The writers’ strike began in May, and from July 13, the actors also joined the protest. This is the largest Hollywood strike in recent years that after five months of protest also ends for writers. A new deal has been found that will last three years.
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By Annalucia Scotto Di Clemente / Matthew Staff || Edited by Amber Alexander
Last Sept. 27, marked the ending of the strike of the writers of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), the organization that brings together the two unions active in the United States. It started on May 2 after talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the nine largest studios in Hollywood, were interrupted without reaching a negotiation on the terms of the new collective agreement. The writers demanded fair pay, reflecting the value of their contribution to the success of the industry and the guarantees of their profession threatened by the use of artificial intelligence.
In addition to the protests of the writers who have been on strike for 146 days, on Friday 14 July, the SAG-AFTRA, an American union representing more than 160,000 film and television actors worldwide, joined the strike of the SAG and its members, following the failure of negotiations with the representatives of the Studios.
The Hollywood actors’ strike calls into question much more than a single film or television season: the titles planned in the coming months will be relocated to new film and television programming. But what we are facing is a much more complex scenario and that could bring with it an epochal change. In recent years, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the American entertainment industry had undergone an unprecedented acceleration. The arrival of streaming, the multiplication of production realities, the consolidation of a global market, the use of artificial intelligence, and the race to increasingly tight productive rhythms have created a breaking point in the balance between quantity and quality of production and the ethical, human and artistic value of the work of the various professionals involved.
Now, this “double strike”, both of actors and of screenwriters, has forced the whole industry to stop and maybe wonder about which are the most equitable and sensible ways to go to build your future.
The writers have come into conflict with the producers asking for more economic protection, health, greater royalties in the case of extension of contracts when the titles written by them go streaming and reassurances on the limitation of the use of artificial intelligence. Last May, already at the start of their demonstration, many A-list actors had sided with them, reaffirming solidarity and common intentions. In the following weeks, SAG-AFTRA continued to mediate with Hollywood producers, focusing on similar goals.
It was in fact since 1960 that Hollywood actors and writers had not stopped working. And in the forefront of the protests there are stars like Jessica Chastain: the actress already at the last Venice Film Festival had sported a t-shirt that expressed her support for the strikes, and also recently she was spotted while always walking with a shirt that bears the logo of SAG-AFTRA in protest.
According to the regulation signed by those who join the union SAG-AFTRA, those who participate in the strike cannot act, cannot lend themselves to motion capture and special effects, act as stand-in, dub and provide voice over. Participation in auditions and hearings and negotiating or renegotiating contracts should also be excluded. This also extends to all promotional activities, such as photo shoots and interviews, promotional tours, participation in events, awards and conventions, previews and special screenings, as well as all social media activities related to film or television promotion.
As one of the most amazing twists to which American cinema has accustomed us, last Sept. 27, WGA and producers’ associations have reached an agreement that put an end to the strike of the writers. Among the results obtained following the protest, there is above all the increase of residuals, (that is, the rights that authors perceive when their episodes are spread in response on various platforms, up to 76% more, with bonuses calculated based on the number of users of each streaming service. In addition, pension and health conditions have been improved, as have employment contracts, but above all it has been agreed that artificial intelligence cannot be used to rewrite original materials and therefore cannot replace scriptwriters.
“We have reached a provisional agreement with the Alliance that brings together traditional Studios and streaming platforms (AMPTP). It was possible thanks to the tenacious solidarity of the members and the extraordinary support of the other unions of the show,” reads the note sent to its members by the Writers Guild of America (WGA).
The strike, however, remained alive by the actors. Actors asked streaming services to raise royalties that are paid when a movie or TV series is placed online on platforms. Streaming series usually consist of much fewer episodes than classic television series: once, if a TV series was successful and replicas were broadcast, actors and writers were paid a long series of royalties for the remaining rights. Today, streaming has damaged them, reducing compensation. The syndicate is demanding that the remaining rights be calculated for part of the listening data of the streaming services, but the studios – including Netflix, Amazon and Disney – do not want to share this data. The other request to the industry concerned the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in film and television productions: they demand guarantees that AI will not replace people and thus save jobs.
The most critical point was to determine who is the owner of an actor’s image in the event that the AI reproduces it. It could also happen that commercials or individual episodes are made with AI but without the consent of the actors who could find their image or their voice on television at the cinema unknowingly. In 2022, for example, American actor Bruce Willis was featured in a commercial without his consent. The electronic Bruce Willis is in fact the protagonist of the commercial of a Russian telephone operator thanks to deepfake processing. When we talk about deepfake, we talk about a digital processing technique, based on artificial intelligence, capable of combining and superimposing existing images and videos with original videos or images. In this case, Bruce Willis’ face and movements were digitally applied to another actor. This was made possible by the Georgian company Deepfake specializing in the creation of “Digital Twin.” They are perfect “virtual twins”, created from a subject in the flesh resembling the celebrity, to which the image of the actor in question is digitally superimposed.
The American film industry has lost more than $5 billion since the strike began, according to the BBC, Unexpectedly, last Nov. 9 the two parties, mainly, agreed to formulate the first safeguards for the actors against artificial intelligence as well as a historic salary increase. The agreement provides that minimum wages will be increased by 7%, a percentage higher than that obtained by screenwriters of the Writers Guild of America and directors of the Directors Guild of America. In addition, the so-called streaming participation bonus has been ripped, which is called a “structural change” in the way performers receive compensation from the passage of their streaming works. To this are added increases in pension contributions and health protections. SAG-AFTRA claims that the new contract thus reformulated moves more than a billion dollars in total.
The negotiators of the association of the actors speak of a great victory, and the AMPTP is said to have been, “pleased to have reached a draft agreement and can not wait for the industry to resume telling great stories.” The negotiations had intensified in recent days also because it was clear that the time available was running out: if an agreement had not been found to conclude shortly the actors’ strike would have been completely compromised the television season 2023-24 and, even more seriously, all the film releases next summer. From today instead the performers can return to the sets and resume work on the titles that we will see next year and beyond.
thematthewrome.com 