Writer's Strike

[Ronin]

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[Ronin]

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[Brian in Mesa]

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[Brian in Mesa]

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[Dback Jon]

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That should be illegal

 

[Covert Rain]

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This is why it's an issue. It already started. This is what all the studios will do with likenesses. If that didn't work they will do it with made up faces using AI. This is all the crap that actors need protection from. It's dirty pool. It's one thing to pay someone like James Earl Jones a boatload of cash for using his voice as Vader in perpetuity. It's another to do this other garbage.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

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[Covert Rain]

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Seems to me his issue was that shows and movies already set to come out before the strike should have been allowed to promote or do what they needed to in order to ensure success since many jobs are riding on the success of those projects. OK, that's fair if his motivation was worrying about the jobs of people. He seems to be saying he understands why but wants people back to the table. OK but it takes two to tango. If the studios won't budge then what? You strike. There is no other way to get them back to the table or negotiate in good faith unless you put financial pressure on the studios and networks.

 

[Cheesebeef]

This actor is anti-strike too? Shocking.

Not.

Shazam Star Zachary Levi Says SAG Strike Rules Are "Dumb" For Preventing Him Discussing His Movies

Zachary Levi became the second DC star to speak out in frustration against the rules imposed by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.

movieweb.com

 

[Covert Rain]

This actor is anti-strike too? Shocking.

Not.

Shazam Star Zachary Levi Says SAG Strike Rules Are "Dumb" For Preventing Him Discussing His Movies

Zachary Levi became the second DC star to speak out in frustration against the rules imposed by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.

movieweb.com

Is there more to this? His comments didn't seem anti-strike. He seems to be taking exception to the rule you can't talk about old projects?! Why is that anyway? Is there a reasoning for that? Figured you would know.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Is there more to this? His comments didn't seem anti-strike. He seems to be taking exception to the rule you can't talk about old projects?! Why is that anyway? Is there a reasoning for that? Figured you would know.

Talking about any projects, old or new or showing up at fan conventions is doing publicity which is strictly forbidden during the strike. You can’t promote studios shows or movies.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Based on the latest info from what came out of the whopping 1 hour meeting today with the AMPTP, this is gonna go on for a very long time.

 

[Devilmaycare]

It's really feeling like the studio are now using the strike (or it could have been the plan all along) to clean house of contracts that they view as bad now. I've been hearing about force majeure being used to cancel contracts. It's like they painted themselves into a corner with some of them, especially with streaming, and are using the strike as cover to try to correct their mistakes.

 

[puckhead]

It's really feeling like the studio are now using the strike (or it could have been the plan all along) to clean house of contracts that they view as bad now. I've been hearing about force majeure being used to cancel contracts. It's like they painted themselves into a corner with some of them, especially with streaming, and are using the strike as cover to try to correct their mistakes.

Eerily similar to what the Diamond Sports bankruptcy is being used for. The upheaval in the entertainment industry is in full effect, IMO.

 

[Yuma]

Not being an expert on the situation, just a roadside observer, it seems to me that most of the problem for both the studios and the actors, is that streaming sites are not forthcoming with their numbers. It seems like both the studios AND the actors need to band to gather and get clarity from the streaming services, in order to go forward with building a system that is more fair.

 

[Dback Jon]

Not being an expert on the situation, just a roadside observer, it seems to me that most of the problem for both the studios and the actors, is that streaming sites are not forthcoming with their numbers. It seems like both the studios AND the actors need to band to gather and get clarity from the streaming services, in order to go forward with building a system that is more fair.

And when the Studio OWNS the Streaming service?

Seem to recall from @cheesebeef that Paramount is one of the ones playing games with Paramount + residuals

 

[Chaplin]

Not being an expert on the situation, just a roadside observer, it seems to me that most of the problem for both the studios and the actors, is that streaming sites are not forthcoming with their numbers. It seems like both the studios AND the actors need to band to gather and get clarity from the streaming services, in order to go forward with building a system that is more fair.

That is true across the board, not just with studio-owned services. In fact, Netflix and Amazon have never given out true streaming numbers.

 

[Devilmaycare]

That is true across the board, not just with studio-owned services. In fact, Netflix and Amazon have never given out true streaming numbers.

They both like to give false impressions too. Notice that when they do give numbers they often give number of minutes watched. Why is that? It's because they're adding 15 minutes of credits to the end of each episode because they know a lot of people get up for the bathroom, kitchen, etc. after the show ends but leave the video playing. So they're using that to pad the numbers to make things look better then if it was a straight metric.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Not being an expert on the situation, just a roadside observer, it seems to me that most of the problem for both the studios and the actors, is that streaming sites are not forthcoming with their numbers. It seems like both the studios AND the actors need to band to gather and get clarity from the streaming services, in order to go forward with building a system that is more fair.

The studios know EXACTLY what the numbers are Yuma. They’re primarily the entities that own the streamers.

That’s the whole issue. Both streamers and studios also point the finger at each other over who actually owes residuals when a studio licenses their contact to an outside streamer and then neither pays, forcing those who are owed residuals to have to take them to court to even see who’s responsible. I’ve been in that situation for THREE YEARS on Necessary Roughness, a Sony studio product, streaming on Peacock since 2020. Haven’t seen a dime. For the first two years, they dicked around my union and I, both studio and streamer refusing to acknowledge who pays (and thus not paying) forcing us to finally take them to arbitration… which won’t even happen until 2024!

And NONE of this would even be in motion unless I kept banging on my Union to follow up every month. I can’t even imagine all the money not being paid out.

I’ve got more to say on this with personal experience but about to be on the road. I’ll fill in more atrocious financial behavior from the studios when I get off the road.

 

[Covert Rain]

The studios know EXACTLY what the numbers are Yuma. They’re primarily the entities that own the streamers.

That’s the whole issue. Both streamers and studios also point the finger at each other over who actually owes residuals when a studio licenses their contact to an outside streamer and then neither pays, forcing those who are owed residuals to have to take them to court to even see who’s responsible. I’ve been in that situation for THREE YEARS on Necessary Roughness, a Sony studio product, streaming on Peacock since 2020. Haven’t seen a dime. For the first two years, they dicked around my union and I, both studio and streamer refusing to acknowledge who pays (and thus not paying) forcing us to finally take them to arbitration… which won’t even happen until 2024!

And NONE of this would even be in motion unless I kept banging on my Union to follow up every month. I can’t even imagine all the money not being paid out.

I’ve got more to say on this with personal experience but about to be on the road. I’ll fill in more atrocious financial behavior from the studios when I get off the road.

That’s a great point above. How many people don’t have it in them to keep fighting and go through all the arbitration stuff?!

 

[Cheesebeef]

That’s a great point above. How many people don’t have it in them to keep fighting and go through all the arbitration stuff?!

Yup… or even know that they should be fighting for residuals they have no idea are playing somewhere.

That’s my second example. So, back around 2016, my friend was in NY on a show and he called me around midnight NY time and said he turned on the TV and an episode of mine from NCIS NOLA was on. I texted him the next day wondering if we get paid for that and he said he never did on the mentalist for 7 years. So, I waited until the quarter was over because that’s when residuals roll in and got nothing for that airing. Meanwhile, two more episodes of mine aired that quarter as well. So I called up the Union and sure enough that qualified as a Network Non Primetime ReRun… each of which was worth 6K. The Studio had no plans to pay that out and it took my Union rep three months to get not just me paid but EVERYONE who’s episodes were airing and they ran in that pattern on Sat/Sun for five years.

They never would have paid ANY OF IT (again, 6K per episode, 24 episodes a season… 5 seasons… that’s about 650K they weren’t paying to the writers over 5 years). And the ONLY reason I knew about it was because my drunk friend happened to stumble on MY episode at Midnight in New York. Now, realize he worked on the Mentalist for 7 years, which probably ran in a similar rerun pattern (Because it was one of CBS’ biggest show) and that means just based on his Season 1 ALONE, the studio didn’t pay him 3 episodes that season, 6K for each rerun that probably ran for 5 years playing on Sat/Sun nights… that’s like 90K for his SEASON 1 that didn’t get paid… and he worked on The Mentalist for 7 years.

And then think about the fact that he was 1 of 9 writers on staff who also likely didn’t get paid for all of that.

And that was just ONE SHOW.

The amount of money the studios keep from us isn’t in the hundreds of thousands… it’s in the millions, tens of millions and possibly hundreds of millions over time.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Yup… or even know that they should be fighting for residuals they have no idea are playing somewhere.

That’s my second example. So, back around 2016, my friend was in NY on a show and he called me around midnight NY time and said he turned on the TV and an episode of mine from NCIS NOLA was on. I texted him the next day wondering if we get paid for that and he said he never did on the mentalist for 7 years. So, I waited until the quarter was over because that’s when residuals roll in and got nothing for that airing. Meanwhile, two more episodes of mine aired that quarter as well. So I called up the Union and sure enough that qualified as a Network Non Primetime ReRun… each of which was worth 6K. The Studio had no plans to pay that out and it took my Union rep three months to get not just me paid but EVERYONE who’s episodes were airing and they ran in that pattern on Sat/Sun for five years.

They never would have paid ANY OF IT (again, 6K per episode, 24 episodes a season… 5 seasons… that’s about 650K they weren’t paying to the writers over 5 years). And the ONLY reason I knew about it was because my drunk friend happened to stumble on MY episode at Midnight in New York. Now, realize he worked on the Mentalist for 7 years, which probably ran in a similar rerun pattern (Because it was one of CBS’ biggest show) and that means just based on his Season 1 ALONE, the studio didn’t pay him 3 episodes that season, 6K for each rerun that probably ran for 5 years playing on Sat/Sun nights… that’s like 90K for his SEASON 1 that didn’t get paid… and he worked on The Mentalist for 7 years.

And then think about the fact that he was 1 of 9 writers on staff who also likely didn’t get paid for all of that.

And that was just ONE SHOW.

The amount of money the studios keep from us isn’t in the hundreds of thousands… it’s in the millions, tens of millions and possibly hundreds of millions over time.

Also, I know it’s AT LEAST in the tens of millions because my third example of this is being part of an arbitration against CBS that I didn’t even know I was a part of.

Two years ago, I got an email from the Union that said they were settling a 5 year case in arbitration with CBS where from the time their streaming service started in 2016 until 2021, they were streaming their ALL their current shows on CBS All Access and hadn’t paid any writer on ANY show a DIME since it’s inception.

I was just one writer, who wrote 2.5 episodes on one show, for one season and got a check for 11K. Now think about the fact that it’s FIVE SEASONS of ALL CBS SHOWS, with 8-9 writers per room, per season, for 24 shows a season who weren’t getting paid. The settlement was something like 20 million dollar divided up with the writers according their episode count. And that was just what they settled on which means the number was probably much high but this was a way for the Union to guarantee payments made if the verdict somehow didn’t go their way.

And that was just one network/studio with a vertically integrated streamer where the licensing deal isn’t close to what it is when a streamer buys from an outside studio, which still happens (as is the case with my show Necesssry Roughness).

 

[Dback Jon]

Also, I know it’s AT LEAST in the tens of millions because my third example of this is being part of an arbitration against CBS that I didn’t even know I was a part of.

Two years ago, I got an email from the Union that said they were settling a 5 year case in arbitration with CBS where from the time their streaming service started in 2016 until 2021, they were streaming their ALL their current shows on CBS All Access and hadn’t paid any writer on ANY show a DIME since it’s inception.

I was just one writer, who wrote 2.5 episodes on one show, for one season and got a check for 11K. Now think about the fact that it’s FIVE SEASONS of ALL CBS SHOWS, with 8-9 writers per room, per season, for 24 shows a season who weren’t getting paid. The settlement was something like 20 million dollar divided up with the writers according their episode count. And that was just what they settled on which means the number was probably much high but this was a way for the Union to guarantee payments made if the verdict somehow didn’t go their way.

And that was just one network/studio with a vertically integrated streamer where the licensing deal isn’t close to what it is when a streamer buys from an outside studio, which still happens (as is the case with my show Necesssry Roughness).

CBS CEO Compensation in that time frame:
2017: $69 Million
2018: $27.4 Miilion
2019: $125 Million
2020: $38.9 Million

 

[Yuma]

I wonder if you could use Chat GPT to scour the internet for all listings of airings of one of your shows, back to original air date?

 

[puckhead]

I wonder if you could use Chat GPT to scour the internet for all listings of airings of one of your shows, back to original air date?

I love this idea! Studios threatened to utilize AI for script-writing, so it would be quite fitting to turn that around and get the writers paid!