The Great Strike
Well well well, what a week it’s been. The weekly Disney Co roundup will be coming soon, but this is important.
Let’s address the SAG-AFTRA strike. I’ve mentioned on here before that the WGA (Writer’s Guild of America) was on strike. This put many projects behind if not on hold. Now, all of Hollywood has stopped thanks to the members of the SAG (Screen Actor’s Guild) also going on strike. I am with the actors, with members of the labor force on this one. I also feel really badly for them, for those that have already had their livelihoods threatened. I’ve heard that some writers had already lost their homes even before the strike happened. And now the studios are playing hardball with the actors, most of whom are not names you or I would recognize. I’ve always love film and have for years, decades, dreamt of being on set. At one point I had looked into being a background actor (what used to be called an “extra”), just so I could be on set and be a part of making a film come to life. It has come out that the AMPTP (the group representing the studios) have proposed scanning the likeness of a background actor, paying them for one day’s worth of work, and never pay or use them again. Instead they would digitally use the likeness (how they look on screen and possibly even their voice) without paying them, without their consent, in perpetuity.
No.
Not just no. HELL NO.
We already have the existential threat of AI. I’ve heard that the writers have already started to come up against studios using AI. There have been rumors of big A-list actors, like Harrison Ford, having his likeness scanned being in contracts which he strikes out each time he signs on for a project. Now, doing this (scanning background actors) would eliminate the jobs of thousands of people instantly with no hopes of getting it back. Ever. It would likely also prevent any new people from getting work as a background actor. If you have hundreds or thousands of people scanned, why would you need more?
Chris Stuckman, a YouTube film critic and now feature-length film director, has spoken on the subject. One aspect I hadn’t considered is this. Let’s say you work on a Disney project. Your likeness gets scanned. It’s possible that Disney will own your likeness. So, you got paid for that day, but you still have bills to pay, so you go to Paramount. If Disney owns your likeness, Paramount cannot scan you and pay you for the day. No one can. Disney effectively owns the way you look. You would be giving up your potential future earnings as a background actor for a single day’s pay which is a few hundred dollars. That’s it. You’d be trading your future earnings and career for $300 today.
This is absurd. It’s greed. Highway robbery. It’s revolting and despicable. And all for what, money? More money?
We live in a capitalist society here in America. I get it. Every day we are confronted with this battle: people vs money…which is more important? As time goes on, companies find ways to exploit the people in order to make more money for both themselves and shareholders. It’s getting worse. It will keep getting worse.
The only leverage the workers, the laborers, have is to strike. To deprive the companies of the people that make their products and, therefore, their profits.
The system is weighted heavily in favor of those at the top. “It’s not personal. It’s business”.
Not anymore. It is personal, and it’s been getting personal for more and more people who can no longer afford their rent and bills to live.
Beyond that, ancillary services in the communities will be hurt. Everyone who cooks food for the people on set are now out of work. Dry cleaners who before got to help with cleaning clothes and possibly even costumes…they’ll lose business. Everyone who worked on set is out of a job. Hotels that housed background actors who came in for a short time will lose that money. Actors will not be able to go out for interviews for their upcoming projects, so journalism and entertainment reporting will be affected.
On and on this goes, and the longer this lasts, the worse it will get. Workers across America are forming unions. Laborers have had enough.
And so…Hollywood has come to a screeching halt. What does that mean for Disney specifically? Until this has been resolved, you can expect massive changes. Haunted Mansion will still come out, but without a huge premier. Anything that was planned to film will now be pushed back (I’m looking at you Blade. I swear, this production seems to be cursed). TV shows that were filming will be halted. Movies that were being filmed have stopped. If a show or film was already in the can, it can still go through the process of post-production (color-grading, VFX, music, etc). If something needed reshoots…those will either have to be delayed and cancelled. Same goes for ADR (where dialogue is recorded in a studio by the actors). This means that the quality of film and tv might show a decline (and, as a person who watches Marvel tv and film, has already been a problem but now will get exacerbated). Shows, like Ashoka, which were already filmed will still be released. If I were you, I’d expect fewer films and shows to come out. The last time this happened with just a writer’s strike, shows had shorter seasons and networks put out a lot of reality tv.
This could give you a chance to catch up on others you may have already missed, or to refocus your time towards other hobbies. Now would be a great time to support your local bookstore!
The last time this happened was 63 years ago. At that time, Ronald Reagan was president of SAG-AFTRA. That’s right…the one-time Republican President was head of a union. That strike was about actors earning residuals (pay once the film/show they worked on was shown on tv or put into syndication). The actors won. Since then, contract negotiations have been small and incremental. Streaming has completely changed the business model of Hollywood. Even the studios haven’t found a way to use this model and make it profitable. Disney is losing money on Disney+ constantly, despite owning massive IPs (intellectual property) such as Star Wars and Marvel.
(Blog photo from Variety.com)