The Bear and the Movies: How Production and Streaming Impact TV Workers and Writers in the Era of the First Seasons
If the first shows are affected, the production will stop immediately. The number of episodes in a soap opera is not expected to be changed, either because production is cut short or because it is halted entirely. Movies could also be affected depending on how long the strikes go on for, though studios, networks, and producers have been stockpiling scripts and boosting international productions in preparation for this outcome.
The union’s demands include increasing minimum wage rates and residuals payments, addressing the “abuses of mini-rooms,” and increased contributions to the union’s health and pension plan. Artificial intelligence should be used in scriptwriting only for research and development, and not for any other purpose, including to be used to generate content or rewrite work already contracted by human writers according to the WGA.
The shift to streaming has made the work of writers more valuable according to a bulletin from the guild. “While company profits have remained high and spending on content has grown, writers are falling behind.”
Even though The Bear was a hit, Mr. O’Keefe doesn’t get paid every time a viewer watches it. I don’t get paid every time somebody says, ‘yes, chef.’ I don’t expect to make the majority of the profits or anything like that. I added a bit of cayenne pepper. It was a huge undertaking to put on that show. But we don’t receive the residuals that people associate with television shows.”
Britanni Nichols, who writes for the ABC show Abbott Elementary, says that between seasons, she used to be able to live off residuals she got when the network re-aired an episode she wrote. She got half her original writing fee each time. When her episodes are sold to the streamers, she is only getting a small amount of her writing fee. You’re getting checks for $3, $7, and $10. She told NPR that it isn’t enough to have a consistent lifestyle. “It can really be a real shock. … Sometimes, you get a stack of checks for $0.07.
TV writers say that streaming will result in less work and less money, because studios want series to last eight to 10 episodes a season, not the traditional 22.
The Los Angeles Times: “What’s going on” in a writer’s room after the last WGA strike, and why we don’t care about the future
He says that he lives a very working class existence and there’s nothing to be ashamed of. “But yeah, I’ve reached a point that I don’t know how I can continue to survive in this business as it is.”
I’m in a really bad situation where I’m unable to pay rent and have been for quite some time. And that shouldn’t be the case for someone who’s going to be a decade into their careers, working for an Emmy-winning television show,” she says. “If anyone were to look at my career and say that the person still has to worry, I don’t think they would think much of it.”
Other writers are now being told to work on spec in mini rooms, without knowing if their project will get greenlit, or if they will get to be in the official writer’s room.
“We have a large base of upcoming shows and films from around the world. Ted Sarandos told investors during a recent earnings call that it was likely that they could serve their members better. “We do have a pretty robust slate of releases to take us into a long time.”
In 2008 and 2007, the last WGA strike lasting 100 days, a loss to the state’s economy was thought to have tipped California into a recession.
The WGA-AMPTP Agreement in the Context of the Covid Pandemic: Tensions and Negotiations During the 2017/17 Season
The AMPTP provided a statement claiming it had offered “generous increases in compensation” that included an improvement in streaming residuals and had been willing to “improve that offer.” It was unwilling to compromise on the union’s demands for “mandatory staffing” and “duration of employment” however, saying these “primary sticking points” would require companies to staff shows with writers even if they’re not needed.
Tensions over contracts have been rising between the WGA and AMPTP for several years now. The last contract negotiations took place in 2017: minutes after the contract expired. The covid pandemic made it difficult for both sides to negotiate terms for the next three years.