On day 100 of the strike, we look at ten things that have helped us make it through

But first, we've got to vent a little bit...

It’s August 9, 2023, and here’s where we are…

Day 100.

Summer is in full effect right now in Los Angeles. It’s muggy and hot every day and absolutely unforgiving when you’re walking anywhere. Like, say, for example, on a picket line. I am struggling not to turn this newsletter into one long gigantic primal scream of rage that goes on for as long as we are forced to strike against the AMPTP, and it’s taking every bit of strength I’ve got.

It is impressive how issues that did not seem to be crucial at the start of our strike have moved to the center of the conversation. Basically, we had no idea just how ready the studios and the streamers were to start using generative AI as a tool to replace actual creative workers, and now that we’re seeing what their offers are in these negotiations, it’s become clear that there are some existential issues on the line. They are not necessarily the same issues for writers and actors, but the common denominator is the insane economic imbalance that exists between the vast majority of the working class in our fields and the people running these companies.

Yes, there are some performers and some writers and directors who have made a lot of money on various projects, but those stories are increasingly rare. It used to make sense. If you created something or worked on something in a meaningful way and that thing became a hit, you stood to make some money. The economics of our industry started to warp in the late ‘80s as salaries for movie stars grew larger and larger up front and more and more weighted on the back end, too. There were also the big ticket spec sales that sent the exact wrong message to every young writer who wanted to move to Los Angeles (like me), and for a while, it felt like the studios were willing to spend more and more money because they kept making more and more money.

Clearly, those days are over. The generation of CEOs we have now are in it for themselves, beholden only to the Great God of Perpetual Growth. They’ve made that clear with every action they’ve taken this year regarding these negotiations and our strike. I’m surprised they let it get this far with SAG-AFTRA, but it feels unavoidable now that we’ve seen what those guilds were asking for and what the AMPTP countered with. What I don’t understand is how we ever find a middle ground with people who seem to wish we did not exist. It feels like this is going to have to be a major reorganization of the agreements that exist right now, and that’s going to require some bloodletting before we all reach the stage where we are willing to find a compromise. There’s so much anger involved this time, and it feels punitive, like they want us to suffer if they’re going to have to make an eventual deal. I can’t imagine this wraps up before October or November, and if the AMPTP can’t come to the table before the holidays, that feels like the nuclear option, like they’re trying to destroy families and communities. At that point, I’m not sure I even want a deal with those people. At some point, you have to set aside your financial “obligations” to recognize the human component of the business we’re in. And if you can’t, then I’m not sure this is the business for you. Right now, Hollywood feels like it has been signed over for a wholesale dismantling, and they’re not going to rest until there’s nothing left of what we all signed up for in the first place.

“Hollywood” as we understand it at any given time is a general agreement between the mainstream production and distribution system and the audience. It has existed for about a century now, and it is in no way a permanent or inviolable institution. It’s not a real tangible thing, anyway. Sure, there’s the Hollywood sign, which just passed its own centennial, but that’s part of the symbolism, part of that agreement we all make. We move here and we throw ourselves into the meat grinder because we hope we’re going to get to make art that also makes money for people so they let us make more and, hopefully, pay us enough to live while we do that. That is the outrageous, irrational expectation that so outrages Bob Iger and David Zaslav. That’s the petulant demand we’re making in exchange for creating films and television shows that generate billions and billions and billions of dollars in revenue that we already know you’re going to hide behind a wall of bullshit accounting practices that would be criminal in any other business. We have allowed you to play this shell game with us, this eternal financial game of “got your nose” that we pretend isn’t happening, because we hope you’ll give us whatever crumbs you decide we deserve.

I watched the shift happen in the last 30 years and I made the mistake of believing that we might get ahead of it and figure out how to deal ourselves in as new media made major inroads. Instead, the AMPTP figured out how to game that system in the time between contracts, dodging any kind of course corrections we tried to make. Now we’re at an existential flashpoint and I’m not entirely sure we can ever go back to what existed before. I think it’s far more likely this labor action summer is going to immolate much of the structure that exists and we’re all going to have to refigure the way things work over the next few years. Whatever contract we eventually make is going to have to leave room for us to figure out some details on the fly because our entire business is tap-dancing on quicksand right now. “Hollywood” only exists as long as we can all agree on the way it works, and if it stops working, then maybe we close the book on this thing we all believed in.

People are always going to make movies and television shows. Distribution methods and production methods will change and evolve. Those are the two things I am sure of. Beyond that, the last three years have taught me that nothing is set in stone. Things that seemed inviolable, like the theatrical-to-home-video window, have been demolished, and in some cases, the argument could be made that it’s working. So clearly what I want and what I wish aren’t the only things that matter. Things are changing, and I’m going to do my best not to be an ostrich about it.

Having said that…

Fuck A.I. There are plenty of applications for A.I. that make sense. Art is not one of them. I am not going to be covering anything about its use in art, because it does not belong in art. It is anti-human and anti-art in every way, and it is not worth my time and energy to be mad about it. There are clearly people who will use it to make things. I don’t know what you call those things, but they’re not art. They are based on art that will have to be fed into the AI to “learn” how to make art, and if plagiarism mix-and-match is what you’re interested in, feel free to read about it in all the places that are going to urgently try to sell it to you AT TOP VOLUME in the very near future. Most of these tech-oil salesmen are going to be the exact same losers who just pushed All Things Crypto on you for the last fistful of years. There is no output from a generative AI program that is not based on input, and I do not exist as an artist to train your fucking computer program. That is not the purpose of any art, but certainly not anything I’ve created. As the language of every user agreement for every single thing you use involving technology gets updated to debate the ownership and ethical usage of every single thing we record or create, it is so clear that everyone wants the right to take everyone else’s work and feed it into their plagiarism engines. I have nothing but contempt for that process and for the people who believe that what they’re making has any value beyond the freakshow horror of it.

I will always be writing about the work of people here. If I’m going to take the time to watch your work and think about it and write about it, the least you can do is take the time and effort to actually do the work yourself. One of the things I love about movies is the way collaboration shapes something. One person has this initial idea, and then they recruit all these other people who bring their own experience and ideas to the table, and you all push and pull and debate and discuss and the eventual piece of art that comes out the other side is the result of all of that. You can feel all of those fingerprints on the final piece, even if you’re not aware of it. Everyone contributes. Everyone gets to sign the thing in some way. The end result is a culmination of all of that human effort, this big metaphorical snowball that everyone took turns pushing at some point. That’s what makes art wonderful and special and worth discussing and supporting.

Not everything works. That’s a given. And not everything works for everybody. I might dislike something intensely, and someone else thinks it’s the best thing they ever saw. I have been on that end of the equation so many times over the years, starting when I was young and I still often find myself on an island in my advocacy for a film or a show or a book. Which is fine. That’s when you learn about yourself. When you are willing to really interrogate why something does or doesn’t work for you, it’s revealing as much as it is illuminating about the thing itself.

Along those lines, I’m in the midst of recording and releasing a series of warm-ups for my new podcast, The Hip Pocket. My co-host Aundria Parker was tasked with picking a series of movies from the ’40s, the ‘50s, the ‘60s, the ‘70s, the ‘80s, the ‘90s, the 2000s, the 2010s, and from this decade, movies that she loves for whatever reason, movies she likes to share or that she treasures because of some emotional connection. I did the same, along with our bandleader, Craig Ceravolo, and we are recording one episode per decade. It’s a game that’s designed to help us learn about each other, what we like, how we talk about the things we love, and how we fit together as a group. Right now, the people who are on our Patreon page can hear the first few episodes, and we’re about to record a few more. What I hope we are able to create here is a space where guests come on and share some of their favorite formative things, a movie party that is designed to be joyful and celebratory. I know how popular “bad movie” podcasts are, and I listen to a few of them, but if I’m going to constantly drone on about the importance of human art, then maybe I should be doing my very best to spotlight the things that affirm the points I’m making.

As I said, I’ve been crawling out of my skin this summer. I have financial anxiety I can barely even describe at this point, something I would not have thought possible at the start of this year. When I see stars throwing tantrums because they can’t promote their shows, I find it deeply frustrating. We are all sacrificing for this strike, and some of us are in far more vulnerable and fragile places than “I have a finished show that is actually airing.” We have to think about the bigger picture, as much as it may hurt us in the immediate moment, because there is no other choice.

We are 100 days deep, and as long as the AMPTP will not meet us with a sense of genuine compromise, we will keep marching. We will stand together. We will go 200 days or 300 days or 500 days. Every single day the AMPTP refuses to sit down to find real solutions to bring this thing to an end, they are bleeding money. They are hurting this city. They are hurting workers around the world. They are responsible for all of this, and our actions are the only sane and adult response to what is happening. We will win in the end, and that is the thing that keeps me going. Watching other unions in other industries stand firm this summer and seeing them make genuinely historic deals gives me strength. We are seeing workers around the world forced into a corner and fighting back through the one tool we have at our disposal, our collective bargaining strength. Everywhere I look, there are workers organizing and striking and forcing the hand of management, and it’s obvious that this is all a sign that the system that’s in place right now is only working for a few, not for the many, and that something has got to change.

As we continue to exert the pressure necessary to make that change, I have worked very hard to keep myself from going completely insane. So, quickly, let’s take a look at…

10 THINGS THAT HELPED ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE STRIKE