I’ve even heard theories that the studios let the strike happen just to have a reason to kill some projects.
Look, I’m a writer, so you’d assume I’d be on their side, but I’m actually not. One time I asked for a raise at work at my mom’s urging. Surprisingly they gave me one, but then took an hour of work away from my schedule. And they were good bosses. Imagine what these supposedly evil studios would pull. The writers wanted residuals, meaning they would get money every time the show airs, so despite not investing in the money they wanted to write once and get money forever. I’m not even talking about creating a new character and getting residual whenever he/she was used in a story. Just when the episode aired on TV or streaming they get paid, as if they own the story rather than being hired to write one. That works for novels and self published work but in TV and movies that’s less money for the investors and thus makes them less willing to support the making of the movie. This isn’t crowdfunding where you support something for the love of it and take a t-shirt as a reward. They expect to make their money back.
That hasn’t been happening because the stories have been so dull or filled with social preaching instead of a good story, and the studios only get partial blame for that, the end results haven’t been making money because nobody wants to see them. All it has to do is air on a new platform and the writers don’t care if it’s good so long as it makes money for them. So of course the studios, streaming services, and networks are reportedly cutting back and canceling projects to offset the new additional costs.
Now the AI thing I’d be with them on if AI writing was any good…though some of the more cynical reviews have claimed AI is still better at least when it comes to plotting a story. Otherwise I don’t think they have anything to worry about yet. It’s the equivalent of “robots are taking our jobs”, and there’s at least some truth to that. Better safe than sorry.
Finally, before getting to the usual update, everyone is forgetting the real losers here. Not the writers, not the studios who still have enough old material to licence and are still screwing everybody over except the directors and celebrities (and even then they’re trying to), not even the audience…it’s the film crew! The lighting and sound people, the camera operators, the editors, the best boy/girl that nobody knows what they do, the caters, the cleaning staff, the set designers…I could go on but nobody cares about them. What do they get from the strike? Unemployment until the strike is over and that’s it. Their pay isn’t going up and they probably lost money not being able to work. Some of them have families to support but even if they’re single and living alone they’ve been out of work and worried when they’ll get paid again. California didn’t openly bend over backwards to get them on unemployment benefits from the government. They aren’t using YouTube as supplemental income or starting a podcast. They’re sitting home wondering how they’re going to pay bills from the past month when they didn’t get paid. Variety and Entertainment Tonight weren’t doing big feature stories about how they’re being hurt by the strike…and now the video game industry is about to deal with the same thing. So yeah, excuse me if I don’t see anything positive from any of this crap. If the studios are forced to cancel movies, shows, and new games I’m at a point where I don’t care. There is less and less good stuff coming out lately and both the studios and writers each have a share of blame in that. It’s the behind-the-scenes people who are really getting screwed.
Anyway, Clutter Report. Helped my dad change computers. It wasn’t even worth manually promoting on Twitter X, though I hope Twitter and WordPress come to an agreement soon. It’s slowing my work period and I’m making less money than a grip during a strike. As for this week’s offerings: more Chapter By Chapter reviewing of the Batman: Knightfall novelization and the Beast Machines Hunters story treatment plus whatever else I decide to discuss. Have a great week, everyone!
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