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Queen Bitch

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  1. If Suits is keeping people subscribed to Netflix -- meaning generating $$$$ for the company -- the actors and writers deserve to share in that success. Full stop. This is why we need streaming transparency (and also a fucking counter proposal after 105 fucking days.)

    THAT BEING SAID...

    I'm starting to come around to the idea of ST maybe being something we take off the table if it means we get our other asks. If the streamers are going to inevitably become internet broadcast networks by diving head-first into ad-based revenue, those buyers are going to need to see actual data to invest in said ads. So maybe we get it that way instead... but I obviously defer to our negcom on the matter -- we may never be on a dual-strike with SAG again in my lifetime, and the two guilds hold enormous power if they hold steadfast together in their overlapping demands...

    Also, Tom Morello performed an acoustic set on our lines today. It was a nice little treat.

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  2. Just reread my response. It’s a mess but I can’t edit it lol.

    Hot D is covered by Equity, the actors guild in the UK. It’s NOT covered by SAG-AFTRA.

    That being said, it’s ABSOLUTELY covered by the WGA and should have been shut down on those grounds. There’s absolutely no scenario where you shoot the scripts as-is and don’t change a word on set, despite what the showrunner claimed publicly. He should have walked away — as many of his showrunners colleagues chose to — but he didn’t. Oh well.

  3. 2 hours ago, AnimalTobacco said:

    Awesome and congrats on the good energy!

    Question for you and Hank: I read today that House of Dragons (the GoT/HBO big budget thing) had been filming and is currently filming, etc. via some loophole that it's in UK.

    How can that be? Isn't that a little chickenpoop of them to do this during the strike? I feel like I've heard about a lot of loopholes the last 100 days and it doesn't strike me (no pun intended) as all that honorable or just. Your thoughts?

    The contract for those actors is Equity, not SAG-AFTRA. It sucks, but it’s absolutely the exception, and I’ve read the Equity leadership isn’t thrilled about being a loophole. Maybe they’ll work to close that in the future, who knows?

     

    it’s the equivalent of writers currently working in animation, which is largely covered by a totally different union, TAG (The Animation Guild.) They’re currently writing, as they’re under an active contract.

  4. Welp, yesterday was 100 days, which was the length of the entire ‘07/08 strike.

    In those 100 days, the studios have agreed to meet with us exactly one time — last fucking week — to tell us the only way they’d meet with us is if we fully take our biggest issues off the table. Not to negotiate on them or find compromise, but to fully discard them. 
     

    As you can imagine, our leadership walked away. Who knows when the studios will agree to another meeting, but who cares how long it takes. We’re winning, and our asks are a rounding error in their books.

     

    Anywho, we toasted to our strength and our resolve yesterday, then went to an open bar to celebrate. Here’s a little snippet of the moment, which I wish was longer. 

     

     

     

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  5. Both sides are fairly tight-lipped, but sounds like today was a lot of nothing. The studios (allegedly) continued to reject our proposals while — AFTER 95 GODDAMNED DAYS — offering a single counter of substance.

    So yeah, lotta nothing burger, sounds like.

    Meanwhile, today, on day 95, THIS is what the Universal picket looked like:

    We are going NOWHERE.

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  6. The studios finally (FINALLY!!) reached out to resume talks with the writers, scheduled for tomorrow. It's *not* a negotiation meeting, but rather a meeting to discuss coming back to the table. 

    I was pretty shocked they reached out to us before the actors, as their strategy is always "cut deals with the other two and box in the writers," but it turns out Fran has really, really, REALLY pissed them off with her rhetoric lol. It's a good reminder that these men -- no matter how rich and powerful they may be -- have incredibly thin skin. They're all to rarely (if ever?) challenged, talked down to, or publicly mocked / ridiculed -- and they fucking hate it. FAAFO, etc.

    It's a reason to be cautiously optimistic, with heavy emphasis on the caution. It's my understanding this was part of the playbook in '07/'08  -- "resume talks" that were never intended to actually be in good faith, force the WGA's hand to decline unserious counters, then run to the press and scream "THE WRITERS ARE BEING UNREASONABLE!!!!!" 

    But if they think they can wait us out or get us to cave/take a weak deal, they've got another thing coming. I hear absolutely no signs of fatigue from fellow writers. If anything, we've only become more resolved and unified, especially with the jolt of the actors now marching alongside us. 

    Whatever happens tomorrow, good or bad, I'll be back on the lines first thing Monday morning.

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  7. Nah man, we're genuinely thrilled. We *love* this business, and we want it to succeed. Pretty much everyone I know went to see one or both this weekend. Hell, the Fox line had a Barbie-themed picket weeks ago. 

    Furthermore, success means the studios can't claim poverty. It's partially why any kind of campaign to boycott the movies or cancel streaming services isn't something we'd push for. Financially, we'd never actually be able to make a sizable dent in a studio's bottom line from a grassroots-cancellation campaign, which would make us look weak and foolish as a guild. And creatively -- and this is far more important from where I'm sitting -- if these movies had underperformed, the studios would continue to trot out dinosaur franchises until the end of time, and creative risks would become even more rare.

    The audiences just very loudly told the studios what gets them to buy tickets in unprecedented droves. Now it's up to the executives to interpret the correct lessons from the weekend. Will they? Probably not -- and *that's* the only (potential) disappointment coming out of such an iconic weekend. 

     

     

     

     

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  8. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/20/business/economy/writers-strike-hollywood-gig-work.html#:~:text=As in manufacturing%2C the job,to separate writing from production.

    Obviously a lot of despair reading this, not that these aren't sentiments I hear basically every time I hang out with fellow writer friends.

    The good news is, this isn't for lack demand, or some notion that the scripted television business is dying. It's instead short-sided business practices as the studios chase the Netflix model. They want to wring as much out of as few of us as possible, but we're saying "nah, sorry dawg." 

    Took today off to get some writing done, but now I'm itching to get back to the lines. THIS is why we strike.

     

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  9. It’s simple. We need new IP.


    Almost every sequel has underperformed this summer, some very badly. Indiana Jones likely could have been rebooted when they made the fourth one, but at this point they likely boxed themselves in sticking with Harrison Ford as long as they did. I can’t imagine them successfully recasting and rebooting now.
     

    (Which isn’t to say they won’t try.)

  10. 52 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

     

    To me, the actors and writers should look for an agreement where a percent of subscriber fees are distributed based on what that subscriber watched. For argument sake, say $1 goes to the artists out the $20 subscriber fee. If that subscriber only watched 1 episode that month, say Stranger Things, then the $1 goes to the residuals of the Stranger Things artists. If that subscriber watched 100 episodes that month of a wide variety of shows including that 1 Stranger Things episode, then the Stranger Things artists should get 1/100 of that $1, or 1 cent.

    The $1 (or whatever is considered fair) gets distributed to the artists and it's based on the popularity of the content. If no one watches a piece of content, you get nada. 

    The actors presented this to the studios. A pot of money dedicated to residuals, amount based on number of subscribers, and the residuals would be divvied up based on amount of streams. So the Stranger Things writers make way more than the writers of a cancelled show none of us have ever heard of. This way, the streamers can keep their precious viewing data a secret.

    The studios rejected it.

  11. Several things -- the studios will eventually remember that licensing their libraries equals FREE MONEY. They're going to remember that owning and distributing their content ad infinitum isn't nearly as profitable as making a thing and selling and reselling that thing over and over and over and over and over. Hell, HBO just licensed a bunch of their shows to Netflix, and I'd say it was a smart move. If anything, the current working assumption for why the legacy studios aren't fucking over Netflix *now* in these negotiations is because they consider Netflix a buyer (licenser) of their content. When that happens, should writers and actors not receive residuals for those series' continued profitability?

    Another thing -- what about when the streamers (most importantly Netflix) launch the advertisement tiers of their services? Are the advertisers going to be fine buying ads for shows when they have no idea if said shows are a success or not? I just don't buy the streamers can close off their metrics forever, particularly as they eventually (and inevitably) move away from relying solely on streaming fees for revenue.

    This model is still fairly nascent and it isn't sustainable -- but the model of monetizing your library to as many buyers as possible *does* work. It's made a lot of people a lot of money FOR DECADES.

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  12. 3 hours ago, Longhornsnus said:

    This angle is, obviously, a non-starter, but it does point at why these negotiations are likely to be so fraught: actors and writers are angling to get a larger share of revenue that they arguably no longer deserve.

    We don't deserve to share in the long-term success of the shows we created and shaped? Get the fuck outta here with that.

    FWIW, my streaming residuals are actually quite good, but that's because the streamer which aired that series has no ownership of the show, so the residual rate is (to my knowledge) a byproduct of their licensing fee with the studio. 

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  13. It's a breathtaking grift. Ask hardworkin', lib-tears sluprin', 'murica first folks to donate money to the producers to buy tickets to give away for free.

    The producers are buying tickets all right... but they aren't exactly giving them away. 

  14. 18 minutes ago, mdmost said:

    If it can be replaced by a machine, companies that strictly operate on the desire to increase shareholder value will take full advantage of anything that cuts out salaries and increases the revenue of the company. If a machine can give them a decent idea that can be polished by one person, the studios will go straight to that option and remove human salaries that are a drain. 

    100%

    If they had it their way, the studios would go to the computer and say "Computer, whip up ten scripts for the new season of The Night Agent. Here are a couple of loglines we can use in marketing." Then Shawn Ryan, the series' creator would probably receive a weeks' worth of pay (maybe two if his agents really pushed) to polish the scripts and make the characters sound like humans. All while keeping a close eye on how to eventually eliminate him from the process altogether... on the show HE created...

    Side note, when David Simon asked if he'd be willing to work under similar conditions in an interview, he said "I'd rather blow my brains out" lol

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  15. 7 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

    I don’t think AI will replace writer/actors, but I do believe it will become a tool that is used. Like any technology, will it cut down on some jobs, sure, but it won’t replace talent. 

    I don't entirely disagree with you, but we as a guild absolutely cannot trust that the studios will act in good faith and do the right thing by us. Hell, they literally ran to the media thirty-six hours ago and said they'd rather us lose our homes than return to the negotiating table before October. We also cannot in any way afford to wait until the next contract expires in three years to address the AI problem. Our position is that, by then, it'll be far too late to start retroactively putting protections in place. 

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