 |
| Hollywood Writer Strike is Over |
Tuesday night, board members from the writers' union ratified a contract agreement with studios, thus ending the almost five-month-long strike and reviving at least some of the industry's production.
Two days after the tentative agreement was reached with a coalition of Hollywood's biggest studios, streaming services, and production companies, the governing boards of the eastern and western branches of the Writers Guild of America and their joint negotiating committee all voted to accept the deal. Following the vote, it was announced that the strike would end and authors would be able to begin working on screenplays at midnight on Wednesday.
The first shows that will likely start airing again are late-night talk shows, which were the first to go dark when writers struck on May 2. Scripted shows will take longer to resume because actors are still on strike and there are no imminent agreements.
The guild informed members in an email that the strike will be lifted so that the writers could continue to work while casting their own votes to ratify the contract in early October.
(For Whole Details You Can Also Read This Articles:Writers Guild and Hollywood studios reach tentative deal to end strike. No deal yet for actors)
)
(Subscribe to our News Blogger newsletter Today's Cache for the day's top news.)
The contracts were delivered to the writers for the first time after the board's decisions on Tuesday; nevertheless, they had not yet been given any information regarding the deal, which their leaders had dubbed "exceptional."
The three-year agreement included considerable gains in the key areas that writers had battled for — remuneration, length of employment, staff size, and control of artificial intelligence — matching or nearly equaling what they had demanded at the commencement of the strike.
Depending on the writer's position, the union had demanded minimum wage rises and potential residual revenues from shows of 5% to 6%. The studios had requested a range of 2% to 4%. 3.5% to 5% more pay was the agreed-upon compromise.
Additionally, the guild negotiated new residual compensation based on the popularity of streaming programmes, where authors will receive bonuses for appearing in the most well-liked programmes on Netflix, Max, and other services. This idea was first rejected by studios.many authors on picket lines had complained that they weren’t properly paid for helping create heavily watched properties.
The authors also succeeded in obtaining their demand that series with at least 13 episodes have a minimum of six writers on staff, with the number fluctuating depending on the amount of episodes. They were only able to acquire a guaranteed three instead of their desired guaranteed staff of six for shows that had not yet been commissioned to series.
Additionally, writers received a guarantee that employees on shows in the early stages of production will be paid for at least 10 weeks of work and that employees on finished shows will be paid for three weeks of work per episode.
The authors of artificial intelligence were successful in obtaining the regulation and oversight of the new technology they had hoped for. A term in their contracts for screenplays and other story forms a screenwriter generates, "literary material" will not be considered to apply to raw, AI-generated tales under the terms of the contract. This implies that they won't have to compete with machines for screen time. In accordance with their contractual obligations, AI-generated stories will not be regarded as "source" material for novels, video games, or other works that authors may convert into scripts.
If the company they are working for accepts and other requirements are completed, writers have the right under the agreement to employ AI in their workflow. However, businesses cannot demand that writers use AI.
For the first time since the writers reached their tentative agreement, members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists who are still on strike made their way back to the picket lines earlier on Tuesday. They were energised by a fresh sense of hope.
"For a hot second, I really thought that this was going to go on until next year," admitted Marissa Cuevas, an actor who has appeared on the TV shows Kung Fu and The Big Bang Theory. "Knowing that at least one of us has gotten a good deal gives us a lot of hope that we will also get a good deal."
The picket lines for writers had been put on hold, but they had been urged to walk in support of the actors, and several did so on Tuesday, including Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, who as has been doing throughout the strikes, stood with buddy and ER actor Noah Wyle.
Without SAG's exit, Weiner claimed, "We would never have had the leverage we had." "They had a lot of courage to do it."
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios in negotiations, decided to speak with the longer-striking writers first. SAG-AFTRA officials claimed they had not received any approaches regarding the possibility of reopening negotiations. That will probably change soon.
Actors also approved their leadership's request to potentially extend their strike to the lucrative video game industry, which may increase pressure on Hollywood studios to reach a settlement with the actors who provide the games' voices and stunts.
Late on Monday, SAG-AFTRA made the announcement, stating that 98% of its members had decided to strike against video game firms if ongoing negotiations did not result in success.
Stunts, motion capture work, voice performances, and other types of acting can all be used in video games.
Wages, safety regulations, and restrictions on the use of artificial intelligence are some of the topics at stake in the video game discussions that are similar to those in the strike over films and television. Activision, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Take 2 Productions, as well as the video game divisions of Disney and Warner Bros., are among the companies engaged.
In a statement, SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher stated, "It's time for the video game companies to stop playing games and get serious about reaching an agreement on this contract."
A representative for the video game industry, Audrey Cooling, stated that they are "continuing to negotiate in good faith" and have made provisional agreements on more than half of the suggestions put forth.
