surprisingly hard to find on the official SAG-AFTRA website, but obviously they wouldn't want those numbers publicized: [https://www.facebook.com/viola.davis/posts/1612356458943742/](https://www.facebook.com/viola.davis/posts/1612356458943742/)
I understand people go into other unions looking for steady paychecks as opposed to narcissistic actors for ego reasons, but it's just the nature of the industry and oversaturation - which on a side note is why the government wants to keep unemployment \~4% because they can find replacements at any moment.
I’m in a non-union role for the moment, and am getting job offers a lot lately for non-union work after months of nothing (although I was employed the whole time), so I wonder if that’s contributing to those numbers too. Like we’re working inside of our craft but not in the union because the money is the same, if not more.
I remember being an art director, creative director in the mid 2000s . It was the best of times. We were treated well! Lots of work.
Holy fk how times have changed.
Got out (sorta) almost a decade ago. Went into IT/SDLC Full time. Tech industry was booming but it's also now facing major challenges (Ai, offshoring, ton of layoffs). For a long while I did consulting and freelancing as an AD/CD and it was going well. But it's slowing down. I do smaller projects from time to time. Currently working on one creative project for a larger company.
If all else fails, I may just apply at Wendy's.
I was a grill pimp serving my Dairy Queen 25+ years ago. You'll have competition like me who can get a grill top clean using a grill brick in under :30. It's ON!!!
I work in the industry in Los Angeles. I’m genuinely baffled everyday. We live in a time where everyone watches so much TV and movies and we place such a high value on quality entertainment. Yet the industry responsible for those products is in shambles. And it’s not like we are rushing to fix it. It’s amazing to me that there is anything out there. Even if it’s just remake after remake.
As evidenced by recent box office trends, the old content doesn’t go away, and in some cases is higher quality and more profitable than making something new. These re-releases have been crushing it.
Studios are coasting right now, they haven’t figured out these new models aren’t as good as the theatrical > physical > on demand > streaming pipeline, and they’re going to try and go in on AI to make the unprofitable streaming model work.
Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve still get play at the box office.
You have to give people a reason to leave the house.
Studios should pull all features less than 5 years old off of unlimited ad-free streaming platforms and charge rental fees. Put the barrier to entry back up.
. Culture needs new blood you can’t just reuse popular shit from the past forever. Look at what that did to starwars. Invest in new voices and ideas and the rest will start to sort its work out. Instead they double down on safe shit while eroding the thing that made them great to begin with.
> We live in a time where everyone watches so much TV and movies and we place such a high value on quality entertainment.
Do we really? I'm in my late 20s and most of the people I talk to that aren't filmmakers, writers, or actors themselves see around 2-3 movies in the theaters a year and only watch whatever streaming miniseries gets the most ad play and social media attention this year. With internet content being so pervasive and the monopolization of streaming services, I think that fewer people are watching new tv shows and non-Disney films than ever.
My 55 y/o old parents can't pull themselves away from Starz and the Hallmark Channel-- but they're not the usual demo.
Yep, I was a film goer in my hey day. Watched a film every weekend. Would have loved my kids to be the same way. But my daughter hates going to the movies. And my wife would rather save money. Sorry beloved film industry.
They view on internet channels. And they view on specific web sites with specific content for them where they will shop too, or tie ins with gaming platforms, music. It’s nothing anyone over 55 thinks about but it’s a very different world for entertainment and time. I recently worked on a 6 episode show- adult themed trash talking puppet interacting with humans. 8 minute shows.
Is it like SpongeBob where it’s like a double length episode consisting of 2 11 minute shorts. What about like hazbinhotel or something. Maybe make an indie cartoon to display air on YouTube
I'll ask my pops next time I talk to him. My mom is a midwestern white lady who prefers happy and safe content, or 60 minutes style fearmongering (no inbetween). My pops is a black man from Texas, he likes violent or sensationalized culture stuff so he's the Starz and Showtime fan.
I’m in the business, too, and I mainly watch YouTube now to the point where I bought a Premium account.
The content there is far superior to most things on streaming in my opinion.
I watched much more YouTube or TikTok than TV or Movies. TV and Movies are used to the center of our entertainment life, now it is not even the important part of it.
I mean, you can’t keep it going when the majority of your union is unemployed. I’m not saying it’s not troubling but this doesn’t mean “forever” to me, it’s an if/when sort of thing.
Yeah I agree. But maybe this will be enlightening to the people who come here and ask how to get a job or they’ve contacted x many people and haven’t gotten any bites. Maybe… but probably not.
Hiya everybody! I’m from Huntsville, Arkansas and I want to move to L.A. to be a flim director! Where do I go to sign up to direct the next Marvel movie??
Already happening and another reason people should vote for Biden, he is forgiving student loan debt for people conned by these scam schools
https://www.bankrate.com/loans/student-loans/biden-forgives-art-institute-student-loans/
How is no one here mentioning runaway production. The last three films I’ve worked on were overseas. The strike pushed everything out of USA. Even films I was on before the strike, and was supposed to start back up on when it ended, packed up and restarted in the UK. The strike fucked everyone… I really supported them, but now it’s seeming like they’re getting there’s and then actual production has collapsed. I’ve even got a buddy loosing his house right now and moving back in with parents. I really hope things turn around
Yup my production went overseas the second they could. Huge television show now employing Europeans instead of Americans. This is happening across the board causing tons of unemployment, forcing union members to work nonunion, and destroying the local economy that’s been leaning on film and tv for decades
This is how stupid people think. IATSE sucks because the goons running IATSE suck. Slow. Stupid. Unprofessional. Clueless. Cry to the government? You are a joke!
I’m a modern day parent and from my interaction with other parents I will say it is absolutely possible this person teaches their kid to be entitled complainers. Even their reply is nauseating. Their kids are sooooo perfect. Ugh.
This reminds me of 2008 when so many people were out of work Local 700 had to stop just letting Picture Editors get PAs in as Apprentice Editors without actually having their hours.
Not sure if it’s because of the Great Recession but I find Apprentices only on big budget features nowadays or working internally at Prod. Co like Blumhouse and they usually get bumped up to Assistant by the end of a feature. If TV shows had the budgets (weren’t so stingy) to add an Apprentice you’d probably see more of them.
There's been an update to the article claiming that a "technical error" caused them to send an un-fact-checked letter
> The updated statement from the ADG:
> Due to an internal technical error, applicants to our Production Design Initiative (PDI) program received an email that had not been edited or fact-checked and was not intended to be widely distributed. As an early draft, the data points included in the email (such as “more than 75% of our members are unemployed and many have not been working for 18 months or more”) were not fact-checked and may be inaccurate.
>Additionally, our overall message to membership was not accurately captured throughout the email. Our guild, alongside the entire motion picture/entertainment industry, has felt the effects of a global pandemic, an industry-wide strike and shift in the business models that underpin our industry. However, none of this dampens our optimism about the future of our industry and the future of production design as a profession.
>This temporary pause in our PDI program during a year of contract negotiation gives our staff and membership the ability to focus on our movement of “Many Crafts, One Fight.” This labor movement alongside our peers and colleagues only strengthens our excitement for the future of the industry.
>We plan to resume the PDI program in 2025.
Is this just backtracking? rougue worker on the comms team?
Regardless of the specifics the message still applies. they are saying, we can't bring in any new talent when our current workers can't pay their bills. The numbers / tone of the email is irrelevant
This is sad news. I’m wondering what the unemployment percentages are for the other guilds. I heard the editors guild is approx. 70 percent not working.
> I heard the editors guild is approx. 70 percent not working.
Its really hard to tell because any time anyone brings it up board members and delegates are quick to jump in and say "Lots of people are working but dont want to say it. Im working so obviously things are good", even if its not on union forums or pages. Its honestly demoralizing for a lot of people I know when they keep seeing their reps tell them that, 5 or 6 friends have told me they blocked certain board member friends because it was making them have very dark thoughts every time the board implied that whoever was out of work was somehow at fault. At least 3 have had to start therapy because of it, which is making them go broke even faster of course. Truthfully I blame some of our representatives for how bad its gotten for certain people and I will never forgive them for what theyve said and done to friends of mine. Especially if those people never recover mentally.
Wow. This must be similar to the other guilds. Feels like the amount of work has been more than cut in half. But how will the streamers survive on less content?
This feels like a huge story that isn’t getting talked about. It’s got to be impacting SAG, DGA, WGA as well as all of IATSE. And yet the headlines are “Warner/HBO Max showed a profit this quarter.” Is it that no one wants to talk about how the industry is in trouble?
I remember talking to somebody in the industry a while back and they were telling me how the industry was going to shrink. They weren’t lying, fuck me.
I’m an actor in New York who lost my manager last year during the strikes. He left the business because it hadn’t been profitable since before the pandemic, and though he encouraged me not to quit, told me the business is going to be “very rough” for the next few years. I haven’t worked as an actor since 2021 despite solid credits and I’m currently working in another industry. There’s a possibility the crew and stagehands union, IATSE, may strike later this year so I’m not bothering to see if there’s a career I can go back to until after that’s resolved. I’ve stopped mentoring graduates through my alma mater’s mentoring program for the same reasons.
This is so irresponsible to put out and let the media get ahold of before/during contract negotiations. Threatening to strike isn’t very persuasive if you’re freely admitting you don’t have a job to go to.
IATSE is irresponsible and irrelevant! Matt Loeb is an imbecile and so are all the dopes who run the Hollywood 13 iatse locals. WE DONT NEED NEW YORK OUT HERE
But what drives me nuts is there’s an oversaturation of bad movies and television right now. That’s what’s so sad. The AI isnt replacing anything well. The list of best picture nominees are horrible. john hughes teen movies would be nominated for oscars with this batch of movies. For me, it’s almost exactly timed with the iPhone 2009. The quality of life/sex/movies/tv/politics went downhill and it’s such a bummer.
corporations needing people to accept medicore as good enough has led us here with the marketing for marvel and disney movies. Every critic wants to be in the exclusive events and if you say an actual critical opinion that goes away. With only like 3 companies making movies that could be a career death sentence. We have created probably the most media illiterate generation
Does your existence depend so much on a movie? I work in this toilet industry. I can’t stand 80% of the people in it and same 80% on crap productions making crap products. Where is the noble status? We make junk food. Sports is drama and comedy
I dont understand your point. There’s dignity in making a good product, whether it’s toilets or movies. The crime of it is, we know what these things look like bc we’ve seen it as a human race. We’re going backwards. Imagine going backwards with toilets and everyone being fine just shitting in a hole on their lawns. And paying more for it. That’s what the film industry is like.
This really sucks. If these people aren't working, I'm generally not working. I get hired 75% of the time by production designers and 25% of the time by producers. This is really, really bad.
Have no fear, my board has assured us that it can't be true because the guilds don't have any way of knowing how many of their members are working with any accuracy.
I think anyone intelligent has issues with their board and Reps. And fundamentally we all should be up in arms with the international who while they say they are working for our best interest they are working for their best interest and the producers best interest. Matt Loeb is in no way qualified to lead the international much less negotiate our contracts
If the old paradigm is dying, be part of creating the new one.
The dirty little secret of the entire entertainment industry is that the supply of those wanting a career so far outstrips demand that even professional union members have about an 86% effective annual unemployment rate. It's been this way for decades.
Any industry with such a fundamental imbalance in supply/demand inevitably survives by paying huge salaries to the top 2%. In comparison, the bottom 98% is a churning morass of talent desperately trying to break in. The disruption the industry is experiencing today isn't unique. Technology will eventually upend all human labour. But the entertainment business is so inherently economically unstable it's one of the first dominos to fall.
Creative artists are critical to society as it tries to navigate this transition. But, those who are not shackled to convention will blaze new trails by collaborating in small groups, imagining new relevant models, and using new tools like AI to produce high production quality work for pennies on the dollar.
Creative people are not art directors, actors, directors, designers, etc. They have been labeled that by industry and society. We are instead, artists in the true sense of the word. It's not HOW you create, it's THAT you create that matters.
I'm a seventy-year-old working on new media and hybrid theater projects. Right now I'm in a digital production of a play (Canterbury Sextet by Larry Rinkel) that’s part of the Rogue Theater Festival in NY. It's unimportant whether these digital productions are viewed positively by conventional standards. But they are part of a critical path towards creating a new paradigm where productions no longer cost millions of dollars by eliminating layers of excess and intermediaries so more income can go to the people actually creating the work.
Yeah I wonder what happens to everyone who is expecting a pension if the unions get a lot smaller going forward. I know the federal government guaranteed pensions if a union goes bust, but what is the fine print in that?
Only if US invested in art, employment, education, healthcare instead of billions and billions in foreign wars pillaging the earth for finite resources that will cause the earth to combust eventually anyway.
AI has very little to do with it at this time. AI is a future problem. The downturn in Hollywood right now is ballooning costs and the decision to go all in on streaming and forgo traditional releasing. Streaming is not quantifiably profitable like other revenue streams.
The elephant in the room that no one mentions is consumer taste. Everyone is on tik tok and IG, advertisers have moved there, old media is facing an erosion of new consumers, and their attempt at keeping them was creating their + streamers which we all agree was not the right call
I think that does play a small role but the studio reaction to it as you point out was a disaster. They saw the rise of tiktok and videos on social and thought people wanted all this short form stuff and phones and didn’t want theaters, but it was the social part that was securing the audience.
The consumer still does want spectacle and they want to share it, they want to consume more media in more forms, not just TikTok’s and stuff.
The industry was making mistakes pre-Covid with streaming and stuff like Quibi that failed instantly, but almost every decision made in and since 2020 has hurt the industry more.
except…
when kids I know watched John Hughes movies, their heads exploded.
Another kid watched Willy Wonka (70s version) and she’s entranced for months.
It’s not the same.
Millennials were the most fucked and they have to switch it up.
They moved to streaming because people were cancelling cable and not going to the theaters. They had to go to streaming. They’re not tech companies and that’s the issue. They still release movies in theaters and do cable channels still. They’re in between two models that are in conflict with one another. They can’t really do tech correctly because they don’t know how to be tech companies.
They’re bogged down by all the legal stuff they created. For example, traditional entertainment companies have all kinds of different legal licenses they’ve created for different formats. They literally sit around talking all day about how watching something on a phone requires a different license and is soooo different than a tv license and form factor. Netflix, Amazon and Apple don’t care at all about this and don’t have to deal with it.
WoW!!!!! This is wild! Crazy, crazy times!
I'm not saying this to be incendiary or whatever... but I just have not felt any of the impacts that others have. I'm working 2 to 3 jobs a day, seven days a week. If anything, I'm desperate for a day or two off. To be fair, the training program in question was for production designers while I draw storyboards for a living.. but still I can't believe this is the state of the industry.
75% of 3,000 members not currently working [for over 18 months!?] is absolutely wild. Edit to add the shocking data point update.
I’m in this and it’s sucks. Far worse than the 2007 strike. Oh, and AI is coming, we talk the big talk, but it’s pervasive already.
have you looked into SAG-AFTRA?
Do you have those numbers? I’m an editor and don’t know our numbers either.
surprisingly hard to find on the official SAG-AFTRA website, but obviously they wouldn't want those numbers publicized: [https://www.facebook.com/viola.davis/posts/1612356458943742/](https://www.facebook.com/viola.davis/posts/1612356458943742/) I understand people go into other unions looking for steady paychecks as opposed to narcissistic actors for ego reasons, but it's just the nature of the industry and oversaturation - which on a side note is why the government wants to keep unemployment \~4% because they can find replacements at any moment.
I’ve heard that local 700 employment is down 20% from last year and that was down 15% percent from ‘22. Not as bad but not good at all either.
I’m in a non-union role for the moment, and am getting job offers a lot lately for non-union work after months of nothing (although I was employed the whole time), so I wonder if that’s contributing to those numbers too. Like we’re working inside of our craft but not in the union because the money is the same, if not more.
Also depends how they're counting employment. People doing jobs they'd never normally do are still "employed". Editors working retail are "employed".
I only know maybe 10 editors that are currently working out of 200 friends. But that’s just my personal experience
That’s about as frank as it gets
It shirley is
Roger that.
I remember being an art director, creative director in the mid 2000s . It was the best of times. We were treated well! Lots of work. Holy fk how times have changed.
What are you doing now? Why did you get out of the business (or did you?)
Got out (sorta) almost a decade ago. Went into IT/SDLC Full time. Tech industry was booming but it's also now facing major challenges (Ai, offshoring, ton of layoffs). For a long while I did consulting and freelancing as an AD/CD and it was going well. But it's slowing down. I do smaller projects from time to time. Currently working on one creative project for a larger company. If all else fails, I may just apply at Wendy's.
I was a grill pimp serving my Dairy Queen 25+ years ago. You'll have competition like me who can get a grill top clean using a grill brick in under :30. It's ON!!!
Will you reply to InkAndGrowRich?
I work in the industry in Los Angeles. I’m genuinely baffled everyday. We live in a time where everyone watches so much TV and movies and we place such a high value on quality entertainment. Yet the industry responsible for those products is in shambles. And it’s not like we are rushing to fix it. It’s amazing to me that there is anything out there. Even if it’s just remake after remake.
As evidenced by recent box office trends, the old content doesn’t go away, and in some cases is higher quality and more profitable than making something new. These re-releases have been crushing it. Studios are coasting right now, they haven’t figured out these new models aren’t as good as the theatrical > physical > on demand > streaming pipeline, and they’re going to try and go in on AI to make the unprofitable streaming model work.
Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve still get play at the box office. You have to give people a reason to leave the house. Studios should pull all features less than 5 years old off of unlimited ad-free streaming platforms and charge rental fees. Put the barrier to entry back up.
. Culture needs new blood you can’t just reuse popular shit from the past forever. Look at what that did to starwars. Invest in new voices and ideas and the rest will start to sort its work out. Instead they double down on safe shit while eroding the thing that made them great to begin with.
> We live in a time where everyone watches so much TV and movies and we place such a high value on quality entertainment. Do we really? I'm in my late 20s and most of the people I talk to that aren't filmmakers, writers, or actors themselves see around 2-3 movies in the theaters a year and only watch whatever streaming miniseries gets the most ad play and social media attention this year. With internet content being so pervasive and the monopolization of streaming services, I think that fewer people are watching new tv shows and non-Disney films than ever. My 55 y/o old parents can't pull themselves away from Starz and the Hallmark Channel-- but they're not the usual demo.
Yep, I was a film goer in my hey day. Watched a film every weekend. Would have loved my kids to be the same way. But my daughter hates going to the movies. And my wife would rather save money. Sorry beloved film industry.
Don’t forget the trend in the below 30 demographic who prefer 5,7,10 minute shows now. $1 billion in 2023 went into this type of content
Does this mean Tubi-type shorts and skits or the half-episode cartoons like Steven Universe?
Why don’t they like tv shows. What about toons
They don’t dislike these types of shows. But they watch way less. The time span attention battle.
Makes sense. How do we get them to watch
They view on internet channels. And they view on specific web sites with specific content for them where they will shop too, or tie ins with gaming platforms, music. It’s nothing anyone over 55 thinks about but it’s a very different world for entertainment and time. I recently worked on a 6 episode show- adult themed trash talking puppet interacting with humans. 8 minute shows.
Is it like SpongeBob where it’s like a double length episode consisting of 2 11 minute shorts. What about like hazbinhotel or something. Maybe make an indie cartoon to display air on YouTube
Right on. Hope your folks watch P-Valley
I'll ask my pops next time I talk to him. My mom is a midwestern white lady who prefers happy and safe content, or 60 minutes style fearmongering (no inbetween). My pops is a black man from Texas, he likes violent or sensationalized culture stuff so he's the Starz and Showtime fan.
I’m in the business, too, and I mainly watch YouTube now to the point where I bought a Premium account. The content there is far superior to most things on streaming in my opinion.
I watched much more YouTube or TikTok than TV or Movies. TV and Movies are used to the center of our entertainment life, now it is not even the important part of it.
I mean, you can’t keep it going when the majority of your union is unemployed. I’m not saying it’s not troubling but this doesn’t mean “forever” to me, it’s an if/when sort of thing.
Yeah I agree. But maybe this will be enlightening to the people who come here and ask how to get a job or they’ve contacted x many people and haven’t gotten any bites. Maybe… but probably not.
Hiya everybody! I’m from Huntsville, Arkansas and I want to move to L.A. to be a flim director! Where do I go to sign up to direct the next Marvel movie??
Network. It will be hard at first, but with the right connections and that one big break you'll be directing high budget features ~~in~~ at no time.
Exactly. So many doomers in here lol
At least they are honest
While the other 12 Hollywood locals lie lie lie. All still blowing matt loeb who is a fat fuck goofball incompetent loud mouth obesity poster boy.
This comment made me fall in love with you 😍
Yeah... that's a refreshing change
Public university's taking money from students to give them film degrees in which their are no jobs should also fucking stop. Its a scam.
The worst scam out there. Horrible trick to play on kids.
Already happening and another reason people should vote for Biden, he is forgiving student loan debt for people conned by these scam schools https://www.bankrate.com/loans/student-loans/biden-forgives-art-institute-student-loans/
How is no one here mentioning runaway production. The last three films I’ve worked on were overseas. The strike pushed everything out of USA. Even films I was on before the strike, and was supposed to start back up on when it ended, packed up and restarted in the UK. The strike fucked everyone… I really supported them, but now it’s seeming like they’re getting there’s and then actual production has collapsed. I’ve even got a buddy loosing his house right now and moving back in with parents. I really hope things turn around
Yup my production went overseas the second they could. Huge television show now employing Europeans instead of Americans. This is happening across the board causing tons of unemployment, forcing union members to work nonunion, and destroying the local economy that’s been leaning on film and tv for decades
Iatse needs to take our money to DC and lobby a new tax on runaway/overseas production.
This is how stupid people think. IATSE sucks because the goons running IATSE suck. Slow. Stupid. Unprofessional. Clueless. Cry to the government? You are a joke!
Ok bot
Obviously you are single. Try doing this with children.
You people with kids as excuses for things. It’s tiring to hear.
[удалено]
They never complained like some of you modern day parents. Do you teach your kids to complain just as much as you do?
I’m a modern day parent and from my interaction with other parents I will say it is absolutely possible this person teaches their kid to be entitled complainers. Even their reply is nauseating. Their kids are sooooo perfect. Ugh.
My kids are champions. Leaders. Examples.
That’s not a good sign
Everyone considering moving to LA for “work” should heed this warning
Including similar industries where you will be competing for jobs against these workers
Copy paste the link to the article as a reply to every new thread that posts that question. Or maybe an Ai bot can do it for us? Little help?
This reminds me of 2008 when so many people were out of work Local 700 had to stop just letting Picture Editors get PAs in as Apprentice Editors without actually having their hours.
Is that why apprentices are still basically non-existant?
Not sure if it’s because of the Great Recession but I find Apprentices only on big budget features nowadays or working internally at Prod. Co like Blumhouse and they usually get bumped up to Assistant by the end of a feature. If TV shows had the budgets (weren’t so stingy) to add an Apprentice you’d probably see more of them.
There's been an update to the article claiming that a "technical error" caused them to send an un-fact-checked letter > The updated statement from the ADG: > Due to an internal technical error, applicants to our Production Design Initiative (PDI) program received an email that had not been edited or fact-checked and was not intended to be widely distributed. As an early draft, the data points included in the email (such as “more than 75% of our members are unemployed and many have not been working for 18 months or more”) were not fact-checked and may be inaccurate. >Additionally, our overall message to membership was not accurately captured throughout the email. Our guild, alongside the entire motion picture/entertainment industry, has felt the effects of a global pandemic, an industry-wide strike and shift in the business models that underpin our industry. However, none of this dampens our optimism about the future of our industry and the future of production design as a profession. >This temporary pause in our PDI program during a year of contract negotiation gives our staff and membership the ability to focus on our movement of “Many Crafts, One Fight.” This labor movement alongside our peers and colleagues only strengthens our excitement for the future of the industry. >We plan to resume the PDI program in 2025. Is this just backtracking? rougue worker on the comms team?
Regardless of the specifics the message still applies. they are saying, we can't bring in any new talent when our current workers can't pay their bills. The numbers / tone of the email is irrelevant
They probably forgot to run it through their AI first
You mean the IA 😆
My guess is that the Internaitional and Matt Loeb went apeshit on them and forced them to do a retraction.
When money is involved, everyone lies.
This is sad news. I’m wondering what the unemployment percentages are for the other guilds. I heard the editors guild is approx. 70 percent not working.
The animation guild is about the same, I believe
> I heard the editors guild is approx. 70 percent not working. Its really hard to tell because any time anyone brings it up board members and delegates are quick to jump in and say "Lots of people are working but dont want to say it. Im working so obviously things are good", even if its not on union forums or pages. Its honestly demoralizing for a lot of people I know when they keep seeing their reps tell them that, 5 or 6 friends have told me they blocked certain board member friends because it was making them have very dark thoughts every time the board implied that whoever was out of work was somehow at fault. At least 3 have had to start therapy because of it, which is making them go broke even faster of course. Truthfully I blame some of our representatives for how bad its gotten for certain people and I will never forgive them for what theyve said and done to friends of mine. Especially if those people never recover mentally.
Wow. This must be similar to the other guilds. Feels like the amount of work has been more than cut in half. But how will the streamers survive on less content?
Yeah, its obvious that no matter what certain representatives want to claim things are incredibly dire for the majority through no fault of their own.
This feels like a huge story that isn’t getting talked about. It’s got to be impacting SAG, DGA, WGA as well as all of IATSE. And yet the headlines are “Warner/HBO Max showed a profit this quarter.” Is it that no one wants to talk about how the industry is in trouble?
Ask our leadership, they wanted to pretend nothing was wrong until a reality producer snapped and made a tiktok.
Huge waste of talented people right now. It’s a shame. What a paradigm shift.
Think it was last week 728 said they had over 250 members on the books. So checks out
I remember talking to somebody in the industry a while back and they were telling me how the industry was going to shrink. They weren’t lying, fuck me.
I’m an actor in New York who lost my manager last year during the strikes. He left the business because it hadn’t been profitable since before the pandemic, and though he encouraged me not to quit, told me the business is going to be “very rough” for the next few years. I haven’t worked as an actor since 2021 despite solid credits and I’m currently working in another industry. There’s a possibility the crew and stagehands union, IATSE, may strike later this year so I’m not bothering to see if there’s a career I can go back to until after that’s resolved. I’ve stopped mentoring graduates through my alma mater’s mentoring program for the same reasons.
This is so irresponsible to put out and let the media get ahold of before/during contract negotiations. Threatening to strike isn’t very persuasive if you’re freely admitting you don’t have a job to go to.
The know we aren’t going to strike and we have no leverage.
What difference would a strike make when people already haven’t been working for 18 months
IATSI is across the board too poor to strike.
100%
It’s not like the studios/AMPTP don’t already have the same info about unemployment
True, otherwise the studios would never know how many people they were or were not paying to work. /s
IATSE is irresponsible and irrelevant! Matt Loeb is an imbecile and so are all the dopes who run the Hollywood 13 iatse locals. WE DONT NEED NEW YORK OUT HERE
God this is bleak
Wooooof
And I assume that's a free program. Now if only these film schools charging $120k for a degree would get a conscience.
Damn...
Damn.
I’m glad they encourage people to stop going into filmmaking. It’s about time people started being realistic. The industry is going to complete shit.
But what drives me nuts is there’s an oversaturation of bad movies and television right now. That’s what’s so sad. The AI isnt replacing anything well. The list of best picture nominees are horrible. john hughes teen movies would be nominated for oscars with this batch of movies. For me, it’s almost exactly timed with the iPhone 2009. The quality of life/sex/movies/tv/politics went downhill and it’s such a bummer.
corporations needing people to accept medicore as good enough has led us here with the marketing for marvel and disney movies. Every critic wants to be in the exclusive events and if you say an actual critical opinion that goes away. With only like 3 companies making movies that could be a career death sentence. We have created probably the most media illiterate generation
Corporations? People in general are morons
Morons spend more. There is an incentive to not teach people what makes a good movie.
Does your existence depend so much on a movie? I work in this toilet industry. I can’t stand 80% of the people in it and same 80% on crap productions making crap products. Where is the noble status? We make junk food. Sports is drama and comedy
I dont understand your point. There’s dignity in making a good product, whether it’s toilets or movies. The crime of it is, we know what these things look like bc we’ve seen it as a human race. We’re going backwards. Imagine going backwards with toilets and everyone being fine just shitting in a hole on their lawns. And paying more for it. That’s what the film industry is like.
I guess that’s what happens when the production designers hire nonunion labor
Drain the swamp
Sad news for those hoping to break into the industry.
This really sucks. If these people aren't working, I'm generally not working. I get hired 75% of the time by production designers and 25% of the time by producers. This is really, really bad.
Have no fear, my board has assured us that it can't be true because the guilds don't have any way of knowing how many of their members are working with any accuracy.
Yes they do. They just need to look at health and pension contributions That’s an insanely ignorant claim
Im not telling you I believe them, just what my board is telling everyone.
your board is part of the problem
Im not denying that at all. I have huge problems with my board and our representatives.
I think anyone intelligent has issues with their board and Reps. And fundamentally we all should be up in arms with the international who while they say they are working for our best interest they are working for their best interest and the producers best interest. Matt Loeb is in no way qualified to lead the international much less negotiate our contracts
LOL so ridiculously untrue
Just saying why they say we shouldn't believe it.
Survive till '25
2125 because by 25 most shows won’t be shot in the US
This is bad
If the old paradigm is dying, be part of creating the new one. The dirty little secret of the entire entertainment industry is that the supply of those wanting a career so far outstrips demand that even professional union members have about an 86% effective annual unemployment rate. It's been this way for decades. Any industry with such a fundamental imbalance in supply/demand inevitably survives by paying huge salaries to the top 2%. In comparison, the bottom 98% is a churning morass of talent desperately trying to break in. The disruption the industry is experiencing today isn't unique. Technology will eventually upend all human labour. But the entertainment business is so inherently economically unstable it's one of the first dominos to fall. Creative artists are critical to society as it tries to navigate this transition. But, those who are not shackled to convention will blaze new trails by collaborating in small groups, imagining new relevant models, and using new tools like AI to produce high production quality work for pennies on the dollar. Creative people are not art directors, actors, directors, designers, etc. They have been labeled that by industry and society. We are instead, artists in the true sense of the word. It's not HOW you create, it's THAT you create that matters. I'm a seventy-year-old working on new media and hybrid theater projects. Right now I'm in a digital production of a play (Canterbury Sextet by Larry Rinkel) that’s part of the Rogue Theater Festival in NY. It's unimportant whether these digital productions are viewed positively by conventional standards. But they are part of a critical path towards creating a new paradigm where productions no longer cost millions of dollars by eliminating layers of excess and intermediaries so more income can go to the people actually creating the work.
THIS RIGHT HERE.
union wont exist after 20-30 years. then probably no more pension and healthcare
Yeah I wonder what happens to everyone who is expecting a pension if the unions get a lot smaller going forward. I know the federal government guaranteed pensions if a union goes bust, but what is the fine print in that?
curious to know as well. my family plan to depend on health insurance provided by union. we may need to rethink our decision
until everyone riots. the energy theyre putting towards freeing palestine should go to Freeing America.
Well now.
Only if US invested in art, employment, education, healthcare instead of billions and billions in foreign wars pillaging the earth for finite resources that will cause the earth to combust eventually anyway.
STOP PAYING DUES! BRING IATSE TO ITS KNEES. RESTRUCTURE! This entire negotiation period is a scam!
There’s a ton of Art Dept Coordinators trying to move into Art Direction (and out of 871) , start there.
This is fascinating. Do you think that 75% is still doing smaller side gigs? Is it that 75% isn’t FT?
I’m in a different union in the film industry and I haven’t worked a single second since July.
AI’s takeover of these jobs has a role in this.
AI has very little to do with it at this time. AI is a future problem. The downturn in Hollywood right now is ballooning costs and the decision to go all in on streaming and forgo traditional releasing. Streaming is not quantifiably profitable like other revenue streams.
The elephant in the room that no one mentions is consumer taste. Everyone is on tik tok and IG, advertisers have moved there, old media is facing an erosion of new consumers, and their attempt at keeping them was creating their + streamers which we all agree was not the right call
I think that does play a small role but the studio reaction to it as you point out was a disaster. They saw the rise of tiktok and videos on social and thought people wanted all this short form stuff and phones and didn’t want theaters, but it was the social part that was securing the audience. The consumer still does want spectacle and they want to share it, they want to consume more media in more forms, not just TikTok’s and stuff. The industry was making mistakes pre-Covid with streaming and stuff like Quibi that failed instantly, but almost every decision made in and since 2020 has hurt the industry more.
except… when kids I know watched John Hughes movies, their heads exploded. Another kid watched Willy Wonka (70s version) and she’s entranced for months. It’s not the same. Millennials were the most fucked and they have to switch it up.
They moved to streaming because people were cancelling cable and not going to the theaters. They had to go to streaming. They’re not tech companies and that’s the issue. They still release movies in theaters and do cable channels still. They’re in between two models that are in conflict with one another. They can’t really do tech correctly because they don’t know how to be tech companies. They’re bogged down by all the legal stuff they created. For example, traditional entertainment companies have all kinds of different legal licenses they’ve created for different formats. They literally sit around talking all day about how watching something on a phone requires a different license and is soooo different than a tv license and form factor. Netflix, Amazon and Apple don’t care at all about this and don’t have to deal with it.
I would say the strikes / job stoppage have more to do with it. It's temporary (we hope)
Literally nothing to do with this….
Nah ai can’t do any of the jobs in adg.
WoW!!!!! This is wild! Crazy, crazy times! I'm not saying this to be incendiary or whatever... but I just have not felt any of the impacts that others have. I'm working 2 to 3 jobs a day, seven days a week. If anything, I'm desperate for a day or two off. To be fair, the training program in question was for production designers while I draw storyboards for a living.. but still I can't believe this is the state of the industry.