybe im

just nitpicking over something stupid. 

 

That pretty much happened last time around. I had a debate with a former roommate, who has some personal connection to people in Hollywood, who said something to the effect of "if the writers are striking, so many other people are going to be hurt." And while that's essentially true, it pins the blame on the wrong party.

 

It's mostly because while writers are often essentially to creating a "good" product, they aren't seen as essential to creating a product, period. Unlike actors or directors, they're seen as a nice addition, but hardly necessary, to the movie business. This creates a view that writers getting paid is already nice, regardless of whether they're getting paid equitably. And even if it's viewed as necessary, it's seen as this distant and distinct part of the process: the writer puts together a script, and then their part (and the process of writing) is done.

 

It's ludicrous, though. So many productions, especially blockbuster productions, have this very involved, hands-on take on writing, where it happens in tandem with the directing, acting, and editing to create the product you have as a whole. If you remember the stories about Elliott and Rossio being on set for the later PotC films, that's because of this process. The MCU movies are probably almost entirely this. (How far have they strayed from the days of IM1, which may not have had anything resembling a completed script when they started shooting.)

 

The writers understand that there's a dialogue. They know they're integral to the process of movies (and critical to the process of scripted TV). However, the studios have the much stronger hand. They not only control most of the board, they also have a more powerful voice in shaping the narrative about how movies are made. Every script that's published with an indication that it was what was submitted before cameras started rolling and not assembled after the fact to try and mirror the edited, released version of the film, does the writers a disservice. What a writer initially submits (after possibly many, many drafts) may not be as good as that final script, but it's a more honest portrayal of the process and will give a better understanding of how the writer is critically involved.

 

The studios have the money, and the power. They could acknowledge the importance of all the creative people involved in the process of making a movie or show, by equitably paying those people what they deserve. We don't get that, though. Instead we get "those greedy writers".

 

To pull something I've seen said about sports: in the argument between millionaires and billionaires, it's probably not going to affect me either way, but I'll ultimately side with the millionaires.

[Plain Old Tele]

^^ Also, despite the numbers getting thrown around, most writers aren't millionaires or anywhere close to it. At a guess, probably a majority of them barely scrape by.