LOS ALAMITOS, CA – On May 2, 2023 at 12:01 a.m., 11,500 members of the Writers Guild of America, or the W.G.A., shook the movie and television industry. Their walkout forced studios to halt their production, writers’ rooms to pause, and staff and actors no longer had a job. This strike was more than just a small bump in the road because it was the first Hollywood strike since 2007 and the longest strike to affect Hollywood, costing the industry an estimated $5 billion.
The strike mainly occurred because writers and actors felt that they had a cut of incomes, especially because television production has grown rapidly over the past decade. Writers started to believe that the current system of creating scripts was broken because of the small number of writers working on a project, and the recent influence of AI.
Growing features such as script writing with artificial intelligence have caused writers to want assurance that AI will not take their place as screenwriters. AI is not only affecting the film industry but also ruining how industries operate. Similarly, what writers are fighting for is equal pay for equal work and the humanity of screenwriting to stay indefinitely.
“Some studios and executives are wanting to use AI-generated scripts to produce content for movies and television,” said Los Alamitos High School’s film and television teacher, Mr. Brown. “Writers are really trying to stop that from happening because in their opinion, which I agree with personally; it takes the humanity out of it.”
The five-month strike came to a recent end on Sept. 27, 2023 at 12:01 a.m. due to a three-year deal between the W.G.A. and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers that will last until May 2026.
This deal’s benefits for writers will include a 5% minimum pay increase upon the ratification of the contract. Another 4% bump will occur on May 2, 2024, and another 3.5% increase will be instituted on May 5, 2025. Lastly, writers were able to gain significant protections against the use of artificial intelligence.
“I think [the deal is] a step in the right direction for sure. I think this is just the beginning of figuring out how we use AI as a tool and not a replacement,” Mr. Brown said.
What exactly does all of this mean? For starters, the strike will leave many impacts on the world, and Los Al students can expect that their favorite shows will be pushed back to 2024, 2025, or even the early 2030’s. Students will be forced to rewatch TV shows and movies, eagerly anticipating a new season or sequel with no luck.
Popular shows that fall into this pool include “Stranger Things,” “Abbott Elementary,” “The Last of Us,” “Saturday Night Live,” and “All American.” Popular movies like “Avatar” three through five and anticipated Marvel releases like “Avengers: Secret Wars” and “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” also will be delayed.
“A lot of Marvel shows were being canceled or pushed back,” said Dylan Colbert, a senior. “[Despite that], I’m still excited for the ‘Loki’ [season two] release because it’s what I’m looking forward to the most.”
Laylah Arnwine, a Los Al senior, had seen “Avatar: The Way of Water” when it was released at the end of 2022, but the writers strike made seeing the third “Avatar” movie feel like an even longer wait because it is now scheduled to release at the end of 2025.
“I was angry [when I found out] because [my family and I] had already waited [a long time] for the second one,” she said.
The deal has been a win for unions and workers, but larger corporations could threaten the production value of what students are seeing as they wait for their anticipated releases. The biggest question now is what can we do to integrate AI safely into the industry, make writers and unions satisfied, and make sure that the general public enjoys what they are seeing.
“Since [‘Avatar’ three is] going to be pushed back, I would probably expect it to be better, but the writers could be mad and make [the movie] worse,” Arnwine said.
The end of the writers strike brings new possibilities of what could happen in the film industry, but, as of right now, it is exciting to see that the world will begin to get new, inspiring content. Eager movie and TV show viewers have to trust that the industry is now in the hands of writers and filmmakers.
