Hollywood Strikes

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Muddy
USA
Any thoughts on these writer/actor strikes?

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avatar for Muddy
Muddy
a year ago
-Hard to tell how the industry is doing sometimes with the streaming stuff because we don't see those numbers.

-I've sort of checked out of a lot of stuff. I haven't watched anything TV or Movie wise that was new since the start of Covid except for that one Top Gun movie (good movie but original was still way better) I've been mostly watching youtube and various podcasts, it's just way better you actually learn shit.

-For the most part it's all shit but I feel like it's been that way for a while now. When was the last GREAT movie that came out?

-There are probably some killer writers out there, and there's some good actors still I'm sure but overall the product has been shit. And at the end of the day how much is a woke writer or a woke diversity actor really worth? I would say less then zero.

-I don't like rooting against America or entire American industry like Hollywood. Really one of things that makes America so famous has been this industry. But it's needs to be said, it needs to die already. Fuck it. Send into the abyss. Been nothing but trouble in recent years. Think about how much greater this country would be today without all the brainwashing bullshit, how much less racial hostility there would be.

At the end of the day I don't see it going away anytime soon, but I definitely see productions leaving California, something that's already been going on, go at warp speed now. It's just too expensive to pay all these people, excessive regulation, mandates, requirements, insurance, it's not sustainable. Places like Vancouver, Atlanta, Albuquerque and others are gonna really benefit. And I think that whole industry needs to realize, a lot like music industry has just before it, that the money just isn't there like it used to be (save for the big time summer blockbuster, usually a terrible comic book movie) and it's going to be just different now.

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georgmicrodong
a year ago
Fuck the studios and their executives. Fuck them up the ass with a hot poker.
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motorhead
a year ago
I don’t pretend to know the intricacies of all the issues - but streaming ain’t going away. So if past pay was based on largely on residuals from syndication, then obviously changes are needed moving forward.

But I’ve always wondered how actors and writers (like athletes) can be represented both by collective bargaining and individual contracts. Not saying I’m pro studio - but it seems the actors want to have it both ways
avatar for Mate27
Mate27
a year ago
There so much I haven’t watched that I can catch up on past content which would last me for several years, and I doubt the strike will last that long. So carry on, I can wait it out for my needs.
avatar for rattdog
rattdog
a year ago
you're not missing much. better off just watching the trailers rather instead of the entire movie.

it is pretty cool to learn stuff through the podcasts. i never knew that before hollywood the film industry used to be based in new jersey. tv/show movie production sets have been slowly migrating to those cities that you mentioned to reduce costs, which is the smart thing to do. but let's be honest - do you think that will bring back the entertainment quality that we all enjoyed decades ago? i have a real hard time thinking that it will.

yeah they can go fuck themselves
avatar for Studme53
Studme53
a year ago
There’s an limitless supply interchangeable wanna-be actors for a limited demand of minor roles. Why would they get paid much?

Big name actors who attract an audience are gonna get paid what the market demands.

It’s like pro sports. I don’t care how they get paid. I’m personally never going to pay to watch them but I’ll watch for free. If it all ended tomorrow it wouldn’t affect my life much.
avatar for gammanu95
gammanu95
a year ago
The fight for $15 made employers turn to robots and self-service to avoid labor's attempts to screw them. The unskilled workers made their own jobs obsolete and they deserved it.

This will only cause more AI, more reality TV, and more digital effects to be used to weaken labor unions and deprive them of more jobs and opportunities down the line.
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etsutwigg222
a year ago
I didn't even know they were on strike. It does not impact my life at all. I am happy with reruns of Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Andy Griffith, Two & a Half Men & Last Man Standing. Got plenty of DVD's & downloaded shows, so good riddance !!!
avatar for shadowcat
shadowcat
a year ago
Last time I was in a movie theater was 1988. I do watch TV but hate the damn cheap made for TV movies that Netflix and others are making.

Btw Georgia has surpassed Hollywood in movie production and the largest studio in the state is 6 miles from me.
avatar for JamesSD
JamesSD
a year ago
Selfishly I don't want my media to stop being made.

Studio execs suck.

I expect a band aid contract where the studios lose the battle but set themselves up to win the war.
avatar for Hank Moody
Hank Moody
a year ago
After you old fucks get done with your typical complaining about everything, you might notice it’s a pretty interesting situation that would make for a great business school case study.

Right now, the streaming services are all losing a ton of money as they build out infrastructure, create media content and solidify subscribers and pricing. The industry is super fragmented. But, it will eventually consolidate and with all the cord cutting, will take off somewhere down the road and be an ever growing profitable business.

The writers and actors want to carve out their slice now so that they get their residuals locked in for when viewers stream their content. It’s like the NBA and NFL deals. The team owners agreed to share a slice of pie with the players and had no idea about the mega TV, streaming and international deals to come. You’d think the billionaires would be happy as everyone made more money, but the NBA tried to back out of their deal once they saw how much money the players were going to get.

It’s all pretty fascinating.
avatar for motorhead
motorhead
a year ago
^^

Maybe fascinating for HBR, but in the “real world” it will mean further unscripted trash TV and reality shows.
avatar for Dolfan
Dolfan
a year ago
Don't really care. I am a bit worried it may lead to more spending on sports, driving up their already insane salaries and prices, but I'm not losing any sleep over it.
avatar for mark94
mark94
a year ago
Given their track record, I would never invest in a Hollywood studio. They spend hundreds of millions to make a movie that the average person on the street knows will be failures.

Same with streaming services. The business model worked when it was just Netflix. Now that they’re a half dozen services, none of them can draw the subscribers to make a profit.

avatar for gammanu95
gammanu95
a year ago
Streaming services paradigms used to be "content" - just grab as much as you can to showcase a large library and cater as diverse an audience as possible. Unfortunately, that also means a LOT of crap. Even worse, streamers start to lose money on the third or fourth season. Those shows have already brought in the viewers they will bring in, and spending money on the complete 5-7 season story arc is losing money.

Sadly, that means that many shows I enjoyed will never be completed - like Tidelands. A great show with some very sey girls (Elsa Pataky sporting nips throughout every scene). I doubt Netflix would have aired more Punisher or Jessica Jones seasons even if Disney had not taken back the IP. Stranger Things is about the only commitment that Netflix seems to have kept.

Regardless of any of that, it will take a few weeks after the resolution of both strikes for productions to retool and then resume. Expect a lot of reality TV and generically or AI-narrated documentaries for a while.
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skibum609
a year ago
Don't and won't miss it at all. Hope they never come back. Read a book.
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datinman
a year ago
I do have to side with the low paid extras* actors when it comes to the AI likeness issue.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityara…

*May be the first time in TUSCL history the word extras has been used without a sexual connotation.
avatar for twentyfive
twentyfive
a year ago
Food fight between billionaires and millionaires
avatar for gammanu95
gammanu95
a year ago
^you are completely incapable of contributing anything worthwhile
avatar for twentyfive
twentyfive
a year ago
^ troll post I’ll respond on one of your threads so as not to ruin the OPs post
avatar for Warrior15
Warrior15
a year ago
When I got out of college the first time, I was in dead-end jobs that didn't pay anything. Did I complain about how much I was being paid? NO, I went back to grad school and got trained to do something that somebody would pay a lot for.

If what you do can be done by a robot, then you don't deserve to be paid much.
avatar for georgmicrodong
georgmicrodong
a year ago
@twentyfive: "Food fight between billionaires and millionaires"

I don't think that's entirely fair. While there certainly are some, maybe many, millionaires amongst the actors and writers, I seriously doubt the vast majority of them come anywhere close to that.
avatar for rattdog
rattdog
a year ago
"If what you do can be done by a robot, then you don't deserve to be paid much."

it depends. does the robot do the job as well as one of these highly paid actors? it also depends on who is programming these robots.
avatar for twentyfive
twentyfive
a year ago
^ if that’s not fair that’s still the perception of this tempest in a teapot, the strikers have only themselves to blame for this mess, look at who they stand up in front of the picket lines, truthfully, they don’t have a lot of poor homeless folks there , and getting them selves interviewed while shopping Whole Foods is certain to not create a lot of sympathy for their cause.
avatar for iknowbetter
iknowbetter
a year ago
I feel the same as I did when baseball was on strike (more accurately locked out). Greedy millionaires fighting with greedy billionaires over money, and if it all went away forever I probably wouldn’t miss it.

Stay on strike long enough and the public will adapt to other forms of entertainment and you just might become irrelevant.
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