Why Writers Are On Strike | FACTUALLY with David A. Goodman and Danielle Sanchez-Witzel
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- Опубликовано: 16 май 2023
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For the first time in over 15 years, the Writers Guild of America is on strike. Your favorite shows and movies are at risk, but so are the livelihoods of thousands of writers, and the future of writing as a viable career. This week, Adam is joined by fellow writers and WGA negotiating committee members Danielle Sanchez-Witzel and David A. Goodman to discuss how we got here, what's at stake, and what needs to happen to secure a sustainable life for writers everywhere.
The joking 7 minutes in about "having one guy in the plane" and "never landing the plane" is what the railroad industry HAS ACTUALLY BEEN DOING for decades years now.
Companies have been pushong for single-man crews and 12-14 hours shifts gor decades now. Trains don't stop at ststions any more. Replacement crews are called up last-minute, trucked out on a 3-4 hour unpaid commute to where the previous crew timed out, and then worked until *they* time out, rinse and repeat.
Is it any wonder the U.S. has 4 derailments per day?
Wait... The U.S. has HOW MANY derailments?
A DAY?!
That is...
...
Wow...
In India, a country who literally got our freedom by calling strike after strike, we have less than derailment a day. Most of them happen in the yard while testing. Last year we had slightly more than a derailment a month(15 in the year) during passenger train and yet every other show on Netflix has to portray India as undeveloped.
I hope the writers win this because if they don't, then it will probably mean the usurping of US democracy by sheer capitalist power.
Well I just made a comment saying this before I read yours, on February 3rd they derailed a massive train carrying so many deadly and hazardous materials ( that that ? BURNED AND BURRIED ? surely there's a better way )
It took a week before anyone heard of anything because they were arresting reporters, ARRESTING REPORTERS !! And nobody's done anything !!
They poisoned the air and the water and they said nothing, thousands of animals died !!
Oh yeah!, They were also doing the whole weather balloon stunt at this point in time, in which I believe must have been a distraction from the like massive disaster ??
@@SkyP9812 last year, more that 1000 derailment happen in the USA, soo yeah, it does better than 1978 but we do not live in 1978
Animator here. It sucks for everyone affected by this, but the writers have the right idea here. The more okay we are to getting paid peanuts, while doing a ton of work without any overtime, the more the big heads(CEOs, presidents, managers) are going to play with cutting you off until they they can get your work for free.
We really need a strong union too. I'm in video games, but same bad workplace practices happen there too.
It seems like these corps want us to compete against each other for a pittance
Agreed. I was a teacher and when we strike, we strike for more than just higher pay. We're fighting for resources.
Another animator here. Agreed. And as much as the industry ripples of any strike are a little worrisome, we can vouch for what happens to your industry if you aren't unified and organized and support. Animation is so heavily outsourced and we never achieved residuals. Of course there are always more fights to be had and gains to be won. This AI fight will definitely go the way the writers are predicting if the media conglomerates are given the opportunity. We can easily point to storyboard artists having to do more key drawings or the entire job of a retake animator. Writers and everyone will benefit from working together to not only secure what they have all ready won but also ensure their jobs exist in the future. The owners of these big companies really just see the end product and numbers, it's up to you to make sure that product is made under good conditions [even if you have a nice boss!]. And it's them who are refusing to come to the table! Hopefully we will see some trust busting soon but we haven't seen it yet and what Adam has been saying about competition, corporate consolidation, and unfettered capitalism rings far too true.
@@smoage This so much. I work in Canada, and we just started forming unions.
Cutting out the writers room explains why so many, particularly Netflix shows, seem to start with an OK premise and shit the bed 1/3rd of the way through.
Bela Bajaria hates writers anyways. No one is safe with her at the helm unless you're running an unscripted show but even they'll meet Bela's axe if the show doesn't check the right boxes.
Netflix went to crap as soon as Bela slept with Ted & convinced him to give her Cindy's job.
Nah, writers are admitting to not watching/reading the source material and wanting to change things up.
@orlock20 If I wasn't paid enought to care, I wouldn't read the source material either
Yup. That’s why I have felt the writing is so bad. But the issue may be inconsistency
I'm a gamer who watches TV maybe three times a year. I fully support writers sticking it to greedy corporations. Everyone should be provided a living wage.
Honestly it's the same in the video game industry especially with the rampant use of crunch and a whole bunch of other awful conditions, which is why the games industry should unionise
The horrible working conditions in the industry gave cold feet about getting into videogame production. 100% agree
Even when the work is not worth a living wage? That's literally the textbook way to create inflation.
@@willjackson5885 not worth a living wage? Who hurt you?
@@willjackson5885 try writing a successful show or movie. Go ahead, try it, then come back and say it's not worth a living wage.
As a college administrator, I am a member of a teachers' union. Yesterday, during the Disney upfronts, I joined my union, my sister and parent union, IATSE, SAG, and others in picketing with WGA members. The solidarity everyone is showing brings a tear of joy to my eye because the issues impacting one of us are the same ones impacting all of us.
I love it! I hope more worthless human beings just like you STAY on strike! Lol. College administrator... tell me you're useless to the world without telling me you're useless to the world.
Adam, I don’t know if you’re going to see this, but as a union man myself, I’m proud to see someone with so much integrity, wit, passion and sincerity fight for other workers! I wish you and the other writers the best, and I hope y’all get even more than you’re asking for!
Adam is coming a long way from learning how to run shows, write, act, and now be a host and producer. It feels like I get to candidly watch him evolve and become experienced over time.
I love to see him grow as well. Really rooting for him.
Same. It's like rooting your BFF on in their career.
It's been a long but beautiful road seeing him go from hobbyist to one of the biggest and vocal voices for Hollywood writers
The airline pilot comparison is terrifyingly real because a lot of companies genuinely do want it. There used to be 3 guys up front, one was the Flight Engineer. By implementing more capable automated systems and better training cockpit crews to work more cohesively airlines were able to achieve "two is greater than one plus one plus one" and an entire position was eliminated.
But going from 3 to 2 is MASSIVELY different than going from 2 to 1. You don't have any capacity to split duties (one pilot doing radios, the other flying and navigating IE) and you don't have anybody to check decisions you make. The airlines are still interested in certifying a lot of their aircraft for single-pilot flight though, because it would be cheaper. It'll start with empty planes being repositioned - "If you don't have passengers it's less of a risk" and then they'll use the safety numbers from those operations to justify that the scope of that should creep out.
And it will be less safe, and also will be catastrophic to the career path of pilots.
Listening to a lot of the complaints of what has been happening to the writers, I am not at all surprised. Y'all may not find this shocking but companies have been trying to do similar things with IT. Have fewer people do the work of staffs that used to be 2-4 times larger. I can't tell you how many companies have burned out IT staff and can't keep people there because of this pressure. They also 'classify' them as management/administration so they don't have to pay over time. They expect you to work on your vacation. IT is desperately in need of unionization.
I think it was 2020 when I bought something on Amazon. 1 month later, I looked at my bank balance and found dome suspicious donations totalling $493
I changed my debit card number, never bought from Amazon since, and never saw any more sus donations since. Hhhmmm... I'm gonna continue my don't-buy-from-Amazon strat. Someone slipped through a loophole before they could close it, it seems. I need to prioritize my money's security
@@philosopherkingzant2037 I think you replied to the wrong post.
@@philosopherkingzant2037 I've been buying from Amazon for years and never had that happen to me. I bet you gave your information to a porn bot.
You're not wrong, but the classification of "exempt" or not is made by the US federal government, not individual companies.
@@IHaveAVeryCommonName That is true companies don't define exempt, but they for sure take advantage of it by expecting 50-60 hours a week to cover up their under staffing. I only ever worked under a fully staffed team twice; back in the early 2000's and a couple of months in the early 2010's. They expect you to be on call 24/7, get pissed that you didn't answer a call at 3AM, and do your work while on vacation. The only time I ever saw management back off was when all of IT almost quit the same day. That caused the CEO to fly out to our offices in the middle of his vacation. Honestly, it was more them buying time till other things played out, namely splitting and selling off the company. To someone worse.
Thank you for amplifying their voice in this fight. America needs more labor strikes if it's going to overcome the lopsided greed our capitalist overlords have obtained.
How are we going to overcome the hoarding of wealth by bargaining with the rich? It’s already 99 percent gone
It's an "Adam gets blacklisted because he's in a commie conspiracy." episode.
He's not only a member, he's part of the negotiation team.
@@drd2093 Firstly, by making sure less of it is called "profit" and hoarded. This is literally what they are doing.
Litterally every communist, anarchist, ect I know understands that demolishing the status quo is done a brick at a time, until large parts start falling.
@@TheCaptainSlappy So I guess you think weekends are for communists and you work 7 days a week, right? how about your 40 hour work week, with extra being overtime? And how about your benefits, those are all fought for by "Communists" as you refer to them. You wouldn't have health, dental, life, workers comp. None of it, without unions who literally died for those things.
Unreasonable, ENTITLED writers these days. Wanting to be paid for every bit of work they do. Think of the billion dollar companies.
had me in the first half not gonna lie
Non-union Troll … yeah yah got me too 😂
A similar thing to what they are talking about at 1:01:43 is happening in translation. Basically, machine translating novels, comics, documents, etc but then a translator is paid to “edit” the machine translation to cut costs. You can’t really edit a translation without having skill as a translator, though. Decisions made by a machine may not be the same as what would be made by a human being, so in the end the “editor” ends up retranslating parts at a fraction of what they would have been paid if they were translating the whole document from raw.
Anybody can make AI scripts to their liking which should be more annoying for both the writers and the studios, Text to speech already exists along with AI generated music and still pictures. AI video has a long ways to go, but it's probably be decent in 10 years. In 20 years, the studios will be dead because people will just type in or say a sentence and up comes an AI generated "TV" show or movie.
It was nice to see Adam on CNN articulating his points.
What does this comment mean?
@@BlueScreenCorp It means CNN had him on a show to talk to him/interview him about the strike.
@@BlueScreenCorp Adam was invited onto CNN to talk about the strike
@@maxsalmon4980 oh that's really cool
@aellyks If there is a story behind it, everything is a narrative, if its something people are working towards everything is an agenda. What's your point? Are pro-billionaires hoarding more wealth? Are you afraid that if networks give up less than a 1/10th of 1% of profit back to the writers that the billionaire owners of these corporations will have to go with out food?
I like watching TV shows and all but I absolutely love when unions go on strike for better wages.
Painter, Poet here. I feel there is a war on creatives in our culture. I hope the writers win this battle.
Keep fighting the good fight. The public largely supports you. We can go without TV for a long as you need!
if only it effected tv writers and tv viewers
Yup prove you are not needed
As a consumer of TV and movies fully support the writers. Compensation should always be fair. Corporations will cut costs anywhere you can, that usually starts with people.
When you've been told for DECADES, that an English major or liberal arts degree is worthless and everyone should "learn to code," yeah, we're gonna end up with a society that thinks what writers do is easy and shouldn't be valued and AI is the solution. It's all connected!
We're gonna end up with a society that's very comfortable looking at writers and artists as fools who picked a foolish career who deserve whatever pennies they get.
People are STUNNED that writers don't want AI to replace them and that we'd strike over it. That we should somehow be grateful that tech and the free market smiled upon us.
Machines can't do what people do. The key to art isn't an algorithm. It's people, creativity, and stability.
Hopefully this WGA strike can bring some attention to the way we treat our country’s artists as a whole. I support every writer on this strike. Get your fuckin money!
We are treated like we are beggars. They want us to produce work for free like we live in a communist country while the rent and the price of groceries constantly soar. It’s disgusting.
@aellyks nah you can take out the quotations they’re artists.
@aellyks also hilarious how you rag on trans people so much in your bio and you look like that. You sure you wanna do that? Who’s coming to you for sexual advice? You look like gollum my dude.
As a Production Assistant for the Director's Guild of Canada, who's out of work because of the strike:
I will take a second job if need be while we wait. Take as long as you need, I know what you're fighting for will ripple so much further.
If we all stand together, they can't stop us.
you are a fool
Lol so how's that strike working out for you? 😅😅
great @@adamclark9004
The time for militant labor action is now in every industry.
100%!
It’s absolutely insane that companies that trade in creativity have to be periodically reminded they have to PAY for it. Good writing makes or breaks shows. Pay your damn talent.
What creativity? What talent? Barely any judging by how much people had given up on television and movies altogether.
@@PungiFungi Been living under a rock have we?
@@quietwulf I see you didn’t refute what I wrote.
@@PungiFungiit's been refuted. The whole point of the strikes is the poor conditions that make quality work impossible. Keep up.
@@snoozyq9576 it has not been refuted when you are the one who brought up talent and creativity and I see you conveniently edited your original comment. Keep up yourself.
I wish the US based VFX artists had a union to fight for these exact reasons. Everything youre fighting for has happened to us in the past 10-15 years. Even though this is the second time Ive lost a job and been stalled in my career due to the writers striking, I wish you guys the best. Don't turn into us, don't get outsourced to Canada! Freelance, no compensation, not enough time, continued changes, and no career development. Beware!
dude, form a union! if you've lived through 2 writers' strikes, you have worked with enough VFX artists and discussed among yourselves the BS that studios pull. you're not some random asshole complaining about your job; you all see the crap you've had to put up with and you are now powerless
same way you back the writers, they will back you
Yea I mean the time to start is now everything will get outsourced to the cheapest places and AI development so that they don’t use human labor if it’s cheaper. Sorry to tell ya but most jobs will probably be lost if a union doesn’t stop this
It'd honestly be better if they do move everything to Canada, since there's stronger union laws up here, and you can't bust a union without getting sued a shit ton.
@@brugai8917It is hard to believe this to be honest. I know this is part of how union busting works, but as a vfx artist you do not feel as part of the movie community.
We take the brunt of the hit when a movie fails, but when it succeeds, vfx is not talked about. The community is mocked by actors writers and producers, instead of integrated. So it is always a struggle to feel solidarity. Even now, what we feel in the strike is not solidarity but layoffs. Loss of opportunities, loss of living.
Also, since this industry is very anti union it is scary to do anything against it.
If you are part of a union, you are blacklisted by companies, if your company is unionized, your company is blacklisted.
The jobs have an easy time going overseas, because noone cares.
Its tough. But i do support the strike, even if it is hard to not fault it to some degree loosing my collegues and friends. I think one has to remember that the strike is not the sickness but its symptom. Its like a fever...
Union power!! We need more strikes in more fields.
I haven't met a CEO worth the money they're paid in years now.
Literally, I'm a low level employee why would they want to meet me? I only have to hear their family name dozen times during advertisements claiming it's a family company...
What they mean when they say they treat you like family is, "welcome to our family! our family is run by multiple mommy dearests. Our specialties are free labor and gaslighting, maybe some traditional abuse sprinkled on top."
It's almost the only thing CEO's do to justify their pay is have the unaccountable ability to unilaterally decide how much of the company money should go to CEO pay.
Which is totally a coincidence and not an obvious example of the disparity of power corporations function with.
Teamster here. Always sad that these companies are so stupid. Not just the film industry either.
Yep. It's effectively infected every other industry. We have the worst income inequality and wealth distribution in history. It's never been this bad.
The problem is the people running these companies are very smart... and aggressively self-interested. They don't mind stomping on workers in order to juice their annual bonus by another 5 million dollars. They *know* they are destroying the long term viability of these jobs as careers... they just don't care, because they will be retiring with 50 million dollars in the bank long before it becomes their problem.
It would be a shame (Sarcasm) if they fell out of a high-rise window
@@TheLandau1894The executive class people I've met would gladly curb stop the grandmas of everyone who worked that the business that executive ran. As long as it meant they personally did better. Ghouls of the highest order and they are rewarded for their ghoulish behavior.
It’s not stupidity but greed
Hell yes, union strong 💪
Apes together strong
Audience here. I 100% support your strike.
I will happily support my local library while I patiently wait for my favorite shows to be back in production - if they do go back. I'm glad the writers are fighting back, and I hope they get their needs met! I love all y'all; you're fabulous and you deserve fair compensation and contracts!
Solidarity to all workers!
I discovered corporate proxy statements, and found out it will take me roughly 300 years to make what my CEO did last year.
id just like to say this is exactly what has happened to our factory industry. we once had good jobs that paid enough to have houses and families. i'm not a writer but we can relate to you. this profit over people version of america has killed the american dream we had. because the dream was achievable but now its not.
Doesn't matter what actors you have in a show, even a director. If you don't have good writers, the show will fall flat. Seeing many show series has made me appreciate great writing and writers deserve good treatment by the media companies.
Man I wish more industries had unions. You get what you've earned!
What I've noticed watching some of the more recent shows on Netflix is that they feel like watching a broken mirror, all these scenes taken from films throughout history and stuck together. It feels Frankensteinian. I can't believe in the characters or get absorbed by the story.
I could care less about my favorite shows, I can wait. Power to the people! Strike as long as it takes to get what you want!!
There's a good reason people refer to ChatCPT as 'plagerism bot'.
Sad that shows I love will likely be canceled because of this, but I stand with the writers.
not sure I do in truth. "i was a coal miner, hard for me to get work" "i was a fisherman" " i was a taxi driver" thats kinda what happens when you have progress and that progress gives more access to something to more people... winners and losers but still progress, we can feel sorry fro them but its 'tough titties" really we move on dont we?
@Paz LeBon except, this is entertainment. Sure we don't need it to survive, but we all want good shows.
You try living without entertainment, and you'll change your tune
@Paz LeBon if there's anyone in the working class you don't stand with there's no one in the working class you stand with.
@@Random_dud31 well the world is your oyster and without us shows there are plenty of(in order of required level of comprehension) : books, non-us tv shows, internet content. Streaming platforms are global and they will manage. That is what changed since the last strike. Ppl have alternatives to fading us content. Who will cry after last season of handmaid tales or any other s-ty one season straight to stream masterpiece? Where is the next west wing (house of cards is an uk remake if you didn't know) or sopranos? I don't think I've seen one good tvshow that I wanted to finish for the last 4-5 years.
@@von1glik as far as I am concerned these writers used their jobs and position to preach to the audience their personal political and social beliefs… hence causing the studio money and driving away viewers. What do they bring to the table to justify their demands? Nothing,
I think it's important to understand the true danger of AI for writing, art, etc is not that it is CAN replace the quality and craft of writers and artists. It only needs to work passably enough to convince an executive person that it the loss in quality and crappy aspect of it is worth the up sides to them of not having to pay or work with actual people.
It's not about AI being able to make something as well as you can, it's about AI being able to make something that LOOKS close enough to an exec that didn't care anyway.
Then there's the plagiarism, perhaps clearest in graphic arts.
It's really not the exec that matters, it's the audience. That's the taste-test -- and we'll get to a point where the audience won't notice, or even care.
The WGA missed an opportunity to take the reins on the AI issue (only ONE of the candidates running in the last WGA election even made it part of his campaign; of course, he lost) going INTO the negotiations. The Guild fumbled, where they should have hired some tech wizards who could have shown how these "tools" could create a mutually beneficial win-win plan to the studios -- protecting writers from plagiarism while still making the studios happy with the investment. That's why the studios countered with the idea of an "annual review" because they thought they were sitting across the table from luddites. The only writer who seems to be making sense out of A.I. is John August, yet he got into hot water over making an A.I. investment (when the WGA should be absolutely praising him for his learning curve).
What's fascinating is that this Strike coincides with the entry of tech firms Apple, Amazon, and Netflix to the bargaining table -- as "stealing" is considered its own art form in tech circles (they like to call it "fair use" and straddle the legal boundaries). But it's murky: Elon Musk was irate that Microsoft was illegally using Twitter data to train its A.I. tools, yet he's right from moral, ethical, and probably legal grounds. And Hollywood's hero Steve Jobs was blatant about stealing and cheating business associates & even said so repeatedly in public. Xerox could have run the tech industry, had they not opened their back-door to Steve Jobs.
The current state of businesses in general is so annoying and disgusting.
It is
depends, still room for mom n pop busineses, everyone wants to rule the world or do nothing at all nowadays
yeah why the hell is it so bad and STILL feels like only a vocal minority is talking about it while everyone else is just satisfied with the status quo
@@PazLeBon Hard to blame you for being affected by propaganda but you couldn't be more wrong about this. Nobody wants to do nothing. That's not how humans work. Lazyiness does not exist. It is a sympthom of other conditions. Everyone wants to do something and find purpose. But for many people this is no longer possible. There is no single person on this planet that wants to do nothing and is considered healthy physically and mentally.
Don't work in the industry, but I've enjoyed the work of writer's my whole life. Made a donation, so thanks for the info at the end. Keep up the great work Adam and co! Solidarity forever!
My union, EIU-UPI, went on strike this spring. I wish you the best of luck.
PayTV was marketed in Australia as ad-free.
Then there were ads for their other channels.
Then there were commercial ads between shows.
For awhile now we've been paying to watch ads.
And people wonder why pirating became so popular 🤨
Netflix starts playing ads during my viewing and I'm out 😤
Very educational. Many industries face similar hurdles where we are forced to turn our professions into no more than gigs.
I truly appreciate everything the Writers Guild members do
Corporate executives are tasked with maximizing shareholder return (as mandated by law) so of course they will seek to cut costs as much as possible. Why do we Americans let that narrow focus (by law) on profits and shareholder return be on the books? There should be a law passed that corporations must be accountable to the public, not just their shareholders. Because right now, corporations are essentially money making machines programmed to only benefit shareholders(and pretend to care about the public but their shareholders are still mandated to be #1.)
You are kicking butt! Its so awesome seeing you fight for the things you have always advocated for.
i'm not able to watch this full thing now, but full solidarity adam! it was really cool to get to see your segment on cnn. i'm hoping the union gets all their demands met and more.
I thought the troubles for writers began when the "show runner" got normalized and lead writer and head producer became one job.
Tons of writers obviously can't handle that kind of workload. Plus, shows by workaholics for workaholics get stale *really* fast.
Funny because the workload and turnaround time at South Park is brutal. From ideas to finish it only takes 6 days. Fucking crybaby
Seems like all the writer's want is fair pay for the work they put in. The companies need to pay.
Adam, we're in the middle of a class war. It's not Red vs Blue, it's the Rich vs YOU.
Do you think he is not rich?
Finally, someone who gets the broader societal concern of this had been rotted away by narcissism and arrogance.
You're pretty much describing the tech industry, maybe not as bad but also not good. There's a systemic issue in all industries where workers are being exhausted and tossed aside like tissue paper. It's going to be a constant battle. You have idiots above you and idiots below you. What do you call it when you are stuck between the upper crust and bottom crust? I don't have an answer, but it feels like a shit sandwich.
the answer truly is solidarity. you might think that you're getting crushed from both sides, but we need to recognize that the real enemy is the CEOs who make $50 mil a year & the corporations bleeding the working and middle classes dry. you have more in common with the low-level hollywood executive making barely above minimum wage, AND the teamster truck drivers on film sets, AND the wga member picketing netflix, than any CEO or corporation. if all workers united, the studios would have to change their tune because their business wouldn't exist anymore. this has been the way through WGA history with the 2007 strikes and earlier strikes, and will continue to be the way as the WGA strikes again.
For the past few years my partner and I have had dozens of conversations about how stories seem to be getting worse and worse in film recently…this really explains a lot, I hope they get more than they originally demanded
I’m glad that this is the start and I know that the SAG strike is coming soon. It’s a little scary how producers would for sure try to replace everyone with AI if it cut their bottom line temporarily. Of course, in the long term it would probably cut off their nose to spite their face, but when has that stopped corporations?
I'm a writer that isn't good enough to make a living from my "skill", and I completely support those who live from writing. You're fighting the good fight, and I want you to win!
Thanks. I cancelled my Netflix account until this is fixed.
Hopefully you will resubscribe once the problem is solved. It's just as important to reward good behavior as is it to punish bad behavior.
@Will Jackson eventually, I honestly hadn't watched them that much in a while. Too busy with work.
Though I get the suspicion it's not going to be a good deal for the writers.
Thank you Adam for this wonderful video. If I lived in u.s I'd come to see your comedy shows asap. You're one of the best people I've found through online. You give me so much knowledge, motivation and hope with your shows. And laughs!!
Hold the line folks! Now if only we can a strike rolling for educators. It sucks cze it's an industry that I'm personally really interested in venturing into. But the pay is so shit, that I don't think I can do it regardless of how much I care about kids.
When it got to the advice thing I was expecting resources for how to make my own union or some advice for what to do if you live in a right to work state. Instead I got “we need donations please donate”. Both are fine, but I would have liked more actionable advice for me, someone who can barely make ends meet, and certainly cannot afford to contribute to the writers strike even if I want to.
Combating the media spin of "the strike is hurting your favorite tv shows, bad writers!" with "the companies hurt your favorite tv show because they dont want to pay a fair wage" is a way to support this strike without donating. Also google IWW, industrial workers of the world, for your union needs. I hope you stay afloat!
Anyone vs. the current corporate ownership of our lives has my support.
every profession should have a union, the government will never decide to make laws to protect the workers (that stick and don't get taken away from a future administration)
Acting and editing can improve a movie from it's script, but it can only do so much. Good products need good stories, and for that you need good writers, who deserve to be well paid.
First they need to write shit that is going to make money. Too many projects are losing a shit ton of money
@@thumper84 Bad writing doesn't always originate from the writer. Sometimes it comes from editorial mandate interference from cast and crew, or people just being bad at their jobs.
What we see is the end result of a process.
Been waiting for this one!!! Thank you for this insight Adam ❤
Great job guys! I swear my next job will be a union job. Having to fight for a pay raise every year suxs and having leadership always crying that they can't increase a person's salary suxs. I haven't gotten an increase in salary in 3 years going on 4 years now. Smh.
Yet, all the Executives and VPs always get their pay raises.....
@@briankulesz9410 Yet, inflation keeps going up too for the working population.....
We're coming into an age in which Intellectual Property will out-value physical products/services provided by AI and Automation. Plutocrats have been preparing for this, attempting to devalue creators in order to reap the profits of their IP.
This is easily observed in film, where big-budget films with bad writing do not have NEAR the ROI that a low-budget film with great writing has.
This frightens them, since the quality of the product is no longer in their hands, rather it's dependent upon the creators: Owners and Executives HATE "super-makers" that can bring clout and influence to the negotiating table: Ryan Reynolds, Spielberg, Bay, Wachowski's etc. so they're trying to prey upon "then next Spielberg" before they're famous, then discard them for the "next-next spielberg" and so on, getting spielberg products for indie prices from someone who has to serve coffee to make ends meet.
Good episode. Extremely well written. Definitely worth compensating.
Thanks for the transparency, Adam!
I smirk any time I hear companies with record profits treat their employees badly. Yeah, how do you think they got those profits? By cutting costs, baby! God forbid the CEO needs to share his multi-million-dollar earnings. The video game industry is currently going through the same process. Those big corporations need to fail and fail hard, implode, in order for something to change, but it almost seems less likely the bigger they are...
I support the writer's strike! Good media is important to the mental health and education of the population. You make that gig work and we're all going to lose something golden.
Please spread the word about the power of unions!
Strikers, also mention that theater workers who sell the tickets, get the lowest wages and benefits allowed by law!
Thanks for this. As a budding writer/producer, this strike is so important. Lots of things I thought about what's happening in terms of writers getting paid, isn’t true. You guys put it out there. AI can't replace human creativity and creatives should be paid fairly as long what they're creating is being displayed. Writers create the world people get lost in. We can’t let greed take over. Please keep fighting. Most creatives want to just make a living doing what we ❤and be able to live comfortably on what we're making. Thanks Adam!
As someone in graphic design I'm really rooting for you guys. People don't realize AI isn't just stealing artists work, they're stealing any photo people have online. Your kids could easily end up as background people in advertisements. It's disgusting.
First off, that's why I don't post photos online and never have. Even before AI was a major consideration, I understood that when you post photos (particularly to social media) you give control of them to Big Tech.
But second, and more importantly, we need to stop limiting our discussion about job loss to AI, and start talking about automation in general. Automation has been stealing people's jobs for centuries now, but typically those jobs have been low wage, blue collar jobs. The ironic part is that automating those kinds of jobs is significantly harder than automating away the jobs of writers, graphic designers, programmers, etc. And I am saying this is a programmer and automation engineer. I think there's something deeply hypocritical about focusing on AI, because it's focusing on white collar job loss while ignoring blue collar job loss.
I don't think it's reasonable to for writers to say 'You have to agree not to automate our jobs away' any more than it would for auto welders to say 'you have to stop using welding robots.' We need a plan for how to take care of displaced workers, particularly those whose jobs have been automated away. That plan simply cannot be 'protect white collar workers from job loss with laws and industry regulations, but tell blue collar workers they need to learn to code.'
@@notnotkevinjohn very true, but they can also lose jobs due to AI. The self driving cars that companies lied about in order to get permission to test on city streets threatening truckers/trash collectors. Drones delivering packages threatening delivery drivers. It's all connected. Much of the tech industry as a whole is causing the largest disruption. Even Amazon is technically software and they devastated physical stores/those that worked there. There's not much difference between AI and automation to me as I understand it though I may be missing something. Let's not forget monopolies as well. Even if we save all jobs it won't matter while congress does nothing to break up the giants. (also I assume your profile pic isn't u then common, but a touch creepy no offense intended however.
@@animeyay4 none of what you just said really engaged with or challenged my point about the hypocrisy of demanding protections from automation for white collar workers, but not demanding such protections for blue collar workers.
Corporations, and society at large, need to accept that human work (creatives, healthcare, education, care work, etc) does NOT and CANNOT function like machines. And machines can assist but can’t replace the human workers. These jobs require slack and flexibility to provide quality goods/services
And broke people need to understand there is more to running a successful business than kissing some union members ass and over paying them.
Maybe future video about the Military Industrial Complex?
Pertaining to AI replacing writers, you'll get things that sound like a conversation, but doesn't have a story or lineage or anything.
The wall street journal ran a story earlier about a former chief digital officer, Atif Rafiq, at McDonald's and Volvo said that AI is coming for white collar jobs. Jobs like accountants and lawyers and programmers, but not those white collar jobs that make around 100K USD a year and above, but definitely those below. And, if you read that, you'll ask yourself "What lawyer, accountant and/or programmer doesn't eventually make 100k a year?" But the other question is, "But those are the people that actually do the work. Why are they the white collar jobs that are being replaced by AI and not the white collar jobs whose main task has just become telling people and directing them on market trend? You know, that ones that can be easily be replaced *now*?" And when you have that question in your head, the statement from this former chief digital officer reads like "All other jobs can be replaced with AI, but not mine though. Because the work can be done by AI, but definitely not my job because I make too much money. The companies will replace them because it saves them money, but definitely not my job because I make too much money."
And, when you read it like, it sounds like the people that can be replace is trying to replace other people so they aren't replaced.
So, for everyone reading this, let me put this idea into your head. Why aren't the board of directors of companies using AI to replace CEO's and CFO's and saving themselves... (checks the annual salary of Activision Blizzard CEO, and known horrible CEO who does more harm than good, Bobby "Devil horns" Kotick) 3 millions dollars in salary and... (checks further) 22 million in bonuses annually? 25 MILLION USD annually by just replacing 1 person! Imagine if they replaced more of the higher up staff. How much money can save if replaced more than 1 of the people in those positions. That's on TOP of not having the risk of s*xual assault allegations (Bobby Kotick), fraud (Elizabeth Holmes), embezzlement (Sam Bankman-Fried), etc.
So, yeah, think about that. Why not replace those people instead of writers and lawyers and programmers with AI and save TENS TO HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS a year AND produce good products/content AND not have to fight bad publicity AND not be open to having your company dragged through the mud because the head of the company is a sleazy person? It's just math and good business.
Love this! Would also love interviews with other crew affected by the strike. Post production members etc. the news just focuses on writers but the seeing how the whole community is working through this would be great.
Union Strong is the way to go! Thank you for all that you do to get the word out and I hope the bargaining goes well for the writers guild! 💗💪
This is a fascinating topic about what AI can and can't do. I have used neural machine translation (NMT) in my translation work, and while what it can do is impressive, it is not a human level: there is no "tone" or style, there is no voice. There is no intent. There is no problem solving when the interface between languages leads to very intricate problems that machines, even ChatGPT, cannot solve in a satisfactory way. That doesn't mean they aren't useful. But tool that simply takes what has been said in the past, but what is said in the past often has no bearing on now or the future. There is no ability to coin new terms, see ahead to what's coming. The AI that would be able to create TV shows that people watch would basically look exactly like TV shows that have already been done, and that's not how the culture market has ever worked. While successful shows and movies are indeed formulaic, there always has to be a twist, a fresh perspective, something novel, to hold people's attention. Perhaps AI can take over the some of the formulaic aspect of writing -- for example, if you are a writing a Murder Mystery, it can give writers a checklist of obligatory scenes and genre-specific attributes -- but a human will have to take it from there to inject creativity that simply can't be parroted.
I personally do not get a lot of pushback from clients when I tell them I do not revise machine translations for less money and I explain why: NMT only gives you one translation option, not the many a real translator needs to go through to arrive at the "right word." NMT does not usually localize to a given region (at least for the moment). NMT does not know the evolving terms in a given industry or sector, only what was used in the past. NMT does not understand context and so must be carefully revised down to the last word. If I am for every word in a text, whether I have typed the word or not, then I am charging for that word. The client is paying for expertise and not for a glorified dictionary looker-upper.
In the entertainment industry, even if AI can be applied in certain cases, it should be to alleviate the physical demands of writing so that writers can spend more time on complex, creative problem solving. That creative problem solving is where the compensation comes in. Writers are not being paid simply to type.
Inability of auto readers in audiobooks to pick correct pronunciation from context (read, bow), read abbreviations naturally (street versus saint or just s - t), put conventional use of numerals into flow of text (gun caliber in murder mystery); show how lack of human comprehension degrades not just product but interpersonal communication:
I swear I've been "helped" by foreign customer service agents who learned English from an auto reader, and at least once I was sure I heard a segment of auto reader extrapolated from the voice sample of someone who learned English from an auto reader!
That last was only useful because the poster had added captions.
I feel this shows how far from intelligent "AI" really is, and highlights real concerns about the trend of squeezing humans out of jobs which won't be done with comparable quality.
I wish the CGI people had an effective union to fight for them. I hope you all get what you need.
I hope the writers use their powers to push for a general strike. EAT THE RICH!! Game developers, and programmers of all sorts, are already in the position that writers are being pushed too. Big tech might be a much tougher fight though. Maybe a push for universal income would be cool!
You can tell this is a weird country when you have to explain how strikes and guilds work and what they're there for...
OMG PARENTS my mom’s response yesterday about Sag strike “Didn’t they go on strike few yr ago!?” and I was like nope that was WGA then she text”Oh well! Life goes on& as an actor not much can be done ! Love you sweetheart ! Have goodnite” and I had no words
Glad you did this interview. I'm not strongly union, but when those with the power can't seem to get past their own egos and greed, we have to band together to stand up and represent. That's the whole idea of a democracy.
I certainly didn't know some of these issues that the writers were facing. I always thought that was the whole point of financing motion picture productions--so people could get paid in a timely manner and get other things that they should to make their work reasonable and productive.
Omg. This is happening in every industry it's all about corporate profits. I've been a manufacturing for 25 years and it's all about the corporate profit it's not about the workers. This is just another industry that maybe is finally waking up to it
We really need a writers guild for video games. The writing in games has gone way down probably because of the consequences of whats going on with tv/movie writers.
Serious question from someone who doesn’t know how these things work: is there any reason video game writers can’t be covered by the WGA, beyond “it hasn’t come up yet”?
@@GaraksApprentice Wasn't a medium when the Union was created, thus kinda hard to shoehorn in without getting rid of the "traditionalists" that every Union has.
Yup please negotiate yourself out of s job.
All intellectual rights, and properties need to be protected!
Feel like the Videogame industry needs to follow suit. The Crunch culture in there seems totally nuts.
Yes
The video game industry should have been started a union. I've heard from people first hand how they're treated.
Solidarity with writers. DGA & SAG-AFTRA needs to stand with WGA on new AI and residual standards. The three can force streaming services to reveal viewership metrics.
They want their residuals too so I am sure they will continue to stand with them
I really enjoyed watching this video! The way Adam Conover presents the information is entertaining and informative. I'm excited to support the show on Patreon and see Adam on tour. Thanks for sharing!
grab-em-by-the-contract! This IATSE member supports the WGA!
After the TV and film writers get all of their protections, we need to talk about publication, especially in regards to comic books for writers and artists alike, who are being taken advantage of by the exact same companies that are doing this to WGA members remember, this 100 day is from now
Terrific summary of the issues WGA is facing. Thanks for sharing, Adam!
So stupid to have so few writers in production and post-production. Stuff happens during production. Imagine if one of the actors got injured, sick, or even died during filming of a season. You want to put it all on one person to rewrite around that? I'd draw a comparison to grocery stores. They're cutting down cashiers to the absolute minimum that they can get away with before customers start getting too impatient and the cashiers burn out. They push people to use self checkout and have like 2 staffed registers open at best.
Thanks for your upload.
Not in your industry, but with you in Solidarity. ATU Local 583, Calgary, Canada. Godspeed!
All the way with you, writers! Stay strong!
The example being set by the WGA is a great illustration of worker power across the board. Recognise & understand your value to the company or industry you work for, and if you aren't being fairly compensated for your work, shut that shit down.
Writers have spent the last 5 or 6 years heavy handedly shoving their politics into every script and franchise and been self righteous about it. There isn’t going to be a public outcry this time to force the studios to negotiate. The studios were more than happy to let this happen.
This is an incredibly inspiring interview. Thank you, Adam.
You have the AMC Apes support 💪
Thanks for sharing 🥰