Ologies with Alie Ward - Field Trip: A Hollywood Visit to the Writers Guild Strike Line

Episode Date: May 26, 2023

Jump in, we’re going to the Valley to talk to cool, funny screenwriters about ... Artificial intelligence-drafted scripts! Trillion-dollar companies pretending they’re broke! Emmy-nominated writers with side hustles! Teamster bosses dropping mics! What an exciting time to gossip about Hollywood… labor unions! Listen, we all love watching our Programs and laughing, learning and loving. But things are getting WEIRD behind the scenes, and the Writers Guild of America is on strike, showing up in picket lines in front of movie and TV studios. Sometimes in costume. Sometimes with live mariachi bands. And always with the wittiest signs in showbiz, baby. I heard from the writers themselves about why this strike is so important in a rise in labor awareness all over the world. I meant for this episode to be 20 minutes long, but turns out – it’s pretty juicy. WGA On StrikeA donation went to the Entertainment Community Fund and the new Choreographers Guild (Twitter / Instagram)More about the strikers:WGA Board Member Dailyn Rodriguez - IMDB / Instagram / TwitterTeagan Wall - IMDB / website / Instagram / TwitterWGA Negotiating Committee Member Danielle Sanchez-Witzel -IMDB / Bio / TwitterLa ListaStephen Langford - IMDB / TwitterWGA Captain Judalina Neira - IMDB / website / Instagram / TwitterOmar Ponce - IMDB / websiteErica Harrell - IMDBFlaco Navaja - IMDB / Instagram / TwitterWGA Captain Jimmy Clabots - IMDB / Instagram / TwitterElle Lipson - IMDB / website / TwitterAnnie Mebane - IMDB / TwitterSam Laybourne - IMDBAnd choreographer Kathryn Burns - IMDBSponsors of OlogiesTranscripts and bleeped episodesSmologies (short, classroom-safe) episodesBecome a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a monthOlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, masks, totes!Follow @Ologies on Twitter and InstagramFollow @AlieWard on Twitter and InstagramEditing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam MediaTranscripts by Emily White of The WordaryWebsite by Kelly R. DwyerTheme song by Nick Thorburn

Okay, just a note up top. This is a weird one. I didn't mean to make this like this, but now it's a big old episode. This was supposed to be a mini episode and then it turned out that there's a lot more to learn and it got really interesting. Okay. Oh, hey, it's that invisible hair that's resting lightly on your arm that you keep thinking as a spider alleyward. We're back with a cute little field trip. I'm going to put you in my grimy canvas tote bag and I'm going to take you somewhere I want to be. So usually, okay, allergies is this one long-home interview with an expert about some allergy. Sometimes your butt is stuck to a vinyl office chair and you need to get out of the house. So in this case, let's go to

Hollywood. Let's hang out outside of Universal Studios and talk to some big-time famous Hollywood writers and even one baby about why the WGA, the writer's Guild of America, is saying hell no to work and hell-e-est to livable wages for the people who make your content. And maybe also some foresight about AI in an industry that's worth billions. Shall we? Let's do that. I promise, if you ever like watching anything that has been on TV or your phone, you're going to want to know what the fuck's going on. And we got it for you.

Okay. But first, you're amazing. Thank you to every single person who supports Oligis at patreon.com slash Oligis for his little list of bucka-mon. Thank you to everyone who shares these shows and rates and reviews. I read each review and I serve one up while it's still steaming, such as this week from Cobra Clogs, who wrote, This is my favorite podcast of all time. I've harassed so many of my friends and family to get them to listen to this. They all hate me, but they loved this podcast. Cobra Clogs,

I love you, and I hope that they love this. Okay, listen. Okay, first off this audio, it's pretty good considering that it was on a street corner with people literally screaming behind me, but I used a really good mic and just a heads up. If you're on the road, there is some ambient, but supportive horn honking from the picket lines.

So just consider when you're driving, please be safe, consider that like a horn warning as a warning. Also, honk if you're horny for worker solidarity and fair treatment, but also drive safely. So, maybe let's grab your water bottle and meet me on the street corner in North Hollywood, which for anyone who has ever lived in LA, it isn't the northiest part of Hollywood. It's the city over the hill in the valley where they shoot tons of movies and there's someone right there living in an apartment probably right now who's gonna win an Oscar in 2027 and they're probably in an apartment that always smells like their neighbor's dinner.

But that's okay, you're doing great and we're proud of you. This is for all the existing writers, all the future ones, and really anyone who has ever benefited from watching written content. Come with us. This is a wild one. There's also a lot of drama, Hollywood drama, insider info, in the biz. I give you some secrets from orking in the industry. And also what does the future holds. So come with me with going to backstage or in field trip crashing the WGA picket lines.

Okay, first things first. Let's do a nervous but excited mic check. So we stood on the sidewalk across from Universal Studios where they have shot everything from back to the future to Buffy to Die Hard, Seinfeld. They shot the good place there, Gremlins was shot there. And it's already baking at noon in the heat of the valley. So this would be my mic. And then this would be yours. That's your mic looks good.

I'm going to turn this on down. I was your son, if you were a person that I was didn't know about. Oh my god. I'm a Riyachi band. I didn't wear sunscreen on my arms, but that's fine. Do you want me to go get some? Nah, I'm fine. I got a sunburn.

So I have written for television shows. And I've gotten an Emmy, a daytime Emmy for doing that. I've also been uncredited. I've been credited and not paid. I've been credited and barely paid. Why does this happen to me? Because I'm not a member of WGA. The jobs I've worked on haven't been WGA eligible.

But I have been in the screen actor's guild since 1997, my babies, and my SAG union jobs pay livable wages with pension and optional health benefits that have literally saved my life when I had mono and had to go to the hospital. There's, I could have died, but my sag jobs pay well not because they like me or I do a particularly good job, but because they are required by law because of unions. So Jared and I, your pod mom, we dropped off a bunch of cold water and ice and snacks to a person with a hat that's

at Captain. And then we waited at a crosswalk to join the two or three hundred people in Blue WGA shirts marching back and forth in front of the Jimmy Stewart Memorial Gate at Universal Studios. And we waited at the light next to this man in the crosswalk, maybe early 30s. He was holding a picket sign, as most people were, and his board, the words, writer's guild of America on strike. And geniusly, these WGA signs have a big blank white space where writers have been giving studios a piece of their minds,

via Sharpie, this guy's holding one. I was just like, you guys have signs and a lady walks up, she's like, I'm done with this. Can you read to me what is this? Of course. Bezos went to space. You can pay riders what they're worth. Very nice. Have you ever worked for Amazon Studios? I've not know. I have oh really? Yeah, I did and you know what they paid me for script what a $185. Oh my god. Oh I had to tap it. I feel like you

I got your back. This is. But we were talking about that on the way here. We're like, who has more fucking money than Bezos? Like you literally know what? Maybe one guy every other week. But yeah, like working for That's ridiculous. Yeah, giant streamers are always like, we don't have any money. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I beg to differ. Oh my god. Yeah, I'm scared. I'm going to be sure. I'm just joking. Oh yeah, Jared Nathan, good to meet you. Allie Nathan, good to meet you. Guys, what do you do? Are you WGA or Saga just somebody?

Just supporting. That's great. Virgining writer, hoping to be paid at least 185. Yeah, all right. We're working on it. I mean, you're a perfect use case. I was literally at my dad's bedside. My dad had brain cancer. And I was in the hospital dad's bedside. My dad had brain cancer and I was in the hospital

making notes on scripts at my dad's bedside as he laid dying for $185 napkins. Well good luck getting into the fray. Alright so I saw my dear friend, Dalyne Rodriguez, and I caught the audio part of me shrieking her name with love because you didn't need to hear that. But Dalyne is a long time TV writer, and she's been on the picket lines for weeks as have many of the guilds roughly 12,000 working members. Now Dalyne is also an elected member of the writer's Guild of America Board of Directors,

which helps make decisions for the union, as well as being the co-show runner of the Netflix number one show, Lincoln Lawyer, which means that she is the head of the writing staff. So I met her in 2002 when I was her waitress at a discount sushi restaurant and she liked my mix CD that was playing. Last year, she officiated my wedding.

She's just all kinds of badass mother fucker, as they say. Is it okay that we're recording this? Yeah, okay, sweet. But as we cross back and forth, do you feel like telling anyone or you're striking? Sure. Yeah, okay, tell us why the fuck you're striking. I am striking because I'm worried going to strike it. Sure. Okay, tell us why the fuck you're shrinking.

I am striking because I'm worried that our writing careers are going to disappear. I came, I broke in to this business in 2002 and I used to work on a 22 episode, half-hour network show and I made a really good living and had really good residuals. And I've just watched all that get stripped away in the last few years by streamers. Okay, so real quick, in the entertainment industry, residuals are when your episode that you worked on airs, and if you're a union worker, like an actor or a producer or writer, they pay you again, and it gets less and less every time it rears, but you do get paid again when the episode rears.

And these residuals can add up and really save your ass in times of unemployment. And before you're like, why don't you just get a regular job if you're unemployed. And if you haven't worked in this particular business or in any creative industry or ever done anything like freelance. So, creatives in this industry don't get paid a penny for auditioning, for writing scripts on spec, because that means they only pay you if they buy it, or most times for development. So developing a TV show can mean working your ass off for years, writing, shooting samples, wearing uncomfortable shoes to meetings, hoping that the network likes you and buys it.

But if they don't, and they pass, you make zero dollars for all of that work. If they do like it, then you could make people millionaires. So when you do get something made, and it airs, and it rears, the residuals on that work that the networks are making money off of Keep creatives alive and creating in-between jobs unless they're just Very very rich from wealthy parents. I'm really concerned about writers coming up And I'm really concerned about the end of the middle class of my union. Is there anything how long the strike might last? No, there's no way of knowing really. At this point, this is part of our negotiations.

We are striking. But right now, the AMPTP is negotiating with the DGA, hoping to make a deal with them, and then they have to negotiate with Sad. Okay, listen, this aside, it's a long one. Okay, what are all those letters? There aren't even words. I'm going to break it down for you. Okay, what are all those letters? There's aren't even words. I'm gonna break it down for you. Okay, so here we go.

This is exciting. I mean, of course you know that sets are full of people, right? That's kind of cool to think about that every time you watch a movie. Think of all the people that are standing around. Of course you know they're there, but the whole point is that we don't think about them because they're making this stuff look real, right?

So I started in the business as the person who worked on commercials who made sure that there was a snack table for all the workers. And on the piece of paper that tells you who does what job it's called the call sheets, I was on the very bottom. They start with the producers and the lead talent at the top and then they just can go, oh a minute. And then below the PAs or production assistants, what they used to call gophers, was me, who was the snack PAs. But I learned so much,

I listened to so much gossip when people were at my snack table getting yogurt pretzels and stuff. And one thing to learn is that people on sets work so hard. The call time can be three or four in the morning, a typical work day on average, a typical day is 14 hours. And then you have to drive home, you have to try to sleep a few hours,

maybe reload your truck, restock all your stuff, get all the wardrobe together, whatever, and then you have to be back if I'm the next day for a lot of heavy lifting, high stress and high stakes. So there are unions for those workers because most studios know that when people are involved in something creative,

we will let ourselves get screwed. I mean, you and I, we're making TikTok and Instagram posts for free. You'll write them, you'll film them, edit them, caption them for free, and the tech industry knows you'll do it. And so the unions that she mentioned, SAG, the Screen Actors Guild, which merged a few years ago with Aftra,

which stands for the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, there's the DGA, which is the director's Guild of America, but fun fact, there's no union at all for choreographers. So all the dances that you see they get replicated on TikTok, like you know that marvelous Mrs. Maisel like the pink, two laces one. Any dancing you've ever seen in a music video, there's no union protection for those choreographers. So they can get just insultingly low day rates. Sometimes a famous choreographer will be paid by giant studios

less than the backup dancer is making. Oh, and there's no healthcare pension or residuals for the choreographers. No matter how many times the dance that they made up is replicated over and over and over again. Wow. So why don't choreographers start a union already? It's about time. Well, I have this friend, her name is Catherine Burns. She's won two Emmys for all of her choreography work

on Crazy X Girlfriend. She's worked on everything from Key and Peel to Dolly Parton movies. She's done dancing with the stars. She choreographed dances for the Simpsons. You know what she did? She started a fucking union. So the choreographer's guild launched this year

and it's already been written up at The New York Times in every trade publication. You can find out more about them at choreographerskilled.org. Please follow them on social media and show your support. I'm so proud of Catherine. I could dance in public, which says a lot. And you know how I met Catherine in 2002 when I was a waitress at that same discount sushi restaurant.

She worked retail next door. So look at us just a bunch of minimum wage goblins, doing what we love and hopefully trying to make things better for the ones that come up behind us. So these unions like SAG and the DGA, they rep creative workers that are sometimes known as above the line. That means that they're key creatives on a budget. That unless they do something terrible or just have major creative differences,

they're individually selected for their roles, they have job security. Now people refer to below the line as the folks who take all of those decisions and they make them into reality. Well, they make them into a false reality that we watch and we pretend as reality. Those are the tech crews and the skilled laborers and the set painters and all those people that I mentioned before and they have a huge union, 140,000 people that's called IOTSY. But for short, you can call them the international alliance of theatrical stage employees moving picture technicians, artists and allied

crafts of the United States, its territories and Canada. Sure. Okay. And IOTSZ has a bunch of local chapters. You've seen their logo. It looks kind of like a flower. It's at the end of every movie. But there's also the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which was famously led by Union Advocate Jimmy Huffa.

Unfortunately, Jimmy later had some trouble with the law. But the Teamsters in general, they represent so many labors. There's 1.3 million teamsters in that union in America from bakery workers to freight truck drivers. And the Hollywood chapter of the teamsters is really, really involved in the entertainment business. Local 399 is that Hollywood chapter. And they represent casting people and animal wranglers,

people who truck all that heavy equipment around and the mechanics that keep the sets going. So IOTC and the teamsters tend to be really solidarity oriented, which is awesome. IOTC members can refuse to cross another union's picket line and they can't be fired. They can be temporarily replaced, but they can't be fired. And a recent bulletin about this WGA strike from the local 399, the teamsters, stated, quote, simply put, teamsters do not cross picket lines.

However, ultimately that decision is up to you as an individual, but they're protected if they choose not to cross the writer's guild or any other union's active physical picket lines. They could say, no, I do not cross another union's picket line. They may have to get to work early to beat the picketers before they make the line. But if they don't, they can hang back, sit in their trucks or whatever until production decides what to do and if they're just gonna shut down the set. So all of this stuff about the unions and all these people who are making these TV shows and movies that make billions of dollars, right?

But why do they have all of these unions? Why unions for them? So back in the dawn of the industrial age, companies would sometimes just try to squeeze out as much work as they could from factory workers to increase production and profits. It wasn't always safe. Sometimes, the workers were like seven and didn't have shoes and couldn't go to school. They didn't have retirement or health plans.

So the workers got together and said, Hey, how about if we all fuck this shit and stick together? So that they treat us fairly. That is why you can't get away with child labor and really unsafe conditions because of these labor unions. Do people like unions? Well, not if you're trying to increase profits at sometimes the expense of the workers' health, but a recent Gallup poll revealed that 71% of Americans are pro-union, and that's even up from before the pandemic. So that 71% is the highest who's been since the mid-1960s.

There's just this kind of pervasive feeling of, wait a minute, why are we working more, but we're getting paid less and have no benefits. And everyone is a gig worker with three jobs and no health insurance. Unions are like, hey, let us band together. Workers, let's not compete amongst each other. Let's use solidarity and have a collective power

and collective bargaining so we don't get screwed out of a living wage and health care. Also, side note, to purchase a home in Los Angeles or New York, get ready to spend some cash. About a million dollars will get you maybe a two-bedroom place that has roofing issues. And then is that AMPTP? What is that jumble of letters? Okay, that stands for the Alliance of Motion Picture

and Television Producers. And they are the ones arguing on behalf of the studios like Apple and Netflix and Hulu against the WGA and the other unions in case you hear those letters with kind of a sneer. So they're representing the studios and saying, I don't think we want to give you that. So these are the characters on this battlefield. Now in 2007, the writers Guild of America famously went on strike when studios didn't want to pay the same kind of money for what they called new media or digital or streaming, as much as they did for broadcast.

And it's just so funny that it's called new media because I feel like digital stuff has been around for decades, but they're still like, ooh, so there's no media. It's like, it's a internet. We all, everyone has a internet. But anyway, as Chat GBT is already writing everything from like, I don't know, break up letters to people's book reports, WGA is saying, no.

Someone needs to figure this out for us and for the rest of all the industries. And so WGA says, we'll go first, we'll say, hey, you cannot replace writers with AI that you've scrubbed from other writers' work. And as for the paying less for more work, they're like, don't piss on our legs and tell us it's streaming and that it's just hustle culture. Workers deserve to be paid. So AMPTP, that alliance of motion picture and television producers that is representing

the studios, they have to deal with WGA writers saying, nope, you got to negotiate. And as DeLynn is saying, other unions may be next to join in solidarity like the director's guild, the DGA, and the screen actor's guild, SAG. So in a few weeks, SAG will begin contract negotiations with the AMPTP for things like residuals in streaming and AIUs and the SAG actress national board decided by this unanimous vote that if the AMPTP doesn't play nice and a fair deal isn't reached by the end of June, that SAG may strike too, which is pretty historic. Also, side note, the president of SAG is the lady who played the nanny.

He started it! Oh, and no TV for you, weether! So, let's say that you're just gardening in Michigan right now, and you think like this doesn't even affect me at all. I get Again, it seems far away, this might be happening far away from you, but it's also happening on your TV in your living room, and on your phone. Sitting on the toilet. And there are so many movies and TV shows that change people's lives and that keep us all entertained. And so when you go to watch your favorite shows in like six or seven months,

they might all be reruns. There may not be new seasons. Your favorite actors may not have any new movies. Your least favorite ones might not either, or TV shows. So making deals with those two unions is in necessarily going to end our strike. Right, right, right. Yeah. How's the week been? A little stressful?

Last couple of weeks? It's stressful, but I think there's a lot of solidarity and I think people are in really good spirits and the best thing about the best thing that I've seen is how many other unions have come out to support us. Today we have some members of the teamsters, local 399 are out here with us. We've seen a few IOTS folks, so I think the support means the world to all of us. I feel like all the unions are being squeezed, all our jobs are being squeezed. And this is something not just in Hollywood,

it's happening all over the United States. I've heard the Canary and a coal mine metaphor used for this particular union in strike. It's because of AI. Yeah. Where are the first people to truly confront the existential threat that is artificial intelligence? Right. The amount of jobs that will be wiped off the earth because of AI is frightening.

And we're just the first people to basically draw a line in the sand about it. And say, fuck no. Well, we were the first people to go, like, hey guys, this streaming thing, this is a big deal. Because of that strike, digital or streaming shows had to adhere to hiring union workers, which then had the protection of healthcare and pensions and reasonable wages. And that strike, 2007, lasted 100 days.

And some economists estimate that the cost was $20 million per day to the business. And Union members say it's not just to hit them in the balance sheet, but it's to abstain from working to prove how needed and valuable they are and to get studios to come back at the table and negotiate in good faith for what's right. Like if you've got kind of a shitty partner, you're like, you know what? I'm out.

You let me know when you want to be cool again. And they're like, oh, fine. It's just saying, if you're not gonna treat me right, you don't get me right now. So this time around, because the contracts are so out of line with AI technology and streaming conventions and how studios are using and profiting from that.

The WGA, especially as the first unit to finally stand up and say, hello, we're not doing this, they have even more support. There's more solidarity in this one. I think that people didn't fully comprehend the streaming battle that we were having in O708. I think there were a lot of people that really didn't weren't thrilled about going on strike and they did, so there was a lot of grumbling.

I think in 0708, this is very different. I think because we're really getting the message out that our income has fallen drastically. 50% of the union is working at scale, which is minimums. Pay has gone 23%, that's accounting for inflation. Oof. So it's bad. And we're not the only labor force that's feeling it.

Just because we're like a bunch of nerds, it's in front of a computer, and we're like... But also making the thing we have to make life parable. We literally create the content that they make Billions of dollars on if it if it's not on the page Yeah, and don't and people shouldn't fool themselves. They reality shows are written Yeah, let's not pretend that they're not we're just We just need to unionize all those books,

but they're written also. Yes, I am sorry to break it to you, my friends, but there are producers and script editors on reality shows. Someone's gonna watch 50,000,000 hours of footage of Rich Ladies eating salad and make a story out of it and orchestrate all those on-camera make-outs in gondolas between strangers, clutching roses, and Dalynn and the union, they just wanna look out for others,

especially people who are coming up after them. We always seem to have a little bit of foresight about what's coming down the pike. Doesn't surprise me, we're writers, we have the imagination, we sit around going like, what is the worst-case scenario? That's the worst-case scenario. Are we right about it?

We write murder shows and apocalypse movies. So like, we think of the worst-case scenario. Union, it's the surround figuring out how to get away with murder. And by the way, you can trust writers to make this drink a little spicy. So writers have organized the organizing. They're staging days like a pro-union newsies themed strike day at the Disney gates where

hundreds of people showed up in flat caps and suspenders with memes about newsies and across town. Same day, there was this glorious trans takeover day in front of Netflix. And during all of this, while I was recording these conversations, pacing the Jimmy Stewart Gaia Universal, a mariachi band was just tearing it up nearby under a tree. And they were outfitted to the nines and these impeccable navy uniforms with these gleaming brass buttons.

And I didn't even notice at first. They were all women and femme musicians. And they were hired to boost morale by Lalista, which is a volunteer group that mentors Latina, Latinix, and Latina identifying and non-binary working TV and feature writers. And they've been around for years. They started this when we felt like we needed community, because there weren't enough Latina's writing in the industry. basically they started this brunch Latina's brunch and it's turned

into Lalista which is a list of writers and we all basically help each other out when we hear that there's a job we kind of give out a bad signal we are here for like community so we decided to do our own organized picket and bring out the mariaches. Okay so I peeled off. I spotted another friend, Dr. Tegan Wall, who has a Caltech neuroscience PhD. She's a co-founder of the Science Communication Collective, the Nerd Brigade. She's also a Hollywood screenwriter. She was nominated for a prime time Emmy for writing on Netflix's Bill Nye Saves the World. And she wrote on Young Sheldon and Braincraft, among other shows. And she also had a baby less than two months ago.

And her tiny nugget of a sun was wrapped up in one of those baby scarf things that you wear. And I suppose he was picketing as well. And technically under labor laws, an official picket line needs to be composed of a minimum of two people each holding a picket sign. And for day one of the strike, Tegan talked a tiny homemade sign into her son's baby sling. Yes, I am.

Oh my God, where the youngest person on the line! Dr. Wall agreed to chat with me. I'm Tegan Wall. Most recently, I worked on lessons in chemistry for Apple TV and leverage redemption for freebie. Why are you striking? I'm striking because I'm very concerned that our jobs are not going to exist much longer with the existence of many rooms and shorter and smaller rooms

despite the same number of episodes. Can you explain what a mini room is? Yeah, so a mini room is a room where they basically get a bunch of writers and by a bunch I mean like five or six together and they have them break the entire show, the entire season of television in like six weeks. So a writer's room, side note, is what they, in general, call the collection of writers all brainstorming together. They're thrown at ideas, they're coming up with dialogue that we quote forever and character

traits and backstories and breaking the show or season. And that means to break it down into kind of bullet points and outlines. Like, what's happening in this episode? And then how does that fit into what's happening overall in the season and next season? And a writer's room could technically be like a picnic table with professional writers, but usually a conference room or could be a Zoom call in COVID or might still be a Zoom call, but a mini-room is much shorter. And it's usually a smaller collection of writers who get paid way less and the studio from Amazon

to Universal and everything in between. We'll kind of just have a shrug and say, well, it's just a tiny little mini-room because we're just a little, it'd be a digital company, okay? And then they just all go off and write it and then you never see it or hear it or get involved ever again. They just go and someone else produces it and makes it and you're not involved beyond the six weeks in the episode that you wrote. And broadcast and cable shows, the things that you play on the actual TV, have to make more episodes typically than streaming shows,

which have kind of drifted to this binge the whole season or several seasons in one sitting model. And most streaming companies don't really release their metrics or ratings of how well the show is really doing, internationally and stuff. So they order more shows and they cancel more shows. And also a fun fact.

But when you are shooting a TV show or a movie, So they order more shows and they cancel more shows. And also a fun fact. But when you are shooting a TV show or a movie, everyone's got the script in their hands, right? Figure out what page they're shooting when. Now the script could be different colors. And a script is usually just printed on white paper, right? But as it gets revised, the writing assistance or production assistance will print it up on different colored paper

according to protocol. And that initial shooting script, again white, but they revise it, then they put a little asterisk in the margin where the dialogue or the directions have changed. But just to make sure everyone's on the same page, like literally, they print up a new version on blue paper, that's second version.

Third revision, usually pink. Fourth revision, yellow, then it goes to green, then golden rod, then buff, then salmon colored paper, and then cherry-hued scripts. Then they got more revisions, then you'll get second blue, second pink, second yellow, second golden rod, second buff, second salmon, and second cherry. Why didn't I just say, etc. and shut the fuck up way earlier in that list? Just to let you know that even while shooting, there is this rigid protocol to make sure they're shooting the newest script, and sometimes 10 revisions later because it's still changing even while

things are being shot. So the writers have historically, creatively been involved and paid to make sure that those scripts are as good as they can be up to the time that the assistant director or AD yells action. And just another little insight thing here. So the directors don't actually say action. The AD is the one who's tasked with kind of being like time cop on set just making sure things are going according to

schedule. People are settling down, no one's taken around. That's the AD's job to yell action and cut. Anyway, back to writers. In many rooms, the writers get laid off well before shooting. So they're not there to do all those revisions that they have 10 different revision colors for. They're like, buy, see you later, which is kind of like a surgeon being asked to do like a, there's a mini operation. Just take, just take the gallbladder out, but just super, super fast.

And you're not allowed also just to follow up with a patient, don't worry about it. And also we're just gonna pay like half, just because everyone wants to be a surgeon. So it's very prestigious. And you can always do Uber or like two to your kids and Beverly Hills for their SATs on the off season. So you'll be fine.

So stuff like that is what might drive a Hollywood screenwriter who is also a brainiac neuroscientist to log 16,000 steps a day while holding a human baby. Have you been studying any strikes of the past to try to know what to expect out of this? I did some research on past WGA strikes and it really bumped me out. Yeah, how come? Because we've had two strikes in our history

that have lasted 22 weeks. And I would very much like to get back to work before then. Yeah. Have you been seeing anyone that you haven't seen in a while? Other than me. Hey. Yeah, actually, I just ran into a woman who I worked with back on Young Sheldon, who I have not seen since then.

And she's like a showrunner now and is generally awesome. And I was like, oh, like, ow. Do people pass you a lot and go, oh my God, there's a live human baby in there? Yeah, yeah, a lot. I feel like it's a real morale booster. I mean, he's just so small and so cute. Again, together, they are two person picket line, if needed.

And some multi-million dollar productions with huge stars have been shut down these past couple of weeks by just two people who had the gumption to wake up at dark o'clock and get to the gates of a studio or the location of a set holding signs so early that it was before the other unions 5am call time. And since a few unions are just so committed to solidarity they again will not cross a picket line. So two people can do that and can force billion dollar companies to lose enough revenue that it spares future writers from exploitation, which is awesome. But some studios have what's called a neutral gate and it's kind of like a Hollywood, Switzerland, if you will.

And everyone agrees, no one pick at this gate. Some people not involved in the union dispute, just need to get to work. It's all good. Like other companies who work in the same building or whose production somehow doesn't involve any WGA writers at all. So my point is that all of this drama is as exciting and high stakes as some of the shows that they're shooting inside the studio a lot. There's so much drama and money and things that stay here. Also, unless you're resting and taking a break or you simply can't on these picket lines, you have to keep it moving people. And as I recorded this, I stopped to talk to someone for a little bit and I was urged

to keep it walking, keep walking because in the 2007 strike, some law enforcement agencies were issuing tickets as the LA Times reported back then because a moving writer is a pedestrian, but a writer cooling his heels is a loitering menace by law. Some police officers have also issued tickets for horn honking as a noise violation, but while I was there, all those horn blasts of support that you're hanging the background, those came from people driving by

in their tiny cars to huge trucks. And I gotta say, the big trucks honking their horn, oh, just like a shot of adrenaline for these tired strikers. Everyone loves it. When you get a big rig to go, to-do, it's the best. My name is Danielle Sanchez-Witzel,

so I'm a predominantly television comedy writer. My mom and a negotiating committee. I worked on New Girl. I worked on Show Called My Name is Earl for its full run. I ran a show called The Carmichael Show, which was an NBC show. And I have a show on Hulu called Up Here, which is a bunch of Broadway musical superstars

that's a half-hour romantic comedy musical. And I have a show coming out on Netflix in the summer called Survival of the Thickest with an amazingly talented stand-up and writer, performer named Michelle Butteau. So landing giant deals with Netflix and A24, that's a big production company that get written up in the papers is honestly what Hollywood dreams are made of. Like she's living it. If this were the 80s, you would immediately purchase a Chrysler

LeBaron convertible and you would call your dad from a phone with to tell me made it and that Uncle Nikki was wrong about you. But this is not 1987 or 2002 or even 2007. So I'm a little over the place. I've been doing this for 20 years. We can walk as we talk. Because we're not from what I understand. We should. I mean, you know, the legality of it all, I walked in 2007, eight. There were no neutral gates. This did not occur. And some lots my understanding is are really using it the way it is legally supposed to be used. And some lots are abusing that system and allowing people to go in who just don't want to have to deal with the fact that we're on strike Yep, so some folks who are involved in the labor dispute will just shoot through those neutral gates we talked about

probably wearing Comically large sunglasses or maybe a trench coat and say later suckers I snuck in and If they're caught doing that the whole studio lot can lose that neutral gate agreement. I don't know if anyone's told you about that at Universal, but you can see we're walking in crosswalks. We had a couple writers get slipped by cars that were annoyed. And so, wow, you hear all the honking public support, which is amazing. We have had dealt with some people who are impatient and don't want to be a convenience and have actually clipped a couple of writers.

So, it can be dangerous out here on the Pickett line. You know, we're telling the companies that we're out here. I like to think of it as we know our value and we're gonna be out here until you recognize our value too. The Teamsters and IOTC who have been extremely supportive and are only doing this out of solidarity. You know, there are workers who,

if they don't cross our Pickett line, don't get paid that day. So we're so grateful to anyone who's willing to be there for us and obviously as a union, we'll be there for them when it's their time. And we've had some SAG after members who also don't want to cross a picket line. So there's a lot of union solidarity right now, very different from 2007-08. And I think if unions stick together, you know, I think that these studios are afraid of this unity, you know, so we're happy to see it for sure. And literally this is why we have unions

because they know artists will make art for free. No matter how much that art is worth on the open market or how much they're collecting for it. We've hollowed out a middle class of writer, you know, really in what I what I chuck up to corporate greed. I mean, it's just a matter of like, well, how little can we pay these people for how short a matter of time is possible

to get the absolute most out of them. And so that's to me where the television system has really broken down and it's a big part of why we're out here. That's gonna be hard as a showrunner too to be the one to say, hey, I'm really sorry. I've only got you for eight weeks. You're not gonna make a lot of money. We got to make this show.

And there's nothing that you can do as their boss Really to make their life better. It's a terrible feeling I can tell you kind of what's bad on both sides So 100% what you're talking about is terrible because I look at my writers and I go I need you longer and this is how long I'm going to be able to have you the other thing that's not happening is that nobody is learning You know, I learned on all of these shows that I told you I was on that were for broadcast television. 19 of my 20-year career, 19 of those years has been for broadcast television. I got to be there for production on sets. I got to understand

post-production. By the way, we're writing through all three phases. So, so writers are being eliminated. So staffs are being eliminated from being able to see the production and post-production, even though they are creatively needed for the process. And so they're not getting the experience they need. In addition to not being able to pay their rent, so we've hollowed out a middle class from our own union, the studios have, because it's either you're a shower

under you're making shows, or you're an emerging man that's just breaking in, but you can't sustain a career. This is a very existential crisis that the writers go to is facing, which you can't sustain a career. This is a very existential crisis that the writers build is facing, which is can writing be a sustainable career. Can you actually make money and pay your bills doing it? And so this is very much a fight for the middle class writer.

And I think that's something that resonates as you can hear people talking for us. You know, all across our country is that there's a labor movement happening right now where it's like all the monies at the top were just making billionaires richer and I don't think anyone wants to be part of that system. Well maybe billionaires. We're asking for a very reasonable, very reasonable small amount of the product that we, you know,

the profits of the product that we create and it seems crazy that we have to be out here fighting for it. But that situation. Especially when it's in Bezos and Apple. Those are tough. Yeah, those are tough, but that's what I'm sure you saw the discovery Warner CEO. You know, I made $250 million in salary. It's very hard to be out here and going, well, just to sell your loan on the solts is well thing for us. You know, that's one person. So, obviously he sees his own value, you know, that's one person. So obviously he sees his own value, you know, and was able to garner that kind of, you know, salary from self-satisfress trading. It's frustrating to be out here for sure. I was part of the committee that was in there trying to negotiate with the studios and ultimately, you know, along with the board,

you know, were the ones that had to crawl the strike. And so I knew 100% that we had to be out here. We had no choice but to be out here, for sure. I think when I broke in 20 years ago, even though it's an unstable, we all know we're getting into an unstable field. That's movies that always get made, television shows get canceled, you know, there's not a, we understand what we're walking into,

but because of all the writers and union members who came before me, who were willing to strike and fight, we had things like residuals, we have healthcare, everything that we have to protect health care. Everything that we have to protect us, the minimums that they have to pay us, came out of this union being willing to strike. And so I feel a certain amount of pride, but certainly I know that we have to be out here

because we're not going to let this career fall apart on our watch. I think we really have to do this for emerging writers. I'm sure you can see. So today was a Latina picket. I'm sure you can see how diverse our union is, which is also pretty different from 0708. So really proud to be out here representing this community as well, but also to say, you know, the doors are finally opening for storytellers to tell the stories of underrepresented communities within our own community and so many other

underrepresented communities. And we have to make sure that those storytellers are able to sustain a career so that they can create shows and write the movies and tell the stories of the future. You know that that finally we get to tell a story through a different lens, you know, we can't let it fall apart now. So it's important to be out here. One WGM member was just arriving and I was the accident told, welcome wagon, stand there holding a mic, but he was cool with it. Stephen Langford, a welcome family matters.

He's also written for Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas and on shows like Malcolm Inetti and Classics including Saved by the Bell and Silver Spoons and my favorite show about a robot who lives in a cabinet. Small wonder which was perhaps you're really prescient. Well, I think the AI issues are a very big issue. Yeah. Because it's, I realized that, you know, the technology is at a point where they could add a season

to a show that I did just with artificial intelligence. You know, and that's got to be regulated. I feel like this is the first group of workers to really address this issue. And it feels very landmark. It affects, it affects not only, it's like, you know, can they just change director's work with an AI, can they get an actor's voice and just use them over and over and over again? So yeah, that's probably the bottom line. The absolute unchecked chaos of AI being used to scrub a writer or director's style and

then replicate it or simulate an actor's likeness or voice is just something that no other group of workers has organized to say, hey, no, and especially not without paying us. So he had a clear head, a strong purpose, and fresh legs. I just got here today, so. Well, welcome. I hope you're, are you hydrated? You agree? There's water.

There's ice water. OK, good. I'm good. OK, good. Get some electrolytes. Get a banana. Thank you for talking to me. So clearly, this is mayhem, but intentional,

well orchestrated mayhem. So a studio back lot can't really shoot outside, while horns are going crazy and Mary Hatchie bands are blaring and while sweet sunburned nerds with bull horns are overseeing these swarmed gates and crosswalks to make sure that no one in an SUV slams into these riders. But how are they finding that sweet spot of disruption that's safe? Well, with strike captains and lot coordinators. My name is Judaline Anira. I'm an executive producer on shows like The Boys, Daisy Jones and The Six, and I also worked on CWs The Flash. Oh my God!

Yeah, great job. Thank you so much. So I am both a captain for the WGA and I'm also a lot coordinator and I'm out here because I was recruited without knowing the full weight of what I was going to be doing but I am organizationally minded and I really love leading and it's been very satisfying to be able to feel like I have a presence here for our union. It's so important to me that the next generation of writers who are coming behind me have all of the wonderful benefits that were given to me by writers who came before me and pick it it on our behalf to get us

things like residuals and pension and health. And there's a writer's guild west here in LA. There's a Manhattan-based WGA East and even picketers popping up on location shoots in Chicago, which by the way is a big union town. They are not in Hollywood or Texas, but this is not their first rodeo. What can you do to help with a strike which could go on for months and months? We don't know. Absolutely. So one of the things I love to recommend first because it's easy and you can do it from anywhere in America or anywhere on the Round Look Globe is to donate to the Entertainment Community Fund. The Entertainment Community Fund is a not-for-profit organization based here in Los Angeles

that gives funds to creatives in need, especially during times of hardships. And I say creatives because it's not specific to writers. That can include actors, directors, cost-immers, hair and makeup people. Anyone from any part of the industry can tap into this fund for resources if they need financial help. So we donate to a cause of theologist choosing and this seems like a good time to toss the money into that fund which is a national human services organization founded in 1882 to meet the needs of the entertainment community and they provide everything from help with senior care to health insurance, counseling, career planning, and even emergency financial assistance.

So a lot of people I talked to were folks who were safe for now, but were able to strike because they weren't out working a second or third job to feed their family since they came up at a time when wages were more fair and in line with technology. And now they're a little bit higher up the ladder where they're making a little bit more money. But they are striking for themselves in the future, but for the people that are coming after them who never had that privilege. So a donation will go to entertainmentcommunity.org

thanks to sponsors ofologies. Okay, so what else can you do to help out? The next thing I say to people to do is if you're nearby and you wanna give a donation to us in person some sort of goods We're in dire need always of three things water ice and sunscreen as it gets hotter here as for those of you who live in California You know our summers have been blisteringly hot the days are getting grindy and we can always use more water and more ice in the mornings And in the afternoons and sunscreen all day long. And then finally, I just asked people to sort of amplify our message out there on social media.

Hashtag WJ Strong is a great hashtag. You can go and see some of the tweets from writers who are picketing at lots all across not just California, but also in New York and elsewhere. And continue to share our message and spread the good word. So people understand what we're fighting for. Whose idea was it to have signs you could write on?

I think it's pretty standard for the WGA. Anytime we strike, we have so many brilliant writers who are like slammed on Kistorical and Pithy. And every single day I'm taking a picture of a new sign. That's just got like, today this is my new favorite sign. Oh, there's so many good signs on these WGA picket lines, such as one that says, it's one writer, Michael. What could it cost $10? There's also one that says,

stop making writers do math. Another favorite. Chat GPT doesn't have childhood trauma. And I loved one that said, they have ludicrously capacious salaries. What's even in there? $773 million? Greg, it's monstr salaries. What's even in there? 773 million? Greg, it's monstrous. It's gargantuan. A middle-aged white guy was carrying one that said, pay up, or I make an only fans. Other memorable moments thus far,

the CEO of Warner Brothers Discovery, David Zazlov, who happened to make $246 million in 2021 alone. Recently gave the commencement speech at Boston University and the sun was shining. He cut an impressive silhouette on that podium. He had his scholarly robes on before 10,000 grads and their families until moments in to his amplified speech.

His voice was a little eclipsed. Some people. Oh, yeah. So yes, if you get enough people sending a pay your writers message in solidarity, you can be louder than one rich guy with an amp. Okay, so another legendary sound bite that's already occurred just in this first month of the strike. Remember that local 399? That was the Hollywood Teamsters Union, and it represents all those workers who drive the trucks and wrangle animals into casting and such. So the teamsters, local 399, chief negotiator, secretary,

treasurer, is named Lindsay Dirty, born into trite, daughter of a 40 year teamster vet, and the first woman to hold those positions. She has jet black bob, glowing skin, perfect eyebrows, and a tattoo of Jimmy Hafa on her left bicep. So a week or so ago she addressed a crowd of 2000 or so WGA members inside the famed Shrine Auditorium. She's representing the teamsters and she tells the WGA crowd we are at a turning point in the labor movement right now. If we want to get what's ours we're gonna have to fight for it tooth and nail. So just hang in there, keep fighting, keep hitting the pavement every single day,

because if you throw up a picket line, these fucking trucks will stop. I promise you. She said about her teamsters. She also said, we've all seen what's happening right now in Hollywood. They're starving all of us out, not just you guys. She concludes with. So yeah, people on these lines are fired up. Omar Ponce, executive sherry enter on Lopez versus Lopez. He's also been a writer on Vill of Valley View and team Kaley, and is just on a really great upswing in his career. And it's just kind of like, while they ask more and more of your time,

you're going to pay less and less. Yeah. Which is the exact thing that unions are here for. Exactly. You know, they're kind of like, that's exactly what you're here before. You're here to protect kind of things that we've earned. And we're here, if not just for ourselves, if we're like, whoever's going to be coming along in the future.

I know, especially as a Latino writer, it's super important for us to take a stand now and kind of set some things in place right now so that the next generation of Latino writers don't look at this career as something that they don't want to pursue because they're getting screwed out of whatever payment they are. As it is, writers of color are getting the sort of shirt and the stick because it's especially

affecting writers who are at the lower levels because they're not getting the experience that's necessary to move up. So we need to create a pathway for people of color to continue to move up the ranks, create shows, and we still have accessibility for people that look like us. I offer to take a picture of the group because what a time to remember. And I'm just kind of cheesy like that. I truly, I love taking strangers photos, not like secretly, but on their cameras.

And if they ask me to. Oh, look at you guys. We're maybe going. You're right. Oh, one for the ages. Thank you guys. Hi there, I'm Erica Harrell. I'm a co-producer on Lopez versus Lopez for NBC. I am actually half of a writing team, which is comprised of about 25% of the guild,

and writing teams are paid two for one. And it was on the table during this negotiation thing. Can we at least get health and pension as individuals? Because that's really important that I work just as hard as my co-workers around the table, and they'll have twice the amount of retirement that I will. So yes, okay, writing teams work on the scripts together, and they're both in the room, and they put in the hours, you get two brains, you get double the ideas, but they make half as much in their script fees and their pensions and their health care. So it's a good reason to strike.

And I talked to another person who wasn't even in the WGA, just was outmarching. And this happens a lot, thankfully. My name is Flakol Nalaha. Hi. Hi. Hi. I'm out here standing in solidarity with the writers of the WGA as an actor. I think it's important that we all stand together.

We're dealing with some very interesting times and changes in technology. And that's why I'm here and I will continue to be here as long as I can. So I told him that I was looking for my husband and then I had to be like, I mean, my actual, my spouse who is present and I just can't find him in the crowd. I'm not like looking for a husband. And he told me that the WGA actually has organized singles strike events, which is genius.

In the same industry. Yeah, not as fun. Not having to go on like a first day to Dave and Busters. No one's gonna pay a tab. That's so funny. No one's gonna get a new one. Yeah, that was such a smart thing when I heard about it.

Are you single? I'm not, my lady is over there doing the staging of everyone. Well, I don't want to interrupt her but if she comes up for...she comes up for air. In the meanwhile I spoke with another writer who preferred not to give a name. For me it's just our um there's been a lot of free work that's been affecting me personally and a lot of writers that I know and nobody ever really talks about it like last, I worked the hardest I've ever worked and I made the least that I've ever made.

And so for me, that's one of the things that drives me to be out here. I just don't feel that anyone should be doing free work. You wouldn't ask that of someone who's fixing your plumbing or pinning your house or anything like that. So why are writers asked to do all this free work? Just because someone enjoys making something that is worth a lot of dollars does not mean that they should get none of the dollars. And I turned to a guy wearing a large straw hat with another smaller hat on top of that

hat, and the small hat read Strike Captain. Jimmy, clap it. And anything that you've worked on, you want to tell me about? I worked on a Christmas movie, and that's how I got into WGA. Really? Yeah, had you already written it and it got sold or did you write it on assignment? I wrote it on assignment. That's dope. Which one is it? Can you say? It's called Christmas Couples Retreat. Nice. So I looked everywhere for the trailer to this and I was so bummed I couldn't find it

but that's because it's not out yet. So this movie comes out December 25th, 2023. So check your local streaming listings. We are fighting for fairness of pay, obviously. They think that a showrunner paired with an AI can solve everything. And if this continues in 20 or 30 years, there will be no people who can be showrunners because nobody will have been trained. So we're trying to convince them to stop eating their own tail. If that makes sense.

It does make sense. And you know, although the image of a serpent, self-consuming, has a lot of different various cultural and historical narratives, I just want to tell you that just last week I saw a video of a vet trying to convince this stressed out snake to stop digesting its own ass for lunch. And apparently, when snakes swallow their own tail, a little hand sanitizer on their on eating portion, we'll just get the snake to like a gag itself out. And sometimes, like a strike, you got to yuck the yum to make things better. And I don't think that made sense. But then again, I'm not a WGA writer. And I'm also not a brain made out of computers. So get off my job, okay?

What did it mean to you when you joined the WGA? Was that a big moment for you? It was a big moment. It was, you know, it was years of hard work and it felt great. So I just joined two months ago. Congratulations. Some brand new. Oh, that's great. I might be the newest member in the guild. I don't know.

Had you heard rumblings that there might be a strike coming? Oh, I knew there was a strike. Yeah, I mean, everybody knew it was coming. And listen, we love it Netflix. I have worked on some of my favorite shows I've ever worked on for them. I love watching them. We love the prestige drama of an HBO Max, which for some unknown reason is asking us to call it just Max now.

Kind of like the time that my gothren Ben asked him to call a Sebastian, and we were like, okay, sounds good Ben. But we love what they make. We love it so much that in the first quarter of 2023, Netflix generated $8.16 billion. In one quarter, their annual profit, about $12 billion. Now Apple TV broke their revenue records in 2022, and they rounded up the last quarter again with a record $20.8 billion. But in 2021, according to a recent IndieWire article, Apple wiggled their big rich

ass through this tiny loophole that allowed them to pay members of IOTC, that other labor union, discounted wages. Apple, Apple did this because it's just this little digital startup. It's only worth $2 you've ever met sitting down to dinner with you, right? They order the most expensive shit on the menu, a few bottles of the priciest wine, and then when the bill comes, they're like, you want to split it and you're like, I guess, and then they go to the bathroom before they put their card down and they crawl out the bathroom window. And you're like, what the fuck is this? So this strike is a huge deal across not just the entertainment industry, but just kind of this? So this strike is a huge deal across not just the entertainment industry, but just kind of this modern trend as a whole.

And it starts to make sense why someone would show up with their newborn baby to say, yeah, no, we don't like the way things are going. And this is something that was essentially started by Netflix, it's an IP war, right? It's an intellectual property war. Jimmy says that it's kind of a race for streamers to have most things and the best things, but because of the strike, they'll be forced to make fewer things and reassess maybe how things

are monetized. But it's a very important context to know that we're trying to fight for fairness amongst an industry that has already fucked itself sideways. Yeah. So I don't know what type of metaphor that is, right? PS, I wasn't sure either. So I looked it up and it might be an absolute metaphor, which is one that offers no connection points between the metaphor and the actual subject,

but it's used for dramatic or a humorous outcome. But if large streaming studios are getting busy with themselves to financial consequence, what are you gonna watch on TV? What are you gonna watch? So a few networks have confidently released what they've called failproof lineups, which consist of things like

bachelor and paradise spin-offs and a bunch of reruns. Maybe Netflix has enough stuff for fall, but they definitely don't have enough stuff for winter. So the longer that it goes on, they're just going to start cutting their streamers as well. This is very bad for all of them, and they, I think they understand that, but they don't know it yet. What is your sign say? It says stream D's nuts. The best, the best strike signs ever can be found on the WGA line. You know, yeah, and I found a sign. I didn't, I didn't make it up, but the moment that I found it,

it was like, it was like finding a pot of gold, you know, like that was for me. It instantly, it instantly lifted my soul into joy, and I adopted this sign, and at the end of every day, I take this sign home in my car and I refuse to put it back in the long. You're like it's coming with me. I've adopted it. I love it. And I think as the strike goes on longer there's just going to be more and more offensive

signs. So I feel like I'm just a little maybe early to the trend. You know pretty soon it's just going to be like yeah fuck you. You know that's going to be the sign. It's just fuck you I don't see standards and practices out here. So I think you're pretty clear to go Standards and practices or S&P that is showbiz lingo for the department in entertainment that makes sure nothing airs is just too fucking offensive

My name is L Lipson. Do you want to tell me anything you've worked on? I most recently worked as a writer producer on The Gotham Knights for the CW, and before that, the magicians and Supergirl. Ah, that's great! How'd you get your WGA card? What job was it? On the magicians. I started as an assistant on that show, and was lucky enough to have bosses that really promoted from within. I got a freelance episode as an assistant.

I got sent to set and I got experience producing an episode. Now like one of the reasons that I'm striking is that that ladder is broken and you know what I mentioned about going to set, like writers aren't getting to do that anymore, so we're ending up with people who eventually get to the upper levels who have never been on a set, never been a part of production. And that's so essential to have writers involved at that point in the process, all through production and post, because it's all part of writing and reading writers at every phase.

What is your, is your science anything? What does it say? Oh, yeah. It says we are not content to be underpaid for your content. Nice. As I was getting ready to head back the car, I chatted with a few more folks really briefly Annie who worked on the Michael J. Fox show and the Goldbergs. And until the strike on May 1st was writing on Apple TV's show Shrinking with Jason Seagull and an up-and-coming actor named Harrison Ford. My name's Annie Mebbin.

I think it's really important that we hold the line for all labor unions that are all going to face these same issues. And I think it's been said that the WJ is the tip of the spear and I hope that it inspires other guilds to join in and do what we got to do to keep this a viable career. That's good. That's really good. Damn it. Are you a rider? That was really good. Are you a rider? I'm going to do it and he said, but much like more intensely and my name is Sam Leiborne and I was here in the 2007 writer strike as well. So Sam, longtime writer, worked on O, arrested development and the real O'Neill's and that 90's show and Black-ish and up until the strike was the showrunner for Alcopoco on Apple

TV. So these are the people who are making the things that we watch. I've been in the guild since the 2007 strike. And I like coming together with writers and striking for the opportunity for younger writers to be in comedy rooms and get that sort of community feeling feels like

something that's at risk in this strike. So that's why I'm striking. And as we got to the parking lot, the last person we chatted with, Alex was at a table with Union pamphlets for anyone coming to the strike. And he's

not in the WGA, but he left me with such a beautiful thought. Holly, what is called a dream factory? And I think what the strike is about is that a factory is still a factory. And in that way, these are people who make the content. And without the Hollywood labor that creates the content, there is nothing to be made. And I would like to see any of the executives who are making $3 million a year show up to set up one set, or write one line of dialogue, or do one hour of makeup

and see who actually makes the content here. I think the people who actually make it deserve the profits that they create. So ask brilliant writers the right questions and before you know it your short little field trip episode that was supposed to be about this episode turns into a way bigger right and also just remember sticking up for each other is a really good investment of time. And there's a link in the show notes to my website, which has tons more links,

including to as many social media accounts as we can find from the people we talk to. We are at Oligies on social media. I'm at Allie Ward with one L on both. Oligies merch is available at oligiesmurch.com. Aaron Talbert admins the Allegis Podcast Facebook group, Noel Dillworth does all the scheduling, Susan Hale handles merch and so, so, so much more.

Emily White of the Wartory makes professional transcripts, Caleb Patton bleeps them. We also have small-ingis episodes that are kid-friendly, class-and-friendly, shorter versions. Those are up for free. Thank you Zeke, Rodriguez Thomas, and Mercedes-Mateland for editing those. Kelly, our Dwyer, tweaks, our website,

and can make yours. Our wonderful editors who labor over this show are a jurid sleeper of mind-gem media and lead editor Mercedes-Mateland of Madeland audio. And the music was done by Nick Thorburn of the band Islands. And if you stick around until the end of the episode, I tell you a secret. And one thing that brings me so much deep joy

is a thing that my wise and adventurous and super intelligent mother-in-law, Jareth Mom, Christine Mason, said to me recently. And she showed me this meme, which maybe you've seen it, it featured this professorial man at a whiteboard with a graph. He's's drawing and on one axis it says fuck around and on the other axis it says find out. And Christine said I think that is so beautiful that you have to fuck around and make mistakes and be curious in order to learn. And it was such an innocent interpretation of that saying that when I hear it now, it always reminds me kind of like a really great sweater that you're like, that's a great sweater. And then you find out you can turn it inside out and it's a completely different sweater.

And you're like, how about that? This sweater's banging. It doesn't get any better than that. Okay. Thanks for coming on this important journey to the picket lines of Hollywood and learning about all this. And remember, no matter what, we're stronger together. So let's stop finding each other because that's exactly what the people in power

want us to do. Well, they eat our last crab or in goon. I don't think so. Okay, bye-bye. Put a amount of fuck around the level of 10. Okay? And now would explain the find out of 10. level of 10. Okay? And now we'll explain the find out of 10.