So, the actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA, approved a tentative agreement with AMPTP on November 8th, but the agreement has yet to be ratified by the membership and there appear to be a lot of questions about how AI is being dealt with (actors’ concerns being similar yet different in some important regards than writers). So I’ll plan to write something post-ratification (and yes, the presumption is that the agreement will be ratified). But the ratification vote…
Like many, many other people, I had hoped that the end to the WGA strike would lead to a quick negotiation with SAG-AFTRA in its wake. Unfortunately, the AMPTP has evidently walked away from the negotiating table because learning nothing is… a power move? I’m not sure. Anyway, I am already speculating on what the future will bring, because even though we’ve heard a lot about how streaming isn’t the most lucrative business model ever…
Okay, I’ll be honest: I was putting off finishing this post in hopes that I could do one big post about the end of both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Although SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP are back at the negotiating table since last week, as of this writing, they haven’t made a deal. The WGA, however, has made a deal and, in a trend they established from the get-go, the WGA has provided a great summary…
So I’ll have a longer post in October as previously mentioned, but for those seven or nine people actually getting some updates about the strikes from this blog, a tentative deal has been struck between the AMPTP and the WGA as reported various places. As you’ll see in the article linked above, there are several procedural steps that are not perfunctory that involve the WGA West and East boards validating the deal and then, importantly,…
Evidently, meetings will resume between the WGA and AMPTP staring tomorrow, Wednesday, September 20th, so just a few things to update from the Strikes. “Hot Strike Summer” continues to radiate heat throughout the film industry and beyond. The studios suspended some development deals with more established writers, some of whom were about to meet with the studios before the main WGA/AMPTP meeting was announced. Related to labor organizing Marvel VFX artists have been feeling the…
We’re at the end of Summer with the start of Labor Day Weekend, we’re well over 100 days into the WGA strike, and we do have some developments since both strikes began. But before I get to that, I should cover what hasn’t changed. It’s still a puzzler as to why the companies haven’t settled considering what is being asked. AMPTP, the group representing the companies (both the traditional studios like Paramount and the streamers…
More people than I expected read my Thursday update about the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes, so I figured I should do a brief follow-up. For one, I didn’t read the Deadline article closely enough as it turns out the WGA and AMPTP were just meeting about meeting (I’ve made a correction to the Thursday post as it’s still getting some clicks). Sadly, but not unexpectedly, the meeting did not result in agreeing to resume negotiations. In the…
So, it’s August and both the screenwriters and the screen actors are still striking. The WGA is meeting about returning to the negotiating table this Friday, but that doesn’t mean their strike is ending and, at the time of me writing this, there’s no news on AMPTP talking with SAG-AFTRA (though per that article, they’d be happy to). I’ve gone back and tagged all my relevant posts about the strike(s) for ease of reference, but…
As of Thursday, July 13th, SAG-AFTRA is on strike, joining the WGA, which has been on strike since the beginning of May. Considering I posted about that strike, it made sense to post about this as well, but boy howdy has there been a lot in the past 10 days or so. In terms of overall covereage, Alissa Wilkinson, over at Vox, has one of their excellent explainer articles. Kim Masters and Matt Belloni banter…
Yes, I am continuing to follow news about the Writers’ Strike and, yes, given my previous posts of Adam Conover videos, there was really doubt I’d post a video with Adam Conover talking about the Writers’ Strike? (I mean, he was one of the WGA folks in the negotiating room): One of the arguments you hear early in the video goes something like this: That got me thinking about how the studios are defining “profitable,”…