- Hey, guy. Sorry I haven't posted a video in a while. I went to Europe on vacation, but we accidentally locked
our keys in the car, so we had to swim back. Boy are my arms tired! - [Objector] Oh, come on!
(people booing) - [Objector] That's the best you could come up with?
(Drew clears throat) - [Objector] It's been
like two months, man. - [Objector] You suck! - Ah, shit. In case you didn't hear,
the Writers Guild of America went on strike this month for
the first time in 15 years. As a result, shows like
"Saturday Night Live," "The Daily Show," and "Late Night" with Jimmy,
Jimmy, Jimmy, and Jimmy, have ceased production until
negotiations are agreed upon. The longer the negotiations take, however, the more shows will be
delayed and affected. It won't just be daily talk shows, it'll be entire seasons of
your favorite Netflix show. And for the shows that insist on powering through without writers, it will have the potential to completely tank the entire series, because that's what happened last time, and there's a very good chance
it's going to happen again. If you don't remember
the 2007 writers strike, it was a weird time for TV. Scrambling to come up with new programming without being able to employ writers, a lot of networks started
doubling down on reality shows, which really altered the
landscape of television for years and years after that, even though the strike itself
only lasted about 13 weeks. I mean, TLC started just
followin' around families with a bunch of kids for a while. That was kinda weird. "The Apprentice" went
from being nearly canceled to one of the most popular shows on TV, which I'm sure didn't have
any political ramifications about nine years later. But maybe worst of all, they started airing "Price Is Right" at night. A lot of scripted shows at the time basically imploded from the strike. Seasons would be cut short, or instead, they'd just try to keep on
making them without the writers, and that was usually a disaster. The one I personally remember
being affected the most was "Heroes." This show was so fun to
watch when it first came out. It felt like a big event that, like, everyone was tuned in to. But starting out, it was very similar to
"Lost's" first season, where you've got, like, this
huge ensemble of characters, and as it goes, you kinda spend each one episode fleshing them out each individually, and you start to realize
how they're all intertwined. I remember the finale being, like, hinted at from the beginning, so you kinda knew where
everything was gonna converge, but you were still fascinated just to see how they would get there. Also, the main villain of the show could cut people's heads
open by pointing at them, and that was cool as hell. So when season two started, the showrunner developed this big vision for everything that would come, but had to slow things down for a bit, set up some new characters
and plot points, get the ball rolling on that. And it was a little confusing, but you felt like it was
all leading to something. Until the writers strike hits. Suddenly they have to scramble to condense 12 episodes
into a two-part finale. And what was already
a little bit of a mess only gets 100 times messier. All of the momentum the show
needed going forward was gone. A lot of these new characters
got so little airtime, but then became integral to the story. And in the dust was left a show that ultimately survived the strike, but never fully recovered from the damage. Most movies weren't affected nearly as much as scripted TV was, but the ones that were, were hit hard. "Quantum of Solace" was shot
with very little script, and obviously no writers on set, so they just had Daniel
Craig improvise lines that he thought James Bond would say. And you know, "We'll fix it in post." They did not fix it in post. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" began filming with no script, just a 14-page outline written
by Michael Bay himself. But honestly, knowing "Transformers," 14 pages actually kinda seems like a lot. I can only assume he was
using a really big font. But as rough as things got
for the movies that bombed and the shows that got canceled, these failures were ultimately necessary for the Writers Guild to win, because they were able to
prove the value that they had to companies who seemed to
think that they didn't have any. All it took was hundreds
of millions of dollars in lost revenue for Universal and Paramount to be like, "Wait, if we don't have
writers to write the shows, then we can't make any shows, and then we can't make
any money off the shows? Why didn't you explain it to me like that in the first place?" So eventually their demands
were met, the strike ended, and the producers and writers
lived happily ever after. Until like 12 days ago. The WGA is striking again,
with a few main bullet points. They're trying to stop
production companies from continuing to shrink writers' rooms, they're fighting to be paid
residuals for streaming shows rather than just a day rate, and they're fighting to keep AI out of the writer's room altogether, because as much as
Silicon Valley tech bros look at ChatGPT with
dollar signs in their eyes, it completely undermines writers, and really the entire point
of art in the first place. Not that that matters. So one of the biggest differences between this strike and the last one, is that a lot of the demands
coming from the writers are in regards to streaming services, which for years have been
treated by Hollywood as, like, this fun little side thing that, you know, doesn't come close to matching the allure and prestige
of cable television. - I am a surgeon! - Even though almost every
popular and well-respected show from the past seven years has come from Apple TV,
Netflix, or HBO Max. But because streaming is still archaically
being viewed in this way, the writers are not able to receive nearly the same benefits. For example, thanks to past
strikes and negotiations, network TV writers continue to get paid every time their show
re-airs in syndication. So since shows like "The
Office" and "It's Always Sunny" air over and over and over
again on cable television, and therefore continue to earn revenue, the writers keep getting paychecks. Which makes sense, right? As long as something keeps making money, then everyone involved in making it should keep getting a
percentage of that money. But on streaming, there is no potential for growth for the people who helped
bring it into existence. If you're involved in writing something that goes on to become the most popular show on Hulu for weeks, and causes thousands of people
to sign up for a subscription that they didn't have before, just because they want
to see the show you made, and maybe they even like it so much that they just continue
to pay that subscription until the next season comes out, none of that matters to you. Because you'll never see
any of that extra revenue that you helped earn. There's no financial upside
for doing a good job. So overall, that's probably the
biggest issue of the strike, but there are a few others. For years, production companies have been pushing for smaller
and smaller writing rooms, which puts more work on the
shoulders of fewer people, and gets rid of the job security that used to be there for
everyone who is now brought on for just as short of a
time as humanly possible. Most of those people are paid for just a couple weeks of work. They come in, they learn the show, they contribute a few ideas, and then they're told to
get the fuck outta there, so we don't have to put
your name in the credits, and we don't have to keep you employed, while we continue to work on the thing that you helped come up with. And I think this is where one of the biggest misunderstandings
about scripts comes in, where people treat it as if it's something the
writers just type up, and then they print it out,
and then the script is done. Now we can send all those people home, and show 'em the movie when we're done filming it in six months. But that's not how it works, or at least not how it
should, and has in the past. Scripts are constantly evolving,
even once filming starts. Sometimes everyone shows up to set, and a joke doesn't really
work as it was written, 'cause it just doesn't sound
right coming from the actor, or a prop doesn't look like
the way they had intended and now this line doesn't make sense, or the location doesn't
accommodate the shot that they had planned, so now we gotta quickly get together and figure out an alternative, because every second that
we don't get work done we are burning through our budget. Let's brainstorm, guys! From what I've heard from
people in the industry, this stuff happens literally every day. It's just how filming goes. So having people in the
room who wrote the words and understand the story inside and out, is the best way to make a a quick change that doesn't disrupt the flow of filming. It's a collaborative process
from everyone involved, in order to make the best thing possible, and sometimes that means
adapting on the fly, rather than just, you know, sticking with words that
were typed four months ago, no matter what happens. But like I said, this
entire part of the process has slowly been getting cut out in order to save costs. And this is having two major
effects on the industry. One, it's making shows not
as good as they could be, because you're having fewer people on set to contribute ideas when
changes are inevitably needed, and two, writers are missing out on the invaluable experience that comes with being on
set during your production. Where they would get a glimpse
into the entire process, and everything that goes into bringing these scripts to life. Experience that,
historically, has been vital as these writers continue
to move up the career ladder to showrunner, director,
executive producer. Like, they have to realize that they're cutting
out this entire sector of built-in, inexpensive,
on-the-job training in an industry where more and more money keeps getting thrown at
these giant productions, but then you're handing
the keys over to people who've never been even remotely taught how to be in charge of
something like that. - [Andy] In my own experience, I had a full room for 20 weeks with brilliant group of writers. None of them were allowed to come to set. Their contracts ended before
we started production, so they're all technically
writer-producers. Some of them had the title of producer, but they were not welcome to
set to produce their episodes, which is both robbing the
show of their perspective, but your point is, it's robbing
the future of the industry. Because the things you learn on set are completely different
than what you learn in a room just writing scenes that
don't cost anything, and you can put them anywhere you want. And then you end up with this continuing
cascade of problems, right? Where, like, people are
suddenly given a chance to make their own show as they should, but they don't have the experience on set and they're set up to fail. - So ironically, what's going to happen, is there are going to
be more and more issues that arise on sets, expensive issues that result
in reshoots and delays and extended post-production timelines, and before you know it, all of the money the
studio was trying to save by pinching pennies at every corner, is just gonna burst into flames anyway. I read that even one day
of reshoots can cost, like, a quarter of a million dollars, when you have these writers who are just trying to stay
employed for a few extra weeks, so they can help out on set, where they could have helped prevent the reshoots in the first place. Almost 100% of the time, it would have been
cheaper just to pay them. It's so stupid. You've got the real-life
embodiment of Kendall Roy out here making business-first creative decisions that make shows worse, and
then lose money anyway. So, in my opinion, everything the WGA is fighting
for is more than fair. Everyone deserves to be
paid what they're worth, and there's absolutely no
reason in this situation to be rooting for the
CEO of Warner Brothers, who can't even seem to figure out what they want their app
(people sighing) to be called. And yet, even though to me it seems like a no-brainer
thing to support, that hasn't stopped some
of the dumbest people on the planet, Twitter Blue subscribers, from sowing discourse. Like, there's this weird thing
where people seem to assume everyone in Hollywood is filthy rich, just because the industry
they're a part of is. But on average, writers are earning less
than they did ten years ago. Writing jobs don't last nearly
as long as they used to, because seasons are
significantly shorter now, and no one wants to
keep the writers around once they feel like their job is done. Even though it's not. In the past, residual
checks from previous gigs would keep them afloat in between jobs, but without that, a lot of them are having
to deliver Postmates and find side hustles
just to make ends meet. But then you've got these people who are salivating over the idea of "spoiled" Hollywood writers finally getting a reality check. "Good riddance, Hollywood losers. Or should I say, Hollyweird?
(object boings) Who even needs human writers anymore? Just have ChatGPT do it. Everything is just sequels
and remakes now anyway." And this sentiment that I've seen shared by
hundreds of people online is so infuriatingly stupid. Number one, if you're
in support of a company replacing thousands of jobs
with one single AI program, you are anti-worker. You are only supporting the billionaires in pursuit of screwing
over everyone possible in order to maximize their wealth. Now I understand you don't give a shit, because you don't see any
value in creative jobs, and think that everyone
who complains about it should just go into a real line of work. "If you didn't wanna get replaced by AI, then learn to code." Disregarding how joyless of an outlook this is to have on life, one where no one gets to make art or do anything they're passionate about, and we should all be typing code all day while computers get to
do all the fun stuff, what makes you think only writing jobs will be replaced by AI? They're not gonna stop at the jobs that you don't care about, they're going to replace all of the jobs. I think we should be in
support of any workers who are fighting to prevent
this from happening, but you seem to be so
distracted by this one tree, that you've yet to notice the
forest you're standing in. Number two, the idea that everything is just a
remake or a sequel now anyway, so it's not like these writers are even coming up with original ideas. Yeah, there's a lot of
rehashed IPs in Hollywood. Guess what? You don't have to watch those. Do you know how much shit
has come out in just, like, the past few years alone, that's been unlike anything
I've ever seen before? These 10-out-of-10 shows and movies that have unique plots
and original characters and up-and-coming actors that aren't just Chris
Pratt doing a voice, and give me emotions that
I can't even describe, but I guess you were too busy complaining about how woke
the new "Little Mermaid" is to notice any of 'em. That's your own fault. Look, I get annoyed at how many sequels and
reboots and superhero movies there are now too, but you know why they keep making them? Because they make a shit
ton of money every time. And you know why they make a
shit ton of money every time? Because you keep going to see them. Go watch something else, dude! But if you want more
originality in Hollywood, you know what's not going
to solve that problem? Fucking ChatGPT. AI does not create original
ideas, because it can't. It doesn't have unique life experience or a sense of humor that it can draw upon. It is a glorified search engine that just plagiarizes a bunch of elements of already existing human creations, and regurgitates it onto a Word document. "Can you believe this entire
trailer is AI generated?" Yeah, I can, actually. Because this shot is identical
to one that already exists. Also, it looks like crap. And on the topic of AI, which is only a small part of the strike, but it's what a lot of these
dumbasses are pointing to to try to devalue writers
and people who create art. To me it's almost not even a matter of if an entire show could
be written by ChatGPT, it's that even if it
can, I don't give a shit. I have negative interest
in watching, what, like, an algorithmically generated
show written by software. "Using math,
(modem squawking) we've perfectly optimized this script for human enjoyment." Like that's what we're
gonna do now? No thanks. I like watching TV and movies because they're a celebration
of human creativity. I wanna see people tell
stories about their lives, or turn hard times into art, because it's incredible that
it's even possible to do that. And when you see something
that resonates with you, and speaks to a part of you that you've never quite
been able to put into words, and makes you feel emotions, like, that's that good shit. And then you get done watching it, and you can look up
behind-the-scenes videos and interviews with the
director and the writers, and figure out, like, how
they filmed this crazy shot, or how they came up with
the idea for the ending. Like, I just think it's one
of the most beautiful things that we as a human race have created. And I can't even relate to the mindset of someone who's like, "Yeah, but my computer could do all that." Like, I have nothing in
common with that person. And to the people who treat every writer like they're the scum of the earth, because they didn't
personally enjoy one show, I don't think you realize that a lot of the changes
that have been taking place throughout the streaming era, you know, the things the
union is striking against, are contributing factors as to why you might not like
a show as much as you used to. If there are fewer writers in the room, then the writers they
have get stretched thin. If writers aren't paid to be
on set while they're filming, then the shows are going to suffer. But most importantly, if someone can't afford to
pay rent from doing their job, and they have to waste
all their time and energy on side hustles just so they
can barely afford to eat, they're not gonna do as good at the job. And that goes with any industry. Obviously, if you take
care of your employees and give them all the
conditions they need to succeed, the work will be better. And then when the work is better,
more people talk about it, and it makes more money,
and then everyone wins. It's so simple. Why are we against this? Just so one guy can
have a third helicopter? That's the side you're on? He's not gonna let you ride
it. He doesn't know you. It blows my mind that because of a handful of
crappy remakes you've seen, you think every single writer in Hollywood is some millionaire hack, looking down on you from their golden throne
of infinite money. No, that's the people
they're striking against. At the rate things are going, writing will not be a viable
career path much longer. The only people who are gonna
be able to afford to do it are 22-year-olds with rich parents. And I don't wanna watch those shows. I hate 22-year-olds with rich parents. So if you want TV to get better, you should be on the side of the people who are best equipped to make that happen. The last thing I'll say is that if you watched this video and you thought, "Well, I sympathize with the writers here, but this kinda thing is
happening in every industry. The economy's in shambles,
everything's more expensive now, and wages aren't going up to offset that." I agree, all of that is bad. I'm only focusing on this specifically, because it's something
that's happened before, that I was interested then,
I'm interested in now, and it's actively going on as we speak. I hope the writers win this,
get everything they demand, and then it inspires other people to do exactly the same thing. Imagine if every public
school teacher in the country went on strike at exactly the same time. Society would crumble in, like, an hour. Their demands would be met instantly. It's the perfect crime. Anyway, thank you so much
for watching this video. I'm gonna put a bunch of
links to Twitter threads, and news articles, and podcasts, and things that helped me write the video. One thing in particular, there's, like, a seven-page document written by a showrunner named Eliza Clark, about how to be a writer on set, coming from someone who
has years of experience being a writer on sets. And I thought this was fascinating, like, a really insightful
look you don't normally see, into everything that goes
on behind the scenes, how many decisions need to get made, how many people are involved
in making those decisions. I don't know. Really interesting stuff. Anyway, I didn't post a video
last month, 'cause I was gone. And I got a mortgage to pay, so please enjoy a word
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sad, mad, and cry, give me a smile. They called me a Nazi for years. So be it. This is me being a Nazi to them! I will never support anything woke Hollyweird does or believe or says."
