Written by Ethan Mathews. Photo courtesy of Monica Almeida at The New York Times.
No matter our creative field, we all must learn to compromise and adapt our craft to the new digital age. This means being constantly alert to changes within our industry, new ways to monetize our work, and the looming, animatronic elephant in the room, artificial intelligence.
Rumblings of the writers’ strike called by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) have made national news since it went into effect at 12:01 AM on Tuesday, May 2. While those following their negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) have had time to prepare for this eventuality, many of us are still catching up on what this means for the future of writing in film and TV. With graduation just around the corner, this year’s graduating class of dramatic writers may need to reassess the way they make their start in an industry on pause.
Before looking at how this will affect our classmates, it’s important to understand the context of this labor movement.
Since the historic labor movements of the early-to-mid-20th century, unions have played an integral role in protecting workers’ rights to fair wages and working conditions. They are the crucial median between the highest and lowest levels of large companies.
Today, the WGA represents 11,500 film and TV writers and looking back, it’s entirely unlikely that the founding members could’ve imagined the current state of the industry.
Around this time, as screenwriting grew as a legitimate profession, small gatherings developed to protect the interests of working writers, and eventually led to the formation of an official union on April 6, 1933. Originally named the Screen Writers’ Guild, it proved to be a model for other unions in the industry, according to the Writers Guild Foundation.
“This strike is for the future generations of writers. These issues need to be resolved now.”
The WGA’s most recent strike, lasting 100 days in 2007-08, forced production in Hollywood to a halt and aimed to reshape writer compensation under rising internet streaming services. The growing rift that led to the strike on Tuesday is a culmination of the AMPTP’s failure to address these extreme changes over the last fifteen years. “The companies have used the transition to streaming to cut writer pay and separate writing from production, worsening working conditions for series writers at all levels,” the WGA said in a statement.
The Guild stated that the AMPTP remains immovable on several important concerns, such as regulating the use of AI in scriptwriting and the escalating treatment of screenwriting as a freelance profession.
“This is a major turning point in the evolution of the writer in Hollywood,” says Christopher Auer, a SCAD Dramatic Writing professor and member of the WGA since 1985. Auer says he voted in favor of the strike along with over 97% of Guild members and remains resolute in his support as he prepares his students to graduate. “This strike is for the future generations of writers. These issues need to be resolved now.”
As he educates young writers on the movement, Auer believes it’s important that every writer appreciates their role in ensuring a positive outcome. He encourages this graduating class to go for PA roles while production still runs, make connections, and learn what they can in the industry. With the earned severity of a writer entering their third major strike, he says no writing positions or duties should be accepted while the picket line stands. “I know it’s tempting, but you must be in solidarity with your fellow writers who have worked long and hard for the things we have now.”
He also urges young writers to use this time to their advantage. “Create your own content right now. When you’re writing for passion and fun, a lot of good stuff comes out of that. You never know how it’s going to land.”
On the student side, graduating Dramatic Writing senior, Rachel Rhodes, reexamines her next moves. “When it comes to a job search, even if the industry is going dark, you just have to keep making the connections,” says Rhodes. While she plans to return home to Los Angeles after graduation to eventually pursue a career in TV writing, Rhodes shares in the anxiety felt throughout her department toward an uncertain future. “Just keep writing and hope we won’t get taken over by robots.” Despite this unfortunate timing, Rhodes trusts that the writers will prevail.
