Lights, camera, no action

Opinion

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This article was published 25/07/2023 (802 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This much seems certain: for the entertainment industry, the summer of 2023 is not headed toward an old-fashioned Hollywood happy ending.

In fact, what appears to be looming is a full-scale showbiz meltdown, as the writers and actors who create the vast majority of the movies and television shows we watch — whether on theatrical big screens, on broadcast and cable TV networks or via the ever-expanding roster of streaming services — hunker down for what seems destined to be a long and bitter strike.

At issue for both the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) are the manner in which writers and actors are compensated for their work in the streaming-content era and the control each has over their work product and images in the face of rapid advances in the realm of artificial intelligence.

Following failed negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents movie studios, TV networks and streaming services, WGA members set up picket lines on May 2 and SAG-AFTRA joined them on the streets on July 14.

This dispute mirrors past show-business labour disruptions in that its primary concerns involve how money flows through the industry’s workforce as emerging technologies create new venues for exhibiting creative content and new revenue streams associated with that expanded distribution.

The last time Hollywood’s writers and actors staged a simultaneous strike was back in 1960, when the major issue involved how the movie business, and therefore all who toiled in it, would be impacted by the still-nascent medium of television.

Subsequent showbiz work stoppages have also centred around how actors and writers were paid as content shifted into new realms such as cable, home video and streaming platforms.

Residual payments — the amount writers and actors receive when shows on which they’ve worked are shown and re-shown on various platforms — tend to be minuscule whenever a new exhibition option emerges, and profit-focused industry executives have historically fought hard to keep them that way.

Citing the disruption created by the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney CEO Bob Iger said “This is the worst time in the world to add to that disruption… There’s a level of expectation that they have that is just not realistic.”

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Members of the striking unions — most of whom earn relatively modest incomes rather than the massive payouts associated with major Hollywood stars — were quick to characterize the comments by Mr. Iger, who reportedly took home US$45.9 million in salary and bonuses in 2021, as offensive and out of touch.

The picket lines are in Hollywood, but the impacts of this dispute will be widely felt — including in Canada, where a $12-billion industry that employs 244,000 people will essentially grind to a halt as so-called “service production,” involving Hollywood-based productions shot in Canadian locations, including Manitoba, is shuttered until the disputes are settled.

Challenges abound. Fair compensation for streaming-service productions will be difficult to negotiate, as firms such as Netflix and Amazon remain fiercely protective of financial information, and actors’ concerns about protecting their creations and images in an era when AI can re-create virtually anything at no cost is destined to be a major sticking point.

“We are at a seismic inflection point in the industry,” said Canadian actor/producer Julian De Zotti. “A massive technological shift is changing how working- and middle-class artists, actors, writers, craftspeople can make a sustainable living in the entertainment industry.”

Contrary to the old showbiz maxim — in the short term, at least — it appears the show will not go on.