Hard to blame them.
âŠor even call them paranoid.
And that part where theyâd be served a.i. garble as a âfirst draftâ so theyâd be paid less⊠Thatâs just nonsense.
Perhaps this time the outcome will be âReality moviesâ, yuk.
Until they start breaking things, are gassed, hosed and shotâtheyâre not going to achieve anything.
All weâll get is a flat season of last years sensations by stand-in writersâor AI.
I mean, carrying signs like âmy mom doesnât like youâand she likes everyoneâ is really intimidating, not.
Do you mean the writersâ claim is nonsensical, or the studios using Ai is nonsensical?
Because studios and production companies have a long history of these kinds of shenanigans. Legendary low-budget producer Roger Corman used to write a one-page outline of a movie he wanted to make, give it to his secretary (who was not a writer) and have her type up a terrible 100-page draft over the weekend. Then on Monday, heâd hire a WGA writer to ârewriteâ the âexisting materialâ that they âacquired from a non-union writer.â Thereby saving the cost of a first draft and the pension and health coverage that go with the bigger job.
We have to stop this kind of crap before it gets automated.
I mean that paying them (the writers, humans, thank you) the usual (lesser) polish fee when the first draft is actually AIâs is (or would be, if not already in the making) an insult to their craft and complete financial bullshit. ( â Let me know if my opinion needs to be further clarified 
)
Right off the bat: I am no script-writer, but in all logic I would think that if the thing needs polishing, the person considered good enough to polish it should be paid more, not less.
They could give them AI scripts to polish, but at least pay them 150% and still, no-one having been paid for the âfirst draftâ, pull out more profit than usual⊠But no⊠(!) They want money. More of it, more money. Not a good movie. (If people were to pay to watch a blank screen, theyâd happily go for it.)
It is greed (or apprehension of) we witness. Not so much the rise of a new technology.
Those money avid âpeopleâ will one day wake up to realize everyoneâs now too broke to buy their damn crap.
One of the disenheartening realities of Hollywood is that the people supervising the writers in the large part donât know how scripts work. They honestly cnaât tell a good script from a bad one, and spend a lot of time dodging responsibility and gathering consensus.
My point is that they canât tell the difference between Aaron Sorkinâs first draft and ChatGPTâs. They see a screenplay as Material that if properly Managed can be Financed and made into Content which will bring them Payment.
There are execs and producers who are really good at story, but they are few and far between.
The Guild is 100% right to draw the line on AI right now.
If producing a good movie (good as in âartistically goodâ, not as in gross revenue) was the objective, this would never had come to be.
Even with very little knowledge of the guts and going of the business, I am strongly inclined to agree.
Quite of actuality.
Itâs not about intimidating anyone. Humorous signs create positive coverage that helps the potential audience understand whatâs going on. Signs of any kind create a picket line that other unions will refuse to cross. You might be able to film without writers, but cast and crew are kind of essential.
Hard to make movies of any kind if you canât pay the bills, though.
What the sympathy strikers donât realise is that Hollywood has setup studios in countries around the world where the exchange rate is pittance to the dollar, and they are able to fly in a new batch of stars from among the starving wannabes and still make a larger profit than they did back home.
That puts a different focus on the jolly old striker protesting outside an abandoned lot.
What I mean is that itâd be somewhat more balanced than what I could understand from @popcornflixâs comment.
Iâm pretty sure everyone involved is extremely aware of the ability of studios to film in other countries, given that many of them have participated in overseas projects.
Donât know where you are, but the AMPTP companies are all HQâd in USA, so they are subject to US labor laws. There are very strong laws against strike breaking. The NLRB can implement heavy penalties and sanctions if it believes the Companies are hiring non-union writers in the middle of a strike. Why else do you think the studios havenât put up a big âWriters Wantedâ ad on Twitter?
They live and die by quarterly share prices. Getting a big fine and threats of sanctions from the government would hurt their bottom line