Effects of writers strike on Sci Fi & Fantasy genre

[Professor Murder]

Given the ridiculously compressed shooting schedules that streaming services demand the pressure for writers is greater, not reduced. It's just spread over more productions.

I don't claim to know much on modern show production. But I do know that audiences are conditioned right now to accept 2-3 year gaps between seasons can happen.

 

[Parmandur]

But dialogue usually needs polishing.

They might not be shooting any scenes with dialat this point, for all we know.

Dude. People do rewrites on the day. There may not be "major script revisions", but there could be fairly significant tweaks etc. - virtually every show does minor rewrites on a near-daily basis and those will all be lost. The dialogue will be clunkier, the scenes will work less well. It's just a question of how much those 19 days will matter - like how much they were actually going to get done?

And they have lost the showrunners, which is pretty major. Any show that's consistent is going to feature regularly daily input from the showrunner(s). Only anthology-type shows can really dispose of them for a couple of weeks and say "that's fine!".

This is a pretty random damage roll on a large HP pool, I admit, but there's going to be damage, and it's certainly not purely "symbolic".

They have been filming for 7 months since October 3, and from the reports on the first Season filming they did not shoot episodes sequentially, so the remaining shooting could be literally anything (perhaps all sweepikg shots of horse riding). The showrunners are not obliged to leave the set in their capacity as showrunners (per the strike rules), they just can't do script work. They chose to leave the set of their own accord, which is a symbolic act of solidarity. But at this point, they might feel comfortable letting the directors wrap it up before going into editing.

 

[Professor Murder]

That sounds like a winner. The Crows are the only good part of the series!

Definitely would be the focal point for a game. My rough plan would be setting it about 30 years prior to the series, mainly so most of the existing characters aren't around.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I have been ... indisposed ... for about a week, and I was able to catch up on S3 of Picard and to finally watch Reservation Dogs (SO GOOD!) and Shadow and Bone.

I have lots of thoughts about SAB, and I haven't watched the last two episodes of S2 yet, but while it is far from perfect, I really enjoy the world building, the crows, and I LOVE the Russian-influenced fantasy.

Reservation Dogs is amazing, I need to finish watching that.

In addition, the AMPTP is internally divided, which won't make it easier.

I hadn't heard that, but that's not surprising, because some of the stuff the AMPTP seems to be basically dismissing entirely or refusing to respond on doesn't seem like stuff that would actually be that important to most AMPTP members. There's got to be some weird internal politics going on there, but I couldn't know less about it!

 

[Ryujin]

I don't claim to know much on modern show production. But I do know that audiences are conditioned right now to accept 2-3 year gaps between seasons can happen.

It's not about gaps between seasons of a given show. It's about aggregate demand for writers across all shows. The pressure that they put on writers, crew, and actors breaks people.

 

[Pedantic]

That sounds like a winner. The Crows are the only good part of the series!

I did like Six of Crows better than the mainline series in the novel, but it smashed hard into a particular worldbuilding bugbear* of mine and remains difficult to revisit as a result.

*Lazy queer worldbuilding. The book has both patrilineal inheritance and bloodlines as significant plot points, and a casually accepted (i.e. no implications of a homophobic norm to overcome) upper class gay relationship. You cannot do both of those things. The latter requires a different social structure to exist.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Reservation Dogs is amazing, I need to finish watching that.

It really is. I had heard so many good things about it, but just hadn't got around to watching it. And now I am a full convert.

The worst episodes are interesting. The best episodes are ... well, sublime.

Also?

Spoiler: NSFW Language

....so funny.

I hadn't heard that, but that's not surprising, because some of the stuff the AMPTP seems to be basically dismissing entirely or refusing to respond on doesn't seem like stuff that would actually be that important to most AMPTP members. There's got to be some weird internal politics going on there, but I couldn't know less about it!

Well, the membership is a lot more diverse than it was. The interests of Netflix and Apple, or CBS/Viacom and Disney, or Sony and WarnerDiscovery, are not exactly in full alignment.

Yeah, they all want to save money on labor. But some of them have strong interests in some areas (not sharing metrics is much bigger for the pure play streamers) and others have issues with debt payments that a prolonged slowdown could affect.

Normally, a strike is about money. This one ... not so much. The best way to look at it is this- there were a lot of norms in the industry that have eroded or disappeared in the last decade that have allowed the studios to treat most writers as if they were gig workers- and the studios would be happy to just throw some money at the problem. The WGA wants to encode those norms into the contract (this is whole dispute about writer's rooms as opposed to mini-writer's room and all the collateral issues).

 

[Professor Murder]

It's not about gaps between seasons of a given show. It's about aggregate demand for writers across all shows. The pressure that they put on writers, crew, and actors breaks people.

I think we are speaking past each other here. I am not speaking to the challenges this strike brings to productions. I am speaking to how, with the previous strike, there was a near immediate effect that led to very vocal audience discontent. That discontent is what puts pressure on the studios to make a deal. If the audience doesnt need the same weekly fix because we have still sooooo much content, the strike may well take longer.

 

[Ryujin]

I think we are speaking past each other here. I am not speaking to the challenges this strike brings to productions. I am speaking to how, with the previous strike, there was a near immediate effect that led to very vocal audience discontent. That discontent is what puts pressure on the studios to make a deal. If the audience doesnt need the same weekly fix because we have still sooooo much content, the strike may well take longer.

No, we're in the same wheelhouse here. I'm saying that there are more productions that are affected, with a tighter shooting schedule, so the pressure may even be greater.

 

[Ryujin]

It really is. I had heard so many good things about it, but just hadn't got around to watching it. And now I am a full convert.

The worst episodes are interesting. The best episodes are ... well, sublime.

Try the Canadian movie "Dance Me Outside." It's a comedy/drama that's a showcase of Native Canadian talent.