WGA/SAGAFTRA Strike Discussion Thread | SAG Ratifies Contract

[TMP]

19 minutes ago, ZattMurdock said:

While that seems to be true, I think it’s diverting of what they actually said here and they do have a great point there, exactly like @MysteryMovieMogulput it. I’m just kinda weirded out by TMP’s eugenics remark there because if it’s this:

 

It ain’t it. I can see the dude being an asshole, but come on now, this is a bit of a flourish to say the least, neither attacks the point that well, what he said on the post I’ve quoted is 100%. Everything else I learned about this dude now I learned against my will, like us Brazilians like to say lol. 

There's a lot of eugenics stuff he's said that you can find with google or a twitter search but a lot of it has nothing to do with the strikes so research on your own time i guess lol

[MysteryMovieMogul]

2 minutes ago, ListenHunnyUrOver said:

The issue is also AI and technology. With a few months of digitally scanned extras the need for new background actors would be diminished to almost zero. SAG wants a future where background actors can exist. 

They want a future where they still get paid. That's all. If their scans meant they could do more work and they got paid for all of it, they'd be open to AI. But the studios don't want to pay up for using scans, so AI is bad unless that were to change.

[ZattMurdock]

Just now, MysteryMovieMogul said:

Also, the de-aging tech used on Nick Fury, as well as the Skrull transformation sequences look remarkably high quality. Better than in Captain Marvel. But, I digress...

 

The Studios knew they would weaponize budgets, so they've been leaking the budgets of shows they know online communities are fighting about.

 

Want to know how much Stranger Things season 4 cost? $270 million. But I did a search on Twitter and no one is talking about it at all. No one is talking about Severance's budget either. Interesting, right?

Hence why I find so incredibly funny that the same people that claim to be "allies" to the work force going on strike are so happy to say that they should just recast people and cut budgets. Yes, Hollywood is a business, but this business that has delivered us Raiders of the Last Ark in the 80s wouldn’t be able to make the very same film without costing $300m either today, unless you want them to make all the on location shots via Volume or green screen. 
 

The Hollywood CEOs would happily recast and cut costs to anything but their bonuses, meanwhile the people that play Fantasy League Hollywood solution to Hollywood’s problems is just make mid budget films and hope people will come, like people can’t get insane budgeted shows and films from streaming that curiously almost no one talks about. Movie theaters are now for the spectacle. Not all the films will succeed, but that’s part of the business. Discussing all this shit is pointless when I’m pretty sure that the subscription number for both Netflix and Disney+ keeps growing, and that’s a recurring source of profit, way more reliable than people deciding if they are going to a movie theater or not.

[MysteryMovieMogul]

13 minutes ago, ZattMurdock said:

Hence why I find so incredibly funny that the same people that claim to be "allies" to the work force going on strike are so happy to say that they should just recast people and cut budgets. Yes, Hollywood is a business, but this business that has delivered us Raiders of the Last Ark in the 80s wouldn’t be able to make the very same film without costing $300m either today, unless you want them to make all the on location shots via Volume or green screen. 
 

The Hollywood CEOs would happily recast and cut costs to anything but their bonuses, meanwhile the people that play Fantasy League Hollywood solution to Hollywood’s problems is just make mid budget films and hope people will come, like people can’t get insane budgeted shows and films from streaming that curiously almost no one talks about. Movie theaters are now for the spectacle. Not all the films will succeed, but that’s part of the business. Discussing all this shit is pointless when I’m pretty sure that the subscription number for both Netflix and Disney+ keeps growing, and that’s a recurring source of profit, way more reliable than people deciding if they are going to a movie theater or not.

It's also telling how folks like Sean Gunn aren't complaining about how much they're being paid for roles they're cast in. They're discussing residuals. For old shows. That historically they would have been paid better for had their shows been aired on Network television. They don't want lower budgets; they want their deserved piece of the pie.

[ZattMurdock]

3 minutes ago, MysteryMovieMogul said:

It's also telling how folks like Sean Gunn aren't complaining about how much they're being paid for roles they're cast in. They're discussing residuals. For old shows. That historically they would have been paid better for had their shows been aired on Network television. They don't want lower budgets; they want their deserved piece of the pie.

Bingo.

[DInky]

I guess I've completely missed the discussion (I'm not very active on social media) where people suggest that the way to solve these strikes is to lower production budgets. That's not at all what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that in some cases the high budgets are a symptom of the industry not valuing the screenwriters and the script writing process which causes issues later down the line.

 

Secondly, production budgets and big name actors' salaries have always been reported on, there's nothing new about that. And of course the budgets of super-expensive TV series get reported on more often because those stories get more eyeballs.

[Water Bottle]

7 minutes ago, DInky said:

I guess I've completely missed the discussion (I'm not very active on social media) where people suggest that the way to solve these strikes is to lower production budgets. That's not at all what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that in some cases the high budgets are a symptom of the industry not valuing the screenwriters and the script writing process which causes issues later down the line.

 

Secondly, production budgets and big name actors' salaries have always been reported on, there's nothing new about that. And of course the budgets of super-expensive TV series get reported on more often because those stories get more eyeballs.

 

Production budgets are reported on but they are usually guesses and I would take them with a grain of salt.

[ZattMurdock]

1 minute ago, DInky said:

I guess I've completely missed the discussion (I'm not very active on social media) where people suggest that the way to solve these strikes is to lower production budgets. That's not at all what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that in some cases the high budgets are a symptom of the industry not valuing the screenwriters and the script writing process which causes issues later down the line.

 

Secondly, production budgets and big name actors' salaries have always been reported on, there's nothing new about that. And of course the budgets of super-expensive TV series get reported on more often because those stories get more eyeballs.

I wasn’t talking about you, but I think the gist of the point we are making here that while yes, big budgets and big salaries are always reported on, there is a part of the fandom that keeps trying to find a solution to Hollywood’s problems by cutting down costs, recasting and just making smaller budget projects.

 

The problem with that thinking is that while people that say this want to find a solution for films that don’t well at the box office, Netflix is out there spending insane budgets on films and series that while they don’t get a theatrical release, do get the audience’s attention and compete for the collective mind share of films released at the big screen. Hollywood is about gambling money on risky expensive projects, yes, and I’d argue that there is no putting the genie back in the bottle here. If the studios don’t invest big on spectacle, Netflix will provide spectacle to the consumers at home. And absolutely NOTHING of this whole debacle has to do anything with the strike: the enemy here isn’t the big budgeted films and big pays for SLJ making Secret Invasion or not. It’s that the people that work on all these projects want to be paid properly their residuals for the work they’ve done in these projects.

 

When our focus is on that instead of playing this fantasy league CEO game that is an issue across all online film discourse, we are losing sight that just like the work force striking now, we don’t really know about how many people watched anything of these shows. All we get is hit pieces and fandom wars shit that actually help the studios narrative that they can’t pay these people because no money it’s been made out of them. It’s not a problem just with Secret Invasion, it’s a problem with Gilmore Girls, Orange is the New Black and literally every single show and film available on these platforms.

[Eric Prime]

 

[robertman2]

1 minute ago, Eric Stickell said:

 

Isn't there a rumor that Seth McFarlane did something like this for Family Guy and American Dad?

[ZattMurdock]

 

[WittyUsername]

What would it take for the AMPTP to throw their hands up and agree to a negotiation? 

[21C]

10 minutes ago, WittyUsername said:

What would it take for the AMPTP to throw their hands up and agree to a negotiation? 

It depends on what their exact plans are. If it's truly "let's starve out the unions and give them nothing", well, it'll either have to be them hurting in the stock market, or for the unions to actually hurt which would be very very bad. 

[Speedorito]

Barry Diller (the former head of ABC, Fox Broadcasting Company, and Paramount and current Chairman and Senior Executive, IAC and Expedia Group) says:

 

1) Strikes need to end by Sept. 1

2) AI fears are overhyped

3) Execs and highest-paid stars need to take 25% pay cuts as a show of good faith

4) Entire industry could collapse
 

https://deadline.com/2023/07/barry-diller-says-strikes-settlements-needed-by-sept-1-says-execs-and-stars-should-take-pay-cuts-1235439384/

[Jonwo]

The film and television industry collapsing is one of those things which isn't going to happen, people do realise that there is an industry beyond just Hollywood?

[Dementeleus]

 

[Water Bottle]

11 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said:

 

 

Remember also the WGA offered that clause as an easy gimme for the AMPTP. The WGA didn't actually think it was going to be an issue. 

[MysteryMovieMogul]

1 hour ago, Speedorito said:

Barry Diller (the former head of ABC, Fox Broadcasting Company, and Paramount and current Chairman and Senior Executive, IAC and Expedia Group) says:

 

1) Strikes need to end by Sept. 1

2) AI fears are overhyped

3) Execs and highest-paid stars need to take 25% pay cuts as a show of good faith

4) Entire industry could collapse
 

https://deadline.com/2023/07/barry-diller-says-strikes-settlements-needed-by-sept-1-says-execs-and-stars-should-take-pay-cuts-1235439384/

Execs need to take far more than a 25% pay cut.

[Jonwo]

10 minutes ago, MysteryMovieMogul said:

Execs need to take far more than a 25% pay cut.

It's not going to happen in any industry. 

[MysteryMovieMogul]

Regarding AI, I just don't understand why someone doesn't use AI in a way that makes executives look bad. Deepfake Iger. Deepfake Zaslav. That's all someone has to do before regulations happen.

 

And you call it parody to avoid getting sued.