2023-09-28 18:47:45
Like every morning for five months, Terry Wilkerson has been on the picket line in front of the Warner Bros. studios. in Burbank, California. Today, for the first time, a scent of victory floats in the air. “The agreement between the Writers Guild of America (WGA, the screenwriters union) and the studios have instilled renewed optimism among us”explains this actor and screenwriter, who notably played in the series EMERGENCIES et Cold Case.“The actors now have the hope of perhaps being the next to obtain progress and be able to return to work! »
An encouraging sign of a potential end to the crisis, the SAG-Aftra union, which has 160,000 members including 65,000 actors, announced Wednesday evening the resumption of negotiations with the studios next Monday. “This hasn’t happened since the start of the actors’ strike in July”recalls actress and picket captain Chelsea Schwartz.
Same optimism from Jason Squire, associate professor at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California: “The resolution of the screenwriters’ strike could make SAG-Aftra’s task easier, given that there is now a precedent”, he confirms. However, reaching an agreement with the studios could take several more weeks, at the earliest. “by the end of October”he predicts.
Actors very worried about AI cloning their voices
The actors share with the screenwriters some of the demands for which the WGA has obtained major gains, for example a bonus when a series or film meets a certain success on a streaming platform. But “the SAG-Aftra union also intends to obtain progress on very specific needs of the actors” which have not yet been brought up at the negotiating table, estimates Chelsea Schwartz. “We are particularly worried about the cloning of our image and voice in the context of the use of artificial intelligence. »
Another problem that actors want to see regulated and limited: the now almost systematic use by studios of self-filmed auditions. “Since the pandemic, actors no longer go to castings: instead, they are asked to make videos of their attempts themselvesraconte Chelsea Schwartz. Producers are increasingly demanding quality images that require expensive equipment and whose production increases our workload: from now on, we are expected to be both actors and videographers. »
Bottleneck
After almost three months of a grueling strike which weighed on their personal finances, many members of SAG-Aftra dream of a rapid end to the crisis. But even if an agreement was reached in the coming weeks, the Hollywood machine, destabilized by some 150 days of strikes, could still take months before completely getting back into motion.
“The industry risks finding itself facing a bottleneck: everyone will want to resume production at the same time, while there are only a limited number of soundproof studios in Hollywood,” remarque Terry Wilkerson. “It’s a supply and demand issue. Before, the filming schedule was staggered”a Hollywood producer recently told the magazine Variety.
However, the industry wants to start producing content again “by the end of the year because Hollywood experiences a slowdown in activity in December and January due to the holidays”says Miranda Banks, chair of the department of film, television and media studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. “This deadline would allow projects to be released more quickly in theaters in the spring. It’s also the end of the fiscal year for studiosand this would therefore be a way of replenishing their quarterly income. » Warner Bros. Studios Discovery is already forecasting astronomical losses amounting to $500 million.
#Hollywood #return #normal