Effects of writers strike on Sci Fi & Fantasy genre

[Umbran]

It turns out writer rooms for Star Trek are in LA, so Academy is screwed, and SNW season 3 MIGHT be effected.

Many Canadian writers are also members of the WGA, and so you won't find them working on American productions, wherever the writer's room or shooting are located.

The Writer's Guild Canada, while not on strike, is holding ranks with Writer's Guild America. So any fundamentally American production that tries to shift to using Canadian resources is going to have problems.

And, that makes a lot of sense. While a different guild, the WGC doesn't have fundamentally different contracts than the WCA. Canadian authors have been feeling the same impacts as American ones. So, advances by the WCA will help the WGC.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Haven't paid much attention to the entertainment world in the current century - what's the issue that they're striking over?

AI is the other major issue.

The WGA wants to prevent any attempt to either replace them with AI, or reduce them to mere script doctors for material AI is generating at the behest of some producer. Which seems pretty reasonable.

Whereas the AMPTP has absolutely dismissed all attempts to negotiate on the AI point, which seems really dumb, because it'll be years before AI can genuinely do what the WGA is (correctly) concerned about in any kind of reliable way - maybe decades - and there's no doubt the situation will be different in 10 or 20 years, so honestly the AMPTP should just concede the point. The fact that they haven't suggests they're being run by some real fantasists.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Hey, it's not like the last writers strike hurt shows that badly. Didn't everyone love the second and subsequent seasons of Heroes?

 

[payn]

Hey, it's not like the last writers strike hurt shows that badly. Didn't everyone love the second and subsequent seasons of Heroes?

 

[Undrave]

Well, if American Sci-fi and Fantasy is on break, it's a PERFECT time to pick up Ultraman!

The award-winning Ultraman Z is currently airing its dub for free on Tsuburaya's Youtube channel! With many young high profile voice actors, directed by the voice of Vegeta himself and the voice of frickin' Goku guest starring as Ultraman Zero.

And this July we're getting the brand new show, both in sub AND dub, also for free on Youtube!


It's looking like it'll be a blast! We're eating good! And to say nothing of the Ultraman Regulos miniseries!!

 

[Undrave]

The big sticking point is that writers are demanding minimum staffing and guaranteed weeks of work per show. Basically "we don't want to be gig workers, make this a job" and producers are trying to keep writers per show as low and flexible as possible. Writers are also asking for success/viewership based scaling residuals on streaming shows, right now they don't really benefit from a hit.

Notably, actors and directors are coming up for negotiation shortly too, and have been making sympathetic noises to the writers.

Every creative is tired of being screwed over by the move to streaming. Musical artists too.

 

[Umbran]

The big sticking point is that writers are demanding minimum staffing and guaranteed weeks of work per show. Basically "we don't want to be gig workers, make this a job" and producers are trying to keep writers per show as low and flexible as possible.

Generally correct.

We should note that it isn't really the producers who are trying to keep writer salaries down. By report, the producers are not happy with the situation either, but they are left enforcing directives from executives.

As I've come to understand it, streaming services have a problem - Wall Street and their own executives have bought into continued growth as the only metric that matters. That worked well enough in the early days of streaming, but once the market reaches saturation, they can't grow, and will fail. The closer you get to that failure point, the more you see executives try to squeeze every drop of wealth possible out of the system before it collapses. And that brings on a number of pretty toxic corporate behaviors...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's almost as though having our economy be based on what's good for shareholders, rather than any other metric, is a bad idea.

 

[payn]

It's almost as though having our economy be based on what's good for shareholders, rather than any other metric, is a bad idea.

 

[Scribe]

It's almost as though having our economy be based on what's good for shareholders, rather than any other metric, is a bad idea.

Makes one think.