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The One About Solidarity and Supporting Your Local Arts · Large Nerdron Collider

0:11
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the large ner Draun Collider podcast,
0:14
Speaker 1: the podcast that is usually all about the geeky things
0:18
Speaker 1: that are happening in the world that we love and
0:20
Speaker 1: how excited we are about them. I'm Ariel Caston and
0:23
Speaker 1: when he as always is the ever wonderful Jonathan Strickland.
0:27
Speaker 1: Oh sorry, he.
0:32
Speaker 2: Is? That just gonna be the thing?
0:33
Speaker 1: Now, maybe I don't. I haven't decided, obviously, I'm really
0:38
Speaker 1: committed to the bit. You can tell heyhow what were
0:41
Speaker 1: you gonna say?
0:41
Speaker 2: Oh no, I was just gonna say, hey, hey, ho ho.
0:45
Speaker 2: Our normal podcast had to.
0:47
Speaker 1: Go yeah yeah, so uh, if you haven't been following
0:52
Speaker 1: the news, uh, sag AFTRA has just gone on strike.
0:56
Speaker 1: They weren't able to negotiate their a good new contract
1:00
Speaker 1: with the AMPTP. And that means because I am an
1:05
Speaker 1: actor and because we both support the strike and what
1:08
Speaker 1: they are trying to achieve in contract negotiations, that a
1:13
Speaker 1: lot of the TV and movies and things that we
1:15
Speaker 1: normally talk about we cannot talk about right now. Part
1:19
Speaker 1: of it is good faith, and then part of it is,
1:21
Speaker 1: you know, if I ever want to join the union
1:23
Speaker 1: and I do stuff that is considered stricken work right now,
1:26
Speaker 1: and they find out about that when I join the union,
1:29
Speaker 1: then I can't join the union anymore. Don't know if
1:34
Speaker 1: this podcast would even get on their radars. But we're
1:38
Speaker 1: still figuring all of that out.
1:40
Speaker 2: So and yeah, so what we're doing, Ariel is going
1:43
Speaker 2: to be looking into and getting some more questions answered,
1:46
Speaker 2: just so that we have an idea of the parameters.
1:48
Speaker 2: We do plan to continue recording the show. It's just
1:53
Speaker 2: that the show may end up having a slightly different
1:56
Speaker 2: format in the short term while the the negotiations continue.
2:02
Speaker 2: And honestly, I mean just I'm I don't have a
2:07
Speaker 2: dog in this fight. I'm not SAG. I had the
2:09
Speaker 2: opportunity to join, but I didn't because I didn't because
2:14
Speaker 2: I don't do acting that often. I did one acting
2:16
Speaker 2: gig that qualified me for SAG, but because I had
2:20
Speaker 2: no other acting gig at all on my radar, it
2:24
Speaker 2: just didn't make sense. So I didn't. But I fully
2:28
Speaker 2: believe in the union. In fact, I do belong to
2:30
Speaker 2: a union. I belong to the iHeartMedia Podcast Union. But
2:37
Speaker 2: we want to be in solidarity and we also are
2:41
Speaker 2: fully on the side of the writers and the actors
2:45
Speaker 2: who are on strike and the studios, Like, if you
2:51
Speaker 2: were on the side of the studios, then you must
2:53
Speaker 2: just love cartoon villains because they have been doing everything
2:56
Speaker 2: they can to come across as car tunishly greedy and callous.
3:04
Speaker 2: Like it's it blows my mind. I mean one story
3:08
Speaker 2: that was covered in Deadline, which by the way, is
3:11
Speaker 2: owned by a company that in turn is run by
3:15
Speaker 2: a guy who is part of the AMPTP. That's the
3:18
Speaker 2: Association of Producers. Interesting, yeah, but Deadline ran an article
3:23
Speaker 2: about how apparently people in the AMPTP do not plan
3:29
Speaker 2: to sit down with the writers at all until October
3:32
Speaker 2: at the earliest, because they figure that by then the
3:38
Speaker 2: writers will be strapped for cash, they'll be struggling to
3:41
Speaker 2: pay their mortgage, they'll be struggling to pay their rent,
3:44
Speaker 2: and they will be in a position where, out of necessity,
3:48
Speaker 2: they will settle for fewer concessions, which is just plain evil, right, Like,
3:54
Speaker 2: that's not negotiating in good faith, that's trying. That's setting
3:57
Speaker 2: a siege. It's like a medieval scene on a fortress.
4:02
Speaker 2: You cut off all support and you wait for them
4:04
Speaker 2: to start it out.
4:06
Speaker 1: Now, I will say, and this is not me playing
4:08
Speaker 1: Devil's advocate. You know there when you read through articles,
4:11
Speaker 1: AMPTP has made no official announcement that that is that.
4:15
Speaker 1: So it's that is their plan. So that's not the corroboration.
4:17
Speaker 1: It is leaked information, not to say it isn't true.
4:21
Speaker 1: I mean when you look at strikes and you look
4:23
Speaker 1: at unions and the people who are negotiating with them
4:26
Speaker 1: and a strike happens, yes, someone's trying to wait out
4:29
Speaker 1: the other person to get them to give right, and
4:31
Speaker 1: it's a sucky situation. Why can't everybody work together for
4:36
Speaker 1: a better future. But you know, it is important just
4:39
Speaker 1: to keep that in the back of your mind. For instance,
4:42
Speaker 1: right before the strike deadline, the SAG negotiation deadline, a
4:49
Speaker 1: picture popped up online of Frand Dresher, who is the
4:53
Speaker 1: president of the SAG after a union currently in Italy
4:59
Speaker 1: with Kim Kardashian I believe, yeah, and a bunch of people,
5:04
Speaker 1: a bunch of people were like very upset about it
5:07
Speaker 1: because they thought she was jet setting and partying instead
5:11
Speaker 1: of negotiating. But what the actual story was, which was
5:14
Speaker 1: corroborated by the rest of the negotiation board of SAG after,
5:17
Speaker 1: was that she is also a clothing brand ambassador, which
5:20
Speaker 1: is a separate job from being an actor, and she
5:23
Speaker 1: was there doing her job for Dulce and Gabana. I
5:26
Speaker 1: believe it is she had met Kim Kardashian like ten
5:29
Speaker 1: minutes earlier, and when she wasn't out doing that job,
5:33
Speaker 1: she was in her hotel room zooming and texting and
5:36
Speaker 1: everything with the negotiation boards to be a part of it.
5:38
Speaker 1: They knew about that conflict going into negotiations, so you know,
5:44
Speaker 1: and that was obviously made to put out to make
5:47
Speaker 1: her look bad, right Like, there was definitely media going
5:51
Speaker 1: around and a bunch of people got really upset, and
5:53
Speaker 1: rightfully so if I thought the person who was representing
5:55
Speaker 1: my well being was not taking that seriously, I would
5:58
Speaker 1: be upset. Took some of the people I know who
6:01
Speaker 1: are upset are looking and going, oh, I misunderstood the situation.
6:06
Speaker 1: That's a little bit. That is a large bit of
6:08
Speaker 1: a bunny trail. But I wouldn't be surprised if the
6:12
Speaker 1: AMPTP was planning on waiting out the writers. But again
6:19
Speaker 1: they haven't confirmed it.
6:21
Speaker 2: They haven't confirmed it, but that's because you don't confirm
6:23
Speaker 2: it when someone says the quiet part out loud, and
6:26
Speaker 2: then you sit there and look and say, oh, everyone's
6:28
Speaker 2: looking at us, like where the bad guys, because we're
6:31
Speaker 2: totally acting like bad guys here. I'll say this. They
6:34
Speaker 2: haven't sat down to renegotiate with the writers since the
6:37
Speaker 2: strike began more than seventy days ago. That fact, I think,
6:43
Speaker 2: seems to corroborate the allegations that they are trying. They
6:48
Speaker 2: are purposefully stalling in order to make the writers desperate
6:54
Speaker 2: enough to agree to whatever they want. And remember, Aeriel
6:58
Speaker 2: and I have talked about this before as well. When
7:01
Speaker 2: it comes to the actors, they're in the same sort
7:04
Speaker 2: of boat as the writers. Like the vast majority of
7:07
Speaker 2: actors out there are not necessarily making a living as
7:12
Speaker 2: an actor, right They may have to hold down other
7:15
Speaker 2: jobs while also being an actor. We think about the
7:19
Speaker 2: ginormous Hollywood stars like Tom Cruise or something, but who,
7:23
Speaker 2: by the way, was in Atlanta promoting one of his movies.
7:26
Speaker 2: But we think of those folks. We think of the
7:30
Speaker 2: big movie stars who are signed to multi million dollar
7:34
Speaker 2: deals per film. But that's the exception. That's like the
7:38
Speaker 2: half of percent representation of all the actors who are
7:42
Speaker 2: out there. And so these strikes are really important because
7:46
Speaker 2: otherwise it can turn acting into something that literally, unless
7:53
Speaker 2: you're part of that point five percent, you're not going
7:55
Speaker 2: to make a living doing it. And ultimately that hurts everybody.
8:00
Speaker 2: It hurts the actors obviously because they can't make a living,
8:02
Speaker 2: but it also hurts fans because and it even hurts
8:05
Speaker 2: the studios because it means that people are disincentivized to
8:10
Speaker 2: pursue a career in entertainment because there's no way to
8:14
Speaker 2: make a living off of it. And if that happens,
8:17
Speaker 2: then you don't have any entertainment to make anymore, and
8:20
Speaker 2: the studios end up shooting themselves in the fund.
8:23
Speaker 1: I think it might even be less than five percent
8:25
Speaker 1: of actors. I've been seeing like a ninety seven point
8:28
Speaker 1: whatever percent working actor thing going around. I think it's
8:33
Speaker 1: somewhere closer to like three three and a half percent.
8:35
Speaker 1: But I mean that is true, and a lot of
8:39
Speaker 1: media outlets don't if they get the nuance, they don't
8:43
Speaker 1: put it into that article. But I feel like maybe
8:45
Speaker 1: a lot of them don't even get the nuance because
8:47
Speaker 1: it's not about the celebrities wanting more money. It is
8:49
Speaker 1: about the working actor. And if you think about the
8:52
Speaker 1: fact that a lot of these streaming companies aren't transparent.
8:56
Speaker 1: One of the things that they've been negotiating on is
9:01
Speaker 1: and again I'm not a part of the union yet,
9:03
Speaker 1: I don't qualify yet work in towards it, but you
9:05
Speaker 1: know I support them. But one of the things I'm
9:08
Speaker 1: working towards is better metrics for residuals for stream on
9:11
Speaker 1: streaming shows, shows that show on streaming networks. Because we've
9:16
Speaker 1: talked about it in the past, streaming networks are very,
9:19
Speaker 1: very elusive when it comes to how many people watch
9:23
Speaker 1: their show. When they watch the show, like that's very
9:25
Speaker 1: private information to them. But when shows used to be
9:31
Speaker 1: on network television and cable, we'd use things like I
9:35
Speaker 1: think like Nielsen ratings right to see how many people
9:37
Speaker 1: would tune into a show, and that's how residuals are based.
9:41
Speaker 2: The Nielsen ratings also helped dictate how expensive advertising rates
9:48
Speaker 2: were for specific blocks of programming, and that's another major
9:52
Speaker 2: difference with streaming, Like unless it's an ad supported streaming service,
9:57
Speaker 2: then the revenue is not coming in through advertising, it's
10:00
Speaker 2: coming in through subscriptions, and that's a massive difference for
10:03
Speaker 2: the streaming platforms versus something like basic cable or network TV,
10:09
Speaker 2: because you're making a flat amount based upon the number
10:14
Speaker 2: of subscribers, and you want that number to go up,
10:17
Speaker 2: but you will eventually, sooner or later, hit saturation and
10:22
Speaker 2: you will not get more subscribers than you currently have.
10:25
Speaker 2: You'll hit a point, if you're lucky, where you're adding
10:29
Speaker 2: as many as you're losing quarter to quarter. And that,
10:32
Speaker 2: I think is what has a lot of studios scared
10:34
Speaker 2: is the thought that, well, it's not like when we're
10:38
Speaker 2: talking about Must see TV, where we can call for
10:42
Speaker 2: really high ad rates to run commercials during that block
10:46
Speaker 2: of programming because it's so popular, and then that revenue
10:50
Speaker 2: ends up being part of the residuals, and so they're
10:53
Speaker 2: scared about more costs going out than they're getting revenue
10:57
Speaker 2: coming in, or rather cutting into profit. It's because, as
11:01
Speaker 2: Ariel is saying, like, we don't even necessarily know how
11:04
Speaker 2: many people are subscribed to some of these streaming services.
11:08
Speaker 2: But that's the problem, right If a whole bunch of
11:11
Speaker 2: people watch a specific product on a specific streaming platform,
11:16
Speaker 2: and your residuals are based on the number, but your
11:19
Speaker 2: revenue is based on subscribers, that's where you start to
11:23
Speaker 2: run into some really tricky math as well.
11:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and you know I talked about back when
11:31
Speaker 1: we were first looking at the writers might strike about
11:34
Speaker 1: the fact that, like some of these streaming networks are
11:39
Speaker 1: losing money where they weren't initially, and so yeah, they're
11:43
Speaker 1: looking at their profits and what their losses are. And
11:47
Speaker 1: while I don't feel like that's a good excuse for
11:51
Speaker 1: not paying your labor what they're due, and I won't
11:56
Speaker 1: go into some of the anecdotes I've heard from people
11:58
Speaker 1: who have done stuff for very streaming networks and the
12:01
Speaker 1: troubles they've had with it outside of that, because that's
12:03
Speaker 1: all hearsay unless we get one of them on the show.
12:06
Speaker 1: But yeah, you're right, it's probably more how much they're
12:12
Speaker 1: gonna make versus making a profit at all. But I
12:16
Speaker 1: was going to say with the residual argument, like sometimes
12:20
Speaker 1: I think I talked about this before, Like if you're
12:22
Speaker 1: gonna qualify for health insurance through the Union, there is
12:26
Speaker 1: like a hard minimum you have to hit to qualify,
12:29
Speaker 1: and sometimes those little residual payments, because often they're not
12:33
Speaker 1: a lot, are like the nickels and dimes that get
12:36
Speaker 1: you over that border.
12:37
Speaker 2: Right.
12:37
Speaker 1: So, and for the working actor, that's that's so important
12:42
Speaker 1: because a lot I heard a quote somewhere and I
12:45
Speaker 1: haven't haven't confirmed it, but a lot of working actors
12:48
Speaker 1: aren't even middle class in their wages, right, you know.
12:51
Speaker 1: And insurance is expensive, so.
12:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, and if something happens to you, then you need
12:57
Speaker 2: to have that insurance to be able to rely upon it,
13:00
Speaker 2: especially when you know your job is not a not
13:05
Speaker 2: a steady gig, but a gig to gig kind of thing.
13:08
Speaker 2: And there are a lot of elements that are factors
13:12
Speaker 2: in this. We talked with the Writers Guild about how
13:15
Speaker 2: AI is one of the concerns because of studios potentially
13:20
Speaker 2: using AI to generate ideas and then paying writers to
13:24
Speaker 2: punch up a treatment, and because they didn't come up
13:28
Speaker 2: with the original treatment, they could end up working at
13:31
Speaker 2: a lower rate than they would if they had just
13:33
Speaker 2: been hired to you know, put together the thing in
13:36
Speaker 2: the first place. But the Screen Actors Guild they're also
13:40
Speaker 2: concerned about AI. And one of the other big stories
13:44
Speaker 2: that came out this week was that apparently the AMPTP
13:50
Speaker 2: wanted to have a clause that would allow them to
13:53
Speaker 2: do a digital scan of day actors. So these are
13:57
Speaker 2: people who come in like background and that kind of stuff,
14:00
Speaker 2: like extras, essentially paid extras, but to be able to
14:03
Speaker 2: scan them, and then the studio would own that digital
14:08
Speaker 2: scan in perpetuity, meaning that those folks would get paid
14:12
Speaker 2: for their one day of work. Then they would not
14:14
Speaker 2: be called back in to do any additional shooting. The
14:18
Speaker 2: studio would just use the digital scan and they could
14:21
Speaker 2: continue to use that digital scan for future productions. So
14:25
Speaker 2: you know, you would after you scan a certain number
14:27
Speaker 2: of people, you're like, well, we don't need day actors
14:29
Speaker 2: anymore because we've got all these digital scans of folks
14:33
Speaker 2: and they all signed over their their likeness, so we
14:38
Speaker 2: don't have to pay them anymore. And now we've got
14:40
Speaker 2: this huge cast of background characters we can have who
14:45
Speaker 2: are free. And obviously that's a huge, huge problem. There
14:50
Speaker 2: are a lot of actors who get their start as
14:54
Speaker 2: extras or day day players or whatever, and that that's
14:58
Speaker 2: kind of their foot in the door, and without that
15:02
Speaker 2: then it becomes even harder to manage to make a
15:06
Speaker 2: living in the industry. And so yeah, that's the kind
15:11
Speaker 2: of thing that these unions are really guarding against. Are
15:15
Speaker 2: these policies that would take advantage of people who can't
15:20
Speaker 2: afford to be taken advantage of. And meanwhile, you're looking
15:23
Speaker 2: at the salaries for some of these studio heads and
15:27
Speaker 2: they're in the you know, double digits in the millions,
15:30
Speaker 2: like twenty million or more, and it really starts to
15:35
Speaker 2: raise a lot of ugly questions.
15:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like day Player doesn't, Just like Day Player doesn't.
15:43
Speaker 1: Just that doesn't just mean background and background gets paid
15:46
Speaker 1: a lot less than an actor with lines, yes, or
15:51
Speaker 1: a featured actor. Sometimes you can be a guest star
15:55
Speaker 1: or a co star without any lines. It depends on
15:57
Speaker 1: the size of your role and the importance of your
15:59
Speaker 1: role within the film. But yeah, that that is legitive
16:01
Speaker 1: thing that has come up. I've actually heard one or
16:03
Speaker 1: two people who have said they've seen it come through
16:05
Speaker 1: on one of their contracts. That's not okay. I mean
16:08
Speaker 1: when you think about that, that's a good way to
16:11
Speaker 1: like get your face put depending on whatever perpetuity clauses
16:14
Speaker 1: they have to get your face put on. Let's say
16:16
Speaker 1: a product you don't want to promote, or you know,
16:20
Speaker 1: get your your head put on an adult star's body
16:23
Speaker 1: for something.
16:25
Speaker 2: You know it's or even even just appearing in a
16:29
Speaker 2: project you never would have agreed to, right, Like, let's say, yeah,
16:32
Speaker 2: let's say it was a movie that ends up having
16:38
Speaker 2: like like it's meant to be a mockumentary or even
16:41
Speaker 2: a documentary, and they decided to use your likeness, and
16:44
Speaker 2: they're the point of view of the film is one
16:47
Speaker 2: hundred and eighty degrees in opposite direction of how you feel.
16:51
Speaker 2: That would stink you would you would be so upset, Like,
16:54
Speaker 2: you know, if you'd sit there and see, like if
16:56
Speaker 2: I saw a video a movie of me and uh,
17:00
Speaker 2: it's a movie that was glorifying violence against animals, I
17:03
Speaker 2: would be livid.
17:06
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, exactly. It takes away your agency as a person,
17:10
Speaker 1: which is beyond just a work thing, that's just a
17:14
Speaker 1: general like civil kindness, kindness, human thing, right yeah.
17:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, And and that is obviously one of the huge,
17:24
Speaker 2: huge problems with the deep fake technology that you were referencing,
17:27
Speaker 2: where you know, putting someone's face on top of a
17:30
Speaker 2: different performer's body. Uh, that's you know, that's obviously something
17:35
Speaker 2: that is a problem right now, Like that has been
17:38
Speaker 2: a problem for a couple of years. Once the deep
17:40
Speaker 2: fake text started to h to be developed and then
17:45
Speaker 2: was you know, distributed, and that's terrible on its own.
17:50
Speaker 2: Like there are entire you know, articles and books and
17:54
Speaker 2: podcasts that tell the story of how terrible that can
17:58
Speaker 2: be and how traumatic it can be to the people
18:00
Speaker 2: that it happens to. And you know, that's kind of
18:04
Speaker 2: like the nuclear example of the issues we're talking about here.
18:10
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's like you can see why there's a
18:14
Speaker 2: need for the unions and for the unions to be
18:17
Speaker 2: able to take collective action because no single performer has
18:22
Speaker 2: the leverage to be able to, you know, push back
18:26
Speaker 2: against this, at least not collectively. And if you were
18:29
Speaker 2: to determine that every single person had to do this individually,
18:33
Speaker 2: the vast majority would be unable to do that, either
18:36
Speaker 2: because they'd be intimidated that they would never get work
18:40
Speaker 2: or they're just desperate for work because they need to
18:43
Speaker 2: earn a paycheck. So you know, you have to have
18:47
Speaker 2: things like unions in order to protect the the you know,
18:51
Speaker 2: the bottom line, like both the above the line and
18:54
Speaker 2: below the line performers and crew involved in entertainment or
18:59
Speaker 2: else they're left to hang out and dry. And yeah,
19:04
Speaker 2: so anyway, that's me rambling on like crazy, just to
19:08
Speaker 2: say that that I am one percent in support of
19:11
Speaker 2: both WGA and SAG. I know Ariel is too, but
19:14
Speaker 2: I wanted to say it because I don't have I mean,
19:16
Speaker 2: technically the union i'm in is related to WGA East,
19:20
Speaker 2: but it's not. We're not on strike. My union is
19:23
Speaker 2: not on strike. So but I am and I do
19:26
Speaker 2: support them in solidarity. And I really really hope that
19:30
Speaker 2: with SAG joining the picket lines, that's going to put
19:33
Speaker 2: more pressure on the studios to budge a bit, because obviously,
19:38
Speaker 2: if we're to believe that earlier deadline article, they were
19:41
Speaker 2: ready to just starve out the writers. But they can't.
19:46
Speaker 2: You know, they can't do anything now with both actors
19:50
Speaker 2: and writers on strike, Like you can't develop anything new,
19:53
Speaker 2: and you can't shoot anything that was in production.
19:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they can't even promote things that are coming out.
20:00
Speaker 1: If this goes on for a long time, there are
20:01
Speaker 1: a lot of actors that are not going to be
20:04
Speaker 1: going to like San Diego Comic Con, which is about
20:08
Speaker 1: to happen. It might affect Dragon Con even you go, well,
20:12
Speaker 1: that's not a that's more of a fan convention. But
20:16
Speaker 1: they aren't allowed to talk about their project's past, current
20:19
Speaker 1: or future if they're attached to the AMPTP is my
20:23
Speaker 1: understanding Again, I'm trying to get better clarification. But if
20:26
Speaker 1: that's the case, they can sign autographs, but the panels
20:30
Speaker 1: might just be right.
20:31
Speaker 2: Out yeah yeah, which would be kind of weird. I mean,
20:35
Speaker 2: it's totally understandable, but weird in the sense of like
20:38
Speaker 2: if you're an attendee and you know it just it
20:43
Speaker 2: boggles the mind. And also, like imagine things like the Emmys.
20:46
Speaker 2: We just had the Emmy nominations right, like those just
20:50
Speaker 2: came out this week, and then you're like, wow, what
20:53
Speaker 2: if you threw an Emmy's and no one was allowed
20:56
Speaker 2: to go?
20:58
Speaker 1: So there, Yeah, I don't know. Oh, I guess that
21:01
Speaker 1: wouldn't be There are some things that are I think,
21:04
Speaker 1: I think are still able to be done, and that's
21:08
Speaker 1: and I'm not going to give a full list because
21:09
Speaker 1: some of it's very confused. A lot of it's very confusing.
21:12
Speaker 1: Quite honestly, I'm pretty sure intol like you're in it
21:15
Speaker 1: and you start working in those specific contracts, you're like,
21:17
Speaker 1: what is this? But sagafter and agents and managers are
21:21
Speaker 1: all very willing to help actors if you're an actor
21:23
Speaker 1: listening to this, reach out to them even if you're
21:26
Speaker 1: non union, because they want your help and support too.
21:29
Speaker 1: So like variety shows, game shows, news. Even though I
21:33
Speaker 1: think broadcasts like news reporters are under SAGAFTRA, you still
21:37
Speaker 1: need to report the news. Soaps surprisingly can happen. Certain
21:44
Speaker 1: smaller podcasts and then commercials are things that can all
21:51
Speaker 1: still happen, So you might see those, but they won't
21:53
Speaker 1: be talking about any of their other projects.
21:56
Speaker 2: Well. The other thing is that you know, remember the
21:59
Speaker 2: reason why the top were allowed to go forward was
22:02
Speaker 2: that there was an agreement that no one would write
22:04
Speaker 2: for it, right Like, like the Tonys was essentially an
22:08
Speaker 2: improvised awards ceremony. Well that's still going to be true
22:13
Speaker 2: for the Emmys, so like, it's just that's why I'm like,
22:17
Speaker 2: why even bother holding them, especially right now, like it
22:21
Speaker 2: would seem so weird to celebrate stuff when you also
22:26
Speaker 2: aren't supposed to be promoting anything. It just I think
22:28
Speaker 2: it doesn't doesn't look good.
22:31
Speaker 1: I suspect it'll be canceled because they also I do
22:35
Speaker 1: recall seeing that for your consideration, campaigns cannot be done,
22:39
Speaker 1: and those are usually what people do to like promote
22:43
Speaker 1: things for awards, right, yeah, but also like some smaller
22:50
Speaker 1: some smaller platforms like for instance, well, there are some
22:56
Speaker 1: smaller platforms out there that are streamers that are not
22:58
Speaker 1: a part of the AMPTP, and right now they're also
23:01
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how to navigate this because most
23:04
Speaker 1: of them also want to support the strike. So it'll
23:06
Speaker 1: be very interesting to see how everything shakes out in
23:09
Speaker 1: the interim, right.
23:10
Speaker 2: I know that they're like independent streamers and stuff, and
23:14
Speaker 2: SAG has already released a couple of different statements, or
23:17
Speaker 2: at least people on behalf of SAG. I don't know
23:19
Speaker 2: if SAG itself has, but I've seen messages on behalf
23:24
Speaker 2: of SAG urging like influencers and streamers, people who are
23:30
Speaker 2: part of the entertainment sphere, but they're not part of
23:32
Speaker 2: traditional entertainment, right, They're not part of the Hollywood scene,
23:37
Speaker 2: but they're reaching out and saying, hey, you know, don't
23:41
Speaker 2: cross picket lines. Like if you're asked to be someone
23:45
Speaker 2: who would say host an event or show up to
23:49
Speaker 2: her premiere to help promote a premiering work, don't do
23:54
Speaker 2: it because the reason why these producers will be reaching
23:59
Speaker 2: out to you is largely to undermine the effects that
24:03
Speaker 2: we're trying to have on the industry. So I have
24:06
Speaker 2: seen those messages going out. Again, I don't think it
24:08
Speaker 2: was necessarily an official SAG statement, but more like people
24:11
Speaker 2: who are thinking ahead and that I was seeing it
24:13
Speaker 2: mostly on social media because obviously that's like the marketplace
24:19
Speaker 2: and town hall for influencers. So that will be interesting
24:24
Speaker 2: to see if that actually moves forward, because I could
24:27
Speaker 2: definitely see Hollywood trying to lean in on that. I'm
24:31
Speaker 2: very curious if we're going to get any independent little
24:37
Speaker 2: projects because you know, the last time there was a
24:41
Speaker 2: strike and it wasn't it wasn't a combined strike because
24:45
Speaker 2: we haven't had one of those since nineteen sixty. But
24:49
Speaker 2: when the last time there was one, that's when we
24:51
Speaker 2: got like Doctor Horrible, and it's because it was completely
24:55
Speaker 2: outside the normal Hollywood production yes sphere.
25:00
Speaker 1: And they are they are making interim agreements for stuff
25:03
Speaker 1: like that.
25:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it'll be interesting to see if anything like
25:07
Speaker 2: that emerges as a result of this. I will also say,
25:10
Speaker 2: just out of curiosity and no shame in not knowing
25:13
Speaker 2: this if you don't, Ariel, because I didn't know it
25:16
Speaker 2: until I happened to look it up. So Fran Dresher's
25:19
Speaker 2: president of SAG right. Now, do you know who was
25:21
Speaker 2: president of SAG back in nineteen sixty, the last time
25:25
Speaker 2: there was a WGA and SAG combined strike.
25:29
Speaker 1: Probably not fran Dresher because she's not that old.
25:32
Speaker 2: You're right, it is not Fran Dresher. So if that's
25:35
Speaker 2: your answer, you are technically correct.
25:39
Speaker 1: It was Fran Dresher's mother.
25:40
Speaker 2: No, No, it was former President of the United States
25:45
Speaker 2: Ronald Reagan.
25:48
Speaker 1: Oh. Interesting, very interesting.
25:50
Speaker 2: Because he was a former actor. He was an actor
25:53
Speaker 2: at the time and by the time he was elected
25:55
Speaker 2: president he was a former actor, in which a lot
25:58
Speaker 2: of people of younger generations. Well, first of all, you
26:01
Speaker 2: may not even know the name Ronald Reagan if you're
26:03
Speaker 2: young enough. But assuming you're old enough to know the
26:07
Speaker 2: name Ronald Reagan, you might not have been aware that
26:09
Speaker 2: he was an actor, mostly in stuff like westerns and such.
26:13
Speaker 2: But yeah, he was the president of SAG back in
26:15
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty. There was a lot more that we could
26:18
Speaker 2: say about Reagan and his time as an actor, but
26:20
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna because it's not it gets into things
26:24
Speaker 2: like the Red Scare and it gets ugly. So I'm
26:27
Speaker 2: just gonna I'm just gonna back away from that time bomb.
26:31
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, I think I think we've talked a lot about,
26:34
Speaker 1: you know, the strike. We'll definitely keep everybody updated on it.
26:37
Speaker 1: You know, we'll try to have some conversations about some
26:41
Speaker 1: other things as well. You know, I don't I haven't
26:44
Speaker 1: had a lot of time to read books, but who knows,
26:46
Speaker 1: maybe I'll have more time now. You can still go
26:49
Speaker 1: out and you can see theater, you can. I saw
26:52
Speaker 1: one person say you still go out and watch movies
26:54
Speaker 1: because you're supporting your local movie theater, you know, But
26:59
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't know about that, but yeah, you
27:03
Speaker 1: can still go see live theater, independent things. Yeah, so
27:09
Speaker 1: should support the local non budget stuff you can.
27:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean there's like theaters, there's museums, there's
27:16
Speaker 2: all sorts of stuff that, you know, especially like local
27:21
Speaker 2: local houses, like whether it's a local theater or a
27:24
Speaker 2: local museum or whatever, they can always use the support.
27:28
Speaker 2: It's you know, depending on where you are, the arts
27:31
Speaker 2: may or may not receive a lot of financial support
27:34
Speaker 2: from your local government. Here in Georgia, it can get
27:37
Speaker 2: pretty darn grim, So supporting local theater is always a
27:43
Speaker 2: great thing. Plus you are going to discover stuff that
27:46
Speaker 2: you didn't even know existed. I saw a show here
27:50
Speaker 2: in Atlanta that is now a Broadway or is going
27:54
Speaker 2: to be a Broadway show very soon, and that that
27:56
Speaker 2: it's Gutenberg. The musical they did came out of the
27:59
Speaker 2: Upright Citizens Brigade and was slowly developed into a full
28:03
Speaker 2: length musical, and a local theater down here in Atlanta
28:06
Speaker 2: did a production of it, and I absolutely loved it,
28:09
Speaker 2: to the point where I really thought about going to
28:11
Speaker 2: New York to catch it. And then I saw how
28:12
Speaker 2: much the tickets were, and I said, well, I don't
28:15
Speaker 2: think I can pay three hundred bucks a seat to
28:17
Speaker 2: see this show. And if I don't pay three hundred
28:20
Speaker 2: bucks a seat and I go sit in the back,
28:22
Speaker 2: I won't be able to read what's written on the
28:24
Speaker 2: trucker hats. And that's important.
28:27
Speaker 1: It's not even that it doesn't even cost that much
28:30
Speaker 1: to go to see Billy Boyd and Dominic Monagahan do
28:35
Speaker 1: some spin off Shakespeare.
28:37
Speaker 2: Oh, which I will be doing because I got that
28:39
Speaker 2: for my birthday. Yes, you know, we will try and
28:43
Speaker 2: see how we can work around this and talk about
28:46
Speaker 2: things without encroaching upon the unions because we respect them,
28:53
Speaker 2: we want them to get as much out of the
28:56
Speaker 2: negotiations as they possibly can. No one ever walks away
28:59
Speaker 2: from these things getting everything they wanted. That just never happens.
29:03
Speaker 2: But to get the important things covered is really what
29:07
Speaker 2: we're hoping for. It can also get real ugly, Like,
29:11
Speaker 2: it could get real ugly if the negotiation team ends
29:14
Speaker 2: up agreeing to stuff that the larger union is not
29:18
Speaker 2: super happy about. We saw that with the IATSI actually
29:21
Speaker 2: in the last round. So my hope is that whatever
29:26
Speaker 2: concessions they're able to get will be agreeable to the
29:30
Speaker 2: vast majority of the union because it would really stink
29:34
Speaker 2: if it were otherwise. That would just be really painful. Yeah,
29:40
Speaker 2: and it'll be interesting to see how this impacts everything else,
29:44
Speaker 2: like not just TV and film, but podcasts and all
29:49
Speaker 2: these other related things that are kind of much younger
29:53
Speaker 2: forms of media, and whether or not we actually see
29:57
Speaker 2: that kind of come to a stop. Like I was
29:59
Speaker 2: sitting there thinking, man, I bet Sean Evans of hot
30:04
Speaker 2: Ones is real nervous right now, because the whole reason
30:08
Speaker 2: people come on hot ones is to promote something that
30:11
Speaker 2: they're doing at the time, and it may mean that
30:14
Speaker 2: he's just gonna have to really focus on things like
30:16
Speaker 2: sports and music.
30:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, which he's done before. He could bring you on.
30:21
Speaker 2: He could be bring me on one. I will put
30:24
Speaker 2: away those hot wings and too, I'll be one of
30:28
Speaker 2: the most boring guests that I've ever been on that show.
30:32
Speaker 1: I doubt that. I doubt that I had more points
30:37
Speaker 1: to say, but I have forgotten a lot of them.
30:42
Speaker 1: If you listen to the show, and I'm guessing most
30:45
Speaker 1: of our listeners do not fall into this category. But
30:47
Speaker 1: if you're listening to the show and you're like, gee,
30:49
Speaker 1: I just have all this extra income and I'd like
30:50
Speaker 1: to help support Saya after in the Writer's Guild and
30:53
Speaker 1: I can't attend to pick it, you can go to
30:56
Speaker 1: the Entertainment Community to Entertainment Community dot org and donate
31:01
Speaker 1: some money to the Entertainment Community Fund that helps the
31:04
Speaker 1: writers and actors and things like that. I won't get
31:06
Speaker 1: any of it. I'm not in the union. I don't
31:08
Speaker 1: need any of it because I'm very fortunate to have
31:13
Speaker 1: a side hustle that also allows me to act. But yeah,
31:19
Speaker 1: you know, that's that's the thing you could do if
31:20
Speaker 1: you're wanting to help and you aren't sure how and
31:22
Speaker 1: you can't be boots on the ground. Yeah, and mean
31:25
Speaker 1: and if you want to go picket, go join a
31:26
Speaker 1: picket line.
31:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that contribution could mean like someone is able
31:31
Speaker 2: to get groceries when otherwise they wouldn't. Like it's it's
31:35
Speaker 2: a big deal because again, like we're not talking about
31:38
Speaker 2: the multi bazillionaires like Robert Donnie Junior. You know, we're
31:42
Speaker 2: not talking about those folks. We're talking about the people
31:46
Speaker 2: who have you know, appeared on TV and film and
31:51
Speaker 2: have played an important part in productions, but aren't at
31:55
Speaker 2: that echelon. They're not considered to be like a box
31:59
Speaker 2: office raw so they've never necessarily enjoyed huge financial success.
32:04
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe they've managed to eke out a living, but
32:08
Speaker 2: it's not like they're you know, staying in a multimillion
32:11
Speaker 2: dollar mansion in Beverly Hills. So I think it is
32:15
Speaker 2: you know, important to remember because again, like our perceptions
32:18
Speaker 2: can be so twisted. If you sit there and think,
32:20
Speaker 2: like support actors, good grief, those folks can they're always
32:23
Speaker 2: jet setting around the globe. Again, that's like the top
32:28
Speaker 2: percentage of actors. Most of them, are you know, checking
32:33
Speaker 2: their their car cushions to see if they have enough
32:35
Speaker 2: change to go and get a coffee.
32:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's it's something you definitely do for the
32:41
Speaker 1: love of it. And that doesn't even count all of
32:43
Speaker 1: the like education and resources an actor has to put
32:47
Speaker 1: in to their work to get work. Yeah, you have
32:52
Speaker 1: to pretty much constantly be training. And no, you don't
32:54
Speaker 1: have to pay for training classes, but it does help,
32:57
Speaker 1: especially if you're trying trying to start off. You got
33:00
Speaker 1: to get you got to up get your headshots regularly.
33:02
Speaker 1: You've got to pay for you know, uh site site
33:09
Speaker 1: accounts for various things. So and not all actors, but
33:13
Speaker 1: at least in Atlanta you do.
33:15
Speaker 2: Yeah.
33:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, you'd be surprised how many of the actors that
33:18
Speaker 1: you would recognize who have had recurring roles on very
33:23
Speaker 1: popular shows still just get base rate for everything they do.
33:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, if and if they're lucky, they're on a really
33:29
Speaker 2: popular show where they might get some residuals that will
33:33
Speaker 2: make things a little easier down the line, which again
33:35
Speaker 2: brings us back to why it's so important to support
33:38
Speaker 2: these strikes so that the same thing is true in
33:40
Speaker 2: the new era of streaming because if the studios get
33:43
Speaker 2: their way, then you're going to see a totally different
33:48
Speaker 2: approach to entertainment that is not sustainable and that ultimately
33:52
Speaker 2: is going to lead to a really chaotic and messy time.
33:57
Speaker 2: And again it's gonna hurt everybody, like including the studios.
34:01
Speaker 2: So it blows my mind that people are so bad
34:08
Speaker 2: at looking at long term issues, like they focus so
34:11
Speaker 2: much on the short term and the immediate term that
34:15
Speaker 2: they have difficulty even getting their heads wrapped around, Oh,
34:19
Speaker 2: if we do this, what does that mean in five years?
34:22
Speaker 2: It becomes really hard to see that. But I truly
34:26
Speaker 2: believe that unless things are changed properly, what we're going
34:31
Speaker 2: to look at is the opposite of what we've had
34:35
Speaker 2: for the last two decades, where we had, like think
34:37
Speaker 2: of all the prestige television that came out, all these
34:40
Speaker 2: amazing shows on various channels. Like if we talk about
34:46
Speaker 2: a future where more and more stuff is on streaming,
34:50
Speaker 2: but there are fewer incentives for people to get into
34:54
Speaker 2: writing and acting, say goodbye to all those prestige shows
34:59
Speaker 2: that were so f nominal. We won't get them anymore
35:01
Speaker 2: because there'll be no one to write them or act
35:04
Speaker 2: in them.
35:05
Speaker 1: Yeah.
35:06
Speaker 2: Yeah.
35:06
Speaker 1: And I've heard some people say, well, just cancel all
35:11
Speaker 1: your seeming streaming subscriptions and hiate the media you want.
35:15
Speaker 1: I if you want to cancel your subscription to a
35:19
Speaker 1: streaming service, I know some I've seen some actors say, hey,
35:22
Speaker 1: that would really stick it to them. Just go without,
35:27
Speaker 1: just go without that media. I still can't can doone piracy.
35:30
Speaker 2: No, I can't either.
35:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just just go without for a while.
35:34
Speaker 2: You know, I would be lying if I said I
35:36
Speaker 2: had never hirated anything in my in my misspent youth,
35:40
Speaker 2: I certainly was guilty of occasionally getting hold of some
35:44
Speaker 2: song tracks that I did not purchase. Uh and uh
35:51
Speaker 2: now I'm like, no, I would never do that. I
35:54
Speaker 2: fully believe in paying for the stuff I want. I
35:57
Speaker 2: also believe that just because something exists doesn't immediately give
36:01
Speaker 2: you the right to have it, right, Like you have
36:03
Speaker 2: to someone put in work and effort and investment in
36:08
Speaker 2: that thing, and they deserve compensation for all of that.
36:12
Speaker 2: So it's a it's a dance that we do. And yeah,
36:17
Speaker 2: I agree, I think you know, eschewing streaming services, if
36:23
Speaker 2: that feels like that's something that you could do that uh,
36:26
Speaker 2: you know, that's your way of helping support the cause.
36:29
Speaker 2: It certainly sends a message. Like companies pay attention to
36:32
Speaker 2: that sort of thing if they see that their numbers
36:34
Speaker 2: are declining. I mean, that is a huge concern, especially
36:39
Speaker 2: when it comes round time for them to talk to
36:41
Speaker 2: their investors when they those shareholder earnings calls come up.
36:45
Speaker 2: Saying yeah, we have fewer people subscribe to our service
36:48
Speaker 2: than we did last quarter. Not a good message.
36:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I will say again, I don't think that
36:54
Speaker 1: is an official call by sag after or anyone else.
36:57
Speaker 1: I've just seen it go around on social media. But
37:01
Speaker 1: if you're going to do it, when they ask why
37:03
Speaker 1: are you unsubscribing, tell them it's because you support the strike. Yeah,
37:09
Speaker 1: that we They'll know.
37:11
Speaker 2: If you're in a car and you're driving by and
37:13
Speaker 2: you see a picket line out in front of what
37:15
Speaker 2: would have been a production, give a couple of little
37:17
Speaker 2: hanks and say woo, good job, keep it up, solidarity,
37:22
Speaker 2: good job. I mean, like I know that if I
37:26
Speaker 2: were on a picket line and I heard someone say woo,
37:29
Speaker 2: good job, I'd be like, oh, that's nice. That'll keep
37:31
Speaker 2: me going another like hour. Yeah.
37:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I think that's all we have for this week.
37:39
Speaker 1: Hopefully next week we'll have some better idea of things
37:42
Speaker 1: we can and can't talk about, you know, and and
37:47
Speaker 1: try to dive into some gee geeky genres we haven't
37:51
Speaker 1: touched in a while, so that could be fun.
37:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, we've also got some discussion topics
37:57
Speaker 2: that we'd love to to touch on, one of them
38:00
Speaker 2: being something we kind of hinted at here where it's
38:03
Speaker 2: that idea of vanishing media. So we may end up
38:07
Speaker 2: having some episodes that are are more like geek adjacent
38:12
Speaker 2: in that there are discussions about things that relate to
38:15
Speaker 2: geek culture without specifically being about upcoming projects. We may
38:20
Speaker 2: do that some more of that. But yeah, we're not
38:24
Speaker 2: going anywhere, so it's not like we're having the podcast
38:27
Speaker 2: go on hiatus. We're just trying to be respectful and
38:31
Speaker 2: still have great conversations.
38:34
Speaker 1: Yes, and thank you to everybody who's been chatting about
38:38
Speaker 1: the things they love on discord. We've heard some great
38:43
Speaker 1: book recommendations and some fun anecdotes and it's always a delight.
38:48
Speaker 1: If you've enjoyed listening to us, If you've got a
38:51
Speaker 1: non TV film sort of topic you'd like us to cover,
38:54
Speaker 1: if we can. You should write us and tell us, Jonathan,
39:00
Speaker 1: how can they do that?
39:01
Speaker 2: So what you're going to have to do is you're
39:03
Speaker 2: going to have to go out there and you're going
39:05
Speaker 2: to have to establish a media empire. And you're going
39:09
Speaker 2: to sit at the head of this media empire, and
39:11
Speaker 2: it will grow in importance and relevance and wealth, and
39:16
Speaker 2: you will find ways to wring every single cent out
39:20
Speaker 2: of it. And that includes making certain that you don't
39:24
Speaker 2: pay the people who work under you too much, until
39:27
Speaker 2: ultimately they reach a point where they can't take it
39:30
Speaker 2: anymore and they rise up against you, and you swear
39:33
Speaker 2: that you won't give an inch. And then as you
39:36
Speaker 2: stare out over the masses who are roiling at your
39:42
Speaker 2: feet with their signs and their chance, and you're looking
39:46
Speaker 2: out in your penthouse suite, you'll see on the horizon
39:51
Speaker 2: a figure and it's me, and you'll suddenly realize all
39:56
Speaker 2: the terrible things you have done and feel awful about it.
40:00
Speaker 2: It'll make the journey humbled as people around you yell shame, shame, shame,
40:05
Speaker 2: and you walk all the way until you see me
40:07
Speaker 2: and I says, what's it worth it? And then you're
40:11
Speaker 2: like no, but I've got a question for you and
40:13
Speaker 2: I'll answer it.
40:16
Speaker 1: And if you want to go through a little less trauma,
40:18
Speaker 1: you can contact us on social media on Twitter or
40:21
Speaker 1: LLNC Underscore podcast on threads, Instagram, and Facebook. We are
40:24
Speaker 1: Larger Drunk Collider. That's also our website www dot Larger
40:30
Speaker 1: Drunk Collider dot com. I will post some of the
40:35
Speaker 1: strike news and maybe the community fund link there sometimes
40:40
Speaker 1: this weekender week and yeah, you can check us out
40:44
Speaker 1: on discord too. Until next time, I have been aerial.
40:53
Speaker 2: Castin, and I have been Jonathan. I'm waiting on you,
40:57
Speaker 2: Bob Iger, to walk over here and ask me your question.
41:00
Speaker 2: In Strickland The Large Nerdron Collider was created by Ariel
41:06
Speaker 2: Caston and produced, edited, published, deleted, undeleted, published again. Cursed
41:14
Speaker 2: Act by John Strickland. Music by Kevin MacLeod of incomptech
41:20
Speaker 2: dot com