The almost 150 day long writers strike is coming to an end after the settlement agreement on Wednesday, Sept. 27.
The Writers Guild of America [WGA] boundary was seen outside of Paramount, CBS, Netflix and Warner Bros studios in Los Angeles, California. The writers were striking in hopes of higher pay, more staffing in writing rooms and safety from Artificial Intelligence that would allow bigger companies to replace writers with AI.
The writers strike was followed across America but it also built a community around the writers that made everything feel closer. Screenwriter Brittany Johnston who has worked on many shows and movies stood with her fellow writers in solidarity.
“I loved being on the picket lines with my colleagues and being reminded of the real community and solidarity we have amongst ourselves,” Johnston said. “That said, it was very hard to be out of work for so long.”
Many beloved shows and movies such as Stranger Things, Dune: Part Two, Euphoria and The Last of Us that have been postponed will be coming back as the industry adjusts to the changes from the settlement. The settlement gave writers script fees, a minimum number of writers required in a writers room, better streaming residuals and more.
“You can see they were running reruns, they were desperate for content. So I think that was the tipping point,” Teresa Grieb said.
Additionally, Johnston talks about how the film industry endures so much change that contacts need to be redone all the time, but covid caused a build up of this change which led to the strike to negotiate their contracts. Now that the strike is over the industry will need to adapt once again.
The changes made to the writers’ contacts help writers get more compensation and pay for the shows that they are one. Giving writers and low level actors more compensation can lead to a change in the way that Hollywood works.
“Holding strikes through history in general has been a way of making changes that need to be done,” junior Asher Zelvy said. “It feels very justified.”
Though the writers have come to an agreement, the Screen Actors Guild [SAG] are still protesting for better pay and compensation to keep up with inflation and AI which threatens the whole industry.
“You see the shows, you see the movies, you see everything, but [the writers and actors] are the ones that create the venue, or create the backbone, of what you see,” teacher Teresa Grieb said.
The future of the film industry is up in the air right now with a lot of change circling around. While the SAG is still on strike there still might be some time before Hollywood goes back to normal.
