Neil Gaiman: The studios had a plan. It hasn't worked. Now they need to negotiate for real. www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

The studios had a plan. It hasn't worked. Now they need to negotiate for real. www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

Column: Hollywood studios have already lost the strikes. Now it’s time to surrenderwww.latimes.com As a disastrous summer for the industry's top brass bleeds into fall, it's become clear the AMPTP cannot win the strike. So they should end it now to cut their losses.

The last strike happened before social media and it was easy for the studios to control the narrative. But now we can talk to the writers directly. We know them. We are in community with them. And the studios have never understood that.

Even back during the last strike, people were organizing to support the writers on Livejournal. I think I remember a campaign to send pencils to the studios? But it's so much easier now.

I think a benefit of existing on social media in this case is that it's given people the ability to interact with the people who make stuff we like and see them as actual people too. Not to say that it's worked that way for everyone, or that everyone needed social media to see it. It's just more.

Another BIG difference: streaming didn’t really exist yet, most people were still watching weekly TV on broadcast or basic cable, and it was easy for the studios to point at the interrupted seasons audiences were getting upset over and shift blame to the “greedy” strikers. The field has changed.

Oh. Absolutely. My first thought this time was, "Well, there's stuff I've been meaning to watch." But, also. I'm a Doctor Who fan. At this point, I'm used to going YEARS between seasons. All I care about is that the people who make the shows love what they're doing and are being treated fairly.

Yeah, the viewership ecosystem has changed since then, and in a bit of poetic irony, it's the streamers' own fault for building a model around binge-watching. People aren't mad that the new season of Supernatural/House/CSI/Desperate Housewives etc. suddenly stopped midway this time around.

...broadcasters must be discharging bodily fluids, though, because when they can't put the fall schedule on the air even the people who haven't cut the cord yet will start looking into it, just to have something to watch other than crappy reality shows.

This is the truest thing. Defining “out of touch” is a studio exec complaining about lost profits the year after they were able to give themselves a $10million bonus.

I maybe lost. The last combined strike was in 88 but correct me if I'm wrong we had social media during the 2008-09 strike.

Not combined with streaming ironically Social media wasn’t this yet so the community angle was harder That combined with having nothing to watch meant the voices of the unentertained were loudest

Now we have immediate lines of communication to the strikers and much better access to the bigger studio picture So for those of us in solidarity with the strikers aren’t alienated from them The studios keep everyone else entertained and passive

This strike has kept the inconvenience to the viewer much more minimal The main people being inconvenienced are the studios

Personally I never felt inconvenienced and I do support them. For the moment morally as I'm not paid monthly and don't want to overdraw my credit line. NGL I do use AI for some padding.

This a million times!

I hope the studios finally negotiate properly before it ruins us all. I've just been put up for redundancy by my VFX studio with no new jobs anywhere else because of the AMPTP's greed. Delivered over a hundred shots for Netflix (including Sandman) last year alone and I'm barely able to pay my bills

I’m really sorry this is happening to you. I’m hoping that the financial pressure finally starts to tell on these people but they have been behaving irrationally from the start.

Agreed.

It feels like the AMPTP is really going for scorched earth. How do any of them expect to be able to work with guild members in the future? It kind of seems like they don't care at all.

As someone who just, you know, buys stuff, watches stuff, I watch this in horror I cannot express my anger at the treatment of the actual creative people the whole systems rests on The execs are sowing hatred beyond what they understand that all the expensive PR hires in the world won't undo

As someone who wants to be part of this industry and rise past a paraprofessional level, it both astonishes me but also doesn't surprise me that the least creative members of hollywood are the most toxic. But they're also acquisitive amoral 1 percenters - and 99.9% of creatives aren't.

Jeez. It’s insane that people like you guys are literally what keeps the industry afloat, and due to short sighted greed, these corporate doofus are really trying to burn it all to the ground. And at the same time they’ll shrug their shoulders and wonder how on earth could this have happened.

I'm so sorry. This is what the studios set out to do: create as much pain as possible to force labor to capitulate. I hope they fail, and that you are back in good and properly compensated work as soon as can be.

Thank you Tom. I can see it working too, people are struggling and every time I hear a whisper of anti-union rhetoric I'm first to jump in and remind people what actors and writers are also going through just for a move towards equity.

I’m so sorry, Chris. It’s a very challenging time and I’m with you in solidarity. The strike has hurt so many of us in the industry profoundly.

An old friend of mine is in the same boat. I feel for you. What a crappy situation to be put in.

I am sorry you are dealing with this BS right now

I'm curious to know if your union offers any kind of direct financial assistance

Sadly VFX in the UK isn't unionised. We've tried several times but it hasn't taken hold as we're all contract workers and often studios have let contracts lapse when people have tried to unionise. Hopefully soon though

I hope that when the strike is over, and SAG-AFTRA has gotten what they want, that we get an outpouring of pro-union entertainment. The only way life is going to get better for 99% of us is if we all can easily join a strong union.

The studios aren't going to greenlight anything pro-union, at least until the strike has faded from our memories But also, let's not get ahead of ourselves. The la times is correct here, but it ain't over JUST YET.

Well, if they won't greenlight such things, then perhaps someone should "explain it to them," why it's important. Because the oligarchs will kill us all with their greed if they're not brought to heel. We're running out of time.

Well, that's the problem with oligarchs. They don't care beyond the 20 or so years they have left. And they think they'll be insulated from any effects (and they will if we keep letting them).

The motherfuckers running the studios currently, they don't think beyond the next quarterly earnings report.

Sure they will if the studio heads think it will be profitable. Don’t conflate sheer greed with any sort of sophisticated philosophy.

Nah, after this? They're being embarrassed. It's not ideological, it's petty & personal. The union is embarrassing the studio heads, and they are very capable of holding a grudge. I know that they're actually doing it to themselves, but they blame the unions.

Capitalism will happily sell us anti-capitalism, but never overlook an individual capitalist's capacity for pettiness overriding their (his) greed. They'll greenlight pro-union films after the shellacking they're currently taking has faded from memory; capitalists understand class consciousness.

The studios did NOT expect this much public support, or financial help from the outside. It's depressing learning how little money most people make when playing their role in beautiful stories and art. Keep up the strike; they all deserve better living conditions.

They are paid in ... "Exposure". 🤣😭

It's difficult to win against people with little to lose.

Who knew that allowing media companies to merge into ever bigger entities would be such a bad idea?

love the line it concludes with, "Guys, you’ve lost the war. The best thing to do now is negotiate the terms of surrender."

Thanks for the update Writers need to get paid like the big stars Period Without their creativity and imagination there is no entertainment

It all begins with the writers. And actors who improv scenes are writing in the moment so again it all begins with the writers.

I'm so proud of what you're all doing. I hope it spills over to some other parts of the American society. American people (and not just them) need to remember that strikes exist and they work. Workers can have the power, but they need to seize it.

The strike is even impacting artists and workers in South Africa. But as hard as it is, everyone understands this isn’t a strike that artists and workers can afford to lose.

nice to read an article about it that’s doesn’t sound like it was written by the studios PR team

They assume that writers are superficial cowards like they are, but good writers actually have integrity! Studios are bound to lose this one.

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