Don is officially on strike. I will periodically talk about the real perils facing actors (and writers) and the outrageous offers from the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers). You can Google what they are trying to do to actors. And by the way, no actor currently gets residuals for anything filmed for streaming. The producers and CEOs get millions. The actors? Nothing. Streaming series can be played again and again, are watched by millions of people, and the actors get nothing. Not so for the corporations and CEOs.
They also want background actors (formerly known as extras) to submit to an AI ‘scan’ and sign over the rights to their image forever. Then the studios can own that image and use it in other projects. If that happened all the background people you see in any film would be AI-generated. Fake. Background actors get a paltry $200 a day for what are often hours and hours of work. And they’re supposed to sign away the rights to their image (for no fee, by the way) so that the studios can save money by not hiring background actors? Their ability to work would be eliminated. This disdain for human beings who play all of the characters you see in the background in any film, that make the film come to life, is disgusting. I watched the background actors work on Spoiler Alert (and there were a lot of them) and they were truly excellent at what they do. It takes a special skill to be real on screen and not steal focus. I don’t know if I could do it.
Just as the studios are attempting to use AI to write scripts, they’re also trying to use it to eliminate the need to pay actors for their work.
Don and I have been extremely wary about AI for a long time. And don’t think it’s just about actors and screenwriters. It can and will impact everyone if it isn’t regulated ASAP.
If you have a minute go to YouTube and listen to SAG President Fran Drescher’s speech yesterday. It was magnificent.
On a lighter note, Don says he can now change his status from ‘unemployed’ to ‘on strike.’ 💪
It’s raining. It’s hot and humid. My brain is in a fog.
I took this picture to show those of you who are unfamiliar with catalpa trees the bean pods hanging from the branches. It’s often called the ‘bean tree.’ The pods begin to appear in mid to late summer. Makes for a messy cleanup later on, but I wouldn’t trade my catalpas for anything.
And a photo of Livvy and Ella.
They’re darned cute.
Stay safe.
Happy Friday.
Oh my gosh, the curls! And brown eyes!
Solidarity on the strike front. I have been disappointed with the media coverage so far; your brief analysis is better than most of the big dailies are producing.
Ceci
Thanks so much, Ceci.
Stay safe.
I had listened to most of Fran’s speech. Very powerful. Frankly I had no idea. Thanks for filling us in about the industry.
Rain, rain go away. Come again another day! Remember that from childhood? That’s my motto today and tomorrow. Hope the brain fog clears! ;)
Thinking of you, Donnamae. I hope you have a beautiful rain-free weekend.
Stay safe.
so sorry to hear it’s come to that (a strike), but i am not surprised. greed is a terrible thing.
i pray a fair resolution is agreed upon soon.
i share the same concerns about ai/artificial intelligence and use of someone’s likeness (physical being, voice, etc.) … very, very scary! in my opinion, nothing licensed should be forever; it should be much more limited (like athletes’ images are on the box of cereal for a year, for example, then the contract has to be renegotiated in order for continued use of images); the invention of streaming platforms is just one reason why. i feel that way about companies selling their mailing lists, too … we shouldn’t have to “opt out” of such mailings/phone calls. companies should be required to have our “opt in” permission before making money off our personal information. since december, i’ve spent hours and hours responding to (maybe 100?) unsolicited requests for money and cutting up the address labels with my name on them that so many have sent and which i will never use. and just yesterday i received a credit card offer from a bank. i read it, for once, and saw that submitting the application meant a person was giving permission for the bank to (among other invasive things) contact and get personal information about the applicant not only from their current phone service provider, but all previous phone service providers and that of any other provider if the applicant used, for example, a neighbor’s phone to call the bank for any reason (not just about the credit card application). unbelievable to me that there aren’t more limits to all these things in 2023. llike i said, greed is a terrible thing. ugh.
thanks for the catalpa tree photo/ information and the photo of ella (who looks like one of my grandmothers, only with brown eyes instead of blue; they also have the same name) and livvy … sweetness.
here? old lawn chair and new cushion still in the works. need to get groceries today or tomorrow. bird-stamps art is up on a wall and making me smile. so is feeding the birds on my parents’ deck and, especially, spending time with members of my family.
happy, safe friday to everyone. hope you all have a great day.
and to donnamae … is the wedding this weekend? am figuring you are ready for it, whenever it is. hoping and praying the weather will cooperate for that wonderful event!
and to deb in phoenix and everyone else dealing with such scary-high temperatures or other tough weather … hope you’re doing well, staying comfortable and safe.
hugs to all who want or need them,
kathy
You’re so right about all of the things you listed, Kathy. I agree. It’s appalling. What happened to the rights of private citizens?
I’m happy your stamps are on the wall.
Stay safe.
CEOs in Hollywood apparently are just as greedy as the ones in the rest of the corporate world.
You and Don are so right about how AI will impact everyone’s life – and is already impacting us although most people aren’t aware. Last time he was home, our youngest son, who works for a communications platform, showed us an app he’s developing that uses AI voice prompts to assist callers. He’s trying to make the prompts even more specific than the current computer-generated voices we deal with whenever a voice asks how they may direct our call. Kinda creepy, he admitted as we listened to the AI voices he’s trying out and how they responded to his own voice, but businesses and medical clinics love the idea of it.
I guess this is what school administrators were referring to when our kids were in school and preparing to enter college in the late aughts. We were told the jobs they’d wind up doing didn’t even exist then.
The Washington Post today has an interesting article on the new studies for Summer Season Depression. As climate change takes hold, we’ll all be dealing with this on some level.
Take care,
Kay
No offense to your son, but I will not deal with computer generated or AI generated phone responses. Will not. It takes a job away from someone. I think we’d all rather speak to a person – we certainly should have that right. Just as in my local supermarket – and every other market around here – self-check has been expanded even more. More self-check scanners have been installed. All of it taking a job away from a checker. No more toll booths, where cheery employees used to greet us. Now it’s all recorded by a camera and the bill is sent to our home. I could go on and on.
We are becoming the actualization of science fiction stories of decades ago. Robots are taking over – which is, in essence what AI is.
Stay safe, Kay!
I didn’t realize the issues in the strike. It’s outrageous not to get compensated for streaming or AI image use. It seems technology can do some amazing things but also creates new issues. This reminds me of musicians and not getting compensated for music streaming.
I am not familiar with catalpa trees. I don’t know if they don’t grow in this area of Michigan or maybe I am just clueless.
Livvie and Ella are adorable! I especially love the curls.
Take care
Musicians can no longer survive from recordings. They get nothing. They have to tour to make any money. It’s very sad.
Thanks so much, Marilyn!
Thank you, Claudia, for always bringing the reality of being in the acting world to us. So many of us go to a play or a musical or a movie and don’t realize how much work done by so many people make the performances an actuality. And almost all of us don’t realize the price that these people pay to bring joy to others through their talent.
Thank you for your kind words, Wendy.
Stay safe.
Claudia, you really helped me understand the issues with the actors/writers better… thanks! And I also completely agree with the AI… very scary!
Very, very scary. And it will get worse.
Stay safe, Barrie.
Thanks for filling in details regarding the strike. I heard AI mentioned after the actors who were on the red carpet for the London premiere of Oppenheimer immediately went on strike.
I couldn’t understand the concept until you explained about background actors.
Absolutely disgraceful behaviour.
I am with you also on the subject of self service and will deliberately queue for a manned checkout. It’s always sold to us as it’s quicker but more often than not, it isn’t! There’s always something going wrong at the self service tills and an overseer has to constantly step in to sort it out.
Happy Friday
The dolls are adorable, and as for the strike! I can’t imagine all the actors that will be out of work forever if the studios get their way!! I knew none of this!! As for me I will read books if the studios, et al, succeed.
Thanks, Tana.
The studios are clearly in it for huge profits, period.
Stay safe, Tana.
I am not an employee and I will start self checking out when the stores start paying me.
Perfect!
xo
And if they do it with background actors, they’ll try to use it in other ways, as well.
Yes, about the self-service area. Something doesn’t work and then you have to wait for the overseer to come fix it.
Stay safe, Dee Dee.
I stand with the Union and wish those involved total success. I also stand with the UPS employees in pursuits for a fair wages.
Take Care,
Kaye
Yes. I stand with all unions and with UPS as they near their strike deadline.
Stay safe, Kaye.
I just can’t believe how unfair the situation you describe is to actors. How do the studios expect to get away with it? I understand better why the writers and actors are on atrike. I think AI is something we should all fear. It won’t be easy to regulate, either. On a happier note, Livvy and Ella are just darling. Cute dresses and oh so cute curls on Ella. Hang in there, Claudia and Don. Hope things get resolved soon. Hugs, Elaine
Thanks so much, Elaine.
I don’t think there will be a resolution soon, unfortunately.
Stay safe.
I’m a writer but am not currently writing due to my and my husband’s health issues. However, I have a long-time friend who writes for young people both for entertainment as well as for the educational market. I just counted 40 of her books on Amazon before I got into the “out of print” ones. She also has a license in another field which I won’t name now to protect her privacy. She was recently interviewed for a full-time position with a non-profit. The discussions were wonderful, and the questions about how she would handle certain situations in a project she would be writing were invigorating. It was going well, but she began to worry that she was being mined for information. That’s something that happens more often than you would believe. Then, she was told she had the job, but they were postponing the beginning of the project. Now she’s seeing what she strongly believes is AI-generated text arranged around her proposals, and, of course, her work has never begun. She strongly believes that she lost that work to an AI-generated text. Already she receives a fraction of what she once did for educational projects. She’s required to produce her own artwork when on-staff artists once did that, travel at her own expense for interviews, and guarantee the company against any suits. She’s had to turn down jobs because the non-competes are so onerous. Even I had to renegotiate a non-compete once that was written so that the company hiring me would own the rights to anything else I wrote. Ever. Our artists, singers, actors and writers often don’t dare protest because they make little enough as it is. My friend was a single mom raising her children and now is supporting herself.
Thanks for clarifying what’s happening in Don’s world, too, although I never doubted the artists were in the right to strike.
I forgot to include musicians! I probably forgot others, too.
Oh, I know. There are so many.
xo
That is absolutely frightening, Linda. Chilling.
Stay safe.
Greed is evil! It’s everywhere, in Hollywood, corporations, family estates, etc. It rips families apart, hurts businesses and now affects our entertainment. It’s great that the actors are fighting against the evil, greedy monsters. Geez, aren’t they making enough money? How much more do they need? Stupid!
I agree.
Thanks, Darlene.
Stay safe.
I saw two people interviewed on local-L.A. TV as regards the strike. One was a florist whose business thrives on the floral arrangements she provides for film sets. She says as a small business owner, she is now losing $100,000 per week in earnings as a result of the strike. Another person was interviewed, a guy who owns a dry-cleaning business. He said 70 percent of his business is for the film studios, and he’d already lost so much business with shut-down in the pandemic. Again, a small business owner greatly impacted from the strike. It has such a ripple effect.
But I understand the reasons for the strike. So does my husband. We once both worked in the broadcast-TV industry. And my husband has worked on films (behind-the-scenes work). He has friends who are writers and actors; directors. Mostly small-time/indys, but it all counts. And they all need work.
My husband lost his part-time job this week. It’s because the employer has relocated and is reorganizing. NOW what for us. It sure helped with the grocery bill if nothing else, to have that extra income in these years of tight-finances retirement.
I’m sorry about your husband’s job, Vicki. I know something else will come along!
They absolutely HAD to strike. The business is changing with the advent of streaming and unless something is done to curb AI, get residuals for streaming, and a host of other items, it will be too late and acting and writing for film and tv as we know it will be gone.
Stay safe.
They estimate a 40 percent economic decline in L.A. as a result of the strike. It is THAT impactful. My husband totally supports the strike; he is scared to death for the industry although he’s mostly out of it now. (He worked in Culver City for years [city for the studios] and drove by Sony Pictures/MGM every day.) He was concerned 25 years ago with automation replacing human workers in broadcast production. He’d see employee after employee get laid off. AI, per him, is downright frightening.
You have people striking in vain; they will lose their jobs to AI. In some ways, my husband says that ship has already sailed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my husband (for a long time anyway) more preoccupied and concerned than he has been this past week; he is SO stressed for people he knows in the industry. He is so stressed FOR THE INDUSTRY (that he loves).
Many, many people are going to be out of work; permanently he fears. His stress is my stress and I’ve felt so close to tears in the last couple of days. I think one thing which might help a little is that he’s going to dinner next week with some of his former co-workers, several of whom are affected; they all decided they need to sit down together in person, talk it out, commiserate and hug and sympathize and strategize. Comfort-support in numbers.
It’s been helpful to read how you’ve talked about this, Claudia. A lot of people just don’t understand, which is understandABLE when not having ‘insider’ knowledge of the entertainment business. I feel for you and Don. Try as you’re doing to de-stress this weekend. Sending love.
My son in law has been striking at Sony for two months now. They live in Culver City. Such a stressful time for everyone. Praying for a fair and just resolution soon.
Thanks for highlighting some of the key issues of the strike so clearly. It really is quite deplorable, isn’t it? I’m glad the actors joined in. And like you, AI has bothered me since — well, since Alexa, to be honest. That seems relatively harmless and yet…. is it? (Certainly makes us all lazier. I won’t have one.) I did watch Fran Drescher’s speech. If they gave Emmys for things like that, she’d win hands down.
Thank you Claudia for the education. I’m sure going on strike isn’t desired but so unfair and left with no choice.
My son in law is a member of the WGA. Been on strike for two months now. So hard to see him go through this. Walking in the heat day after day. Praying for a resolution for both unions soon.
Claudia, I didn’t understand how AI affected the actors .
]
Thank you for explaining it to us,
You’re very welcome.
Stay safe, Lottie.
When I was in Kindergarten, interestingly there was a big Catalpa tree. We loved the beans. I haven’t seen one since … The world is changing. I do not trust AI. At least I can think and come to my own conclusions. But …. Who is behind AI? Is there somthing like an impressum? What information do we get? It is even harder to see who pays for it and therefore has the power to influence people.
People think talking to a computer, to an AI is a game. I’m not sure whether they see its danger.
Not to mention school and the students. How can they experience how important it is to express their thoughts in words? How can they learn that? Let AI write the essays. Some teacher won’t notice. I may not notice. Meanwhile tablets are banned and I except only handwriting.
More people will lose their jobs, their income with progressing computerizing. Didn’t you mention that Don acted in Law and Order? If I watch this show on DVD, he get’s payed?
All the best!
Yes, he gets paid for Law and Order but that’s because it aired on network television initially. If something is aired only on a streaming service – no residuals.
I share all of your concerns about AI, Regula. I just read that Google is experimenting with AI to write news articles. Are we now taking away the job of reporters?
Stay safe.