Queen Bitch

Rumor is that Netflix is starting to get very nervous about the strike’s duration impacting the final season of Stranger Things. Contracts have lapsed, and certain actors are vocal about a desire to move on. I don’t know *how* nervous, or how it impacted the timing of the studios finally starting negotiations, but it’s juicy and credible so there ya go.

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.

Half the fun of watching Hot D was calling it Hot D — and I saw that as someone who really liked it lol.

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.

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.

Negotiation over for today. Both sides adhering to the media blackout. Sounds like the studios finally (AFTER 102 FUCKING DAYS) offered a counter to our proposals. No mudslinging is a good sign. Cautious optimism -- feels weird, man!

The studios have officially asked the writers to resume negotiations, starting tomorrow.

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.

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.

"Really proud of my weight loss! All it took was cutting off my arms and legs!!!"

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.

It's official. Emmys moving from September. Speculation is to 2024.

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.

Lotta folks asking that question and I can't really find a clear answer. It's annoying and deflating, but I'm trying to reserve judgment.

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.

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.)

Get her, Joe.

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.

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.

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.

But if we don't get explicit protections from AI *now* @Longhornsnus, none of the other stuff matters, as the majority of our membership never works again. The other items we're fighting for are very important, the AI issue is existential.

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.

Sorry for these very long screeds, but walking in slow picket-line circles in the sweltering sun these past few months -- and everything changing for the better with SAG jumping in -- and well, I've got a lot on my mind about the state of things and nowhere to really put it. I keep hoping we're nearing the end of this era of Hollywood, similar to when 1960s Hollywood collapsed under the weight of a bunch of big-budget musicals and old-fashioned spectacles, all of which bombed at the box office one after the other. Tastes had changed, the younger audiences didn't give a single fuck about Paint Your Wagon, and Hollywood couldn't quite figure out what they wanted. (In today's equation, I'm thinking the zillionth superhero retread and tired franchises with very little gas left in their respective tanks. This summer's dismal box office under-performance supports how dire this problem is today.) So... what happened next? The dawn of New Hollywood. The Godfather, Chinatown, The Conversation, Cabaret, The Exorcist, Robert Altman. The 1970s remain the undisputed artistic era for cinema. How exactly could another New Hollywood happen today? Well, it probably involves these bratty corporate titans dismantling the studios and selling them for parts. That sounds dramatic, but Zas is kind of already doing that with WB and it's an open secret that Paramount doesn't have that many years left as a studio. Or maybe it involves Wall Street massively downgrading media stocks for terrible box office receipts and a lack of streaming profits. Or maybe, just maybe, it involves the writers and actors demanding radical change (it's sad that 'radical change' here means "don't replace us with machines and also let us be able to afford to live in the city where we work", but hey, that's just late stage capitalism.) We write cool shit in Hollywood, I promise -- but we're not the ones with greenlight power. This era of Hollywood is so deeply risk averse and IP obsessed, and I for one would love to see it collapse. Another New Hollywood -- let's fuckin go. (We don't have nice things anymore, so this won't happen, but hey, it's fun to dream.)

Except our labor made dad his money. We created his assets. This is a terrible analogy.

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