Hollywood labour disputes

System · 29-07-2023 3:04pm #1

This discussion was created from comments split from: Film forum off topic/random chat thread.

pixelburp · 02-05-2023 9:27am

It's official: the Writer's Guild is on strike, so any active film productions are gonna stop AFAIK. Wonder who that's gonna effect, and how it'll effect release schedules.

Thinking of films like the Dune or Joker Sequel, which IIRC are still shooting?

johnny_ultimate · 02-05-2023 9:44am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120545282#Comment_120545282

Dune wrapped filming in December and Joker a few weeks ago, so neither should be impacted.

Solidarity with the writers. By all accounts the studios, streamers etc… have made life ever more difficult for regular and staff writers trying to earn a stable living, so hopefully the strike leads to most or all of their demands being met.

pixelburp · 02-05-2023 9:52am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120545348#Comment_120545348

Oh I support the Strike 'cos god knows collective bargaining is becoming far too rare in these days of contracting and "gig economy" nonsense... just curious how it'll shake up Hollywood.

And let's not forget, the last time we had a Writer's Strike, one of the end-results was Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. So is unionisation truly worth that price? 🤡

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 02-05-2023 7:30pm

I remember the last writers strike too, it ran from November to February, which is right in the middle of a traditional TV season. I'd say most shows are finished filming by now, or at least have final scripts done. Obviously that doesn't apply to streaming though. Will be interesting to see how long it lasts and what gets effected by it.

silverharp · 03-05-2023 5:22pm

The motivation for the strike is also AI related, already people can easily ask AI to generate a Seinfeld script or whatever, all the human does is outline the plot, it will do the rest and the human just polishes it up after. when it takes off you could get rid of 80% of writers. I'd imagine with artwork and everything Anime could go that way and get the same output now for 20% of the staff

https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1653307174456631298

johnny_ultimate · 03-05-2023 5:35pm

The whole AI stuff is one particular area where I hope the writers unconditionally triumph. Aside from the fact that executives are clearly just eyeing AI as a way to reduce labour costs for the benefit of shareholders and execs alone, why in the name of god would anyone even remotely interested in film want to watch a film with an AI-generated script outside of temporary, morbid curiosity? At best, you'll get bland, inhuman formula regurgitation, at worst incoherent gibberish. In an era where writers are already restricted in terms of being able to express themselves based on the whims of algorithms, adding another algorithm to the mix would be catastrophic for the quality of the art form and a further shift towards mindless 'content' in an age where we're already drifting precariously towards that direction.

AI script-writing shouldn't be let anywhere near the filmmaking process.

Tony EH · 03-05-2023 6:43pm

This AI malarkey is a very scary area. Aside from writing, convincing imagery (at first blush anyway) can be rendered too. I've seen some images that can be really quite fooling to the eye.

I can see a lot of people out of a job in about ten years time as the tech becomes more and more sophisticated.

pixelburp · 03-05-2023 7:35pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120551488#Comment_120551488

I'd not be so hasty predicting job losses. Once it catches up, legislation will quickly codify exactly where and what AI can do; for one, current AI can't create anything new only assemble from pre-existing data - that in of itself may yet kill ChatGPT when data and privacy issues are clarified. Unions will have their say too; it's a Wait and See for sure but I don't think it'll be as transformative as predicted.

I don't doubt it'll find use mind you, especially with scammers trying to fake more legitimacy, or tinpot countries wanting to fake controversies for their political rivals.

silverharp · 03-05-2023 9:42pm

A text to screen AI clip floating around at the moment, its not perfect but 3 to 5 years and you could ask AI to rework the Star Wars films into something watchable lol. At the moment AI cant really do humor or at least cant tell good jokes but I doubt anyone could tell if it did the script of some generic CW /Amazon show or similar.

It could still be good for the consumers, if costs drop then there is more content and more stuff gets made and quicker, Attack on Titan Im looking at you! , One commentator Scott Adams I think is convinced AI will be banned because it is too disruptive but I cant imagine that governments care about how movies are made so cant see that happening til several years down the road.

Interesting few years ahead

https://twitter.com/phi_ci/status/1653609644705689601

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 03-05-2023 10:45pm

Since the last strike streaming has become a much bigger player in things. I'm sure the majority of English language films/TV are still from the US, but more and more shows from other places are getting big audiences, English language or otherwise. It'll be interesting to see how long streamers can hold out without any US made content.

Just looking at Netflix's global chart for the past week, and it's 50/50 US made and rest of world. I suppose that's still quite a high % for one market.

CastorTroy · 03-05-2023 11:07pm

Then there's all the "unscripted" stuff as well which they'll pad things out with.

pixelburp · 04-05-2023 6:21am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120552436#Comment_120552436

Only this week, and perhaps anticipating the strike, Netflix announced it was investing 2.5 billion(!) over the nest 4 years into Korean productions. They have very definitely been putting more money in "foreign" language items over the last few years - probably because the thinking is that in the US anyway, subscriptions have stagnated and even begun to shrink. They can't grow any more within the US, not such they can match their ludicrous spend.

FunLover18 · 04-05-2023 8:40am

https://twitter.com/adamconover/status/1653272585252257793?t=mPVc3QzZCVISGnSTJPLpAg&s=19

This is a really good thread on the strike. The below tweet is particularly horrifying for the future of culture.

https://twitter.com/adamconover/status/1653272590310600705?t=voZ_cIeazvWAXgMnRSv1_g&s=19

pixelburp · 04-05-2023 9:42pm

On a related note regarding AI, one half of the Russo's weighs in with what sounds like a terrible idea, one that just flies in the face of cinema. Every time one of these two open their mouths I despair at the clout the Avengers gave them.

https://twitter.com/FilmUpdates/status/1650598147318489090

FunLover18 · 05-05-2023 8:07am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120556306#Comment_120556306

I watched the first episode of Citadel on Amazon, a show they produced and it is awful and feels like it could have been written by an AI.

pixelburp · 05-05-2023 8:41am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120557190#Comment_120557190

As did The Grey Man. I recently saw their vaunted Community episodes from fadó, and it's funny how ... choppy and manic their editing was even then; crazily "cinematic" for a sitcom, but still very sloppy. High-points of a great show, but they're terrible filmmakers. Praise is earned for Infinity War having any coherence given its scope, but one wonders how many more blank cheques they'll get. Their non-MCU stuff has underwhelmed, been critically panned while costing an absolute fortune each time (Cherry notwithstanding).

silverharp · 05-05-2023 9:21am

I get the impression Hollywood in general hired and promoted people above their ability or experience, either as a choice or there was a bubble with all the streaming platforms and experienced talent was scarce

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 10-05-2023 1:08pm

Speaking of Ortega, the writers on the picket lines have been taking the piss out of her a bit this week after her comments about rewriting multiple scenes in Wednesday.

I would have zero faith in anything Burton does these days, but if they're shooting without writers I'd have even less. Although, as above, I think there's a loophole that would allow Ortega to re-write all her scenes, so we'll see.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO · 10-05-2023 1:37pm

As far as I know an actor and director are allowed to "rewrite" a scene as they come to shoot it. Presumably that is on the basis of neither of them being members of the DGA, and it probably falls more under the umbrella of what an actor and director would normally do when prepping a scene anyway, rather than actually writing. I think Daniel Craig did it a lot on whatever Bond film was shooting at the time of the last strike.

It's interesting to see though how many people are willing to go to work on something that has no writers on set. Maybe the finished script is perfect and absolutely nothing will go wrong during filming that results in something needing to change.

You'd think Burton would be a member of the WGA though?

Edit - actually, looking at his credits, he's only listed as having story credits on a couple of projects. I always thought he wrote everything, but apparently not.

silverharp · 12-05-2023 12:19pm

AI rendition of a LOTR trailer in the style of Wes Anderson, I'd watch it

https://youtu.be/KrjL_TSOFrI

johnny_ultimate · 12-05-2023 2:54pm

It's everything wrong with AI-generated content in one video. Soulless, artless reproductions of other people's aesthetic ideas.

Tony EH · 12-05-2023 7:27pm

...and scary.

pixelburp · 12-05-2023 7:45pm

I can't deny it make me smile a little; but even computers can't recreate the level of whimsy Anderson channels, lol. I have already grown very tired of that that "tilt the head" movement those AI faces do. Course you watch one video on YouTube and suddenly my homepage is flooded with them. The algorithms were already here lol

silverharp · 13-05-2023 7:21am

This is basically like an 80's Atari Pole Position relative to whats out today. what will they be able to to in 5 or 10 years? It amused me that they picked Wes Anderson, if there is anybody who makes films in an "Uncanny Valley" style its him.

Mr Crispy · 15-05-2023 10:35pm

Fans of CGI shark movies, rejoice. Renny Harlin is returning to the genre over twenty years after Deep Blue Sea. Gene Simmons co-owns the production company involved.

https://variety.com/2023/film/global/gene-simmons-production-company-renny-harlin-sharks-1235612689/

Agent Coulson · 30-06-2023 3:57am

SAG-AFTRA the actors union could call for a strike this weekend.

The Union is made of over 160k actors.

The industry would be rightly fcuked if the actors join the writers.

pixelburp · 05-07-2023 8:36am

Is it any wonder there's a Strike: despite only released on May 12, apparently the Disney+ film Crater has already been deleted from the service. Now, I bet few here even heard of the thing and by all accounts reviews were very "meh" having slipped under the radar, but that's scarcely the point. A lot of professionals both in front of and behind the camera have now been jipped out of residuals and earnings because of Disney's ability to drop these things into the Memory Hole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWIeQmRNZEY

pixelburp · 13-07-2023 3:24pm

Looks like the Writer's Strike might be about to be joined by the Actors' own union. I wonder if the infront-of-camera talent goes on strike, it might concentrate the minds of streamers and studios a little faster?

https://deadline.com/2023/07/actors-strike-contract-talks-fail-sag-aftra-to-launch-pickets-1235436031/

johnny_ultimate · 13-07-2023 5:46pm

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/bob-iger-writers-actors-strike-disney-ceo-1235669169/

I dunno Bob, maybe it’s the fact you’re earning $25-50 million per year while working actors and writers struggle to make a consistent living that’s part of the problem?

Agent Coulson · 13-07-2023 8:19pm

Actors strike now confirmed.

https://deadline.com/2023/07/actors-strike-sag-aftra-hollywood-studios-1235436118/

Hollywood labour disputes

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