Hollywood Studios Release Offer Outlining Wage Increases, AI Protections For Writers 75
Hollywood studios have presented a new proposal to writers that includes the highest wage increase in 35 years, protections against the impact of artificial intelligence, and other provisions. CBS News reports: Writers have been picketing outside major studios for over 100 days, surpassing the 2007-2008 strike. One of the major sticking points between the two sides was their stark differences in wage increases and residuals. The proposal sent to the Writers Guild of America on Aug. 11 includes a 5% increase in the first year of the contract, then 4% the next year, and 3.5% in the third, totaling a compounded 13% increase. Before the WGA went on strike on May 2, the AMPTP offered writers 4%-3%- 2% in the respective years, or 9% over the duration of the contract. The recent offer does not match the WGA's demand of 6%-5%-5% in the respective years but does bring them from $9,888 a week to $11,371 a week for guarantees of up to 9 weeks.
They also moved to guarantee writers a minimum of 10 weeks of employment, a proposal they initially refused before the strike. AMPTP also increased the total domestic and foreign residuals for writers from $72,067 to $87,546 per episode over three years. Additionally, the union seemed to cave on the WGA's proposal to implement a viewership-based streaming residuals model. "For the first time, viewership data in the form of quarterly confidential reports is to be provided to the WGA that will include total SVOD view hours per title. This increased transparency will enable the WGA to develop proposals to restructure the current SVOD residual regime in the future," AMPTP wrote in the offer. Previously, the studios flat-out rejected the proposal and refused to make a counter, according to the WGA.
Studios also included a tenet regarding artificial intelligence protections in the proposed deal. "The Companies confirm that because [Generative Artificial Intelligence] is not a person, it is not a 'writer' or 'professional writer' as defined in this MBA and, therefore, written material produced by GAI will not be considered literary material under this or any prior MBA," the AMPTP wrote in the offer. The union continued: "The proposal provides important safeguards to prevent writers from being disadvantaged if any part of the script is based on GAI-produced material, so that the writer's compensation, credit and separated rights will not be affected by the use of GAIproduced material." Before the writers went on strike, the studios rejected the proposal and countered by "offering annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology," according to the WGA.
They also moved to guarantee writers a minimum of 10 weeks of employment, a proposal they initially refused before the strike. AMPTP also increased the total domestic and foreign residuals for writers from $72,067 to $87,546 per episode over three years. Additionally, the union seemed to cave on the WGA's proposal to implement a viewership-based streaming residuals model. "For the first time, viewership data in the form of quarterly confidential reports is to be provided to the WGA that will include total SVOD view hours per title. This increased transparency will enable the WGA to develop proposals to restructure the current SVOD residual regime in the future," AMPTP wrote in the offer. Previously, the studios flat-out rejected the proposal and refused to make a counter, according to the WGA.
Studios also included a tenet regarding artificial intelligence protections in the proposed deal. "The Companies confirm that because [Generative Artificial Intelligence] is not a person, it is not a 'writer' or 'professional writer' as defined in this MBA and, therefore, written material produced by GAI will not be considered literary material under this or any prior MBA," the AMPTP wrote in the offer. The union continued: "The proposal provides important safeguards to prevent writers from being disadvantaged if any part of the script is based on GAI-produced material, so that the writer's compensation, credit and separated rights will not be affected by the use of GAIproduced material." Before the writers went on strike, the studios rejected the proposal and countered by "offering annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology," according to the WGA.
Re:Is that a good idea? (Score:5, Insightful)
Your assumption may be that the writers are producing low quality work because that's what their skills allow... but another possibility is that that's all the studios will buy. You can write sublime, carefully constructed scripts... but if all the execs trust is formula and explosions, well...
Re:Is that a good idea? (Score:4, Interesting)
And this has literally been one of the key points of the guilds.
Re:Is that a good idea? (Score:5, Insightful)
What happens right now is checkbox writing. You get a few pages of stuff that "tested" well, i.e. they try to make movies that appeal to as many focus groups as possible, without any consideration for story, plot or pacing. What matters is that you have a cast that includes a member from any "important" target group they want to reach. That this doesn't even begin to make sense doesn't matter. And you not only have to include every focus and target group, you have to include this topic, that angle, this problem, that agenda, and by the time you finally have every single piece of bullshit they force you to stuff into the script done, you're at about 90 minutes. And you still have to make room for the explosions so the audience at least wakes up for the credits.
Of course writers have to write for their audience, and their audience are the studios, not the actual audience that is then subjected to those garbage movies. But as long as they do, I will not let them off the hook. Stop writing garbage scripts.
Re: (Score:3)
Who do you think forces the writers to perform “checkbox writing”? The suits and other bean counters. Unless your last name is Spielberg or Cameron you’re going to be at the studio’s mercy.
Re: (Score:2)
Who do you think pays the writers to perform "checkbox writing"? The suits and other bean counters. Unless your last name is Spielberg or Cameron you're going to be at the studio's mercy.
FTFY
Your employer is not forcing you to do something... they are paying you to do it. You don't have to take the job -but the job is the job.
Re:Is that a good idea? (Score:5, Insightful)
For every paying job in Hollywood, there's a thousand - more more - people who would like a chance to get into the business. You refuse to write garbage? Enjoy being a waiter, because there's - literally - a line of people waiting to replace you.
Those have have the money make the rules. That's reality in grown up land. Movies are shit because that's what studio execs believe will bring in box office money. And, by and large, they are correct.
Re: (Score:2)
That is kind of my point. No one is forced to do the job. They are paid well to do it... and a lot of other people would be happy to take over if they don't want to do it.
Re:Is that a good idea? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Is that a good idea? (Score:2)
Awful writers being asked to write awful ideas. It's highly unlikely these writers would suddenly become talented if show runners and executives were competent and not obsessed with the 'modern audience'. Some would be good, sure. Most would not have been hired in the first place.
Re: (Score:2)
we can finally see a pivot away from the last decade of mediocre social lecturing entertainment.
The last decade has had some really good movies. I'll just point out Tenet as one of many.
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Is that a good idea? (Score:4, Insightful)
The other assumption is that the script the writer writes is what shows up on the screen, when, in fact, they rarely bear much of a resemblance to each other. The direct has far more control over what the audience sees (and often is forced to produce crap by studio execs with the creative talent of a rock).
Re: (Score:2)
and often is forced to produce crap by studio execs with the creative talent of a rock
Why do you have to insult rocks like that?
Re:Is that a good idea? (Score:4, Insightful)
Not wanting to pay as many writers is what helped bring the onslaught of reality television that floods channels today.
Plenty of good scripts are written all the time, the writers tend not to be the ones choosing which ones get put into production though.
Re:Is that a good idea? (Score:4, Interesting)
Not wanting to pay as many writers is what helped bring the onslaught of reality television that floods channels today.
A bigger factor is not wanting to pay as many actors. Most reality shows are legally structured as game shows, and contestants get a much, much lower minimum for their appearance than union scale for an actor on a scripted show.
So, really, it's more "not wanting to pay as many anyone."
Re: (Score:2)
A bigger factor is not wanting to pay as many actors.
Another big factor is lots of people watch them.
Low cost and big revenue is a winning combination.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Considering the garbage scripts that littered movies lately, I don't know if protecting the writers from AI is a good idea.
Came across this article [cnn.com] from a person who was a writer for several tv shows who says it wasn't all that it was cracked up to be, including the actors themselves at tims acting like prima donnas and sabotaging the writing.
So it may be that garbage scripts you see are the result not wholly of the writer's doing, but the actors and actresses holding sway of what gets out there.
Re: Is that a good idea? (Score:2)
The writer says the actors sabotaged the script, but I bet if you ask the actors they'd insist they were saving the script.
Re: (Score:2)
AI can still be used for critique (Score:3)
It will still be game over for shoddy writers one way or the other.
Re: (Score:2)
These would be the same LLMs that recommend the food bank as a "must see" tourist site in Ottawa (be sure to go with an empty stomach!")? That can't identify whether or not the same AI engine wrote a given work? That produced chatbots that, every single time, turn into hate spewing racist bots within days, if not hours, of being opened up to the public?
Those LLMs?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: AI can still be used for critique (Score:2)
I read the AI bit as "AI is not considered a 'writer'", thus the AI won't take the place of writer on a project.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Hollywood management is a significant cause of garbage scripts. The writers are at the mercy clueless people with an agenda other than entertaining the audience.
It reminds me of the classic Kevin Smith youtube talk about dealing with the producer for Superman Lives [youtube.com].
Part 2 [youtube.com]
Watch Andor if you want to see good writing.
Re: Is that a good idea? (Score:1)
>Hollywood management is a significant cause of garbage scripts. The writers are at the mercy clueless people with an agenda other than entertaining the audience.
It's rotten at all levels, certainly beginning at the top. Crap writers are hired on account of political views and 'diversity', then set loose on properties by useless leaders. I blame them all.
>It reminds me of the classic Kevin Smith youtube talk about dealing with the producer for Superman Lives.
Part 2
I wonder if Smith will ever think bac
Re: (Score:2)
Considering the garbage scripts that littered movies lately, I don't know if protecting the writers from AI is a good idea.
The older I get, the more the complaining about entertainment's quality stays the same.
By percentage, I'm not convinced there are (significantly) fewer high-quality, creative, engaging movies "these days" compared to any other period in the past.
Re: (Score:2)
The percentage of "reality" shows has increased over the years, and those are the very bottom of the scum pit in quality.
Other than that, yeah, you're right.
Re: Is that a good idea? (Score:2)
The OP was talking about movies, and your counter-argument is reality TV shows?
Apple and oranges.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, we've always been complaining about entertainment. But the "level" of complaining has been in decline.
Over here you can actually see this pretty well, since we have a comedian who makes fun of movies and TV shows. And who has been doing that for about 30 years now. He dresses up in the proper costumes and lampoons their flaws. And he recently said in an interview that it just doesn't work anymore. He can't find a way to lampoon and mock the shows of today anymore because they already are SO completely
Re: Is that a good idea? (Score:2)
Because they were whiney babies about AI:
- Now a competing company will use AI instead.
- Now writers will either secretly use AI themselves and profit from it, or if they do, maybe it goes against their contract in some way, and now they'd have to live in fear of it.
Re: (Score:2)
The arguments in this thread seem to revolve around whose fault it is that the studios produce garbage. Who cares? It's a black box. It produces garbage. I don't care which gears inside make it produce garbage. I don't care if it goes away completely. AI can produce garbage presumably more cheaply than writers. And if AI is asked to produce non-garbage, if it can do so, it can do so more cheaply than writers.
Nice to see them finally breaking (Score:3)
I mean, if you're a writer you can't put *everything* you do down as "Alan Smithy".
Re: (Score:2)
That said, if things go well with this strike the quality of movies and TV will shoot way up.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
You sweet summer child.
Re: (Score:2)
Part of the reason things have been crap lately is that the studios have been running smaller and smaller writer's rooms. Why hire eight writers when you can hire four, work the hell out of them, and then lay them off before production so they can't do any rewrites?
They're pushing quantity over quality.
Re: Nice to see them finally breaking (Score:2)
Iâ(TM)m not familiar with the Alan Smithy thing. But one thing that I always felt was amusing was an old movie that was based on a story by Harlan Ellison. Well, apparently, they did such a shit job on it that he refused to lend his name to the credits. So he created a nom de plume: Cordwainer Smith.
Re: (Score:2)
Alan Smithy directed the original Dune and a LOT of MacGyver episodes.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know if you're making a joke I'm not getting but no, the original Dune movie was directed by David Finch who very much put his name on the production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
His use of an alias for works he disapproved of being altered is well known.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure that the reason the last season or so of GOT sucked was because they didn't have writing from Martin to go by.
Re: Why did they cave in? (Score:2)
you wonâ(TM)t get any quality writers because they are all supporting the union. If they could use scabs, they would.
Re:Why did they cave in? (Score:5, Insightful)
Just like with any striking organization, just replace them. You can find just as good acting and writing talent outside the unions,
And then every union - literally everyone else involved in the production refuses to ever work for your studio again.
Believe it or not, you're not smarter than every executive in the business, and have zero new ideas. The unions have dealt with that kind of thinking in the past, and both sides have learned some very hard lessons.
Re:Why did they cave in? (Score:4, Insightful)
AI produced movies are garbage too (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Latest (Score:2)
Didn't the WGA just reject the latest offer from the studios?
Re: (Score:3)
Re-rejected it, really.
The 'latest offer' was the previous offer along with a threat.
The writers should hold out (Score:4, Insightful)
They should hold out for everything they feel is owed to them.
Or rather, what the unions feel is owed to them. They shouldn't settle for a dime less. Not a penny!
Be honest; you haven't noticed the strike at all, have you?
Re:The writers should hold out (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Summer time is the slow season when people are outside enjoying summer weather
Normally, I would agree with this, but have you been outside this summer? The type of thinking you are explaining is going to stop VERY soon. This is the first summer where I have actively avoided being outside... and I lived for a decade in the Middle East in their summers. This is BAD and very far from normal.
Re: (Score:2)
Uh, yes I have. The amount of new content for TV seems to be shrinking every day. Lots of series doesn't seem to have an announced date for next season. It'll be a very boring fall and winter, tv-wise.
Re: The writers should hold out (Score:2)
What is this tee vee thing you speak of? Some sort of non-interactive dribble?
Re: (Score:2)
Be honest; you haven't noticed the strike at all, have you?
(mutes TV tuned to ESPN)....what strike?
Re: The writers should hold out (Score:2)
Uh, the pipeline from the writer's desk to your local cinema/streaming service/TV show is longer than 100 days...
Re: (Score:1)
Blender... Here comes the fun (Score:2)
1) Write a story (been done already)
2) Generate landscape matching the story
3) Generate characters, architecture, furnishings and vehicles
4) Generate voices
5) Make a TV series or movie
This isn't an "if", it's clearly a when. The cogs are in motion.
Also consider that an iPhone would be #1 in the Top500 possibly into 2005. Compute won't be an issue. My meeting this morning is about providing storage for training models to 9 of the top5
Re: Go woke go BROKE (Score:2)
Writers work for others, draw a salary, and produce what they are told to produce. Getting hired on to a dreck TV show as a writer doesn't grant the the writer control over what the director shoots or the studio produces.
Writers and Wokeness... (Score:1)
1. Writers in the past didn't come from harvard/yale/etc. Often writers had no or little college, this change has left most writing today very stale, with the "woke" college influence seeping into most writing. The writers all have the same ba
Re: (Score:2)
In Hollywood today, if you do not pretend to be woke, you are cancelled, and you will get no work. Known stars have succumbed to that.
tone deaf (Score:2)
I don't know if the unions are asking too much, or are just luddites trying to hold back inevitable shifts in the industry, but regardless, the studios are freakin' tone deaf. Paying execs
Re: (Score:2)
It was very good of the studios to give the same offer again that was previously rejected. I sure hope that they then went on TV to do interviews and had their PR firms push out a bunch of articles about how they're putting out reasonable offers to the union member so that this needless, painful strike can be wrapped up.
How is this an unwise move? After 100 days of no paychecks, the union members may not see a previous offer in the same light.
A more realistic look at the nonsense "proposal" (Score:2)
https://gizmodo.com/wga-strike... [gizmodo.com]