By: Tori Manuel
With the Fall 2023 television season in full swing, it is highly likely that many of our favorite shows won’t appear on the upcoming roster. In fact, little to no newly anticipated projects or season premieres will be making their debuts anytime soon with the creative minds and talents behind them still busy picketing at executives’ gates for fair compensation and treatment in their respective spaces.
The entertainment media our society cherishes so dearly is on an indefinite halt as the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) are on dual strikes, demanding that working conditions and job security implementations advance to match the production industry’s ever-changing business models. Streaming services, digital releases, and the promotion of artificial intelligence (AI) all pose threats to the livelihoods of these union members as well as other professions such as grips, makeup artists, and set designers who all depend on active sets for steady employment.
On September 20th, the WGA sat down with studio executives to resume negotiations that would last for days. That Wednesday marked 140 days since the initial strike began on May 2nd and the standoff was on the brink of making history as the union’s longest strike since 1988.
One of the leading topics of conversation was centered around financial compensation in the form of residual packages. Writers and actors alike are appalled at the checks they have been receiving for years containing amounts that do not even meet the dollar mark. Many creatives have turned to social media to share the mere pennies that they have collected for projects as successful as “Gilmore Girls”, “Orange Is The New Black”, and “Abbott Elementary”, among many others.
Recently, “Breaking Bad” star Aaron Paul shared that he does not receive any residuals from the show while it streams on Netflix, despite famously playing the role of Jesse Pinkman for five seasons. “Shows live forever on these streamers and it goes through waves,” Paul told Entertainment Tonight Canada. “... A lot of these streamers, they know that they have been getting away with not paying people just fair wage and now it’s time to pony up, and that’s just one of the things that we’re fighting for.”
Aside from depriving talent of compensation for the content that keeps these platforms so relevant, streaming services have also grown notorious for producing shows with smaller and smaller writing rooms. As the episode count for shows decreases, the WGA is demanding that staffing requirements be set in place to assure a minimum number of writers for these projects, as well as abolishing the idea of hiring on a freelance basis.
As negotiations continue throughout the coming days, it is crucial that company heads realize that the entertainment industry is at the center of our nation’s economy, and hopefully compensate those responsible for that success accordingly.
No comments:
Post a Comment