The Screen Actors Guild: Exceptional Deal Protecting Writers in Animation and X-ray Streaming Services After the July July Breakdown
Writers may soon be back to work, but without actors, Hollywood productions will likely remain at a standstill. The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the union that represents around 160,000 members of the entertainment industry, has been on strike since July.
The committee wrote in their email that they were proud to say that this is an exceptional deal which protects writers in every sector of the membership.
The agreement was struck over several nights of negotiation between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the Writers Guild of America.
Warner Bros. Discovery has made adjustments to its financial projections as a result of the strikes. In July, Netflix estimated it would have an extra $1.5 billion in free cash flow, while Warner Bros. Discovery lowered its earnings expectations by about $300 to $500 million for 2023.
Last week, bargaining sessions were attended by Disney CEO Bob Iger, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos and Universal Pictures chief content officer Donna Langley. It was a highly unusual move, signaling studios’ eagerness to return to work; the stoppage has already caused them to delay premieres of many films and series.
The two sides had been at an impasse, with screenwriters demanding higher pay and more residuals when their work is re-run on streaming services. They also asked for a residual formula based on the number of views a show gets on the streamers.
But executives pushed back, worrying publicly about their profits and pointing out that they have laid off employees over the last few years. Streamers like Netflix and Amazon have also been reluctant to release data on their viewership.
Writers had asked for guaranteed staffing levels for television series, complaining about the new streaming model. They were concerned about the usage of “mini rooms,” in which individual writers are hired to submit their work remotely, on spec, without any guarantees. The WGA argued that the elimination of “writer’s rooms” on TV series harms the continuity required for consistent storylines and characters and deprives newer writers of learning to be “showrunners” who oversee production.
In the last proposal, the AMPTP gave showrunners the ability to hire at least two writers for their shows, however details of the newest agreement need to be made public.
The studios agreed to protect the writer’s work from using artificial intelligence, according to a report. In an earlier counteroffer, the AMPTP proposed bans on written material produced by generative AI software, saying it wouldn’t be considered “literary material” or “source material.”
73 days have passed since the actors union and representatives from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers talked. It will most likely change soon given the stakes of reviving the industry, which will be in serious danger if production is not resumed in the next month. The studio alliance didn’t respond to requests for comment on Monday.
The dual strikes by the writers and the actors — the first time that has happened since 1960 — have effectively shut down TV and film production for months. The fallout has been significant, both inside and outside the industry. The governor of California said that the economy had lost $5 billion.
The Up First Newsletter: Dealing With Asteroid Samples: A Poetry About a Libyan Hero After the Derna Floods
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Congress has just five days left to avoid a government shutdown. Hundreds of thousands of government workers would not be paid if the government were to shut down.
The 7-year mission to retrieve the asteroid rocks from a Utah desert has ended successfully with a safe landing of the canister.
A poem. A warning. A prophecy. After the floods in Derna swept him away with much of his Libya, he left behind what he had.
He died with many other people. But the words he wrote and reposted on Facebook just hours before the floods now capture the sentiment of a nation that is grieving and angry. Libyans say they’ve lived with years of conflict and corruption that compounded the impact of Storm Daniel. The reason why the poet decided to translate it into English is explained in the poem.
The Breakup of the Talking Heads: Steve Inskeep’s 40th Anniversary re-released Stop Making Sense (Revisited)
The messy breakup of the Talking Heads is a major part of the band’s legacy, with its four members rarely appearing in public together. The group hosted Morning Edition’s Steve Inskeep to discuss the 40th anniversary re-release of Stop Making Sense, their best-selling concert film. There was a sense of warmth, nostalgia and growth when they reminisced about those days. Listen and read the expanded version of their conversation.