Writer's and Actor's Strike 2023: Aaaaand Scene...That's a Wrap!

[T-K-G]

I feel your pain because this year’s been a lot slower for me than it was the last two years. At the same time though, naw, writer residuals on streaming is an absolute must.

Have you ever actually done the dance it takes to be a screenwriter? We talking:

-writing 3-4 scripts a year every year

- each of those scripts is being re-drafted a minimum of 5 times off top before it’s halfway decent, often involving 2-3 complete rewrites with new outlines and new beat sheets

- paying to attend pitch fests, paying to submit to screenwriting competitions, etc.

- if one of your scripts actually does land a general meeting, there’s a much higher chance they’re not buying it than they are, which leads to the next point:

- if one of your scripts generates interest, you will not get any further in the business unless you have 5-6 scripts in the same genre/niche ready to go during that same general meeting. This is because you will now be the go-to source for other production companies looking for content similar to what your last successful sale was. Don’t have more similar scripts? They’ll take your loglines and have some other writers take the credit

- even if you successfully sell a script, that is zero guarantee you get the credit for that script, particularly if a director gets attached to the project who then gets their writer to re-write it.

The above process requires an investment of 4+ active, dedicated writing years MINIMUM to even get in the game. Crew don’t understand that shyt fr, streaming residuals is about not having to be grinding 3-4 scripts a year every year forever without accruing the passive income to match the grind.

All that and the actual writing still be ass I know the process takes forever for y'all but keeping it 100% the actual writing that comes out of it is still terrible 9 times outta 10 I'm standing on that. Like someone else already mentioned a lot of times the scripts that make it through are just OTHER successful movies just repackaged with different characters and details, that shyt gets extremely old to see


Pitch contest and screenwriting competitions are not in the tier I work in, no disrespect to you sir people I work with been around for 20+ years making shyt we grew up on

It does not take a ton of years of writing to get in the game, like I said I've seen nepotism at it's height and people get put on the writer's trajectory off of having completely different jobs, you may not wanna hear it cuz it may not seem fair but I'm deadass serious when I saw I knew people getting brought in who never wrote anything, getting to practice on reenactment shows and they end up leapfrogging people like you

 

[nieman]

All that and the actual writing still be ass I know the process takes forever for y'all but keeping it 100% the actual writing that comes out of it is still terrible 9 times outta 10 I'm standing on that. Like someone else already mentioned a lot of times the scripts that make it through are just OTHER successful movies just repackaged with different characters and details, that shyt gets extremely old to see


Pitch contest and screenwriting competitions are not in the tier I work in, no disrespect to you sir people I work with been around for 20+ years making shyt we grew up on

It does not take a ton of years of writing to get in the game, like I said I've seen nepotism at it's height and people get put on the writer's trajectory off of having completely different jobs, you may not wanna hear it cuz it may not seem fair but I'm deadass serious when I saw I knew people getting brought in who never wrote anything, getting to practice on reenactment shows and they end up leapfrogging people like you

What would make the writing bad in your eyes? The skeleton of writing is as generic as they come, and everyone pretty much learned the same writing process (with some unique writing techniques from a handful of individuals to hone their style), so while the ideals may be stale to you, that doesn't make them necessarily bad.

Is it a bad story, plot, characters, climax? Are they just not exciting or captivating you? I'm just really looking for your insight

 

[Robbie3000]

why do you think that?

do NOT overrate these people fam. well written shows are few and VERY far between


film writing fukking sucks the script is always the first thing that gets joked on on set. MAJORITY of those people aren't even serious writers they just got taught the job through nepotism, i know a couple of people who got on that way, assistants to executives, writing bullshyt "scripts" for REENACTMENT shows so they can learn the format and level up to hiding their shytty script on a C-tier show no one watches. It's part of training someone to become a showrunner. Book and Video game writers (main plot only) get them out the paint easily imo if we talking skill.

Spoiler

script writers would be the easiest to replace out of everyone with A.I., you can tell it to imitate and reference other scripts, include pop culture references, advance the plot within a certain amount of pages, etc. basically all the shyt writers do, and get the same quality if not better.

And it's slowly getting to a point where crew is starting to be like fukk them writers, the shyt they fighting for isn't gonna help anyone else on the crew, nikkas already be mad with how unappreciative/bratty alot of writers are, now everybody gotta wait to get back to filming fun shyt because the producers don't respect them.

To even get shows back on track we're gonna have to set aside a month or so to re-prep, re-hire, renew all the permits to use locations and spend all that money a 2nd time, on top of everyone just having to reschedule their next 1-2 years in general because of the timing of work being thrown off them writers bouta be getting they food spat in when they get back again don't overrate these people man, only 1 outta 20 are actually worth it.


once A.I. breaks through the streets gonna be flooded

This is why American workers get treated like shyt compared to workers from other developed countries.

 

[T-K-G]

What would make the writing bad in your eyes? The skeleton of writing is as generic as they come, and everyone pretty much learned the same writing process (with some unique writing techniques from a handful of individuals to hone their style), so while the ideals may be stale to you, that doesn't make them necessarily bad.

Is it a bad story, plot, characters, climax? Are they just not exciting or captivating you? I'm just really looking for your insight

im only talking from my perspective so what's your point here? nothing is objectively bad in art if we're being technical. No point in you asking me what i think if that's the case, just do you nikka

and no, every story doesn't have the same exact issues so i'd be here forever tryna give you a blanket reason, like for example you talking about stories/plots, when half the scripts that make it through are based on books that are actually good, but the translation to film is garbage, unrealistic dialouge, ridiculous lapses in judgement whenever they need to force plot progression, shyt is way more blatant in hollywood, and like you said most of these people who only write film scripts follow the same formula so yes, anyone who really works in this shyt and has to look at the same structure all the time is gonna think most of em are cookie cutter trash. The best shyt in my experience is when a book is adapted with MINIMAL writing changes, the second they decide to let film writers go crazy they end up diluting it like crazy. Game of Thrones is an example of this


If i wanna watch something actually engaging i gotta go international and put the subtitles on, hollywood has too much box office pressure to keep pumping out mid material and just capitalizing off of nostalgic series/celebrity of the actor/ the spectacle of the action.

i see people shyt on Actors and Directors all the time on here but god forbid someone shyt on the writers not talking about you specifically but it's just really funny to see in real time, When's the last time you seen these nikkas raving about the writing in a movie forreal?

 

[Robbie3000]

All that and the actual writing still be ass I know the process takes forever for y'all but keeping it 100% the actual writing that comes out of it is still terrible 9 times outta 10 I'm standing on that. Like someone else already mentioned a lot of times the scripts that make it through are just OTHER successful movies just repackaged with different characters and details, that shyt gets extremely old to see


Pitch contest and screenwriting competitions are not in the tier I work in, no disrespect to you sir people I work with been around for 20+ years making shyt we grew up on

It does not take a ton of years of writing to get in the game, like I said I've seen nepotism at it's height and people get put on the writer's trajectory off of having completely different jobs, you may not wanna hear it cuz it may not seem fair but I'm deadass serious when I saw I knew people getting brought in who never wrote anything, getting to practice on reenactment shows and they end up leapfrogging people like you

The quality of the writing is irrelevant in this discussion. The writing on The big Bang Theory is utter trash, but the show made a fukk ton of money. All the writers are asking for is a cut of the money generated by their work. Why would anyone who earns a paycheck have a problem with this request?

 

[T-K-G]

The quality of the writing is irrelevant in this discussion. The writing on The big Bang Theory is utter trash, but the show made a fukk ton of money. All the writers are asking for is a cut of the money generated by their work. Why would anyone who earns a paycheck have a problem with this request?

i have NO problem with them getting their bread from streaming services im only talking about the a.i. talking point, im pretty sure i didn't say shyt about their streaming gripes in my post, did you even see the inital post i was responding to? it was about a.i. replacing writers and someone saying it wouldn't work, i responded with most writing is shyt anyway so it aint making too much of a difference in terms of what you're getting back

i think the streaming shyt NEEDS to be addressed, too many industries have no idea how much a stream is worth

 

[Lootpack]

 

[Lootpack]

 

[TheNatureBoy]

Rooting for the actors/writers to get what they deserve

 

[TheNatureBoy]

 

[mastermind]

I heard writers in the 80s and 90s used to have comfortable middle-class and upper-middle-class lives.

Going from 200k to 38k is nuts. I hope people look at their lives and notice the parallels because its not worse with non-hollywood folks.

 

[FruitOfTheVale]

All that and the actual writing still be ass I know the process takes forever for y'all but keeping it 100% the actual writing that comes out of it is still terrible 9 times outta 10 I'm standing on that. Like someone else already mentioned a lot of times the scripts that make it through are just OTHER successful movies just repackaged with different characters and details, that shyt gets extremely old to see


Pitch contest and screenwriting competitions are not in the tier I work in, no disrespect to you sir people I work with been around for 20+ years making shyt we grew up on

It does not take a ton of years of writing to get in the game, like I said I've seen nepotism at it's height and people get put on the writer's trajectory off of having completely different jobs, you may not wanna hear it cuz it may not seem fair but I'm deadass serious when I saw I knew people getting brought in who never wrote anything, getting to practice on reenactment shows and they end up leapfrogging people like you

No disrespect taken, I’ve been in film production longer than I’ve been a screenwriter so I’m still on the grind as far as screenwriting goes. That being said, I’m well aware how it goes in the business as far as nepotism and connections. I work in the Bay Area scene with a few LA gigs here and there, I’ve done pretty much every role/worn every hat that isn’t ADing.

 

[daemonova]

Zazlav's bytch ass got paid $250 million to screw up the Warner Bros brand and drive CNN into the ground.

fukk em. I hope all the guilds strike.

Iger make $28 million a year

 

[The_Sheff]

They were making a Day of the Jackal reboot?!


PAY THESE PEOPLE

The ONLY thing i know of Day of the Jackal is that Avon Barksdale said thats who you need to assassinate Clay Davis.






Apparently you cant stream this movie either. All these damn streaming services and you can never find what you want to watch. They all filled with junk.

 

[O.Red]

Bro as a creative person I can tell you right now AI for anything character or story driven is fukkin trash. It spits out the most generic shyt ever, and you will still need someone to mold or direct that story ie a writer. It’s a tool it won’t replace any person anytime soon.

As for shytty scripts you gotta remember unless you’re at the top of the food chain you have a fukk ton of stakeholders editing and demanding changes for marketing purposes.

The blindspot people have about AI is part of the reason nikkas have stopped watching these shows and movies is because they feel like they were written by an AI anyway

We already see nikkas have largely stopped going to the movies, and these shows aren't doing numbers like that anyway. Shyt has become so homogenized and boring

But these CEOs are really banking on greed counting on AI to crank out 30 scripts a day but it would only make a worse version of what we already have