Tag: Film Industry

Producing Writing

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

By Bjorn Munson | 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, … Read more

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Acting Writing

WGA/SAG-AFTRA 2023: Mid-September Update

By Bjorn Munson | 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 … Read more

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Producing

Swift Karma in the Entertainment Industry

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

The Hollywood strikes continue and have no end in sight as I mentioned in my last post. So, with that “no news is bad news,” I thought I’d share some good news for this Labor Day. Now, I’m more of a Tom Swifty fan than Taylor Swift fan, but besides knowing that “girl can write a song,” I appreciate how she’s taken the “with great power comes great responsibility” challenge seriously. You see, she’s made … Read more

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Acting Writing

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

By Bjorn Munson | 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 … Read more

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Acting Writing

Teeny WGA/SAG-AFTRA Strike Follow-Up

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

More people than I expected read my Thursday update about the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes, so I figured I should do a brief follow-up. For one, I didn’t read the Deadline article closely enough as it turns out the WGA and AMPTP were just meeting about meeting (I’ve made a correction to the Thursday post as it’s still getting some clicks). Sadly, but not unexpectedly, the meeting did not result in agreeing to resume negotiations. In the … Read more

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Acting Producing Writing

WGA/SAG-AFTRA Strike Update

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

So, it’s August and both the screenwriters and the screen actors are still striking. The WGA is meeting about returning to the negotiating table this Friday, but that doesn’t mean their strike is ending and, at the time of me writing this, there’s no news on AMPTP talking with SAG-AFTRA (though per that article, they’d be happy to). I’ve gone back and tagged all my relevant posts about the strike(s) for ease of reference, but … Read more

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Acting Producing

When Actors Ain’t Got Time for Your Drama, Ya Done Wrong

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

As of Thursday, July 13th, SAG-AFTRA is on strike, joining the WGA, which has been on strike since the beginning of May. Considering I posted about that strike, it made sense to post about this as well, but boy howdy has there been a lot in the past 10 days or so. In terms of overall covereage, Alissa Wilkinson, over at Vox, has one of their excellent explainer articles. Kim Masters and Matt Belloni banter … Read more

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Producing Writing

What do Hollywood Business Models have to do with the Writers’ Strike?

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Yes, I am continuing to follow news about the Writers’ Strike and, yes, given my previous posts of Adam Conover videos, there was really doubt I’d post a video with Adam Conover talking about the Writers’ Strike? (I mean, he was one of the WGA folks in the negotiating room): One of the arguments you hear early in the video goes something like this: That got me thinking about how the studios are defining “profitable,” … Read more

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Various and Sundry Writing

More Context for the 2023 Writers’ Strike

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

So the not-quite-a-week-old writers’ strike is still on my mind, in part because much of the online forums I visit are full of, well, writers. So here’s a few more resources that I feel give you a bit more context about what’s being demanded, how the studios usually respond and what is officially on the table. First up, an 8 1/2 minute video from Nerdist that sums up the strike: If you’ve been following other … Read more

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Writing

And so it begins: Writers’ Strike 2023

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Last Thursday, I wrote a little bit about the potential strike between the Writers Guild and the major studios (those groups are generalizations, nuance with the links). The contract between the WGA and AMPTP expired last night with no extension. That means as of this writing, about 11,500 writers of film and television are on strike. Discussions have popped up on various online forums I’m part of and even at my dayjob, so I figured … Read more

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