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Actors union will join writers on strike, shutting down Hollywood

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Re: Actors union will join writers on strike, shutting down Hollywood

#131

Post by morgango »

CSMastermind wrote: post #79
Arrath wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Given the explicit "we'll just wait for them to lose their housing" messaging from the Hollywood executives... Yeah, that was fuckin disgusting. Its tar and feather territory if you ask me. I'm in full support of this strike and I applaud the actors for getting in on it. Bring the studios to their knees if that's what it takes.

What's to stop the actors or writers from simply making their own content? It made sense to me when you had terrestrial television stations with actual monopolies over broadcast rights. But now with the internet they have many vectors to share and market their content. So you won't be on NBC or Netflix or whatever, so what, post it on Twitter and YouTube. If they move to alternative distribution platforms and the stu…

Distribution, access to capital, a reliable track record, contracts or relationships with channels, etc. All the unglamorous parts of media.

There were some very cool things that came out of the last strike (like Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog) but I would guess that at least 75% of you have never heard of it.

Re: Actors union will join writers on strike, shutting down Hollywood

#132

Post by ProllyInfamous »

robterrell wrote: post #117
Oarch wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also a key plot point of The Congress (2013), the scanning process of the actress is even in the movie trailer.

"Looker" is a Michael Crichton film from 1981 that features actors getting scanned and replaced with cheaper & more compliant CGI equivalents.

This was among the first mainstream major 3D rendering in a motion picture.

Re: Actors union will join writers on strike, shutting down Hollywood

#133

Post by foo_foo_can_do »

wwweston wrote: post #92
AlexandrB wrote: post #5

> “In that ground breaking AI proposal, they proposed that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day’s pay, and their company should own that scan, their image, their likeness, and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation,” he said. “So if you think that’s a ground breaking proposal I suggest you think again.” I m…

Not sure it's that groundbreaking since we've already effectively decided as a society this is exactly what we're going to do with art and writing and probably a whole bunch of other stuff. And in general, we've long decided privileging capital is much more important than compensating labor. I'm not saying this is right. I'm saying we didn't just cross this line. This is the logical extension of some trendlines we've…

i think that as labour remains expensive and increasingly inefficient for companies to utilize they will naturally use capital to replace labour. the irony may be that the strength of the unions here hve driven studios to invest millions in cheaper technological solutions to get movies made. labour organizing only has power as long as there is no viable alternative to that human labour.

Re: Actors union will join writers on strike, shutting down Hollywood

#134

Post by gamblor956 »

phpisthebest wrote: post #69
nightski wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Witcher wasn't really Netflix's fault though? I thought Cavill was lured by the Amazon deal to do Warhammer. Gotta love a company like Amazon producing shows and selling toilet paper all in one shop.

Cavill did not leave voluntarily. HE was pushed out because he wanted to stay true to the lore.. Netflix and their hand picked show runners disagree and want to completely change the story

OTOH, the best season of the Witcher was Season One, which Cavill had little to no control over substantively or stylistically.

Season 3 is the season in which he has exercised the most creative control...this is the Witcher as he envisions it...and it's making GOT Season 7 look good.

Re: Actors union will join writers on strike, shutting down Hollywood

#135

Post by [deleted] »

Animats wrote: post #89
no_wizard wrote: post #3

Now this could actually force the Hollywood studios back to the negotiating table in earnest. Its one thing to outsource writers, its not easy (I'd say rare to impossible) to outsource the actors themselves.

The previous Writers Guild strike, in 2007-2008, resulted in a big boom in "reality" shows.

[deleted]

Re: Actors union will join writers on strike, shutting down Hollywood

#136

Post by hayst4ck »

anotherhue wrote: post #4

Unions are a critical counterbalance to the power of corporations. Hardly perfect, but we'll be sorry when they're gone.

The opposite of tyranny is not freedom. The opposite of tyranny is solidarity. Freedom is the state of people in power acting responsibly and it can only be expected that they act responsibly if there are consequences for not doing so.

If you won't sacrifice for someone else, they won't sacrifice for you. If you won't put yourself at risk, nobody will put themselves at risk for you. When you allow the oppression of others, you allow the oppression of yourself.

The opposite of tyranny is supporting your peers and therefore being supported by your peers.

Re: Actors union will join writers on strike, shutting down Hollywood

#137

Post by schlauerfox »

gruez wrote: post #123
Woberto wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're vastly oversimplifying their stance as merely "refusing to accept a deal". If studios are waiting for writers to "start losing their apartments and losing their houses,"[1] that is a major negative impact to people's lives. [1] various sources, e.g. https://www.ign.com/articles/hollywood-studios-want-writers-...

>that is a major negative impact to people's lives. I fully acknowledge the hardship that the union members are going through, and that the impact is likely disproportionate. However, that's a negative impact brought on by themselves by choosing to engage in said strikes. The union might still be in the "right" in terms of what they're demanding, but they're still the proximate cause of their own hardship.

This is a very cruel take, lacking such empathy that you blame the least powerful people in an industry for demanding a living allocation of the vast wealth the industry creates from those in power that decide the allocations? Walk away from your career and surrender if your partners decide to take all the income from you? What an odd way to live your life. What an impossible way to live a life.

Re: Actors union will join writers on strike, shutting down Hollywood

#138

Post by yafbum »

AlexandrB wrote: post #5

> “In that ground breaking AI proposal, they proposed that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day’s pay, and their company should own that scan, their image, their likeness, and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation,” he said. “So if you think that’s a ground breaking proposal I suggest you think again.” I m…

How does it have anything to do with AI? Most mocap / 3d capture stuff is just hard number crunching. Games have had automated animation software good enough for background characters for a while...

Re: Actors union will join writers on strike, shutting down Hollywood

#139

Post by gruez »

Arrath wrote: post #128
gruez wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Its tar and feather territory if you ask me. Refusing to accept a deal is akin to acts of violence? I feel like the pro-union rhetoric is getting hyperbolic, and is detrimental to the quality of the discussion. If simply refusing to accept a deal is "tar and feather territory", then what do you call it when studios are literally covering union members in tar and feather? "tar feather (fr!) territory"? Rather than di…

> Refusing to accept a deal is akin to acts of violence? Its not 'refusing to accept a deal', its this: "“The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses,” a studio executive told Deadline." [0] I don't think I can get more hyperbolic than "our stance is we won't talk to them until they're freezing in the streets". [0] https://deadline.com/2023/07/wr…

The part that you're not mentioning is that the union members are choosing not to sign the deal, and therefore are freezing in the streets. This sucks for union members, but I don't see how else such negotiations are supposed to work. If there's no threat of either side not accepting a deal, then what leverage does either side have? And if the union doesn't want to accept a deal from the studios, and consequently doesn't want to work, why should the studios continue paying them?

Re: Actors union will join writers on strike, shutting down Hollywood

#140

Post by krapp »

wwweston wrote: post #92
AlexandrB wrote: post #5

> “In that ground breaking AI proposal, they proposed that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day’s pay, and their company should own that scan, their image, their likeness, and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation,” he said. “So if you think that’s a ground breaking proposal I suggest you think again.” I m…

Not sure it's that groundbreaking since we've already effectively decided as a society this is exactly what we're going to do with art and writing and probably a whole bunch of other stuff. And in general, we've long decided privileging capital is much more important than compensating labor. I'm not saying this is right. I'm saying we didn't just cross this line. This is the logical extension of some trendlines we've…

>Not sure it's that groundbreaking since we've already effectively decided as a society this is exactly what we're going to do with art and writing and probably a whole bunch of other stuff.

We didn't decide this as a society. Billionaire capitalists and the tech sector decided this on behalf of society, which is why society despises both tech and AI.

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