2023 Writers + Actors Strike Thread

[DramatistDreamer]

No, I just meant that the AMPTP issued a very terse statement compared to the one by the WGA, which was triumphant. Even the statement from other entities (SAG-AFTRA, DGA, President Biden, etc) congratulating the agreement was longer. The AMPTP was not happy but they are resigned to the agreement.

[ranger1rg]

AMPTP is probably working on their increases in price for streamers and everything else they sell.

[DramatistDreamer]

Probably, although a few of them had already increased subscription fees as they were crying poverty before the strike. They’ve also got the problem that many of their shows don’t survive the third season. How they actually believed they could maintain a loyal workforce without offering a modicum of job security is anyone’s guess.

[ranger1rg]

I'm sure you realize the  "problem" of shows not surviving the third season is of their own making.

[~bl~]

Yes the increase for Amazon Prime if you want to keep the service without ads is extremely annoying. At least other vendors made the ad version less than what was standard. I just want to know more about the tentative deal, and how much of it could be ported to the SAG demands….

[dragonflies]

 

 

[DRW50]

And the talking points are wasting no time blaming the strike. These streams helped drive the strikes in the first place and likely helped strengthen the resolve of so many in the industry to keep the strike going. 

Streaming content had so much potential, and still does, but so many big execs got greedy, and now we're seeing the end result...poor quality reality product and home design sham shows, while genuine quality material that streaming was meant to help spotlight is being canceled before it ever airs.

[DramatistDreamer]

Of course, the likes of Netflix bragged about this, as if it were some brilliant strategy. They deliberately got rid of viable series simply because they got to some arbitrary episode number. It wasn’t long before their so-called strategy began to backfire.

[DramatistDreamer]

Streaming (I really hate that word “content”) had potential when Netflix streamed indie films and shows that people wouldn’t have seen elsewhere that’s when I think they had potential. When the networks all had buy in with Hulu, that’s when Hulu had potential. As it is now, I am tired of most of these streamers as they all seem to serve the same purpose. Add in Max and the rest and there are now too many of them. 
Greed has done in a few years with streamers what took decades to happen to cable.

Corporate media can try to lay blame on union strikes (at this point, perhaps blame has already shifted to SAG-AFTRA which has always been seen as less sympathetic and taking a harder line than the writers) but no one in normal life sees the billionaire corporate titans as being remotely sympathetic, so they can have at it. Create some fake polls like they are now doing with Biden vs Trump.

 And another thing, everyone like to talk about AI taking writers’ jobs first but has anyone considered the fact that producers and executives’ jobs don’t actually require a unique or special skill set and might actually be easily performed by algorithms and software? Remember when everyone assumed that the manual laborers and people who worked with their hands would be the first ones to lose their jobs to automation? Until we saw that it was in fact a lot of office workers who spent hours on the phones who were the first ones to suffer the fallout? If that wasn’t enough, the pandemic really illustrated who were the essential workers.

When everyone flocked to their televisions to watch “comfort” shows, it wasn’t the producers they were heaping praise on.

Edited September 26, 2023 by DramatistDreamer

[DemetriKane]

So when the talk shows return can the actors go on to promote their movies, or no?

[DramatistDreamer]

My guess would be that unless there is a deal worked out with SAG-AFTRA, it would still be frowned upon, if not, outright forbidden. Although WGA and SAG-AFTRA are in solidarity and they share a couple common goals and perhaps an overlapping demand, their contracts are completely separate. What the WGA has worked out with AMPTP has little to nothing to do with SAG-AFTRA and what they are trying to negotiate with AMPTP. 

Since SAG-AFTRA is still trying to demonstrate their worth in the industry and what it means to be without their presence, my assumption would be that no, they will not be on the talk shows promoting movies that benefit the very entities that stand to profit the most from them, the entities that they are currently in conflict with. It would be counterproductive to their cause.

[dragonflies]

Can we have the daytime emmy's now that the writer's strike over??

[dragonflies]

 

 

[titan1978]

I would marine that SAG-AFTRA will wait to see the language of the contract for the WGA to set up talks. I have read that SAG’s demands are more complex and expensive so it will be interesting to see what happens.

[ranger1rg]

Great post. Much appreciated.