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The WGA and major studios and streamers have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract that promises to end the 146-day strike that has taken a heavy toll across the content industry.
The nitty-gritty details of language around the use of generative AI in content production was one of the last items that the sides worked on before closing the pact.
“We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional – with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership,” the WGA’s negotiating committee wrote in an email to sent to members at 7:10 p.m. PT
The strike itself will still be in force through the guild’s contract approval and ratification process. But picketing has been suspended as of Sunday night. Guild leaders are expected to vote on Tuesday on whether to formally lift the strike order against AMPTP signatories.
Details of the contract agreement won’t be released until the final language is completed over the coming days. WGA leadership expects to vote on Tuesday on the final pact.
I’m glad the WGA got an agreement they’re happy with. This beats the deadline mentioned a few months ago about having to scrap the 2023-24 season (October 1).
I’m also glad there seem to be protections about AI in the writers’ rooms, since that was what I assumed the studios were fighting to hard to have their way on.
Over all, I’m hoping this momentum will carry forward into SAG getting a favorable agreement as well.
Solidarity forever!
If someone could explain this part, I’d appreciate it:
…picket strike teams that zeroed in on picket activity to shutter productions that tried to keep shooting completed scripts after the WGA went pencils down.
Why would the WGA have issues with projects involving completed scripts?
In a nutshell: No WGA member (which often included show runners) could be on site for filming or make script adjustments. This means that frequently actors need to do their own rewrites which are often of questionable quality, and they don’t like to do (since it’s essentially being a scab). I think producers can also do rewrites, but I’m not sure they’d be much better at it.
One of the primary reasons Quantum of Solace was such a rough movie is Daniel Craig was doing rewrites himself in the evenings since it was filmed during the strike.
The obvious solution would be to do everything in their power to follow the script to the letter but oftentimes it can’t be avoided. Some lines might not land the way they read on paper, and some sets cannot accommodate action the way it was initially scripted. All of these would require script rework.
This is why even completed scripts can still be a concern for the WGA.
The obvious solution would be to do everything in their power to follow the script to the letter
It’s not just sets that are a problem, there’s a million different reasons why a script might look good on paper but not work in practice.
Fundamentally, writers are never experts in every aspect of the industry so they can’t possibly recognise all of the problems in their script until someone else points it out. A lighting designer perhaps. Or a makeup artist. Or a lawyer.
Nothing wrong with Daniel Craig being involved in a rewrite. But he should be doing it alongside a writer instead of replacing the writer.
I think calling them “completed scripts” is a misnomer (likely on purpose to cause confusion). People who are hired to write for shows, don’t just write an episode and then never interact with the process again. They get hired to do re-writes, and change things on the fly. The former is shit, it doesn’t work, yet it’s much cheaper, so…
