The fact that UPS workers are unionizing and that Amazon employees are trying to is the one single thing giving me hope in this country, since this wasn’t a thing 2 years ago.
To be clear: UPS workers have been unionized a long time running. This most recent action was just regarding re-negotiating their contract. And, after almost striking, they ended up getting almost everything they were asking for!
to anyone reading the comments I wanna emphasize how important it is to donate to strike funds. a strike fund is how long a strike can go. once they run out of cash, it’s over and they have to concede to AMPTP. the more money the union has, the longer it can provide for its members.
A friend of mine once said "You should never piss of creative people - you'll see how it will backfire once they target their creativity at YOU" and I feel like that is happening right now. This Hollywood strike is making WAVES, even into my rural little hometown in Germany and it makes my heart sing edit: Just popping back in with a little update. I'm a writer. (not for screenplays though, but) I had several moments over the last weeks with friends/family who never "got" what I'm doing as an author, the typical "how is that a job" or "how is that important" stuff. But now they get it, because they see and feel how their day to day looks like without the hard word of artists and writers - because their favorite shows are canceled/delayed/on hold and suddenly ("suddenly") it affects them (I don't want this to sound cynical, it's actually a very awesome thing to see - i was speaking to a wall with some of these people for 25 years, but this strike is the thing that finally got them to listen).
I'd love if socialism makes huge waves due to these strikes, imagine a world where the US pivots from being ultra-capitalist to being socialist - that was literally impossible just 6 months ago, but now you can at least imagine it happening, actually.
I am not sure why we don't see countless ai generated articles and pictures of pure scandalous gossip about the same executives done by Someone just to show how fast it is to generate things that can damage our culture and personal lives.
It's funny, the new Film Theory video appeared just before this one, and seemed to be about a similar topic. But of course Matpat is VERY pro-corporate and barely mentions creators - the strike is entirely ignored - so it makes an interesting contrast. I prefer Serge, obviously, like all good commies should.
I think it's probably more that people know the perspective of the creators, but MatPat focuses on the technical aspects that would involve the companies
@@SIZModig That makes sense - I didn't mean to imply he was anti-union. And it's actually a pretty good video. I just commented because of the contrast with Serge's video.
I work as a writer (not WGA) and our studio recently evaluated if we could use AI to help with some repetitive/boring parts of our work. Even for the smallest, most benign pieces of writing, it spat out mostly unusable material. "Painful cliché-riddled thing" is a good way to put it. In the end, we found it faster to write things ourselves than go through a bunch of AI iteration loops to get barely serviceable results. AI is really, really not there yet in terms of replacing professionals. It can barely crack amateur level.
I am currently rebuying my entire DVD collection that I got rid because I thought it was pointless to have. For a while I felt stupid for my devotion to my collection of physical media and now I feel stupid that I didn’t see this coming and got rid of it.
@@emmy8526 Yeah, I have been mostly rebuying them from the library sales. $2 at the most unless it's a tv show. Hasn't hurt the my bank account too much!
@@pastlife960No. Really explain it to the person who asked rather than give a non-answer. If one puts forward a claim, then one should be able to explain it.
@@mikespearwood3914 ok then. The anti-SJW crowd is largely populated by a fetid nest of reactionary conservatives who seem to want to do everything in their power to make the lives of minorities more difficult and maintain the status quo of white-cis-het-male domination, whilst also just being plain rude and unpleasant people to boot. If you define yourself as opposing people who are fighting for justice then I have very little time for you.
@@mikespearwood3914 We generally like social justice (organized labor, for example) and think it's a good thing to advocate for. Therefore we don't really like to watch people who rant against social justice, or against outspoken social justice advocates. 👍
Another critical way these writers and actors can keep holding out is if bigger industry names who have the means also contribute to mutual aid funds. I know Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson donated 6 figures, and Seth Macfarlane contributed a million out of pocket to mutual aid funds. A lot of them are openly pro-strike anyway and are capable of making contributions that can keep the roves over multiple people’s heads.
Or high paid actors can take less money in future work for the rest of the cast to get paid more. You won't see many do that, though. These donations to them are equivalent to the slap on the wrist fines criticized in this video. It's just a show to cement their fanbase. It's just like Dwayne's old boss Stephanie said. "philanthropy is the future of marketing".
@@davidsimmer431 yes but individual donations give those actors the power to control where the money is going, and therefore make sure that it’s going to the people who need it. If it’s simply declined that autonomy is surrendered and executives and producers can say “Fine. If you wont accept the money, we’ll just keep it for ourselves. You can’t make us give it to them.”. Money is only going to go to strikers if it’s kept out of executives hands as much as possible and high earring actors already given money is a channel of wealth executives have bo control over.
@@davidsimmer431Yeah, I think that’s what a lot of people are missing it’s just not the executives. Like Ryan Reynolds and Emily Blunt don’t need to be paid 20 million plus a percentage of the profits. The pay of the top actors has become overtop.
@@davidsimmer431 You're proposing that big name actors follow the example of Keanu Reeves? (Donated a portion of his salary for The Matrix to complete the sfx for the film, and intentionally took a lower salary for The Replacements (ironically, in this case, a film about crossing the picket line to favor the owners) so they could afford to get Gene Hackman, etc)
@@eldorados_lost_searcher No, donations are a temporary solution. Just executives and and high payer celebrities need to be paid less and that money goes towards the rest of the crew. It need to a systematic restructuring of pay.
This sounds so much like a 99% invisible podcast I just heard- titled something like "the year the music stopped". Records were new technology in 1942 and artists weren't getting paid for every play on the radio, so they stopped recording. The big studios refused to budge and pay residuals, while the new and tiny recording studios had time to swoop in and sign new artists. It led to the rise of a new sound. Swing and jazz.
You know that scene in the recent Flash movie with Barry Allen looking out into the multiverse and it reveals those “cameos” that were all CGI? It might as well have been us, the audience, looking into the future and seeing what cinema is going to look like if the SAG-AFTRA strike terms aren’t met by the studios. And frankly, if that’s what it’s going to look like, then we really are doomed.
Absolutely loved this video and agree with pretty much everything in it. As a socialist myself I’m clearly more in favor of just getting rid of this disgusting economic system of senseless exploitation all together, but what is happening in Hollywood is just the stupidest version of the issues of capitalism. I don’t know if these CEOs heard but, nothing out of their studios is actually useful enough to justify paying for it as it gets worse. That’s why their infinite growth model makes no sense. Who is gonna pay for AI generated garbage when we don’t even need it to survive and we can find free or less expensive entertainment everywhere else? Especially with how inflation and bad salaries induced by the same class of people are beating everyone’s ass, if the quality decreases drastically and people can barely afford to live, their platforms are the first thing people are gonna cut as people will continue making more interesting alternatives. I legit stopped paying for all of those platforms and hearing about the strike and the prices don’t make me want to go back. Do they think their old catalogues are enough to make people stay when it has already been pirated to death? Or did they look at people paying for well crafted human made projects and just assumed they would get the same reactions from their AI non sense ad vitam eternam. Even the MCU is losing steam. Their plan just doesn’t make a leak of sense long term because it’s based on the idea that people who are getting poorer and poorer will keep paying for inferior content they don’t need. Like it’s so obvious it can’t last. They can keep their one man garbage factories, the billions of us who are suffering under capitalism can find something else to have fun with.
Right? Like that's the problem with that right there. They think they can squeeze us all forever, but eventually it becomes trying to get blood from a stone.
Given enough time, we'll eventually be at a place where you can make your own AI generated movies at home anyway, so the only edge at that time will be the one and most important thing: Quality. Pay people to create better art.
You know there’s an idea from Jonothan Hickman’s Powers of X that feels strangely relevant here: that AI wasn’t so much an invention of one particular person as it was a discovery, like fire. We’ll have to figure out how to deal with and regulate it one way or the other. Especially the regulate part
As an Aussie DVD & Blu-Ray collector and lifelong Disney fan, I'm guttered, saddened, and angered by the news that Disney plans to stop making physical media in Australia. The fact that they did it just so they could avoid paying writers and actors residuals just angers me even further. I hope to GOD they reverse this decision.
My only hope is that this fever continues to catch fire. We need it now more than ever as we tumble closer and closer to collapse. Something has to break and I think we're starting to see the cracks.
I love that you did this. Your takes are so thoughtful, and yet you always bring out the sass and pettiness that we're all feeling to address whatever issues you're talking about. Reminding me with every video why I subscribed.
I've been having an awful feeling about this for a while, that film and the arts as a whole are the last industry with a true technical hurdle to automation. Once everything can be automated, the rich will see no use for anyone other than themselves to exist on this planet and leech off their precious resources. The alternative, industries run for and by their employees that would be willing to share the rewards of automating some tasks, sounds a lot more appealing.
No, they are the first after mechanical work, the last one will be the less profitable, like care workers, and the very last actual decision-making like being an executive because of legal issues, but let's see maybe capitalists will not be able to stop and automate themselves.
Yes, and I think it's just that bad. We call it a capitalist society, but it's not, it's a capitalist system. Workers (most of society) are no longer part of it because they can't actually "use" it in any meaningful way. A "capitalist" is someone who has enough money to use the system to make more, unlike a worker who is locked in to a relatively fixed wage. The current system now almost wholly functions as "the rich get rich and the poor get poorer". The poverty strata grows larger and larger even as the production increases along with the wealth. But the wealth is funneled almost directly to the top. On the surface this seems to be a self-defeating system, because "who will be left to buy the products workers produce" when everyone is poor? But that isn't the end-stage of capitalism. Rather, money, as they say, is power, and power is what is left in the end. The rich have everything and control everything, including whether the rest of us subsist through their largess, or we simply starve to death because "there isn't enough money" for us to live on. In the end, ironically, the rich won't need to be rich, just in control. Money is hardly money anymore, anyway. It's all digital records, an electronic registry of who's got more power and influence than who among the elite. Power is their real "capital", backed by the wealth we created. And power is the opposite of money: you gain more power by "spending" it. We don't count except as mining tailings of the system, the inevitable waste product until the mining operation is completed and there is nothing left to extract. Necessary production for the elite will, of course, continue, but how necessary will the ordinary person be? It isn't just AI or its precursor, automation, that renders us "useless", but that the majority of the population is simply no longer needed by the elite to support them, and their attitude is that they are supporting us until they can get all the wealth that we created and all the power we once shared.
@@matheusvillela9150 idk if i’d agree tbf, the downsides outweigh the upsides imo, but then again in a Star Trek utopian sort of regulation and governing, it does seem like it’d have a lot of benefits, I’m all for increasing AI use in science, the way its so useful in medicine is the one thing im super grateful for. But now, unregulated, the way criminals can use it to imitate and blackmail literally anyone, its insane, the way its been reported to be used for child porn, or deepfakes, or even phishing. You can literally fake politicians by voice and face,
I don't completely know the Star Trek timeline, but I believe the basic structure of their communist utopia predated powerful AI in that universe. You can have AI that helps humanity... if you have things like universal basic income and a high wealth tax. If people don't have to work to eat, then it is fine for as many jobs as possible to be done by robots and humans can work because they love it. Or for something extra. But not basic necessities. Working for basic necessities only works for enough people to ignore the ones for whom it fails as long as we need labor from that many people.
I also love the idea of having a shot to the arm of indie studios for another reason: budgets. Some of the most beloved or cult classic films were made on razor-thin budgets. The magic really happens when you can’t just throw money at a problem. You get filmmakers thinking creatively and critically about the best way to fix an issue. I think we’re starving for things that feel human. It’s like all we’ve been seeing is slick and impersonal stuff onscreen. When we do see something that is clearly *crafted*, it’s refreshing. My friend has an amazing collection of mugs. Some ironic, some great vintage pieces, some are souvenirs. But her favourite is a handmade one where the potter’s fingerprints are visible on the handle. I think that encapsulates it well.
Holy shit I never thought about ur vision #2. Its such a realistic and pragmatic, not even too optimistic/naive, possible future that would still be good. I thought the options were mostly negative, that corporations would still find way to avoid human input. But considering A24 has been such a huge hit as of recent, really doing well with audiences consistently, or at least more consistent than the hate thrown towards the big corporations pretty frequently. And those Indie movies can be pretty big hits, I think plenty people will prefer that, and we can go back to studios competing for originality, rather than banal IP’s. Indie companies can take the role that studios used to in the pre-2000s, not perfect, but a competition of creativity, the way markets ideally should work.
Great essay! And I think it's time for the "Studio" system to collapse. I have no interest in going to see the latest fare from these studios, the endless reboots, remakes, reimaginings, re-etc. There are libraries of new content to be used and adapted into the audio-visual medium, and they won't touch it for fear of failure, to they re-do old IPs and make them fail, (I'm looking at Disney really hard here). I'm rooting for the independents to take over now. The technology is available to help smooth production. Big profits are available when production costs are low, my favourite example is Mad Max for this, being an Aussie. Miniscule budget, massive profits, because it was new, and ended up spawning a raft of copies, but still… … and perhaps, as a side benefit, we could have some entertainment that contained less contemporary political messaging. Sometimes, watching entertainment is an escape, not an opportunity to be preached to.
Imagine if AI generators had to list every piece of art they took from the generate their version. Thinking of it as plagiarism technology really changes the vibe.
then they could find the right words and make incredible masterpieces about the importance of understanding things to find the right words and make good art.
I think that first idea you mention, the customizable black mirror one is still a possibility. It just shouldn't exist on its own. It should be a premium product and everyone should get their dues from it. It *can* exist fairly, it's just that the world of labor has to be fair first. It should exist the same way choose your own adventure books exist, or how watching someone's let's play of a game doesn't dissuade you from buying the game and playing it yourself. You still buy games you've never seen other people play, you still expect (even if it isn't true) that a lot of the money you spend on it goes to the people who made it so compelling or detailed. You still buy books that aren't "customizable" or "choose your own adventure" because writers can go places or challenge you in ways you couldn't imagine up for yourself. Really I think the idea would die on its own because people would still he writing fanfiction other people would enjoy more than their own "fanfiction". The sharing of ideas and stories will always be entertaining. Making your own only goes so far, especially when you have to put less time and effort into it. Inspiration is the drug. Being inspired by other people's creations. And an AI made stories can't imitate that.
So very very happy to see a new video from you. I'd welcome a walk and talk video describing a neighbourhood. Whatever interests you. You're very interesting and good company.
Hi man, I just discovered your channel yesterday and I've almost binge watched every video. Absolutely love your video on lost world colonialism. It's what I wanted to do my Master's dissertation on before I swapped to a different topic and it gave me a weird view into what my own dissertation could've looked like. I was wondering, do you plan to also do a video in that style for every King Kong movie? (Or media like you did with The Thing?). It's the IP that started my desire to write about it because I have such complex feelings over their strengths and issues because I grew up with them, similar to your experience with lost world media in general, its why those videos especially really spoke to me. PS you also made me watch Dinosaurs so I hope you're happy. Gave me binge material to last a while.
I actually DO plan on doing a video about every adaptation of King Kong, but more from the perspective of "Every single one of them picks wildly different messages to try and communicate."
@@coldcrashpictures Sounds perfect! I shall await with maximum excitement. I'm so glad to have discovered your channel! PS I recommend trying the videogame they made for the PJ movie. It was surprisingly good in my opinion and ahead of its time in some aspects. Also has a fucking wild official name: Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie ™ which I love to meme to death
I really like the way you communicate. I consider myself a communist and I too try to educate myself and others to promote a better world but I lack the "tone" of your discourses. You are absolutely radical and hold no punches but at the same time your message comes in like a soft breeze during summer. When I talk to someone and try to present my points, many times I came as harsh and provoque a defensive attitude but I reckon you have much more success in talking to people that don't align with you but can be persuaded. After all the flattering let me just add a point to your essay. In a communist system there's no point to luddism! All the cool tech would be on service of the people instead of the few so it's perfectly compatible. For example, IA could make making movies more accesible, stream services could make watching them more convenient, all of this without impacting the salaries/quality of life of the industry workers. Tech is not the problem, capitalism is (as you know and remind us in almost every video, a fact that I love). Keep being you, I really admire you as a person. #SupportTheUnions
Dude my parasocial relationship with you got very deep. Very intense one way friendship, good job. So well made and better articulated than I could possibly say.
When entire movies can just be spit out by a computer with extremely minimal human input, I'm not sure what these studios think we will actually need them for at that point. Seems like a bit of a critical flaw in the plan.
Im glad you're one of the few big RUclipsrs that actually has researched the context to why this happened. Im tired of seeing too many bad faith actors trying to degrade any form of unionized movement. They need us more than we need them. Movements like this scare them because they become reminded of that fact.
Ahh can't believe this video got age-restricted, I get so excited every time you post. For now I'm just going to have to like it while I figure out how to trick youtube into thinking I'm 18, but keep up the good work, I love this channel!
As a side note, really want to shotout the Simone because holy moly, when all this sprouted that was THE film on my mind, not to mention how it's practically lived rent free in my thoughts since the first time it came out. As an indie writer in the game field, the concern trickles to several out creative neighborhoods, and it's been an experience watching how things may go in hopes it'll definitely become a more supportive place to navigate for all of the artists and creatives out there. Vision 2 could truly make waves!
I love that you gave yourself time to dream of a more hopeful future. It's so easy for us to dismiss hope as naivete, but it really is an important, revolutionary emotion.
SAG-AFTRA seems to be a little different than other unions at the moment. I've been following notable contract negotiations in the U.S. and Canada, and there's not just been an uptick in strikes, but an uptick in Tentative Agreements that Union Memberships have turned down. SAG-AFTRA leadership seems in tune with the membership, but in other Unions, the leadership is out of step with their memberships. As an old Union Rep, it seems to me Unions are being handed the opportunity of a couple of generations, and they are for the most part fucking it up. I expect that to change when leadership election time rolls around. High Time.
this is an absolutely brilliant summary of the situation at hand, and too calm and well researched to qualify as a rant i think. more people need to see this. the big studios absolutely can and will lose this thing if they keep trying to hold out. they are nothing without the creativity of the people who make their films.
Excellent! are captions coming? (a lot of people in my various online circles are deaf, hard of hearing, or have audio processing disorder, and I'd like to share this with them)
@@iknowyouwanttofly Not at the moment, but I am able to, if I have a script. It's tedious, fiddly, work. But it's not complicated. I've made them for my own videos in the past.
17:19 Considering how gun-shy Warner has been since their latest flurry of mergers, if I had to pick the weak link in the big studios, I'd pick them. But if we get a second coming of mid budget indie films, I'm all for it.
Sorry, like most of society, I'm struggling to find much care at all. Comparing the low quality coming out of current era writers rooms to the art of Renaissance is laughable. It's more McDonald's than art. Where was the concern when businesses were shut down while they were working? Small business owners were going bankrupt, employees out of work, while Hollywood ramped up compassionless political rhetoric and lecturing. During the last strike, people cared. Not this time. As I go to work and pay my bills without worry, I just want all the activists in Hollywood to remember, "we're all in this together."
What did you expect underpaid actors unions to do about a global pandemic? Feed the fucking five thousand? Stop working at all and join in your suffering out of solidarity? Strike for every other industry on Earth? which not only is not how strikes work, and so could not have worked, but would have capsized their own industry in the process?
Another really thoughtful, well articulated, insightful, helpful creation Serge! Thanks for taking time to make it. I loved the advice to support assistance funds. Didn’t know they existed, makes sense though, as so many others groups have them too. I agree on the second future and am optimistic that people will help it come to be reality in whatever small way we can. Gotta say this, capitalism is not all bad when greed does hijack souls to put profit above all else. Those smaller studios are still trying to make a living for all involved while making a good product too. We consumers need to be wiser which you say well. Who is the old guy with potty mouth you quote at the end? I don’t recognize him.
17:47 I am very tired of people misreading what it is happened between the Teamsters and UPS. What the union and UPS have agreed to is called a TENTATIVE AGREEMENT meaning that the Union and UPS came to an agreement that will then be voted upon by every rank-and-file worker at UPS. The contract is not passed until it gets a majority vote by the rank-and-file members.
CGI _did_ put people out of work, though - model makers, painters, carpenters, matte artists, puppeteers, animatronics experts, prop makers, etc, etc, etc.
Like Gloomdrake said, spread the word. Even if you're just reblogging stuff on your social media, keeping the strike in people's minds is great because it reminds them that it's ongoing and worth supporting. If you hear people complaining about it going on to long, (gently) let them know why it's important and that there are so many other ways for them to find media they love.
Just so you know the contract for UPS hasn't actually been approved yet. The Teamsters members are voting on it right now. Won't know if the contract is approved till the 22nd of August.
I cannot help myself but be optimistic about vision 2; I will be entering the workforce in two years after I finish my education, and the buzz about unions invigorates me to join one. The capitalistic world we currently live in makes me pessimistic and depressed about the future, but with the fervor around this movement, it gives me hope. Thank you for brightening my outlook on the future, at least for now.
The fact that UPS workers are unionizing and that Amazon employees are trying to is the one single thing giving me hope in this country, since this wasn’t a thing 2 years ago.
To be clear: UPS workers have been unionized a long time running. This most recent action was just regarding re-negotiating their contract. And, after almost striking, they ended up getting almost everything they were asking for!
What wasn’t a thing 2 years ago? Striking? You can’t possibly be serious.
"Punishable by fine just means legal for rich people." That hits :(
to anyone reading the comments I wanna emphasize how important it is to donate to strike funds. a strike fund is how long a strike can go. once they run out of cash, it’s over and they have to concede to AMPTP. the more money the union has, the longer it can provide for its members.
Entertainment Community Fund.
A friend of mine once said "You should never piss of creative people - you'll see how it will backfire once they target their creativity at YOU" and I feel like that is happening right now. This Hollywood strike is making WAVES, even into my rural little hometown in Germany and it makes my heart sing
edit: Just popping back in with a little update. I'm a writer. (not for screenplays though, but) I had several moments over the last weeks with friends/family who never "got" what I'm doing as an author, the typical "how is that a job" or "how is that important" stuff. But now they get it, because they see and feel how their day to day looks like without the hard word of artists and writers - because their favorite shows are canceled/delayed/on hold and suddenly ("suddenly") it affects them (I don't want this to sound cynical, it's actually a very awesome thing to see - i was speaking to a wall with some of these people for 25 years, but this strike is the thing that finally got them to listen).
Michelangelo painting a portrait of the pope in Hell comes to mind.
I'd love if socialism makes huge waves due to these strikes, imagine a world where the US pivots from being ultra-capitalist to being socialist - that was literally impossible just 6 months ago, but now you can at least imagine it happening, actually.
@@SIZModig agree! It went from something that felt like an utopian idea to "wait, change is actually possible"
@@eldorados_lost_searcher I did not know about this and you, my friend, absolutely made my day with that bit of art history :D
I am not sure why we don't see countless ai generated articles and pictures of pure scandalous gossip about the same executives done by Someone just to show how fast it is to generate things that can damage our culture and personal lives.
Stay strong, people. Let's make vision 2 a reality. Let's not do half measure. I want the whole tomato. I am donating right now.
Only revolution will achieve that
It's funny, the new Film Theory video appeared just before this one, and seemed to be about a similar topic. But of course Matpat is VERY pro-corporate and barely mentions creators - the strike is entirely ignored - so it makes an interesting contrast. I prefer Serge, obviously, like all good commies should.
Thanks for the heads up. No view of that video from me!
I think it's probably more that people know the perspective of the creators, but MatPat focuses on the technical aspects that would involve the companies
I'm fairly sure MatPat has commented in favor of the strikers already, it's just not the focus this time.
@@SIZModig That makes sense - I didn't mean to imply he was anti-union. And it's actually a pretty good video. I just commented because of the contrast with Serge's video.
I actually did tell Chat GPT to write an outline of a novel I had just written. It spit out the most painful cliche-riddled thing I’d ever seen. 😂
I work as a writer (not WGA) and our studio recently evaluated if we could use AI to help with some repetitive/boring parts of our work. Even for the smallest, most benign pieces of writing, it spat out mostly unusable material. "Painful cliché-riddled thing" is a good way to put it.
In the end, we found it faster to write things ourselves than go through a bunch of AI iteration loops to get barely serviceable results. AI is really, really not there yet in terms of replacing professionals. It can barely crack amateur level.
I am currently rebuying my entire DVD collection that I got rid because I thought it was pointless to have. For a while I felt stupid for my devotion to my collection of physical media and now I feel stupid that I didn’t see this coming and got rid of it.
Felling pretty good about my hoard. Lots of great supply at thrift stores.
@@emmy8526 Yeah, I have been mostly rebuying them from the library sales. $2 at the most unless it's a tv show. Hasn't hurt the my bank account too much!
I'm so glad that I never got rid of my DVD collection. Too bad I don't have anything to play it on.
I first saw this and rolled my eyes expecting an Anti-SJW rant, but then I saw it was you who uploaded it.
What's wrong with an anti-SJW rant??
@@mikespearwood3914Pretty much everything
@@pastlife960No. Really explain it to the person who asked rather than give a non-answer. If one puts forward a claim, then one should be able to explain it.
@@mikespearwood3914 ok then. The anti-SJW crowd is largely populated by a fetid nest of reactionary conservatives who seem to want to do everything in their power to make the lives of minorities more difficult and maintain the status quo of white-cis-het-male domination, whilst also just being plain rude and unpleasant people to boot. If you define yourself as opposing people who are fighting for justice then I have very little time for you.
@@mikespearwood3914 We generally like social justice (organized labor, for example) and think it's a good thing to advocate for. Therefore we don't really like to watch people who rant against social justice, or against outspoken social justice advocates. 👍
That was the most calm, collected, well researched and measured rant I've ever seen.
Another critical way these writers and actors can keep holding out is if bigger industry names who have the means also contribute to mutual aid funds. I know Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson donated 6 figures, and Seth Macfarlane contributed a million out of pocket to mutual aid funds. A lot of them are openly pro-strike anyway and are capable of making contributions that can keep the roves over multiple people’s heads.
Or high paid actors can take less money in future work for the rest of the cast to get paid more.
You won't see many do that, though. These donations to them are equivalent to the slap on the wrist fines criticized in this video. It's just a show to cement their fanbase.
It's just like Dwayne's old boss Stephanie said. "philanthropy is the future of marketing".
@@davidsimmer431 yes but individual donations give those actors the power to control where the money is going, and therefore make sure that it’s going to the people who need it. If it’s simply declined that autonomy is surrendered and executives and producers can say “Fine. If you wont accept the money, we’ll just keep it for ourselves. You can’t make us give it to them.”. Money is only going to go to strikers if it’s kept out of executives hands as much as possible and high earring actors already given money is a channel of wealth executives have bo control over.
@@davidsimmer431Yeah, I think that’s what a lot of people are missing it’s just not the executives. Like Ryan Reynolds and Emily Blunt don’t need to be paid 20 million plus a percentage of the profits. The pay of the top actors has become overtop.
@@davidsimmer431
You're proposing that big name actors follow the example of Keanu Reeves?
(Donated a portion of his salary for The Matrix to complete the sfx for the film, and intentionally took a lower salary for The Replacements (ironically, in this case, a film about crossing the picket line to favor the owners) so they could afford to get Gene Hackman, etc)
@@eldorados_lost_searcher No, donations are a temporary solution. Just executives and and high payer celebrities need to be paid less and that money goes towards the rest of the crew. It need to a systematic restructuring of pay.
This sounds so much like a 99% invisible podcast I just heard- titled something like "the year the music stopped". Records were new technology in 1942 and artists weren't getting paid for every play on the radio, so they stopped recording. The big studios refused to budge and pay residuals, while the new and tiny recording studios had time to swoop in and sign new artists. It led to the rise of a new sound. Swing and jazz.
A new Serge video AND he starts by talking about art? Fortune smiles on me.
I’d pick the Medici too.
You know that scene in the recent Flash movie with Barry Allen looking out into the multiverse and it reveals those “cameos” that were all CGI?
It might as well have been us, the audience, looking into the future and seeing what cinema is going to look like if the SAG-AFTRA strike terms aren’t met by the studios. And frankly, if that’s what it’s going to look like, then we really are doomed.
Absolutely loved this video and agree with pretty much everything in it.
As a socialist myself I’m clearly more in favor of just getting rid of this disgusting economic system of senseless exploitation all together, but what is happening in Hollywood is just the stupidest version of the issues of capitalism. I don’t know if these CEOs heard but, nothing out of their studios is actually useful enough to justify paying for it as it gets worse. That’s why their infinite growth model makes no sense. Who is gonna pay for AI generated garbage when we don’t even need it to survive and we can find free or less expensive entertainment everywhere else?
Especially with how inflation and bad salaries induced by the same class of people are beating everyone’s ass, if the quality decreases drastically and people can barely afford to live, their platforms are the first thing people are gonna cut as people will continue making more interesting alternatives. I legit stopped paying for all of those platforms and hearing about the strike and the prices don’t make me want to go back. Do they think their old catalogues are enough to make people stay when it has already been pirated to death? Or did they look at people paying for well crafted human made projects and just assumed they would get the same reactions from their AI non sense ad vitam eternam. Even the MCU is losing steam. Their plan just doesn’t make a leak of sense long term because it’s based on the idea that people who are getting poorer and poorer will keep paying for inferior content they don’t need. Like it’s so obvious it can’t last. They can keep their one man garbage factories, the billions of us who are suffering under capitalism can find something else to have fun with.
Thank you for not sugarcoating your rage towards the situation! Be strong, comrade!
why pay to watch an AI movie when i can watch a 2 hour well researched docuseries for free on youtube or nebula o.O
Right? Like that's the problem with that right there. They think they can squeeze us all forever, but eventually it becomes trying to get blood from a stone.
Given enough time, we'll eventually be at a place where you can make your own AI generated movies at home anyway, so the only edge at that time will be the one and most important thing: Quality.
Pay people to create better art.
You know there’s an idea from Jonothan Hickman’s Powers of X that feels strangely relevant here: that AI wasn’t so much an invention of one particular person as it was a discovery, like fire. We’ll have to figure out how to deal with and regulate it one way or the other. Especially the regulate part
That guy who created AI: “Now I am become Skynet, the Terminator of Art.”
As an Aussie DVD & Blu-Ray collector and lifelong Disney fan, I'm guttered, saddened, and angered by the news that Disney plans to stop making physical media in Australia. The fact that they did it just so they could avoid paying writers and actors residuals just angers me even further. I hope to GOD they reverse this decision.
My only hope is that this fever continues to catch fire. We need it now more than ever as we tumble closer and closer to collapse. Something has to break and I think we're starting to see the cracks.
❤❤❤❤❤ while your negative vision of the future set me on an existential spiral, your positive vision put a smile on my face. Thank you
"Punishable by fine just means legal for rich people" - I'm stealing that, it's excellent
I love that you did this. Your takes are so thoughtful, and yet you always bring out the sass and pettiness that we're all feeling to address whatever issues you're talking about. Reminding me with every video why I subscribed.
Well said. Writer, Director, Actor. We must stand together as this is not just art, it's livelihood.
I've been having an awful feeling about this for a while, that film and the arts as a whole are the last industry with a true technical hurdle to automation. Once everything can be automated, the rich will see no use for anyone other than themselves to exist on this planet and leech off their precious resources.
The alternative, industries run for and by their employees that would be willing to share the rewards of automating some tasks, sounds a lot more appealing.
No, they are the first after mechanical work, the last one will be the less profitable, like care workers, and the very last actual decision-making like being an executive because of legal issues, but let's see maybe capitalists will not be able to stop and automate themselves.
Yes, and I think it's just that bad. We call it a capitalist society, but it's not, it's a capitalist system. Workers (most of society) are no longer part of it because they can't actually "use" it in any meaningful way. A "capitalist" is someone who has enough money to use the system to make more, unlike a worker who is locked in to a relatively fixed wage. The current system now almost wholly functions as "the rich get rich and the poor get poorer". The poverty strata grows larger and larger even as the production increases along with the wealth. But the wealth is funneled almost directly to the top. On the surface this seems to be a self-defeating system, because "who will be left to buy the products workers produce" when everyone is poor? But that isn't the end-stage of capitalism. Rather, money, as they say, is power, and power is what is left in the end. The rich have everything and control everything, including whether the rest of us subsist through their largess, or we simply starve to death because "there isn't enough money" for us to live on.
In the end, ironically, the rich won't need to be rich, just in control. Money is hardly money anymore, anyway. It's all digital records, an electronic registry of who's got more power and influence than who among the elite. Power is their real "capital", backed by the wealth we created. And power is the opposite of money: you gain more power by "spending" it. We don't count except as mining tailings of the system, the inevitable waste product until the mining operation is completed and there is nothing left to extract. Necessary production for the elite will, of course, continue, but how necessary will the ordinary person be? It isn't just AI or its precursor, automation, that renders us "useless", but that the majority of the population is simply no longer needed by the elite to support them, and their attitude is that they are supporting us until they can get all the wealth that we created and all the power we once shared.
Every Sci-Fi film ever (except Star Trek): AI is not a good idea.
Humans, for some reason: That’s so cool.
AI itself isn't a bad idea. AI appropriated by capitalism is a bad idea
@@matheusvillela9150 idk if i’d agree tbf, the downsides outweigh the upsides imo, but then again in a Star Trek utopian sort of regulation and governing, it does seem like it’d have a lot of benefits, I’m all for increasing AI use in science, the way its so useful in medicine is the one thing im super grateful for. But now, unregulated, the way criminals can use it to imitate and blackmail literally anyone, its insane, the way its been reported to be used for child porn, or deepfakes, or even phishing. You can literally fake politicians by voice and face,
"hmm y'know this whole Torment Nexus thing is actually a pretty neat idea"
Even Star Trek: AI is super neat! But wouldn't it be a moral quandary if we started forcing it to perform labour without rights? Photons be free!
I don't completely know the Star Trek timeline, but I believe the basic structure of their communist utopia predated powerful AI in that universe. You can have AI that helps humanity... if you have things like universal basic income and a high wealth tax. If people don't have to work to eat, then it is fine for as many jobs as possible to be done by robots and humans can work because they love it. Or for something extra. But not basic necessities. Working for basic necessities only works for enough people to ignore the ones for whom it fails as long as we need labor from that many people.
I also love the idea of having a shot to the arm of indie studios for another reason: budgets. Some of the most beloved or cult classic films were made on razor-thin budgets. The magic really happens when you can’t just throw money at a problem. You get filmmakers thinking creatively and critically about the best way to fix an issue.
I think we’re starving for things that feel human. It’s like all we’ve been seeing is slick and impersonal stuff onscreen. When we do see something that is clearly *crafted*, it’s refreshing.
My friend has an amazing collection of mugs. Some ironic, some great vintage pieces, some are souvenirs. But her favourite is a handmade one where the potter’s fingerprints are visible on the handle. I think that encapsulates it well.
Holy shit I never thought about ur vision #2. Its such a realistic and pragmatic, not even too optimistic/naive, possible future that would still be good. I thought the options were mostly negative, that corporations would still find way to avoid human input. But considering A24 has been such a huge hit as of recent, really doing well with audiences consistently, or at least more consistent than the hate thrown towards the big corporations pretty frequently. And those Indie movies can be pretty big hits, I think plenty people will prefer that, and we can go back to studios competing for originality, rather than banal IP’s. Indie companies can take the role that studios used to in the pre-2000s, not perfect, but a competition of creativity, the way markets ideally should work.
Yes. This is what we should strive for.
A24 keeps working, they agreed to SAG-AFTRA terms and so they are still producing
Great essay!
And I think it's time for the "Studio" system to collapse. I have no interest in going to see the latest fare from these studios, the endless reboots, remakes, reimaginings, re-etc.
There are libraries of new content to be used and adapted into the audio-visual medium, and they won't touch it for fear of failure, to they re-do old IPs and make them fail, (I'm looking at Disney really hard here).
I'm rooting for the independents to take over now. The technology is available to help smooth production. Big profits are available when production costs are low, my favourite example is Mad Max for this, being an Aussie. Miniscule budget, massive profits, because it was new, and ended up spawning a raft of copies, but still…
… and perhaps, as a side benefit, we could have some entertainment that contained less contemporary political messaging. Sometimes, watching entertainment is an escape, not an opportunity to be preached to.
Imagine if AI generators had to list every piece of art they took from the generate their version. Thinking of it as plagiarism technology really changes the vibe.
This is fucking insane. I'm so mad I can't find the right words to express it. I'm hoping the writers and artists get everything they are asking for
then they could find the right words and make incredible masterpieces about the importance of understanding things to find the right words and make good art.
I was just having a conversation about smaller studios last night. I like the possibilities you lay out for different styles of studios
The sad thing is, AI has the potential to be a very useful tool in the filmmaking process, but like anything, it depends how it's used...
Yeah, I use it to keep track of things while writing so I don’t leave any loose ends. Like a little checker assistant.
I think that first idea you mention, the customizable black mirror one is still a possibility. It just shouldn't exist on its own. It should be a premium product and everyone should get their dues from it. It *can* exist fairly, it's just that the world of labor has to be fair first. It should exist the same way choose your own adventure books exist, or how watching someone's let's play of a game doesn't dissuade you from buying the game and playing it yourself. You still buy games you've never seen other people play, you still expect (even if it isn't true) that a lot of the money you spend on it goes to the people who made it so compelling or detailed. You still buy books that aren't "customizable" or "choose your own adventure" because writers can go places or challenge you in ways you couldn't imagine up for yourself. Really I think the idea would die on its own because people would still he writing fanfiction other people would enjoy more than their own "fanfiction". The sharing of ideas and stories will always be entertaining. Making your own only goes so far, especially when you have to put less time and effort into it. Inspiration is the drug. Being inspired by other people's creations. And an AI made stories can't imitate that.
Another instant classic. I always admire how much effort you put into your craft. Keep doing what you're doing!
I’m currently in Florence which made me think of this video. So glad the strikers won!
Hope you’re well!
So very very happy to see a new video from you. I'd welcome a walk and talk video describing a neighbourhood. Whatever interests you. You're very interesting and good company.
Hi man, I just discovered your channel yesterday and I've almost binge watched every video. Absolutely love your video on lost world colonialism. It's what I wanted to do my Master's dissertation on before I swapped to a different topic and it gave me a weird view into what my own dissertation could've looked like. I was wondering, do you plan to also do a video in that style for every King Kong movie? (Or media like you did with The Thing?). It's the IP that started my desire to write about it because I have such complex feelings over their strengths and issues because I grew up with them, similar to your experience with lost world media in general, its why those videos especially really spoke to me. PS you also made me watch Dinosaurs so I hope you're happy. Gave me binge material to last a while.
I actually DO plan on doing a video about every adaptation of King Kong, but more from the perspective of "Every single one of them picks wildly different messages to try and communicate."
@@coldcrashpictures Sounds perfect! I shall await with maximum excitement. I'm so glad to have discovered your channel!
PS I recommend trying the videogame they made for the PJ movie. It was surprisingly good in my opinion and ahead of its time in some aspects. Also has a fucking wild official name: Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie ™ which I love to meme to death
I really like the way you communicate. I consider myself a communist and I too try to educate myself and others to promote a better world but I lack the "tone" of your discourses. You are absolutely radical and hold no punches but at the same time your message comes in like a soft breeze during summer. When I talk to someone and try to present my points, many times I came as harsh and provoque a defensive attitude but I reckon you have much more success in talking to people that don't align with you but can be persuaded. After all the flattering let me just add a point to your essay. In a communist system there's no point to luddism! All the cool tech would be on service of the people instead of the few so it's perfectly compatible. For example, IA could make making movies more accesible, stream services could make watching them more convenient, all of this without impacting the salaries/quality of life of the industry workers. Tech is not the problem, capitalism is (as you know and remind us in almost every video, a fact that I love). Keep being you, I really admire you as a person. #SupportTheUnions
Dude my parasocial relationship with you got very deep. Very intense one way friendship, good job. So well made and better articulated than I could possibly say.
When entire movies can just be spit out by a computer with extremely minimal human input, I'm not sure what these studios think we will actually need them for at that point. Seems like a bit of a critical flaw in the plan.
Im glad you're one of the few big RUclipsrs that actually has researched the context to why this happened.
Im tired of seeing too many bad faith actors trying to degrade any form of unionized movement. They need us more than we need them. Movements like this scare them because they become reminded of that fact.
"punishable by fine just means legal for rich people" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ahh can't believe this video got age-restricted, I get so excited every time you post. For now I'm just going to have to like it while I figure out how to trick youtube into thinking I'm 18, but keep up the good work, I love this channel!
Omg I'm loving your music choices in this video :) Also, you TELL them, Serge. Holy hell.
As a side note, really want to shotout the Simone because holy moly, when all this sprouted that was THE film on my mind, not to mention how it's practically lived rent free in my thoughts since the first time it came out. As an indie writer in the game field, the concern trickles to several out creative neighborhoods, and it's been an experience watching how things may go in hopes it'll definitely become a more supportive place to navigate for all of the artists and creatives out there. Vision 2 could truly make waves!
Black Mirror, there's also an old Twilight Zone episode imagining what full automation might look like when corporations value profits over people.
1:15 When they yell "strike", the subtitle says: "shake"
I love that you gave yourself time to dream of a more hopeful future. It's so easy for us to dismiss hope as naivete, but it really is an important, revolutionary emotion.
SAG-AFTRA seems to be a little different than other unions at the moment. I've been following notable contract negotiations in the U.S. and Canada, and there's not just been an uptick in strikes, but an uptick in Tentative Agreements that Union Memberships have turned down. SAG-AFTRA leadership seems in tune with the membership, but in other Unions, the leadership is out of step with their memberships. As an old Union Rep, it seems to me Unions are being handed the opportunity of a couple of generations, and they are for the most part fucking it up. I expect that to change when leadership election time rolls around. High Time.
this is an absolutely brilliant summary of the situation at hand, and too calm and well researched to qualify as a rant i think. more people need to see this. the big studios absolutely can and will lose this thing if they keep trying to hold out. they are nothing without the creativity of the people who make their films.
" The free market is a robbery " based. You're one of my favorite essay channels ❣️
Always adore your viewpoint on art. You really summed up this topic perfectly.
The prospect of hitting a possible "artistic singularity" is very concerning
Thank you for this video, Serge! A great explanation of what's going on. I have a few people I need to send this to ASAP.
The ending of this video is EVERYTHING
LOVE the Newsies reference. I feel like that song has been on replay in my mind all summer.
Excellent! are captions coming? (a lot of people in my various online circles are deaf, hard of hearing, or have audio processing disorder, and I'd like to share this with them)
Are you volonteering to make subtitles?
Yes! I try to get captions generated within 24 hours.
@@iknowyouwanttofly Not at the moment, but I am able to, if I have a script. It's tedious, fiddly, work. But it's not complicated. I've made them for my own videos in the past.
@@coldcrashpictures Thanks! Good to know!
the double take I did at hearing Newsies on a coldcrash-i don’t really like musicals-pictures video lol
“They think they’re running this town, but this town will shut down without us”
Thank you. This will lead to a whole new era.
Workers' lawyer here. I salute this.
Are Disney and WB actively TRYING to ruin their own 100th Anniversaries?
I'm rooting for Vison 2 of the future so. hard. Supporting the strike from France!
Hey, I got that reference at the end! :D Now I gotta go watch one of his speeches again to rekindle my soul a bit more.
10:30
The film industry equivalent of Sean Connery muttering, "There goes the future chief of poleeshe."
17:19
Considering how gun-shy Warner has been since their latest flurry of mergers, if I had to pick the weak link in the big studios, I'd pick them.
But if we get a second coming of mid budget indie films, I'm all for it.
Final line: Goodfellas?
Definitely assumed I accidentally clicked on a Seize the Day video when I clicked on this, so engrained is that song in the back of my mind.
I thought this was a James somerton video because of the font in the thumbnail hahaha that voice was a jumpscare. My attention span is so bad 😂
Great Nicolas Pileggi shoutout at the end.
Let’s be honest, there were some warning signs here and there.
I wish the giant studios would collapse and an independent renaissance could occur.
Get 'em Serge!!!
Tabling a video to stand in solidarity with fellow workers? You got a subscribe right there, my dude. Rock on.
Waiting on your next video looking forward to it!!
You’re such a delight - thanks for weighing in on this #fypt
Sorry, like most of society, I'm struggling to find much care at all. Comparing the low quality coming out of current era writers rooms to the art of Renaissance is laughable. It's more McDonald's than art. Where was the concern when businesses were shut down while they were working? Small business owners were going bankrupt, employees out of work, while Hollywood ramped up compassionless political rhetoric and lecturing. During the last strike, people cared. Not this time. As I go to work and pay my bills without worry, I just want all the activists in Hollywood to remember, "we're all in this together."
What did you expect underpaid actors unions to do about a global pandemic? Feed the fucking five thousand? Stop working at all and join in your suffering out of solidarity? Strike for every other industry on Earth? which not only is not how strikes work, and so could not have worked, but would have capsized their own industry in the process?
thanks for raising awareness
Babe wake up another coldcrash video dropped 😩
Another really thoughtful, well articulated, insightful, helpful creation Serge! Thanks for taking time to make it. I loved the advice to support assistance funds. Didn’t know they existed, makes sense though, as so many others groups have them too. I agree on the second future and am optimistic that people will help it come to be reality in whatever small way we can. Gotta say this, capitalism is not all bad when greed does hijack souls to put profit above all else. Those smaller studios are still trying to make a living for all involved while making a good product too. We consumers need to be wiser which you say well. Who is the old guy with potty mouth you quote at the end? I don’t recognize him.
17:47 I am very tired of people misreading what it is happened between the Teamsters and UPS. What the union and UPS have agreed to is called a TENTATIVE AGREEMENT meaning that the Union and UPS came to an agreement that will then be voted upon by every rank-and-file worker at UPS. The contract is not passed until it gets a majority vote by the rank-and-file members.
Helpful context thanks
You nailed the landing, perfect. 10/10
CGI _did_ put people out of work, though - model makers, painters, carpenters, matte artists, puppeteers, animatronics experts, prop makers, etc, etc, etc.
Thank you, I understand the situation much better now.
6:00 "'Punishable by fine' just means 'legal for rich people.'"
newsies jumpscare
Vision 2 sounds so good. I really hope things lean this way. I'm happy never seeing another Hollywood movie again.
Love ya, Serge. Two snaps up & a swirl, and planning to donate to the emergency assistance fund.
Solidarity!
I've never seen a CEO jump off a balcony in my lifetime, I'll be rooting for it to happen soon
And now we know why the Mentats in Dune were used instead of actual computers.
This video reminds me I need to make an appointment for my nose job.
What are other ways I can support the strike other than donating? since right now I'm kind of in a tight spot economically.
Spread the word
Like Gloomdrake said, spread the word. Even if you're just reblogging stuff on your social media, keeping the strike in people's minds is great because it reminds them that it's ongoing and worth supporting. If you hear people complaining about it going on to long, (gently) let them know why it's important and that there are so many other ways for them to find media they love.
Support the strike!
What happens when all of the images collected are hacked or sold by the studio and used to make porn or commit crimes. Your image is your reputation…
*Immediately recognizes "Seize the Day", hits like*
Just so you know the contract for UPS hasn't actually been approved yet. The Teamsters members are voting on it right now. Won't know if the contract is approved till the 22nd of August.
Scenario 2 gave me warm fuzzies that I haven't felt in a long time. There is a chance that the world won't be doomed.
THANK YOU! ❤
Love this channel, sending to my guild discord ✊
I cannot help myself but be optimistic about vision 2; I will be entering the workforce in two years after I finish my education, and the buzz about unions invigorates me to join one. The capitalistic world we currently live in makes me pessimistic and depressed about the future, but with the fervor around this movement, it gives me hope. Thank you for brightening my outlook on the future, at least for now.
Bravo on your hope narrative at the end.
You basically described my Utopia
Can we also hope that those CEOs just jump off a balcony anyway?
I mean you could make a video about Cillian Murphy, just about Cillian Murphy
I’d watch it
(I’m presuming that’s what the joke was? Oppenheimer?)