After an almost five-month-long protest, the Leaders of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) have authorized its members to return to work following a preliminary agreement between the union and Hollywood executives. The 2023 WGA strike is officially over. While there is much more to be discussed regarding the deal, this is still a massive win.
It was also recently announced that the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) met with studio heads for negotiations on Monday, Oct. 2. While nothing was officially said, it is believed that the WGA helped set up this meeting in some way.
With the Hollywood shutdown being almost over, it seems like it won’t be long until shows and movies will be able to start production again. “The Batman: Part II,” “Community: The Movie,” “Abbott Elementary,” “Thunderbolts” and “The Tonight Show” are just some of the projects that were put on hold. While it’s exciting to see these projects picked back up, we shouldn’t forget why they were stopped in the first place.
Screenwriting has always been a somewhat difficult profession. Not only is there the actual writing aspect of it, but an additional list of complications to worry about. Writers have to keep in mind the project’s budget, available filming locations, run time, the scripts of other writers and much more. As you can imagine, this is no easy feat.
With that being said, it seems like studio executives have a hard time understanding this. It’s sadly not uncommon to hear stories about scripts being rushed out due to unreasonable deadlines and work days lasting more than eight hours.
Work overload happens all the time in Hollywood; however, writers tend to be the ones who experience it the most. Sadly, this isn’t anything new and has been going on for decades.
Poor wages and benefits also tend to be an issue. More often than not, writers don’t tend to have a set salary. Payment tends to be based around the type of script being written, project size and budget and position.
Additionally, there seems to be two different ways of payment depending on the project. While weekly is the most common, a commission based payment plan is also used.
Using a recent example, during the 2019-2020 television season, “Variety” reported that the average story editor makes around $7,000 a week. If we use the commission payment method, writer-producers earn a minimum of $42,000 for each 60-minute script, or $28,000 for each 30-minute script.
As great as this sounds, most Hollywood writers aren’t at the story editor or producer level. They are instead staff writers, the lowest rank.
Keeping all of this in mind, it should come as no surprise that the WGA has a history of striking. There have been a total of eight strikes in the past, all happening for a number of different reasons. While the problems I previously mentioned played a factor in them, there tends to be a larger era-specific issue behind the strikes.
Let’s take a look at the very first “Writers Guild Strike.” On Jan. 16, 1960, the WGA called a “two-pronged” strike against both film and television production. The president at the time attributed his main reason behind calling the strike to only receiving residuals for the first six reruns of a show.
We may be used to seeing reruns now, but at the time they were a pretty new concept. Starting in 1955 the show “I Love Lucy” became the first television series to replay old episodes regularly.
This proved to be a very popular decision as many network programs would follow in the show’s footsteps soon after. After a 148-day strike, a deal was reached. Five percent of the total earnings from pre-1960 reruns of a show would go to pensions, healthcare and other funds that helped writers. 63 years later, this rule is still in place to this very day.
The 2007-08 Writers Guild of American strike provides a somewhat more recent example of era-specific problems. The strike primarily sought increased residual rates for DVD sales and jurisdiction over and residuals from new releases of older media. The strike that took place in 1985 happened for a pretty similar reason, except it was over VHS and LaserDisc sales.
If this sounds familiar, that is because one of the key reasons behind the most recent strike happens to be wanting an increase in residuals from streaming. In this age of nonstop media consumption, it only makes sense for writers to want to earn more.
The rise of AI also played a role in the strike. Writers feared that with AI getting more and more advanced that it would start writing show scripts for them, eventually taking their jobs. It should be noted that the WGA isn’t entirely against the use of artificial intelligence. They believe AI should only be used as a tool for research and script development.
As you have probably noticed these strikes tend to start up whenever an advancement in home media technology happens. While I only mentioned four of the strikes, rest assured that the same goes for the other half. Whenever there’s a change in the status quo things tend to be a little rough at first. This is especially true for the world of entertainment.
Hollywood is constantly looking for new and easy ways to earn revenue. Oftentimes they don’t tend to think about the people that help them fill their pockets.
Once again, this isn’t anything new. Since the start of cinema there has been a certain level of greed associated with the art form. This greed doesn’t originate from the filmmakers. However, it comes from the people selling the art. This goes for all types of creative work.
Picture this. You spend your entire life putting your entire heart and soul into creating something meaningful, something you can be truly proud of, only for some big shot businessman to slap a price tag on it. If your line of work requires even an ounce of creativity, you can be sure that this will happen.
It’s pretty difficult for most artists to fight against this greed, which is why I believe the writers’ strike was fantastic. It shows that it is possible to fight for your passion, no matter what you’re up against.
The strike ending on the writers’ terms is not only a win for them, but for every person willing to fight for their art.