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Strike Date Set for 60k Film and Television Workers

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Re: Strike Date Set for 60k Film and Television Workers

#71

Post by asdff »

tzs wrote: post #68
toast0 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It happens, but at the end of the day only America looks like America, and they want that look as much as patrons demand it. Lots of films set in Seattle are or were filmed in Vancouver, and you might not know it unless you live around Seattle.

Plus many shows only have interior shots, with maybe an occasional establishing shot. Worst case they might have to send someone to where the show is set to film the establishing shots, which is likely a one time thing. Everything else can be filmed anywhere. A good example was "Frasier". I don't think it even had establishing shots, so all we saw was interiors [1]. Even those of us who lived in Seattle when it was o…

They can build a replica of any part of the world in not much time at all in a back lot in Burbank.

Re: Strike Date Set for 60k Film and Television Workers

#72

Post by milesvp »

rndgermandude wrote: post #57
petee wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats the other big issue - we helped streaming get it's feet by allowing lower pay, lower benefits, and longer hours, back in 2007-8 since streaming wasnt yet considered 'viable'. They agreed to revisit it in the future when it was viable. Now they won't even discuss it. Extra money goes right to the companies. Actors dont get the same residuals from streaming either, just look at Scarlett Johansson's lawsuit. Strea…

My soul weeps for poor (net worth: 165 million according to google) Scarlett Johnansson. She was only paid 20 million for that movie, but then scammed out of additional royalties by Disney. How is somebody supposed to get by on a mere 20 million per movie. Making that movie took away half a year of her life! I think it's not just the studios' greed that causes the normal Hollywood workers to get fucked, it's also A-l…

I mean, who are you cheering for here? If Scarlett Johanson managed to bankrupt Disney, I would say the world was a better place. You might be right that A-list actors are somehow shrinking the pot for the rank and file, but my understanding is that the A-list brings the audience that more than pays their salaries. Which means you’d expect a bigger pot to pay those working on those films. I suspect the bigger problem with base salaries has more to do with the market forces that make some of the cheaper character driven movies no longer attractive from a distribution point of view. But this is my arm chair speculation based on some random things I’ve been hearing people talk about lately.

Re: Strike Date Set for 60k Film and Television Workers

#73

Post by Waterluvian »

calcifer wrote: post #3

This is set to be even bigger than the 2007 WGA strike, which was ~12k people for 100 days. WGA had some precedent-setting wins with that, hopefully the same will happen with IATSE.

That strike produced some of my favourite TV ever. Conan was a riot.

Re: Strike Date Set for 60k Film and Television Workers

#74

Post by djbusby »

wildrhythms wrote: post #64
vncecartersknee wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazing! great to see worker solidarity on HN

Meanwhile the top comment here is prefaced with "I'm not super pro-union (plenty of mess there)". I genuinely believe Americans- especially upper-middle class workers like HN visitors- are the subject of a mass disinformation campaign against organized labor.

> upper-middle class workers like HN visitors.

Not all of us.

And I know for sure there is at least one trucker on here, I seent it, not sure where that is on the income spectrum, dang-sure not SV money though (is it?).

Re: Strike Date Set for 60k Film and Television Workers

#75

Post by rndgermandude »

swearwolf wrote: post #66
rndgermandude wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My soul weeps for poor (net worth: 165 million according to google) Scarlett Johnansson. She was only paid 20 million for that movie, but then scammed out of additional royalties by Disney. How is somebody supposed to get by on a mere 20 million per movie. Making that movie took away half a year of her life! I think it's not just the studios' greed that causes the normal Hollywood workers to get fucked, it's also A-l…

When you just look at how much she made in isolation, of course it seems like she’ a spoiled brat for suing to get more. But Disney promised her one thing (an exclusively theatrical release) and delivered another (a dual theatrical/streaming simultaneous release), and then they tried to shame her for standing up for herself. I doubt very much they’d have done the same to Chris Evan’s or Robert Downey Jr. They deserve…

I can see her as a spoiled brat, especially after how she (or rather her people) framed this in the media. And at the same time I can see Disney as an evil corporation scamming people.

>I doubt very much they’d have done the same to Chris Evan’s or Robert Downey Jr.

Is this supposed to be about gender? Or what is this supposed to mean? Evans got less for the latest cape movie than Johansson got for Black Widow by the way ($15M vs $20M). She was in that same movie (Avengers: Endgame) and made the same as Evans.

Disney is an evil corporation, they will try to fuck with everybody if they think they can get away with it. I am sure if Avengers: Endgame was released now and in the way Black Widow was, they'd have tried to scam Evans and Downey Jr (and Johansson too) the same way they tried to scam Johansson now. Hollywood invented Hollywood accounting to scam people (and the state) long ago. One example of who got scammed this way is Stan Lee, who sued and got awarded $10M for Spider-Man from Marvel.

There sure is a lot of sexism in Hollywood, but this isn't it, as far as I can tell.

Re: Strike Date Set for 60k Film and Television Workers

#76

Post by rndgermandude »

milesvp wrote: post #72
rndgermandude wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My soul weeps for poor (net worth: 165 million according to google) Scarlett Johnansson. She was only paid 20 million for that movie, but then scammed out of additional royalties by Disney. How is somebody supposed to get by on a mere 20 million per movie. Making that movie took away half a year of her life! I think it's not just the studios' greed that causes the normal Hollywood workers to get fucked, it's also A-l…

I mean, who are you cheering for here? If Scarlett Johanson managed to bankrupt Disney, I would say the world was a better place. You might be right that A-list actors are somehow shrinking the pot for the rank and file, but my understanding is that the A-list brings the audience that more than pays their salaries. Which means you’d expect a bigger pot to pay those working on those films. I suspect the bigger problem…

I am not cheering anybody here. I am watching a very rich person fight a very rich evil company over a lot of money, while I read articles of not so rich people asking Disney and the rest of Hollywood for a proper lunch break and not having to work 17 hours a day while still barely making ends meet if at all.

Re: Strike Date Set for 60k Film and Television Workers

#77

Post by KingMachiavelli »

wildrhythms wrote: post #63
cwkoss wrote: post #53

Is there a page on their website that has a good list of: - What the workers' demands are? - What they want consumers to do to support the strike? Finding it hard to navigate their website, and hearing people on social media say conflicting things, hard to get a read on what the official position of the union is.

https://www.basicagreement.iatse.net/ 1) Reasonable rest periods 2) Meal breaks 3) Living wages for workers at the bottom of the wage scale 4) Some other issues that are not publicized during the negotiation process

It would be very interesting to know what the current rest period and other issue status quo is and what the union wants it changed to.

Re: Strike Date Set for 60k Film and Television Workers

#78

Post by reducesuffering »

wildrhythms wrote: post #64
vncecartersknee wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazing! great to see worker solidarity on HN

Meanwhile the top comment here is prefaced with "I'm not super pro-union (plenty of mess there)". I genuinely believe Americans- especially upper-middle class workers like HN visitors- are the subject of a mass disinformation campaign against organized labor.

Most of the stronger conviction anti-union comments I’ve seen on HN are about personal experience. “Mass disinformation campaign” seems like an easy handwave where you don’t acknowledge that unions could have any downsides.

Re: Strike Date Set for 60k Film and Television Workers

#79

Post by npteljes »

The thing to realize is that abuse works well. You can, from the same workforce, extract more value, or the same value faster, with more abuse. So when it's not regulated, the way to get ahead, or even stay in business, is via abusive practices. So the only way toward a sustainable future is regulation. That way the playing field is level and so there's less incentive to abuse.

Re: Strike Date Set for 60k Film and Television Workers

#80

Post by slownews45 »

petee wrote: post #61
rndgermandude wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My soul weeps for poor (net worth: 165 million according to google) Scarlett Johnansson. She was only paid 20 million for that movie, but then scammed out of additional royalties by Disney. How is somebody supposed to get by on a mere 20 million per movie. Making that movie took away half a year of her life! I think it's not just the studios' greed that causes the normal Hollywood workers to get fucked, it's also A-l…

Ignore the quantities - she asked for that pay and they willingly paid it. The issue was they had a deal for this movie, and they broke it, rich or not, they broke contract. And if they break it once, they'll do it again. Many actors rely on royalties and this same situation, but don't have her clout. The divide between screen and streaming is being abused by the studios, who make far more than the paltry sum for her…

The whole hollywood accounting and cost shifting game is funny - I'm glad she is taking them on - I didn't look closely but wouldn't be surprised if her case was pretty good.
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