 Hollywood is facing an unprecedented double strike with both the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild currently striking against the most powerful studios in order to achieve fair compensation, residuals for streaming services, and protection against AI, alongside many other issues. You probably remember hearing about this when the writers first went on strike back in May and you probably saw an even bigger firestorm back in July when SAG-AFTRA also went on strike. But since then, it's been a never-ending series of tension in action, he said she said. So in this video, I want to fill you in on what's currently happening in regards to both of these strikes. If you want a video about how and why these strikes started in the first place, I will link some very informative videos in the description because that is not this video. I really just want to focus on the more recent develops regarding the strike here. And before we jump in, here is a quick guide to all of the parties at play just in case you need a refresher, and if it looks like I'm reading off of a script, it's because I am. The Writers Guild of America, or the WGA, is a labor union that represents thousands of writers in the United States. The Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, aka SAG-AFTRA, is a labor union representing over 100,000 actors and performing artists in the United States. And then we have the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or the AMPTP, which is an association consisting of over 350 of the biggest American production companies, including, but not limited to, Disney, Universal, Paramount, Warner Brothers, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and the major television networks. The AMPTP bargains on behalf of these companies as a collective, kind of like how the WGA and the SAG-AFTRA bargain on behalf of the writers and actors as a collective. So now let's get into these updates. After the summer talks between the WGA and the AMPTP have been few and far between, but their most recent formal meeting was on August 10th, where it seemed like there might have been some hope for a resolution. The WGA sent out a memo to its members stating that the AMPTP presented concessions in some areas, including better protections against the threat that AI poses to the jobs of writers. However, they also stated that the AMPTP was not really budging when it came to success-based residual payments from streaming services, which pretty much means exactly what it sounds like. Writers want to be paid more if a show that they work on ends up being a hit. That's the way residuals have worked in television, but when so much of the industry transitioned into streaming services, those residual rules did not really get implemented in any way. So if you were a writer who worked on one of Netflix's bigger hits like Wednesday, there's a good chance you're getting the same paycheck as the writers who may have worked on some show that got cancelled after a single season. And yeah, if I were a Wednesday writer, I would want a piece of that pie. Since August 10th, the AMPTP has released new proposals with some concessions regarding salaries, streaming viewership, transparency, and residuals, but regarding those salaries, the figures are still shy of what the WGA wants. Nonetheless, the WGA itself does acknowledge that there have been a lot of progress made with the more recent proposals from the AMPTP, but there is still a lot they need to give up. With AI, for example, the AMPTP now agrees with the WGA that AI should not be seen as the equivalent of a single writer. So if a writer is asked to work on a project that the studio has already used AI to start to develop, that human writer will not be given a smaller paycheck to continue to develop that script like they would have if that same work had already been done by a real human writer. And yes, this is a good precedent to set as it shows clearly that the work of AI is not equivalent to human work, but there's still a big issue here and that's that studios are still leaving room for the possibility of using AI in the place of a writer. Because even in that scenario that I just stated that comes from the AMPTP, they're playing around with the idea that they're going to use AI to start to develop projects and then hand those off to real writers. In my personal opinion, AI should stay far away from art and AI in the hands of these major studios will only work to replace the work and salaries of the human counterparts. In the WGA's words though, they claim that this new AI proposal is still refusing to regulate writer's work being used to train AI to write new content. So the WGA wants the AMPTP to establish that all scripts that have already been written and that will be written will not just be fed into AI to then teach AI to create films. And the AMPTP with their recent proposals are still very much leaving that possibility on the table. Another thing that the WGA is fighting for is larger writers' rooms and when it comes to staffing those writers' rooms, the AMPTP's new proposal is still nowhere near the WGA's demands. And when it comes to transparency with streaming numbers, the AMPTP's proposal, which they claim to be a major concession, really provides no immediate or lasting fix to the issue of streaming residuals. The AMPTP agreed to give the WGA quarterly streaming reports so that the WGA can then use that data to form new proposals at a later date to then restructure the streaming residuals resume. So even though the studios likely have all the data from this year and years before, instead of using that data to restructure this major issue right now, the AMPTP is essentially saying this is in your guys' hand. I know one of the main reasons you're striking is so we can define this new structure for streaming residuals, but how about we just give you the data in four months and we'll worry about it then. To me, this is an incredibly lazy proposal from the AMPTP when it comes to streaming residuals because that will just make the issue of streaming residuals live in limbo for eternity because God knows that once the WGA gets the AMPTP's quarterly reports and they do write up some proposals, the AMPTP is just going to reject them and refuse them just like they've been doing for the past four months. And in another lazy move from that proposal, the WGA has criticized the AMPTP for seemingly taking most of its proposals on minimums and streaming residuals directly from the deal that they recently made with the Director's Guild of America back in June. In a letter to its members regarding this latest proposal, WGA leadership stated, the company's counter offer is neither nothing nor nearly enough. We will continue to advocate for proposals that fully address our issues rather than accept half measures like those mentioned above. Since that kerfuffle, the WGA and the AMPTP have not set a time or date to meet again and we sit yet again in anticipation as these two parties refuse to talk to each other and hundreds of thousands of industry workers are out of work having to relocate, sell their homes, find new careers and that's just scratching the surface of the hardships that these industry workers are currently facing in Hollywood. The costs of this double strike are already costing the industry more than it would have if the AMPTP were to concede in full. In that letter I mentioned before, WGA leadership elaborated on this saying, one last reminder illustrates why the AMPTP's current stance doesn't make sense. As we have repeated from the first day of our first member meeting and on every other day of the strike, our demands are fair and reasonable and the companies can afford them. Here is the cost to each company of our current asks on the table including the addition of increased health funding to address the impact of the strike. Weigh this against the cost of not making a deal. The cost to 11,500 riders, to actors, crews and drivers, to anyone who works in the industry and the business but is not on strike. To the economies of California and New York and everywhere film and television is made. To consumers, pension plans and other shareholders and to the companies themselves. It makes no sense and everybody but the AMPTP knows it. In response to the complete production standstill that Hollywood is in, Warner Brothers has announced that they would suspend their deals with a number of high profile producers including JJ Abrams and Mindy Kaling to name a couple. As time continues to pass without deals being made, I suspect we'll start to see a lot more headlines like this with deals being cancelled, potentially even shows and movies being cancelled. And when it comes to discussions between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP, there has been even less movement. One major area of controversy though has been Drew Barrymore's decision to continue production on her talk show without WGA writers, a decision the actress announced with a statement on her Instagram. While Barrymore insisted that the show would be in complete compliance with the SAG-AFTRA strike guidelines and that her show will not promote any struck work, the WGA obviously takes issue with the fact that writing work would inevitably be done on the show and that would literally be scabbing in the terms of the writer strike. On the matter, a WGA spokesperson said this. The Drew Barrymore show is a WGA covered struck show. It has stayed off the air since the strike began on May 2nd but has now unfortunately decided to return without its writers. The Guild has and will continue to pick at any struck show that continues production for the duration of the strike. Now a week after Drew Barrymore posted her original statement to Instagram and the show did go back into production, she posted an apology video where she doubled down on this decision while extending her apologies to writers and unions. While now on September 17th, she has announced that her show will stop taping after all and will not continue to air without its writers and that she will only return once the strikes are over. Of course I think this was the right decision but it is still troubling how long it took for her to write this wrong and the fact that the Drew Barrymore show did go back into production. They taped at least one or two episodes before deciding to not scab. And it's also still troubling that many shows are still standing by their own decisions to return and film shows as Drew Barrymore was not the only show to decide this and there are plenty of daytime shows that are resuming production. Just because studios are being stubborn with their proposals does not justify the disregard of writers. By continuing production on a show without writers, American Horror Story, you are sending the message to the studios that they don't have to make a fair deal with writers. If they just hold out long enough people like Drew Barrymore or like American Horror Story in the onset of the writer strike will let go of their morals for the sake of everybody besides the writers going back to work. Not only that but shows that are resuming filming are also letting every writer know that has previously worked on those shows that they are not worth standing up to the studios for. Like I said before Drew Barrymore wasn't alone in her initial decision as many daytime shows have returned without their WGA writers including Jeopardy, The View, The Talk, Jennifer Hudson, among others. But then shows like Kelly Clarkson, SNL, and the major late night talk shows are all still off of the air, seemingly in solidarity with the writers. In fact those late night hosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver have all joined together to do a podcast during this time in which the proceeds will go towards helping support the staffs of their shows which are not currently in production due to solidarity with the strikes. This video obviously has a bias towards the writers and actors on strike so I encourage you all to take this information, do your own research, and form your own conclusions. Beware though as there are some articles from pretty reputable sources that border on propaganda so you really have to be critical while doing that research even with sources that you may normally trust. The studios are powerful as are the unions and they are both doing the most to try and make themselves look like the good guys because the reality is this is a very ugly situation. Right at the end of the day the studios are the ones that denied the majority of the WGA's initial offer largely without any counter offers at the time. The studios are the people who have refused to return to the negotiating table throughout this entire process and it's the studios who hold the power over everyone who is striking. Yes, almost the entire industry is out of work, even the people who aren't a part of the unions on strike. Yes, this is a horrible thing for these workers to experience but it is not the writers who are causing this to happen. At any time the studios could concede and still be billion dollar companies whereas if the writers gave up on their key points they're accepting the decay of their career altogether. If writers' salaries continue to be unsustainable then that career is no longer viable, less creatives will be drawn to the industry and as studios cannot let go of the possibility of utilizing AI in development of films, it's clear that the studios would not bat an eye if they had to replace their workers with robots. The bottom line is for the writers and the actors on strike, this is life and death for their careers and the future of their crafts. For the studios, they are just trying to keep labor costs as low as they can as they all dump millions and millions of dollars into a literal incinerator that they call streaming services. The streaming model is killing the studios but none of them are able to fix this streaming model and they're instead using the creatives as the scapegoats for their poor business practices. Alright and as I'm editing this video some news dropped. The amptp and the wga have announced that they are set to meet again on Wednesday so the day I uploaded this video so hopefully there's more progress being made towards a resolution between the wga and the amptp. Be sure to check my community tab as I'm surely going to update you guys if anything comes out of this meeting on Wednesday. The amptp released a statement about this meeting stating every member company of the amptp is committed and eager to reach a fair deal and to working together with the wga to end this strike. So let's hope the amptp has truly come to their senses and is ready to give up a lot more than they've been willing to so far and then the next step of course would be to resolve things with sag aftra which like I said before there's just not a lot of movement on that conflict. Alright there you have it. I just wanted to give you all an update on these strikes as I have been all summer. If you have any questions I will try my best to answer them in the comments below. It's definitely been a frustrating conflict to follow and I wish the involved parties would just talk to each other and not spend months and months in silence. As you know I've committed to not covering struck work on this channel in solidarity with the strikes but as soon as a resolution comes there are some videos I am very excited to share with you so stay tuned and like I said in my last videos there are also some horror film favorites of mine that aren't classified as struck work that I will be posting videos on in the meantime. So subscribe for that as well as more strike updates in my community tab as I've been doing all summer and if you have the means to help out the industry workers who are out of work during these strikes I will link the entertainment community fund in the description below and with that thank you guys so much for watching and I will see you guys next time.