There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

SQL_InjectMe ,

Personally I think actors and writers are overpaid, but I support their right to strike. I also support the studios avoiding the strike by avoiding all SAG actors and other guilds because like I don’t think they’re that much better than non-union members

Lenins2ndCat OP ,
@Lenins2ndCat@lemmy.world avatar

One of the main features of this strike is the companies are trying to get extras to sign away their likenesses. The companies then intend to use their likenesses “for eternity and in every universe” (the actual wording) as computer generated images to abolish their jobs entirely. Actors are not particularly happy about the attempt to get them to do work that will abolish their own existence, and the higher paid actors see it as inevitable that this expands to include them to if they don’t fight it now.

There is nobody avoiding the strike at this point. Everything has ground to a halt. If anything starts again the guilds for crews, camera operators etc are planning to join.

SQL_InjectMe ,

I do agree that it’s bullshit to pressure actors into signing away their likeness and knew this was a main feature, but SAG is joining the wave that WAG started and I don’t support increasing their residuals. WAG and SAG are basically the cool kids club of landed gentry. I believe people should be able to form unions to pursue self interests, but that doesn’t mean I blindly support every union strike.

Regarding union strikes, I personally don’t get why sanitation workers don’t strike to get a lot more money, they certainly deserve it.

Lenins2ndCat OP ,
@Lenins2ndCat@lemmy.world avatar

Regarding union strikes, I personally don’t get why sanitation workers don’t strike to get a lot more money, they certainly deserve it.

Mostly caused by a lack of radical leadership. You tend to find the unions getting shit done have reds running them, often from groups like the IWW or other entryist parties or salters (Chris Smalls amazon union are leninists and it took an absolutely massive salting effort to achieve), doing work in this space is extremely difficult because entrenched liberals are do-nothings and shifting them out of leaderships is not simple as reaching workers and convincing them that the leadership is trash is a lot of long and very hard effort that often requires salting the workplace as well.

So tldr it’s about getting the people that want to stir shit up into those leadership positions and those people aren’t liberals.

jcg ,

What does salter mean in this context?

Lenins2ndCat OP ,
@Lenins2ndCat@lemmy.world avatar

Salting is where many people join a company specifically with the goal of organising it and forming unions.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salting_(union_organizing)

These people will then work as organised cells within companies to spread propaganda and shift the rest of the workers towards a position that will result in an eventual successful union vote.

dudebro ,

That sounds nice. If we can replace labor with robots, then these actors can do something else useful for society.

Or they can continue to act if they really want to. They just won’t be making as much money, and that’s fine by me.

Lenins2ndCat OP ,
@Lenins2ndCat@lemmy.world avatar

You’re talking about ruining the lives of tens of thousands of people with families and children, have some fucking empathy you psychopath.

DogMuffins ,

I think this is a little hyperbolic?

The vast majority of those actors have other careers.

“Ruining lives” probably isn’t accurate.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

The executives certainly want lives ruined.

dudebro ,

No, I’m not lol.

Calm down. Your emotions are controlling your argument.

These actors will do just fine if they can never act again. They’d just have to get a regular job like anyone else.

They’ll still be living a higher quality of life while working less than the vast majority of people on the planet.

You’re just mad that someone says we shouldn’t be passing a bunch of money around at the top. I suggest you brush up on the definitions of ‘want’ and ‘need’ because you call me a sociopath.

They don’t need more money. They want it, plain and simple.

I don’t care for people who want more money. Because they get it, others who need it don’t.

Snekeyes ,

People who need more money don’t ask for it. And those that don’t do. Sounds like a totally fabricated answer.

dudebro ,

What? I think you’re just saying things, lol.

Snekeyes ,

People who need more money don’t ask for it. And those that don’t do. Sounds like a totally fabricated answer.

Snekeyes ,

People who need more money don’t ask for it. And those that don’t do. Sounds like a totally fabricated answer.

Snekeyes ,

People who need more money don’t ask for it. And those that don’t do. Sounds like a totally fabricated answer.

CeruleanRuin , (edited )

Man, this comment is naive as hell. I’m disappointed to see so much anti-labor sentiment here. But what else should I expect from that username.

PsiOc ,

It’s really only one dude spamming every comment with replies lol

dudebro ,

What do you mean? I’m not anti-labor. I’m pro-progress.

Do you also think people shouldn’t be allowed to pump their own gas so someone else has a job?

kmkz_ninja ,

You’re an insufferable asshole and you will never understand why people see you that way.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

You need to remember that this isn’t just about people at the top. Day players get $1000 a day for what can be a 20-hour day for a two-week shoot and then get nothing for a few months. They barely qualify for health insurance, which is often the reason they do it. They are, if anything underpaid.

Yes, there are extremely wealthy SAG-AFTRA members. There are also SAG-AFTRA members living in one-bedroom apartments.

Niggling_Niggard ,

deleted_by_moderator

    •
    dudebro ,

    They still get paid more and work less than the vast majority of people ever to walk to Earth.

    I have no sympathy for people in one of the most expensive cities in existence complaining about more money. They need to spend less, not make more.

    This is why we never solve things like world hunger; we’re too busy passing a bunch of money around at the top.

    Niggling_Niggard ,

    Except those on strike aren’t at the top. Go after the studio execs and owners to find the money.

    dudebro ,

    Globally speaking, yes they are.

    Anyone who has above average wealth doesn’t deserve more so long as children are starving.

    They get no sympathy from me.

    kmkz_ninja ,

    He says, with his above average wealth.

    cantstopthesignal ,

    They get paid more than people in poor countries, but they don’t live in a poor country. Their wage may be 10x higher but so is their cost of living. So they are still fucking broke.

    FlyingSquid ,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    Don’t bother. This guy basically believes that if you aren’t living in a mud hut in Africa, you have no right to complain about anything.

    CeruleanRuin ,

    He’s all over this thread and his opinions are the worst.

    dudebro ,

    deleted_by_moderator

    •
    fidodo ,

    The super famous ones do but for every one of them there are thousands of poorly paid ones. What the studios are doing would remove the possibility of even becoming well paid in the future. These strikes are about helping the people not at the top, and about protecting their upward mobility.

    Ultraviolet ,

    The median income of SAG-AFTRA members is under $26K a year. A tiny, tiny percentage of actors are what you would call rich or even well off. Most have a second job and still struggle to pay rent.

    dudebro ,

    Good. They make crap anyways.

    fugepe ,

    deleted_by_moderator

    •
    GentlemanLoser ,

    Tribe? Explain please

    S_204 ,

    Kinda feels dog whistley to you too hey?

    Could be because I’m a Jew, but member of the tribe is a pretty familiar phrase over here.

    JdW ,

    Check their other comments. Just block and move on, stands to reason many of the racists and shitposters move over as well I am afraid.

    cantstopthesignal ,

    Probably referring to the 12 tribes. I try not to apply to much logic to racist shit. Waste of time.

    cantstopthesignal ,

    Having 20 writers so you don’t have to pay them as much really dilutes any narrative structure.

    TendieMaster69 ,

    I have mixed feelings about this. I hope they all are compensated fairly, but technology keeps getting better and capitalism latches on to the absolute cheapest solution. If that includes firing most employees and using AI to save billions a year then they will do it. I think this will just excacerbate AI proliferation in the end. Alas, no one gets paid to strike in America.

    englishlad ,

    This is why governments need to get involved legislationing profits from AI work. Shareholders can’t be the beneficiary of lower costs from AI when it means workers lose their jobs. There needs to be an AI specific tax, to support people losing their livelihoods.

    vimdiesel ,

    I think they are doing the right thing before AI gets firmly set in as the “norm” and that laws are put in place that movies have to use human actors, or they get labeled properly as AI movies so we can skip them if we don’t approve of AI taking over the industry.

    boonhet ,

    so we can skip them if we don’t approve of AI taking over the industry.

    Spoiler alert: Nobody will give a fuck, people will watch AI movies, and human actors will lose their jobs.

    The only question is, shall we tax AI usage and implement UBI? Or watch as entire industries full of people will be laid off? And HOW to tax AI usage? Just implement huge taxes on dividends, stock buybacks and annual salaries and bonuses > 10 mill?

    HamSwagwich ,

    Very true. The amount of luddites in this thread are amazing.

    It sounds like angry old people telling at a car in the horse era. It’s happening whether you like it or not. Taxing it as a special case is ridiculous, especially since it just means you move your operations to a friendly jurisdiction that won’t tax you.

    Happened with a large portion of Hollywood moving to Canada awhile back.

    It will happen with AI. Embrace it and find a way to make money with it. Fighting it won’t do any good.

    This is what separate successful people from failures. Most people are failures because they can’t envision a way to adapt so rail against progress. Those that see an opportunity instead of a problem are the ones they are going to succeed.

    TheActualDevil ,

    Yeah. Fuck collective action and an entire industry fighting for their own survival. You get yours!

    funkless ,

    the car replaced the horse, the plane replaced the ship, we still drive, we still travel.

    My prediction is that AI will replace the PC like it replaced the typewriter, like it replaced the quill.

    People will still write and act, but it will be a faster process.

    Syringe ,

    Just like the last writers strike produced an endless unmitigated firehose of reality TV and bastardized all the good TV channels, this move is going to double down on that model

    AI isn’t going to be able to do what actors can do. Not for some time yet. The content will probably start off okay, but we’ve already seen issues with AI used for “creative” purposes. It sucks. The quality of content on streaming platforms is already hurting. This is going to make it even shittier.

    Something will get figured out, because now there are gonna be a lot of people sitting around at home with no bread and no games.

    Misconduct ,

    Well, yeah. That’s part of why they’re on strike lol. They are very aware of that threat. Everyone is

    Zagorath ,
    @Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

    The actors’ anti-AI protests are much, much stronger than the writers’ (and I say this as someone who is nevertheless 100% supportive of the writers’ demands vis-a-vis AI). Because the actors are literally talking about studios demanding to have the right to use their likeness. That’s not a technological hurdle that has to be overcome, it’s literally just profiting off of someone else’s image without having to pay them. A mere $200 to hire an actor for one day, and they own their likeness in perpetuity; that’s what studios are supposedly asking for.

    The writers’ case is still very strong, in my opinion. Because their fear (and I think it’s very founded) is not that their jobs will be replaced by AI. Not in a real sense. But that they’ll be forced to do like 90% of the work for like 50% of the pay because of studios’ use of AI. The way studio credits/payment works for writers, “revising” an existing script pays less than writing a script fresh. So if the studios can create a really shitty script with AI and hand it to a writer who has to do a significant amount of work editing it to be in an actually-usable state. But because they’re being paid to revise it, not write it, they don’t get paid commensurate to the amount of work actually being done.

    In theory, the writers’ case could eventually be harmed by actual use of AI in a way that the actors’ simply cannot (an AI could theoretically eventually replace an actor entirely, but that’s not the debate on the table right now). I think that “eventually” is much further away than most techbros seem to suggest, because frankly LLMs are just not as close to AGI as it seems they usually get thought of as. But that eventually could happen, and then the nature of a writers’ job will have to change more substantially in a way that does hurt them quite a bit more. Though it’s worth noting that AI is even further away from doing the less-obviously-“writery” work writers do, which often sets them on the path to becoming directors and producers, and without that pipeline for creating the higher-level roles, film studios are going to struggle to keep making films.

    thegreatgarbo ,

    I for one, look forward to interacting with our sentient overlord artists. All hail AI.

    pineapplefriedrice ,

    They’re fighting a losing battle, but I hope a side effect of it is that new people come in and change both the economics and artistry of Hollywood. Most Hollywood content sits in a very rigid box. It’s repetitive, unoriginal, and unappealing. People are encouraged to eat ramen for every meal in order to “make it”, simply because far too many of them try (which is partially the result of the “follow your dreams” narrative in America as well). The further down you are, the worse your compensation. Good ideas get missed or thrown out and relegated to dollar theatres all the time.

    If this strike goes on long enough that it starts to flush people out, I’m ok with that. Sucks for the people who are going to lose their livelihoods, but for some of them that was an eventuality. Hopefully in the end creators will have more creative freedom and receive more proportional compensation.

    Spesknight ,

    The movie industry needs a bigger market for independent movies. Look at the videogames, the indies are holding the creativity among a similar crisis for the aaa titles as for the movies. We need an “EA Orginals” for the majors…

    PopOfAfrica ,

    I feel like A21 is doing this well, and releasing some bangers.

    mrheadroom ,

    Agreed, A21 has a few outstanding originals each year

    MixedRaceHumanAI ,

    A21 is for children and family, right?

    WarmSoda ,

    Yes. Bring your toddler to a A21 film.

    PopOfAfrica ,

    Marcelle the Shell is a family film… So yes?

    Aux ,

    Indy game industry has exploded thanks to benevolent monopoly of Steam. There was a chance for indy cinema when Netflix started, but that’s long gone with every studio having their own streaming service.

    atzanteol ,

    But I wanna see Indiana Jones 6: The search for more money!

    itsJoelleScott ,

    They’re fighting a losing battle, but I hope a side effect of it is that new people come in and change both the economics and artistry of Hollywood. Most Hollywood content sits in a very rigid box. It’s repetitive, unoriginal, and unappealing.

    My two cents is there’s a structural issue that’s converged to strictly Campbellian story-telling as the end-all-be-all structure. Sure, you’ll have something come out of HBO or AppleTV that breaks it, but AAA movies rarely break it.

    Rainmanslim ,

    Let Hollywood burn.

    vimdiesel ,

    meh

    lemmie689 ,
    @lemmie689@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

    Burn Hollywood burn, taking down Tinseltown

    Burn Hollywood burn, burn down to the ground

    m.youtube.com/watch?v=h

    PipedLinkBot ,

    Here is an alternative Piped link(s): piped.video/watch?v=h

    Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

    I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.

    reksas ,

    Fuck hollywood.

    This would be good opportunity for people to start new film studios and such, founded on more equal profit sharing. Let greedy pieces of shit shrivel and die without labor to exploit. There is no negotiating with those kinds of people as they will just try to find ways to force and manipulate people to do what they want.

    Aux ,

    It’s ironic that Hollywood was created by filmmakers and actors who got tired of being exploited by investors and cinemas alike.

    c0mbatbag3l ,
    @c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

    It’s the circle of liiiiiife capitalism.

    Aux ,

    How’s that capitalism?

    potoo22 ,

    People dislike a greedy business.
    Start a humble competing business.
    Greedy business falls in line or fails.
    Competing business now free to push profits, becoming greedy business.
    People dislike a greedy business.

    Aux ,

    Wut? Are you 13 years old or something?

    randon31415 ,

    People dislike a greedy business. Start a humble competing business. Greedy business lowers prices to crush competition, or buys it outright. People continue to dislike a greedy business.

    Idea1407a ,

    “Money makes the world go around…”

    “Greed is good”

    Making money is fine, but at what cost?

    Hypersapien ,

    Actually, they moved to Hollywood so they wouldn’t be under Edison’s camera patents.

    SpaceCowboy ,
    @SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca avatar

    They should call it “United Artists”!

    And… Jeff Bezos already owns it.

    TwoGems , (edited )
    @TwoGems@lemmy.world avatar

    Ribbit

    Amazed ,

    Charlie Chaplin did a similar thing - United Artists. Then it got sold to MGM. and so on

    TrenchcoatFullofBats ,

    It’s also worth noting that many of the “indie” production companies are backed by billionaire money. For example, Annapurna (movies: Her, Zero Dark Thirty, American Hustle, games: Journey, Stray, Kentucky Route Zero, Outer Wilds) was founded by Megan Ellison, the daughter of Larry Ellison of Oracle software, worth about $150 billion.

    Indian Paintbrush, the production company that has financed all of Wes Anderson’s movies since 2007, is run by Steven Rales, CEO of Danaher, worth $7.3 billion.

    It’s not just production or indie firms either - CAA (Creative Artists Agency) talent agency that represents people like Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, The Weeknd, Bob Dylan, Aubrey Plaza, Bradley Cooper, Cardi B, Chris (Evans, Hemsworth and Pine), Salma Hayek and thousands of writers, producers and directors, is currently in final talks to be purchased by Francois-Henri Pinaul, who owns Gucci, Balenciaga, Girard-Perregaux and Christie’s auction house, is married to Salma Hayek, and is worth about $33 billion.

    TIEPilot ,

    Probably the best thing that can happen to the world right now…

    /Bye Felicia

    Clown_Tempura ,

    Wow it’s almost like people’s tolerance for ruthless exploitation isn’t infinite. Hollywood’s disgusting parasitic grifters can get fucked.

    Open ,
    @Open@lemmy.world avatar

    Is $25,000 per annum a living wage LA? To think that these are getting so little is nuts.

    ivemadeamoostake ,
    @ivemadeamoostake@lemmy.ca avatar

    Good question! I looked up the poverty line in LA specifically. And here are the results:

    Persons in Family Household - ​Poverty Guideline (annually): 1 person - $​14,580 / 2 persons - $19,720 / 3 persons - $24,860

    This is a very quick look for an answer. I don’t fully understand the results.

    The long and short of it is $25,000/year is over the poverty line for a single person household but barely over the poverty line for a 2 person household. It is the poverty line for a household of 3 or more people.

    It is unclear how this factors in housing, and if it includes owning property and renting. A 3 person household is generally considered to be two adults and a child or dependant. Livable, depends on what you considered livable. If owning a house and starting a family is part of having a libable life, I would say they are probably not earning a livable wage.

    Source: Californial Department of Public Health https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DOA/Pages/OA_ADAP_Federal_Poverty_Guideline_Chart.aspx

    Edit formatting

    potoo22 ,

    That chart looks like it uses the federal poverty line. A sweeping guideline to cover all of the US.

    Wenchette ,
    @Wenchette@lemmy.ml avatar

    Not even close

    Nihilistic_Mystics ,

    “Low income”, as defined by the state, is anything below $70,650 in Los Angeles county.

    WarmSoda ,

    I imagine that’s poverty in any state

    csolisr ,

    On one hand, Hollywood is abusive both economically and ethically. On the other hand, I despise copyright-based industries and the workers that uphold them. I can’t bring myself to support anyone in this conflict.

    Lenins2ndCat OP ,
    @Lenins2ndCat@lemmy.world avatar

    Workers don’t exactly get a choice about property laws mate. Workers do not own private property.

    phillycodehound ,
    @phillycodehound@lemmy.world avatar

    Good to see actors, many whom get just the base for their work, stand up for what they deserve.

    DJVIIIMan ,

    It’s not like they were producing anything new or original anyway. I’m not entirely sure I care.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • [email protected]
  • random
  • lifeLocal
  • goranko
  • All magazines
    •