Writing – Page 2 – Bjorn Munson

Well, That Didn’t Take Long: Steamboat Willie Edition

By Bjorn Munson | January 8, 2024January 8, 2024 by Bjorn Munson

I didn’t post this last week, but I actually saw some news even as I was posting about Public Domain Day last Monday: people aren’t wasting any time, Disney’s legendary legal ferocity be damned. One Steamboat Willie-themed Kickstarter launched on January 1st, there are memes aplenty (see image above), and –of course– there’s a horror movie. There’s plenty more in the works, as Sian Cain details for The Guardian (which also touches on the horror…

Producing Various and Sundry Writing

Public Domain Day, 2024

By Bjorn Munson | January 1, 2024December 30, 2023 by Bjorn Munson

Last year I mentioned making a Public Domain Day post a tradition and so: Happy New Year to All! Plus, welcome to the public domain for so many goodies. For a great overview of said goodies on offer, check out this article from Aaron Moss over at Copyright Lately. Moss is an intellectual property attorney and is quite ready to delve deep into all things copyright. I appreciate that he goes beyond the much-covered fact…

Acting Various and Sundry Writing

Visions of a Post-Strike Hollywood

By Bjorn Munson | November 21, 2023March 27, 2024 by Bjorn Munson

So, the actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA, approved a tentative agreement with AMPTP on November 8th, but the agreement has yet to be ratified by the membership and there appear to be a lot of questions about how AI is being dealt with (actors’ concerns being similar yet different in some important regards than writers). So I’ll plan to write something post-ratification (and yes, the presumption is that the agreement will be ratified). But the ratification vote…

Acting Producing Writing

Watch this (Streaming) Space!

By Bjorn Munson | October 17, 2023October 17, 2023 by Bjorn Munson

Like many, many other people, I had hoped that the end to the WGA strike would lead to a quick negotiation with SAG-AFTRA in its wake. Unfortunately, the AMPTP has evidently walked away from the negotiating table because learning nothing is… a power move? I’m not sure. Anyway, I am already speculating on what the future will bring, because even though we’ve heard a lot about how streaming isn’t the most lucrative business model ever…

Various and Sundry Writing

WGA Has a Deal, SAG-AFTRA Working on One

By Bjorn Munson | October 10, 2023October 10, 2023 by Bjorn Munson

Okay, I’ll be honest: I was putting off finishing this post in hopes that I could do one big post about the end of both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Although SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP are back at the negotiating table since last week, as of this writing, they haven’t made a deal. The WGA, however, has made a deal and, in a trend they established from the get-go, the WGA has provided a great summary…

Various and Sundry Writing

Banned Books Week 2023: Resources & Reports

By Bjorn Munson | October 3, 2023 by Bjorn Munson

Although I did make a post last week giving an excellent resource to all sorts of banned books to start reading for this week, aka Banned Books Week, I would be remiss if I didn’t make another post during the week itself. Last week’s post from Harper’s Bazaar drew from an exhaustive report done by PEN America, and you can learn all sorts of details about the who, what, why, and when of the various…

Writing

Plenty of Books to Choose From for Banned Books Week, 2023

By Bjorn Munson | September 25, 2023September 25, 2023 by Bjorn Munson

Banned Books Week 2023 is almost upon us, so it’s time for me to finalize what book or books I’ll be reading next week — and you might be in the same boat! Often I go looking for books that have been historically challenged, but the current vitriol against the free flow of ideas has led to a lot of books being challenged or outright banned in a lot of different localities across the country.…

Producing Writing

Ghost Light on the Sound Stage: Tentative WGA Deal Being Reviewed

By Bjorn Munson | September 25, 2023September 25, 2023 by Bjorn Munson

So I’ll have a longer post in October as previously mentioned, but for those seven or nine people actually getting some updates about the strikes from this blog, a tentative deal has been struck between the AMPTP and the WGA as reported various places. As you’ll see in the article linked above, there are several procedural steps that are not perfunctory that involve the WGA West and East boards validating the deal and then, importantly,…

Acting Writing

WGA/SAG-AFTRA 2023: Mid-September Update

By Bjorn Munson | September 19, 2023September 19, 2023 by Bjorn Munson

Evidently, meetings will resume between the WGA and AMPTP staring tomorrow, Wednesday, September 20th, so just a few things to update from the Strikes. “Hot Strike Summer” continues to radiate heat throughout the film industry and beyond. The studios suspended some development deals with more established writers, some of whom were about to meet with the studios before the main WGA/AMPTP meeting was announced. Related to labor organizing Marvel VFX artists have been feeling the…

Acting Writing

WGA/SAG-AFTRA 2023: End-of-Summer Update

By Bjorn Munson | September 1, 2023 by Bjorn Munson

We’re at the end of Summer with the start of Labor Day Weekend, we’re well over 100 days into the WGA strike, and we do have some developments since both strikes began. But before I get to that, I should cover what hasn’t changed. It’s still a puzzler as to why the companies haven’t settled considering what is being asked. AMPTP, the group representing the companies (both the traditional studios like Paramount and the streamers…

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