July 24, 2023 • 33 mins
In this episode Reggie and Doug unravel the of events leading up to the strike, exploring the underlying issues and grievances faced by actors and writers alike. We also shed light on the broader implications of the strike, examining its impact on the television and film landscape, as well as its far-reaching consequences for audiences around the world.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
To read an ACL coming to you for lovely city of
Atlanta, Georgia going out toClinton, Indiana.
Here with Doug.
Hey, Doug.
How's it going?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Great, Reggie.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Man, always good.
Always good.
Better than the people thatwe're gonna be discussing today.
I would say, you know, becauseI'm not we're not on strike or
anything here.
You know, we're gonna talk alittle bit about that they're
the writer strike it, and theactors screen act the actors
that have joined the writer.
So, you know, you had thewriter strike And they seem to
be when you look at the two thetwo situations, Doug, they seem
(00:38):
to be some there seems to besome similarities here.
With the biggest stickingpoints being, like, AI and
streaming.
Of course -- Yep.
-- we've been doing we've doneAI episodes on this show before,
and I knew that this is gonnabe disrupting force to a certain
degree.
And I think that this is someof the beginnings of it, Doug.
Like, we're First name, forsure.
(00:59):
Right?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Did that mention the other pass in a do you remember
any anything in a pass, Doug, asfar as, like, other strikes?
Do you are you have yourecalled any other strikes in
the past that you could recall?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah.
There's always been a rider ofstrikes, and actors in terms of
that, ninety five percent ofthose, I'm going to say, was
probably overpay in betterworking conditions.
Things are a little bitdifferent today.
In one regards, pay is probablyalways gonna be an issue, even
(01:33):
if I'm the breadhead of theworld, I'm probably gonna wanna
make a little bit more.
Right?
And that's just what
Speaker 1 (01:38):
you're gonna want to make last minute.
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Absolutely.
So that's always gonna be asticking point.
I I think that will be aroundforever for us.
But as you you know, we'retalking about is AI.
Can some of these studios,especially smaller ones, do it
quicker and cheaper withartificial intelligence, and so
(02:02):
they have to pay somebody towrite.
That's
Speaker 1 (02:06):
it's a good question, man.
And I I I feel like would Ithink that it was gonna end up
becoming -- Mhmm.
-- is akin to the selfcheckouts at your local grocery
store at your Walmart.
Right?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Instead of employing five writers, maybe you employ
two or three with the help of ofAI.
You know it now.
You got you'll just get the oneself checkout person who's
running, like, eight registersor versus No.
You're exactly now.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You're exactly right.
I literally was in our localWalmart yesterday.
And you're right.
There was one individual therefor six, I think, six checkout
machines.
And then there was, I think,two that was opened that if you
had larger items or a cart fullthat was, you know, checking
(02:57):
out, And so if there was sixself checkout and two others, so
eight eight aisles, andeverybody was running through.
All of them were were occupied,but you only had three full
time employees.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
I mean, Doug, I mean, can can you is it hard to argue
against.
Right?
But we're both pope
Speaker 2 (03:17):
and
Speaker 1 (03:17):
the capitalist guys, man, and it's -- Absolutely.
-- against that.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Absolutely.
So it it is.
Now, I have a friend whorefuses to do the checkouts.
He's pro capital, capitalist,but he refuses to to check out,
and his argument is, I've costedsomebody a job.
In terms of that.
So he may stay a little longerin the store in line just to
(03:43):
make sure that he's givensomebody a job, basically.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
It's it's an interesting perspective, man,
because it's it's you would needpeople to take more stands like
that, I think, in order tocombat that on a labor from a
labor standpoint.
Right.
Like, somebody is willing towait a little bit longer, which
is the bane of my existence isto go to a human being at
Walmart.
And then I'm gonna tell youright now.
That's the that's that's not ofthe life I ever wanna live.
(04:10):
I've had to go to human beingbefore.
I don't know if people rememberhere, Doug.
Back in the day, Go intoWalmart was like an adventure,
man.
Like, yeah, go into Walmartdown here.
Was like, you gotta be preparedfor one duck block out an hour
of your time, an hour and ahalf, an hour an hour to two
hours of your time needs to beblocked out.
Yep.
Go and try to wade throughthere.
(04:32):
You got lines that are goingback into aisles of the store,
so you might be in the women'ssection waiting in the line
because it's -- Correct.
-- walking back that far.
Right?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yes.
Yes.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Is there a line, Doug, you think, between
convenience and saving thosejobs.
You feel like there's a happymedian there between the two?
Because ultimately I go for theconvenience.
If I can save the job, I would.
But ultimately, you gotta gofor the convenience.
You even get us a a median?
Speaker 2 (04:59):
No.
There's not because we'reourselves our our own worse
enemies.
We say we want to save jobs,but we always side with
convenience every time or atleast nine times out of ten.
And I'm guilty as the nextperson.
I mean, I I I don't wantanybody to lose their job.
Right?
Well, I'm not advocating that.
But guess what?
(05:20):
When I went in there for bread,milk, and a candy bar or bottle
pop or whatever I'm in there tobuy.
I look at the line.
And then I look at the selfcheckout and I go, I got four
items I could be in a car andhome in a matter of minutes.
So I'm just just guilty as thenext person.
In that process.
And and I'll tell you where Ithink everything really started
(05:42):
to go in that direction, and Ithink you can make an argument
that it was part of this, butCOVID really sped things up.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Because I I remember when COVID was in the heat of
the battle if we can say it thatway.
Mhmm.
My wife and I would do theWalmart app pick our groceries
and then have a set time wherewe would drive Uber to the Super
Walmart.
Pull into our parking spot,call into the store, say that,
(06:15):
you know, we're here on parkinglot six or parking aisle number
six or whenever it is.
And then somebody would comeout, oh, we'd have our windows
all up, cars running, and thenyou pop the trunk and somebody
would put them in there for youand wave as they were walking
back in the storm.
And I to me, that's where itall really It may not have
(06:39):
started there, but it sure got agood head of steam on it.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
I feel like you are absolutely accurate there, and
and that was in way more thatwas in a lot of in a lot of ways
.
And what happened was progressprogression got pulled forward.
So when you were looking atwhat may have taken it minus
COVID, maybe five years to adopt.
Right, Doug?
Right.
Minus COVID.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Now it's adopted overnight.
Because people and thishappened with delivery services.
Before COVID, my deliveryservices were very minimal
before COVID.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I wouldn't
Speaker 1 (07:13):
After COVID, they're still a made part of my life.
Like, I learned that I can getmy stuff brought to me and not
having to leave my house.
Then I'd rather do that.
If I'm gonna be running to workor something, I'd rather have
it here to have my door before Ieven go to work, you know?
And in the morning Yeah.
Absolutely.
Do you feel like there'sthere's something can can that
toothpaste you put back in thetube, so to speak?
(07:35):
Can we go back a little bit?
Or you feel like that's kind ofjust it's over now we're kind
of progressing as a society.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Howard Bauchner
bottle and it's going to bealmost impossible to put it in
there.
Your major corporations wouldhave to I mean, whether it's
DoorDash or there at Walmart orAmazon, they would have to stop
that service, and I just don'tbelieve that that's ever gonna
happen.
You know, we are way too fardown the road.
(08:02):
And with all the the bad ofCOVID, if I can say it that way,
this is either a blessing or acurse, depending on how you want
to look at it.
A blessing that now I don'thave to go in the store or I
don't have to go into arestaurant, I can have somebody
pick it up, order it, pick itup, and deliver it to me.
The bad thing is, we'reprobably causing people jobs.
(08:24):
And making the profits of thecompany a little higher and a
little quicker.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
You know what's interesting here, is there
something else that happenedduring his time period that me
and my colleague Nick used totalk about quite a bit during
COVID that I that I told himlike, man, it it didn't
necessarily stick all the way,Doug, but I feel like it had
sticking power, and that's whenthey were releasing films
directly to streaming.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Right.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
And I told them, I said, you know?
It's easy for let let's justtake two different situations.
You got a couple, no kids, youknow, the wind to their back.
They can go do whatever theywant anytime they want.
Right?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Now let's go to the family, Doug.
Right?
The family, you gotta you gottacorral these kids.
You gotta get them out there.
Get them into the theater, paya million dollars for your
snacks and concessions.
We get them to sit still forthat couple hours.
Right?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Well,
Speaker 1 (09:20):
it's a bigger reach for them, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Oh, it absolutely is.
I know for us, you know, afamily of four.
First of all, the biggestchallenge is making sure all
four of us wants to see the samemovie.
That's one part
Speaker 1 (09:32):
about it.
I can't even do that with oneperson.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
And then there's we have two boys.
And then we have to make surethey wanna be seen with us, you
know, in public because it's notcool to be seen with moms.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
S a s a h.
It's gonna become a problem.
It's gonna become a problem.
For them, Doug.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Absolutely.
It's a little easier to get theyoungest one because he can't
drive.
So to at least kind of, youknow, we could we could twist
the arm a little bit there withhim, but the order went, you
know, he's gone, you know.
He's driving.
He'll he'll he'll do whateverhe wants to do.
But yeah, I I I think, again,with COVID, it was a mixed bag.
(10:10):
The companies or the moviestudios had to get new movies
out.
They had them in the in thehopper.
They had to get them outbecause they had to make money.
Okay?
It was almost impossible tofilm.
I mean, you had so manyrestrictions on you.
Things got delayed.
They had to have that revenuecoming in.
(10:31):
Flipside of that is it's greatwith streaming.
So now all four of us in ourhouse can be be watching
separate it wasn't like the olddays that you only had one.
The bad part of that is, now Idon't know a lot of people that
go to the movies.
I'm not saying that peopledon't still go to the movies,
(10:51):
but it's it's easier for them towatch it on streaming or wait
for it to come out than it is toactually go to the movie
theaters to do that.
Howard
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Bauchner
things that's because that's oneof the things that that was a
sticking point before prior tothis strike.
I wanna say that that's themain sticking point, but the
main sticking point does appearto be streaming.
Now -- Yeah.
-- one of the things I can saythat I would just witness and
then you can go on to socialmedia and see this and see a lot
of this, and then I'm gonna useorange and new black as a as an
(11:28):
example here.
From Netflix.
Great Netflix show, Netflixoriginal.
Versus airing on like a showlike fringe, something like
that, a sign filler that whoknows, some of these shows
that's equivalent to thepopularity that because Orange
and New Black is a very popularshow.
They got a very popular networkshow.
Now, the way that these showsget paid and and had an actor
(11:48):
friend kind of break this downto me, and he did a pretty good
job breaking this down.
And Orange's new black, like, acouple of the actresses that
were on that show have showntheir paychecks, and I'm telling
you, Doug, you you it's it'sless than an hour.
It's like twenty twenty sevendollars.
That's one one showed a checkfor twenty seven dollars.
Knowledge, like, oh my god, getpaid since in comparison to
(12:12):
what the residuals would be on anetwork.
Show.
Okay.
So that's one thing.
Trying to figure out wherewhere that point lies, but my
actor friend told me that he waslike, well, Reg, we would do
and number gonna throw out anumber.
He used a thousand dollarsnumber.
He used that same number.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
He said, let's say that a show airs in North
America or in American market,and I get paid ten thousand
dollars for that show.
Okay.
Cool.
He said on the network, if thatshow aired in Australia, I get
paid another ten grand.
Right.
But every in every new marketthat it kind of emerges is, I
get paid again.
You know, is it emerges in anew market?
He said, with Streamy, that'sjust out the window altogether.
(12:51):
Tuesday, so that was from tenthousand to zero.
Right.
Out.
So he was like, that's a majormajor sticking point.
You know, with them trying tokind of figure out how do you
how do you get these biggercorporations in the streaming?
Because there are people thatare in these corporations, of
(13:11):
course, that you know whatthey're gonna say.
They're they're broke.
They're, you know, you know howto exactly what you say.
Absolutely.
We're we're we're poppers here.
We're we're not making anything.
And Meanwhile, your company'sworth almost, like, you know,
seven, eight hundred billiondollars.
Right?
You know, you have a --
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
-- some astronomical number.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
In which we'll go through the the because that
that's a good there's a goodimpact to that because a lot of
these companies and let's justuse Apple as an example.
Right?
Apple three trillion dollarmarket cap the biometrics they
wanted to.
Right?
Absolutely.
The problem is is Apple TV orwhatever their media portions of
that company is aren'tnecessarily contributing to the
(13:53):
bottom line as their products.
These are companies that do alot of different things.
It's not necessarily like aNetflix.
Right?
It's just content is theirbusiness -- Right.
-- versus these largercorporations like a Disney
because Disney kinda fell intothis.
With Bob Iger having somepeople going at him.
They're not really excitedabout him.
So, yeah, some people going atBob Iger here and they're
(14:15):
saying, hey, look at what youget paid, man.
You're getting paid millions ofdollars and we're getting
scraps here.
The issue is is that thesecompanies at least with Disney
and with Apple and some of theseother major companies, they do
other things, Doug.
Right?
So it's kind of like
Speaker 2 (14:31):
They're diversified a little bit.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
They're they're so diversified.
Right?
If I'm making money from parks,I'm making money from other
things selling merch and stuffof that nature, how much money
and attention can they reallydevote to these these other
efforts in their company?
Speaker 2 (14:49):
You know, that that's gonna be the million dollar
question.
And I also think a lot of theseother companies are gonna have
to learn to diversify a littlebit.
And I but I also think they'regonna have to concede a little
bit on on the money as well.
Because as popular as streamingis, and that's what the public
(15:15):
expects at this point.
I just don't think a lot ofthese companies are prepared for
it just yet.
They're still under the oldmindset of we make a movie.
We ship it out to the movietheaters.
That's where everything's gonnago.
And then at some point in thefuture, we're gonna turn around
and put it on DVD or the oldBHS, etcetera.
(15:37):
And then maybe put it instreaming.
So I think companies are gonnahave to come around to see that
the old way is not gonna workmoving forward?
Speaker 1 (15:50):
How long do you think that will take, Doug?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
That's the million dollar question.
You know what?
And I think this is the firststep in this process.
Because I think the actors andthe writers are are I'm gonna
say, up to here with it.
You know, they've had enough.
And I think some of them arewilling to hold out as long as
they they possibly can.
(16:13):
Now at the end of the day,we're gonna have to wait to see
who wins.
Does the companies have themoney to hold out?
Or can these actors andactresses and riders can they
afford to hold out?
I think that's gonna beinteresting.
I just don't think the moviestudios are as powerful as they
once were.
Nor do they have the capital.
(16:34):
So this may be something thatgets resolved relatively shortly
or or quickly compared to itwas in the in the past just
because I don't think the fundsare there with the movie studios
as they once were.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
You you bring up an interesting point when when this
with the studio versus the bigbecause you have so many
oddities major companies thatare getting industry main
business, like your Apple, likeyour Googles.
Right?
And these companies are massive.
These are massive businesses.
They can purchase five Kennedystudios.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
And not and write it off.
It'd be, like, a Ted to writeoff.
Them.
I I don't envy the actors herein this in this fight because if
you're going up against let'ssay you're old strike and you're
going up against a paramount ormaybe even a Time Warner or
Time Warner was pretty big.
Let's say you're going upagainst one of these companies.
(17:34):
Right.
Okay.
That's one thing.
Right?
But then going up against,like, a a company with a market
cap that's, like, near atrillion dollars.
Good luck with that.
Like because they can just siton that forever for for an
eternity.
It waits you out.
Yeah.
But so And they will.
Members Right?
Are they really incentivizednot too dumb?
(17:54):
Right?
Or are they really incentivizednot to do it?
Just out of the kindness oftheir heart are in the hopes
that stuff just gets released.
Maybe that's maybe they maybewhat public demand?
Would they add a bit of socialmedia put in a little more
pressure, Doug?
Speaker 2 (18:09):
It's possible, but at the end of the day, how many
people on social media reallyfeel sorry for the studios?
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Man.
Right?
And the the fact topiggybacking off that point is
people, and this happens whatathletes do.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Right.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
You know, you you can have an athlete who says, hey,
we're we're we're not playing.
We're locked down and we'relooking at you like, guys, guys
make twenty, thirty milliondollars a year, just go out
there and play the game.
But here's the problem.
That owner's making two orthree billion dollars this year.
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
And and what's funny is you got the billionaires
versus the millionaires.
And we're and and both sidesare feel like they're getting
cheated and we're sitting thereand we're going, we're not in
either one of these leagues.
We just want you to go aheadand play the game, you know.
And so I think that's a littlebit how people feel with actors
(19:03):
and the writers.
I understand they're not makingnearly what they need to be
making.
I get it.
I agree with them.
But let's let's face it.
The average Joe on the street?
Do they really get it?
Do they really understand that,yeah, there's a few actors and
actresses that are makingmillion dollars But some of
(19:23):
these smaller actors andactresses, they're getting paid,
you know, they may even belucky to make forty, sixty
thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yes.
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah.
And, yes, I would love to in attimes be able to change places
with them and and and think thatyou could go down in movie
cinema history as somebody that,you know, when it's all said
done that it'd be consideredbreaking news on you know, on
certain things.
But at the end of the day, it'shard for people to feel sorry
(19:54):
for some of these individualsbecause perception is reality.
And then in their mind, theeverybody's a millionaire or a
billionaire where the case mightbe.
And in reality, that's far fromthe truth.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
You know, it's it's interesting because one of the
the the actresses that was onOrange and New Black is she
spoke about how about how thethe juxtaposition of her being
famous, having to stop pictureson the street and stuff like
that, and people think thatshe's rich.
And she's like, am I rich?
I mean, you have healthinsurance?
And she's like, I don't evenhave health insurance.
(20:29):
Right.
She just thought these picturesall the time.
And people feel like I'm richand
Speaker 2 (20:33):
and -- Right.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
-- they're not.
You know, I'm now friendDresher from the nanny.
I'm not sure if you everwatched that show back in the
day the nanny.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Friends Dresher, she is the I don't know if she's,
like, president of of I don'tknow if I don't think I don't
know if it's SAG, but I don'tknow if she's president, but
she's one of the representatives.
She's, like, one of the facesof the the factors on the other
side of this discussion.
Right.
One of the things that shebrought up, which is an
excellent point and andinteresting just to kinda
calcify what we're talking abouthere.
(21:04):
And she said that most of ourmembers don't have health
insurance.
And she said, to have healthinsurance in this business, you
only need to make twenty seventhousand dollars.
So let's let's go over that.
That means
Speaker 2 (21:16):
that those
Speaker 1 (21:17):
aren't making twenty seven thousand dollars because
most of them don't have healthinsurance.
Most of them aren't makingtwenty seven thousand dollars in
that business.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Is that crazy or what ?
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Absolutely crazy because you're looking at the
top and we're looking at timecruises that they were alright
or look at the black woods here.
Jed an off the Santropay orsomeplace.
You're looking like, hey, I'mnot gonna feel sorry for you.
You're not gonna be picketingfrom Trentropay, picking from
your yacht.
Or, you know, we're we'rethat's the way that we're all
thinking of it.
Right?
But at the same time, there'ssuch a residual effect here,
(21:50):
Doug, because it's not just them.
Right?
It's the light guys.
It's the audio guys.
It's the guys with thecameraman.
Right?
It's the guys your your yourblue collar worker, which my
friends, I consider them bluecollar guys in this business.
Like, they they do have bigpayday at times.
Right?
Sure.
Sure.
But they don't come frequentenough.
To be like rich.
You know, they they can livecomfortably.
(22:12):
They can have a comfortablelife.
But they're not these guys thatare breaking in millions of
dollars, when an act when a workstoppage like this happens,
it's kinda in a studio'sfavorite.
Right?
Because the studio because,hey, listen.
These guys gotta get back towork.
And if you're a time cruise,you can stand to not make
another movie again for the restof your life.
(22:32):
You're you're gonna be good.
But if you're at the bottom ofthat scale, you have an actual
job that you now cannot show upto.
Do you think that puts morepressure on this studio's the
set order, more pressure on thethe guild and the kind of unions
to settle.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Unfortunately, I think it's only unions to settle
because the studios.
Yeah.
I I I would hope that they feelbad for some of these
individuals.
But at the end of the day, it'sbusiness.
You know, it's nothing personal.
It's strictly business in theprocess.
And number two, is most ofthese studios probably have
(23:10):
several movies already in thecan.
And so they're still gonna bereleasing them there may be
obligations.
I don't know.
I'm not an attorney.
I have no idea that if theycome out with the premier let's
say, a movie supposed to comeout next week are certain stars
and celebrity even thoughthey're on strike required to
come out and support the newfilm.
(23:31):
I don't know somebody a lotsmarter than me would have to be
able to tell me that.
But let's just say they did.
Let's just take the argument'ssake and and they did.
What's the studio scare?
They cut these individuals bywhatever, and they're forcing
them in that process.
So unfortunately, I think it'smore with the unions and the
(23:54):
trade than with the studios tosettle this.
I'm not saying it's right.
Don't misinterpret what I'msaying.
It's just at the end of the day.
It's probably gonna be theworker bees is gonna have to
once again work this out.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Unfortunately, right, getting the -- Yeah.
-- the short end short end ofthe stick, so to speak.
Absolutely.
You know, another thing was AIwas a sticking point, Doug.
So and one of the things thatthat friend dresser brought up
that was very interesting wasbeing able to scan.
So let's say, Doug, we and youget cast in the background of a
movie.
Mhmm.
The way that they have it nowor or or what's being pitched is
(24:31):
they we do the movie once.
We get our hundred dollars twohundred bucks to do our stand in
.
They scan our face and use usbe able to use our likeness and
perpetuity without paying us oneseat again after that.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Right.
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
What was funny from the studio?
What's funny was the the I Iread yesterday a a studio
response or at least their whatare their responses to it, which
was absolutely ridiculous.
One of the studio responses oneof the company responses I
should say was something to thedegree of, well, they we we
asked them first so to speaklike, you you gotta sign it
first.
Right.
You know?
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
And I'm like, but if you if you ask a person and say,
you're not really asking ifyou're not gonna get the job.
Right, Doug?
So if if -- Right.
-- your job is on the line, areyou really asking them?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
No.
You're basically telling them.
Right?
It's this or that.
I mean, I guess I could see alittle bit where the studio's
coming from is saying thateverybody's got a joists we
didn't put it into your head.
You don't have to do this.
But at the end of the day,let's let's be realistic.
Right.
We don't have to.
(25:42):
But there's a lot of things Ido that I don't have to do.
I do because, yeah, I'm takingcare of my family.
Or it's on my bucket list orit's something that I'm really
passionate about.
And, unfortunately, sometimes,we will hurt ourselves in the
process just in order to be ableto achieve something that we
(26:04):
want that we wanna achieve.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
I feel like that's one of the reasons why these
unions are so important insports and entertainment in
particular.
Right?
Because yeah.
These are jobs that are veryhigh sought after.
And studios can just say, hey,I'm just gonna I'm definitely
gonna find somebody who's gonnasign this contract.
Eventually.
I'll definitely find somebodywho wants to play this game,
this position eventually.
(26:29):
I'll definitely find somebodywho wants to coach eventually.
Right?
You know, you you you know,you're gonna find somebody who
wants to do these jobs becausethey're highly sought after jobs
.
And they still do pay betterthan than average on some of
these jobs.
Apps.
Right?
So then the unions really needit so that teams don't come down
or the leagues don't come downand just dictate whatever they
want at that point because toleverage naturities in their
(26:52):
favor.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Absolutely does.
And that's why, you know, yearsago, we we needed the unions to
come in because they providedsafe working conditions, wages,
child labor law, etcetera.
So these are necessaryorganizations because without
them, we'd be in a lot differentsituation than we are today.
(27:17):
And so they are needed, but Ithink at the end of the day,
It's, you know, money moneytalks, those studio heads or
those that have the money,usually went out or get a lot of
what they were asking forbecause at the end of the day,
they got the money and theworker bees, I keep saying that.
(27:40):
They're the ones that yeah.
They're like, well, I can dothis for a while, but, you know,
At some point, I've I've got akid and go back to work or find
another job.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Man, and you you know what sucks about finding
another job.
In these businesses, Doug,these are lifelong businesses
for these people.
In sports, everybody, thesepeople start playing in their
when their kids, four or five.
Right?
You you know, you spent yourwhole life.
Preparing for this moment.
With these actresses, dancers,singers, writers, and stuff of
that nature, a lot of thesepeople do it for a whole
lifetime to get to where theyare.
(28:13):
So it's kind of like, are youjust gonna drop that, book him a
plumber?
Or what do what do what do youdo?
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Well, I think you're exactly right.
And some of them don't knowwhat to do because this is all
the way to home throughout theirwhole career.
You know?
So, again, I feel sorry forhim, and I believe that at the
end of the day, that, you know,there's gonna be some tough
decisions.
It's gonna have to be made, andI don't envy those writers,
(28:45):
actors, actresses, etceterabecause they're they're fighting
a good fight.
They've got a reason to befighting.
I I I just hope they can makesome headway
Speaker 1 (28:59):
I I'm hoping that this doesn't drag and drag and
drag.
Remember, there was a strike intwo thousand seven, and it used
to be a show And and there's afew shows that that came on
around that time.
One show was called heroes thatcame on around two thousand
seven.
And and and I don't know if youever watch loss and and stuff
around that time.
And some of those shows, itespecially Heroes in which is
(29:19):
kind of, like, it representsthat strike of two thousand
seven because it never recoveredafter two thousand it never
recovered after the strike.
It was the show was on topgoing into the strike and pretty
much out of here coming out ofthe strike.
I'm hoping that we don't have alot of damage like that to to
something struggles and certainthings because the life changes,
you know, people change.
(29:39):
Life changes.
That strike show that you justcan't put any writer on shows
and have it you can't justbetter change them and have it
be the same success.
You know?
So I'm hoping that some of thisstuff does get solved
expeditiously so that there'sless damage done to some of
these IPs and stuff like that.
(30:01):
You know, so many people havealready we're right in the
middle of recording, somebodyshows Doug, and
Speaker 2 (30:05):
that's why
Speaker 1 (30:05):
we're having to walk offsets.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Well, I'll say if if there isany silver lining here.
And I'm trying to to find asilver lining.
If I don't know if you recall,but during the COVID, obviously,
a lot of companies could notmake films.
And what what happened wasthere was the rise of a lot of
(30:30):
these side studios.
That's what I'm gonna call them.
Mom and pop industry, and theymade a lot of horror movies.
And the reason they did that isbecause it doesn't take a lot
of acting, it doesn't take a lotof script writing, it doesn't
take a lot of money, to makesomething like Halloween.
No.
I'm not comparing some of thesemovie to the classics.
(30:55):
Like, how are we, you know, theTexas jeans all match the skirt
.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Clear waves, though.
That's why that
Speaker 2 (31:00):
that makes it very comparable Right?
Yes.
That is exactly why I wasgetting ready to say next is and
then you saw some of these Imean, they were, like, never one
of the box office, and it was Imean, they could set them up
here.
You know, the I ran the burgers.
I don't know.
They could they could set themup.
But they were making, like, youknow, forty, fifty thousand
(31:22):
dollars.
They were never one of the boxoffice.
And a lot of these wentstraight to drive in theaters
because people could be spreadout during COVID.
And that has a feel with this,if this last very long, where
there may be, again, someexpiring actors, actresses,
(31:44):
directors, writers that may geta little bit of a break Now I'm
not gonna say they're gonna bethe next Steven Spielberg or
anything like that, but they'llhave their fifteen minutes of
fame.
And and I'm trying to look fora silver lining in all of this.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah.
I I don't I I mean, I'm prettysure that they're they're hoping
they're some silver lining aswell.
There you go.
Right.
It's because they don't wannabe out of work for for forever
here.
And and Right.
With some of the sticking pointbeing so so large, like the AI
and perpetuity situation,they're trying to find a way to
kinda work that out.
They're trying to find a way towork out things like breaks and
(32:25):
and stuff like that are beingtold actors like, I would give
you one, like, a self recording.
If you're a self recording, Ithink that's kinda my friend is,
he he self records for forfilms.
Like, they call them.
It's like saying, hey, Doug, wewant you to do this football
film.
Is filming.
We want you to send us a taperof you self taping, and we'll
(32:46):
send you the lines.
And they might send you thirtypages to memorize by, like,
tomorrow for you to self shootit and then send it back to the
studio on their timeline.
So some of that stuff is longertimelines, less patient issue,
maybe being compensated to acertain degree for those efforts
because they can land younothing.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Right.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Stuff like that.
You know, the the the littledetails that have to be kinda
worked out.
And I'm and I'm pretty surethat that Frank Drexler and
Company are gonna be underimmense pressure.
From their from their union,the union workers under them who
were like, hey, I gotta go backto work.
Her wife, Kate Family, youknow, whatever.
I gotta go back to lunch.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
He's gonna he's gonna pay more mortgage.
Yeah.
My rent.
Whatever the case might be.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
So here's the hope in that this does get settled soon
.
In hoping that we don't have todo another subject on this, but
we will be back to do it.
Doug, if we if we happy,appreciate you taking some time
here.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Reg it's always a pleasure to be honest with you.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
You got it, my friend .
It's Regen HTL, check us out,state your iHeartRadio, Google
podcast, Apple podcast, Spotify,wherever you find your podcast,
cast.
See you next time.
To read an ACL coming to you for lovely city of
Atlanta, Georgia going out toClinton, Indiana.
Here with Doug.
Hey, Doug.
How's it going?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Great, Reggie.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Man, always good.
Always good.
Better than the people thatwe're gonna be discussing today.
I would say, you know, becauseI'm not we're not on strike or
anything here.
You know, we're gonna talk alittle bit about that they're
the writer strike it, and theactors screen act the actors
that have joined the writer.
So, you know, you had thewriter strike And they seem to
be when you look at the two thetwo situations, Doug, they seem
(00:38):
to be some there seems to besome similarities here.
With the biggest stickingpoints being, like, AI and
streaming.
Of course -- Yep.
-- we've been doing we've doneAI episodes on this show before,
and I knew that this is gonnabe disrupting force to a certain
degree.
And I think that this is someof the beginnings of it, Doug.
Like, we're First name, forsure.
(00:59):
Right?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Did that mention the other pass in a do you remember
any anything in a pass, Doug, asfar as, like, other strikes?
Do you are you have yourecalled any other strikes in
the past that you could recall?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah.
There's always been a rider ofstrikes, and actors in terms of
that, ninety five percent ofthose, I'm going to say, was
probably overpay in betterworking conditions.
Things are a little bitdifferent today.
In one regards, pay is probablyalways gonna be an issue, even
(01:33):
if I'm the breadhead of theworld, I'm probably gonna wanna
make a little bit more.
Right?
And that's just what
Speaker 1 (01:38):
you're gonna want to make last minute.
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Absolutely.
So that's always gonna be asticking point.
I I think that will be aroundforever for us.
But as you you know, we'retalking about is AI.
Can some of these studios,especially smaller ones, do it
quicker and cheaper withartificial intelligence, and so
(02:02):
they have to pay somebody towrite.
That's
Speaker 1 (02:06):
it's a good question, man.
And I I I feel like would Ithink that it was gonna end up
becoming -- Mhmm.
-- is akin to the selfcheckouts at your local grocery
store at your Walmart.
Right?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Instead of employing five writers, maybe you employ
two or three with the help of ofAI.
You know it now.
You got you'll just get the oneself checkout person who's
running, like, eight registersor versus No.
You're exactly now.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You're exactly right.
I literally was in our localWalmart yesterday.
And you're right.
There was one individual therefor six, I think, six checkout
machines.
And then there was, I think,two that was opened that if you
had larger items or a cart fullthat was, you know, checking
(02:57):
out, And so if there was sixself checkout and two others, so
eight eight aisles, andeverybody was running through.
All of them were were occupied,but you only had three full
time employees.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
I mean, Doug, I mean, can can you is it hard to argue
against.
Right?
But we're both pope
Speaker 2 (03:17):
and
Speaker 1 (03:17):
the capitalist guys, man, and it's -- Absolutely.
-- against that.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Absolutely.
So it it is.
Now, I have a friend whorefuses to do the checkouts.
He's pro capital, capitalist,but he refuses to to check out,
and his argument is, I've costedsomebody a job.
In terms of that.
So he may stay a little longerin the store in line just to
(03:43):
make sure that he's givensomebody a job, basically.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
It's it's an interesting perspective, man,
because it's it's you would needpeople to take more stands like
that, I think, in order tocombat that on a labor from a
labor standpoint.
Right.
Like, somebody is willing towait a little bit longer, which
is the bane of my existence isto go to a human being at
Walmart.
And then I'm gonna tell youright now.
That's the that's that's not ofthe life I ever wanna live.
(04:10):
I've had to go to human beingbefore.
I don't know if people rememberhere, Doug.
Back in the day, Go intoWalmart was like an adventure,
man.
Like, yeah, go into Walmartdown here.
Was like, you gotta be preparedfor one duck block out an hour
of your time, an hour and ahalf, an hour an hour to two
hours of your time needs to beblocked out.
Yep.
Go and try to wade throughthere.
(04:32):
You got lines that are goingback into aisles of the store,
so you might be in the women'ssection waiting in the line
because it's -- Correct.
-- walking back that far.
Right?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yes.
Yes.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Is there a line, Doug, you think, between
convenience and saving thosejobs.
You feel like there's a happymedian there between the two?
Because ultimately I go for theconvenience.
If I can save the job, I would.
But ultimately, you gotta gofor the convenience.
You even get us a a median?
Speaker 2 (04:59):
No.
There's not because we'reourselves our our own worse
enemies.
We say we want to save jobs,but we always side with
convenience every time or atleast nine times out of ten.
And I'm guilty as the nextperson.
I mean, I I I don't wantanybody to lose their job.
Right?
Well, I'm not advocating that.
But guess what?
(05:20):
When I went in there for bread,milk, and a candy bar or bottle
pop or whatever I'm in there tobuy.
I look at the line.
And then I look at the selfcheckout and I go, I got four
items I could be in a car andhome in a matter of minutes.
So I'm just just guilty as thenext person.
In that process.
And and I'll tell you where Ithink everything really started
(05:42):
to go in that direction, and Ithink you can make an argument
that it was part of this, butCOVID really sped things up.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Because I I remember when COVID was in the heat of
the battle if we can say it thatway.
Mhmm.
My wife and I would do theWalmart app pick our groceries
and then have a set time wherewe would drive Uber to the Super
Walmart.
Pull into our parking spot,call into the store, say that,
(06:15):
you know, we're here on parkinglot six or parking aisle number
six or whenever it is.
And then somebody would comeout, oh, we'd have our windows
all up, cars running, and thenyou pop the trunk and somebody
would put them in there for youand wave as they were walking
back in the storm.
And I to me, that's where itall really It may not have
(06:39):
started there, but it sure got agood head of steam on it.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
I feel like you are absolutely accurate there, and
and that was in way more thatwas in a lot of in a lot of ways
.
And what happened was progressprogression got pulled forward.
So when you were looking atwhat may have taken it minus
COVID, maybe five years to adopt.
Right, Doug?
Right.
Minus COVID.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Now it's adopted overnight.
Because people and thishappened with delivery services.
Before COVID, my deliveryservices were very minimal
before COVID.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I wouldn't
Speaker 1 (07:13):
After COVID, they're still a made part of my life.
Like, I learned that I can getmy stuff brought to me and not
having to leave my house.
Then I'd rather do that.
If I'm gonna be running to workor something, I'd rather have
it here to have my door before Ieven go to work, you know?
And in the morning Yeah.
Absolutely.
Do you feel like there'sthere's something can can that
toothpaste you put back in thetube, so to speak?
(07:35):
Can we go back a little bit?
Or you feel like that's kind ofjust it's over now we're kind
of progressing as a society.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Howard Bauchner
bottle and it's going to bealmost impossible to put it in
there.
Your major corporations wouldhave to I mean, whether it's
DoorDash or there at Walmart orAmazon, they would have to stop
that service, and I just don'tbelieve that that's ever gonna
happen.
You know, we are way too fardown the road.
(08:02):
And with all the the bad ofCOVID, if I can say it that way,
this is either a blessing or acurse, depending on how you want
to look at it.
A blessing that now I don'thave to go in the store or I
don't have to go into arestaurant, I can have somebody
pick it up, order it, pick itup, and deliver it to me.
The bad thing is, we'reprobably causing people jobs.
(08:24):
And making the profits of thecompany a little higher and a
little quicker.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
You know what's interesting here, is there
something else that happenedduring his time period that me
and my colleague Nick used totalk about quite a bit during
COVID that I that I told himlike, man, it it didn't
necessarily stick all the way,Doug, but I feel like it had
sticking power, and that's whenthey were releasing films
directly to streaming.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Right.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
And I told them, I said, you know?
It's easy for let let's justtake two different situations.
You got a couple, no kids, youknow, the wind to their back.
They can go do whatever theywant anytime they want.
Right?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Now let's go to the family, Doug.
Right?
The family, you gotta you gottacorral these kids.
You gotta get them out there.
Get them into the theater, paya million dollars for your
snacks and concessions.
We get them to sit still forthat couple hours.
Right?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Well,
Speaker 1 (09:20):
it's a bigger reach for them, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Oh, it absolutely is.
I know for us, you know, afamily of four.
First of all, the biggestchallenge is making sure all
four of us wants to see the samemovie.
That's one part
Speaker 1 (09:32):
about it.
I can't even do that with oneperson.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
And then there's we have two boys.
And then we have to make surethey wanna be seen with us, you
know, in public because it's notcool to be seen with moms.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
S a s a h.
It's gonna become a problem.
It's gonna become a problem.
For them, Doug.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Absolutely.
It's a little easier to get theyoungest one because he can't
drive.
So to at least kind of, youknow, we could we could twist
the arm a little bit there withhim, but the order went, you
know, he's gone, you know.
He's driving.
He'll he'll he'll do whateverhe wants to do.
But yeah, I I I think, again,with COVID, it was a mixed bag.
(10:10):
The companies or the moviestudios had to get new movies
out.
They had them in the in thehopper.
They had to get them outbecause they had to make money.
Okay?
It was almost impossible tofilm.
I mean, you had so manyrestrictions on you.
Things got delayed.
They had to have that revenuecoming in.
(10:31):
Flipside of that is it's greatwith streaming.
So now all four of us in ourhouse can be be watching
separate it wasn't like the olddays that you only had one.
The bad part of that is, now Idon't know a lot of people that
go to the movies.
I'm not saying that peopledon't still go to the movies,
(10:51):
but it's it's easier for them towatch it on streaming or wait
for it to come out than it is toactually go to the movie
theaters to do that.
Howard
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Bauchner
things that's because that's oneof the things that that was a
sticking point before prior tothis strike.
I wanna say that that's themain sticking point, but the
main sticking point does appearto be streaming.
Now -- Yeah.
-- one of the things I can saythat I would just witness and
then you can go on to socialmedia and see this and see a lot
of this, and then I'm gonna useorange and new black as a as an
(11:28):
example here.
From Netflix.
Great Netflix show, Netflixoriginal.
Versus airing on like a showlike fringe, something like
that, a sign filler that whoknows, some of these shows
that's equivalent to thepopularity that because Orange
and New Black is a very popularshow.
They got a very popular networkshow.
Now, the way that these showsget paid and and had an actor
(11:48):
friend kind of break this downto me, and he did a pretty good
job breaking this down.
And Orange's new black, like, acouple of the actresses that
were on that show have showntheir paychecks, and I'm telling
you, Doug, you you it's it'sless than an hour.
It's like twenty twenty sevendollars.
That's one one showed a checkfor twenty seven dollars.
Knowledge, like, oh my god, getpaid since in comparison to
(12:12):
what the residuals would be on anetwork.
Show.
Okay.
So that's one thing.
Trying to figure out wherewhere that point lies, but my
actor friend told me that he waslike, well, Reg, we would do
and number gonna throw out anumber.
He used a thousand dollarsnumber.
He used that same number.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
He said, let's say that a show airs in North
America or in American market,and I get paid ten thousand
dollars for that show.
Okay.
Cool.
He said on the network, if thatshow aired in Australia, I get
paid another ten grand.
Right.
But every in every new marketthat it kind of emerges is, I
get paid again.
You know, is it emerges in anew market?
He said, with Streamy, that'sjust out the window altogether.
(12:51):
Tuesday, so that was from tenthousand to zero.
Right.
Out.
So he was like, that's a majormajor sticking point.
You know, with them trying tokind of figure out how do you
how do you get these biggercorporations in the streaming?
Because there are people thatare in these corporations, of
(13:11):
course, that you know whatthey're gonna say.
They're they're broke.
They're, you know, you know howto exactly what you say.
Absolutely.
We're we're we're poppers here.
We're we're not making anything.
And Meanwhile, your company'sworth almost, like, you know,
seven, eight hundred billiondollars.
Right?
You know, you have a --
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
-- some astronomical number.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
In which we'll go through the the because that
that's a good there's a goodimpact to that because a lot of
these companies and let's justuse Apple as an example.
Right?
Apple three trillion dollarmarket cap the biometrics they
wanted to.
Right?
Absolutely.
The problem is is Apple TV orwhatever their media portions of
that company is aren'tnecessarily contributing to the
(13:53):
bottom line as their products.
These are companies that do alot of different things.
It's not necessarily like aNetflix.
Right?
It's just content is theirbusiness -- Right.
-- versus these largercorporations like a Disney
because Disney kinda fell intothis.
With Bob Iger having somepeople going at him.
They're not really excitedabout him.
So, yeah, some people going atBob Iger here and they're
(14:15):
saying, hey, look at what youget paid, man.
You're getting paid millions ofdollars and we're getting
scraps here.
The issue is is that thesecompanies at least with Disney
and with Apple and some of theseother major companies, they do
other things, Doug.
Right?
So it's kind of like
Speaker 2 (14:31):
They're diversified a little bit.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
They're they're so diversified.
Right?
If I'm making money from parks,I'm making money from other
things selling merch and stuffof that nature, how much money
and attention can they reallydevote to these these other
efforts in their company?
Speaker 2 (14:49):
You know, that that's gonna be the million dollar
question.
And I also think a lot of theseother companies are gonna have
to learn to diversify a littlebit.
And I but I also think they'regonna have to concede a little
bit on on the money as well.
Because as popular as streamingis, and that's what the public
(15:15):
expects at this point.
I just don't think a lot ofthese companies are prepared for
it just yet.
They're still under the oldmindset of we make a movie.
We ship it out to the movietheaters.
That's where everything's gonnago.
And then at some point in thefuture, we're gonna turn around
and put it on DVD or the oldBHS, etcetera.
(15:37):
And then maybe put it instreaming.
So I think companies are gonnahave to come around to see that
the old way is not gonna workmoving forward?
Speaker 1 (15:50):
How long do you think that will take, Doug?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
That's the million dollar question.
You know what?
And I think this is the firststep in this process.
Because I think the actors andthe writers are are I'm gonna
say, up to here with it.
You know, they've had enough.
And I think some of them arewilling to hold out as long as
they they possibly can.
(16:13):
Now at the end of the day,we're gonna have to wait to see
who wins.
Does the companies have themoney to hold out?
Or can these actors andactresses and riders can they
afford to hold out?
I think that's gonna beinteresting.
I just don't think the moviestudios are as powerful as they
once were.
Nor do they have the capital.
(16:34):
So this may be something thatgets resolved relatively shortly
or or quickly compared to itwas in the in the past just
because I don't think the fundsare there with the movie studios
as they once were.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
You you bring up an interesting point when when this
with the studio versus the bigbecause you have so many
oddities major companies thatare getting industry main
business, like your Apple, likeyour Googles.
Right?
And these companies are massive.
These are massive businesses.
They can purchase five Kennedystudios.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
And not and write it off.
It'd be, like, a Ted to writeoff.
Them.
I I don't envy the actors herein this in this fight because if
you're going up against let'ssay you're old strike and you're
going up against a paramount ormaybe even a Time Warner or
Time Warner was pretty big.
Let's say you're going upagainst one of these companies.
(17:34):
Right.
Okay.
That's one thing.
Right?
But then going up against,like, a a company with a market
cap that's, like, near atrillion dollars.
Good luck with that.
Like because they can just siton that forever for for an
eternity.
It waits you out.
Yeah.
But so And they will.
Members Right?
Are they really incentivizednot too dumb?
(17:54):
Right?
Or are they really incentivizednot to do it?
Just out of the kindness oftheir heart are in the hopes
that stuff just gets released.
Maybe that's maybe they maybewhat public demand?
Would they add a bit of socialmedia put in a little more
pressure, Doug?
Speaker 2 (18:09):
It's possible, but at the end of the day, how many
people on social media reallyfeel sorry for the studios?
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Man.
Right?
And the the fact topiggybacking off that point is
people, and this happens whatathletes do.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Right.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
You know, you you can have an athlete who says, hey,
we're we're we're not playing.
We're locked down and we'relooking at you like, guys, guys
make twenty, thirty milliondollars a year, just go out
there and play the game.
But here's the problem.
That owner's making two orthree billion dollars this year.
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
And and what's funny is you got the billionaires
versus the millionaires.
And we're and and both sidesare feel like they're getting
cheated and we're sitting thereand we're going, we're not in
either one of these leagues.
We just want you to go aheadand play the game, you know.
And so I think that's a littlebit how people feel with actors
(19:03):
and the writers.
I understand they're not makingnearly what they need to be
making.
I get it.
I agree with them.
But let's let's face it.
The average Joe on the street?
Do they really get it?
Do they really understand that,yeah, there's a few actors and
actresses that are makingmillion dollars But some of
(19:23):
these smaller actors andactresses, they're getting paid,
you know, they may even belucky to make forty, sixty
thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yes.
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah.
And, yes, I would love to in attimes be able to change places
with them and and and think thatyou could go down in movie
cinema history as somebody that,you know, when it's all said
done that it'd be consideredbreaking news on you know, on
certain things.
But at the end of the day, it'shard for people to feel sorry
(19:54):
for some of these individualsbecause perception is reality.
And then in their mind, theeverybody's a millionaire or a
billionaire where the case mightbe.
And in reality, that's far fromthe truth.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
You know, it's it's interesting because one of the
the the actresses that was onOrange and New Black is she
spoke about how about how thethe juxtaposition of her being
famous, having to stop pictureson the street and stuff like
that, and people think thatshe's rich.
And she's like, am I rich?
I mean, you have healthinsurance?
And she's like, I don't evenhave health insurance.
(20:29):
Right.
She just thought these picturesall the time.
And people feel like I'm richand
Speaker 2 (20:33):
and -- Right.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
-- they're not.
You know, I'm now friendDresher from the nanny.
I'm not sure if you everwatched that show back in the
day the nanny.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Friends Dresher, she is the I don't know if she's,
like, president of of I don'tknow if I don't think I don't
know if it's SAG, but I don'tknow if she's president, but
she's one of the representatives.
She's, like, one of the facesof the the factors on the other
side of this discussion.
Right.
One of the things that shebrought up, which is an
excellent point and andinteresting just to kinda
calcify what we're talking abouthere.
(21:04):
And she said that most of ourmembers don't have health
insurance.
And she said, to have healthinsurance in this business, you
only need to make twenty seventhousand dollars.
So let's let's go over that.
That means
Speaker 2 (21:16):
that those
Speaker 1 (21:17):
aren't making twenty seven thousand dollars because
most of them don't have healthinsurance.
Most of them aren't makingtwenty seven thousand dollars in
that business.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Is that crazy or what ?
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Absolutely crazy because you're looking at the
top and we're looking at timecruises that they were alright
or look at the black woods here.
Jed an off the Santropay orsomeplace.
You're looking like, hey, I'mnot gonna feel sorry for you.
You're not gonna be picketingfrom Trentropay, picking from
your yacht.
Or, you know, we're we'rethat's the way that we're all
thinking of it.
Right?
But at the same time, there'ssuch a residual effect here,
(21:50):
Doug, because it's not just them.
Right?
It's the light guys.
It's the audio guys.
It's the guys with thecameraman.
Right?
It's the guys your your yourblue collar worker, which my
friends, I consider them bluecollar guys in this business.
Like, they they do have bigpayday at times.
Right?
Sure.
Sure.
But they don't come frequentenough.
To be like rich.
You know, they they can livecomfortably.
(22:12):
They can have a comfortablelife.
But they're not these guys thatare breaking in millions of
dollars, when an act when a workstoppage like this happens,
it's kinda in a studio'sfavorite.
Right?
Because the studio because,hey, listen.
These guys gotta get back towork.
And if you're a time cruise,you can stand to not make
another movie again for the restof your life.
(22:32):
You're you're gonna be good.
But if you're at the bottom ofthat scale, you have an actual
job that you now cannot show upto.
Do you think that puts morepressure on this studio's the
set order, more pressure on thethe guild and the kind of unions
to settle.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Unfortunately, I think it's only unions to settle
because the studios.
Yeah.
I I I would hope that they feelbad for some of these
individuals.
But at the end of the day, it'sbusiness.
You know, it's nothing personal.
It's strictly business in theprocess.
And number two, is most ofthese studios probably have
(23:10):
several movies already in thecan.
And so they're still gonna bereleasing them there may be
obligations.
I don't know.
I'm not an attorney.
I have no idea that if theycome out with the premier let's
say, a movie supposed to comeout next week are certain stars
and celebrity even thoughthey're on strike required to
come out and support the newfilm.
(23:31):
I don't know somebody a lotsmarter than me would have to be
able to tell me that.
But let's just say they did.
Let's just take the argument'ssake and and they did.
What's the studio scare?
They cut these individuals bywhatever, and they're forcing
them in that process.
So unfortunately, I think it'smore with the unions and the
(23:54):
trade than with the studios tosettle this.
I'm not saying it's right.
Don't misinterpret what I'msaying.
It's just at the end of the day.
It's probably gonna be theworker bees is gonna have to
once again work this out.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Unfortunately, right, getting the -- Yeah.
-- the short end short end ofthe stick, so to speak.
Absolutely.
You know, another thing was AIwas a sticking point, Doug.
So and one of the things thatthat friend dresser brought up
that was very interesting wasbeing able to scan.
So let's say, Doug, we and youget cast in the background of a
movie.
Mhmm.
The way that they have it nowor or or what's being pitched is
(24:31):
they we do the movie once.
We get our hundred dollars twohundred bucks to do our stand in
.
They scan our face and use usbe able to use our likeness and
perpetuity without paying us oneseat again after that.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Right.
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
What was funny from the studio?
What's funny was the the I Iread yesterday a a studio
response or at least their whatare their responses to it, which
was absolutely ridiculous.
One of the studio responses oneof the company responses I
should say was something to thedegree of, well, they we we
asked them first so to speaklike, you you gotta sign it
first.
Right.
You know?
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
And I'm like, but if you if you ask a person and say,
you're not really asking ifyou're not gonna get the job.
Right, Doug?
So if if -- Right.
-- your job is on the line, areyou really asking them?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
No.
You're basically telling them.
Right?
It's this or that.
I mean, I guess I could see alittle bit where the studio's
coming from is saying thateverybody's got a joists we
didn't put it into your head.
You don't have to do this.
But at the end of the day,let's let's be realistic.
Right.
We don't have to.
(25:42):
But there's a lot of things Ido that I don't have to do.
I do because, yeah, I'm takingcare of my family.
Or it's on my bucket list orit's something that I'm really
passionate about.
And, unfortunately, sometimes,we will hurt ourselves in the
process just in order to be ableto achieve something that we
(26:04):
want that we wanna achieve.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
I feel like that's one of the reasons why these
unions are so important insports and entertainment in
particular.
Right?
Because yeah.
These are jobs that are veryhigh sought after.
And studios can just say, hey,I'm just gonna I'm definitely
gonna find somebody who's gonnasign this contract.
Eventually.
I'll definitely find somebodywho wants to play this game,
this position eventually.
(26:29):
I'll definitely find somebodywho wants to coach eventually.
Right?
You know, you you you know,you're gonna find somebody who
wants to do these jobs becausethey're highly sought after jobs
.
And they still do pay betterthan than average on some of
these jobs.
Apps.
Right?
So then the unions really needit so that teams don't come down
or the leagues don't come downand just dictate whatever they
want at that point because toleverage naturities in their
(26:52):
favor.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Absolutely does.
And that's why, you know, yearsago, we we needed the unions to
come in because they providedsafe working conditions, wages,
child labor law, etcetera.
So these are necessaryorganizations because without
them, we'd be in a lot differentsituation than we are today.
(27:17):
And so they are needed, but Ithink at the end of the day,
It's, you know, money moneytalks, those studio heads or
those that have the money,usually went out or get a lot of
what they were asking forbecause at the end of the day,
they got the money and theworker bees, I keep saying that.
(27:40):
They're the ones that yeah.
They're like, well, I can dothis for a while, but, you know,
At some point, I've I've got akid and go back to work or find
another job.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Man, and you you know what sucks about finding
another job.
In these businesses, Doug,these are lifelong businesses
for these people.
In sports, everybody, thesepeople start playing in their
when their kids, four or five.
Right?
You you know, you spent yourwhole life.
Preparing for this moment.
With these actresses, dancers,singers, writers, and stuff of
that nature, a lot of thesepeople do it for a whole
lifetime to get to where theyare.
(28:13):
So it's kind of like, are youjust gonna drop that, book him a
plumber?
Or what do what do what do youdo?
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Well, I think you're exactly right.
And some of them don't knowwhat to do because this is all
the way to home throughout theirwhole career.
You know?
So, again, I feel sorry forhim, and I believe that at the
end of the day, that, you know,there's gonna be some tough
decisions.
It's gonna have to be made, andI don't envy those writers,
(28:45):
actors, actresses, etceterabecause they're they're fighting
a good fight.
They've got a reason to befighting.
I I I just hope they can makesome headway
Speaker 1 (28:59):
I I'm hoping that this doesn't drag and drag and
drag.
Remember, there was a strike intwo thousand seven, and it used
to be a show And and there's afew shows that that came on
around that time.
One show was called heroes thatcame on around two thousand
seven.
And and and I don't know if youever watch loss and and stuff
around that time.
And some of those shows, itespecially Heroes in which is
(29:19):
kind of, like, it representsthat strike of two thousand
seven because it never recoveredafter two thousand it never
recovered after the strike.
It was the show was on topgoing into the strike and pretty
much out of here coming out ofthe strike.
I'm hoping that we don't have alot of damage like that to to
something struggles and certainthings because the life changes,
you know, people change.
(29:39):
Life changes.
That strike show that you justcan't put any writer on shows
and have it you can't justbetter change them and have it
be the same success.
You know?
So I'm hoping that some of thisstuff does get solved
expeditiously so that there'sless damage done to some of
these IPs and stuff like that.
(30:01):
You know, so many people havealready we're right in the
middle of recording, somebodyshows Doug, and
Speaker 2 (30:05):
that's why
Speaker 1 (30:05):
we're having to walk offsets.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Well, I'll say if if there isany silver lining here.
And I'm trying to to find asilver lining.
If I don't know if you recall,but during the COVID, obviously,
a lot of companies could notmake films.
And what what happened wasthere was the rise of a lot of
(30:30):
these side studios.
That's what I'm gonna call them.
Mom and pop industry, and theymade a lot of horror movies.
And the reason they did that isbecause it doesn't take a lot
of acting, it doesn't take a lotof script writing, it doesn't
take a lot of money, to makesomething like Halloween.
No.
I'm not comparing some of thesemovie to the classics.
(30:55):
Like, how are we, you know, theTexas jeans all match the skirt
.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Clear waves, though.
That's why that
Speaker 2 (31:00):
that makes it very comparable Right?
Yes.
That is exactly why I wasgetting ready to say next is and
then you saw some of these Imean, they were, like, never one
of the box office, and it was Imean, they could set them up
here.
You know, the I ran the burgers.
I don't know.
They could they could set themup.
But they were making, like, youknow, forty, fifty thousand
(31:22):
dollars.
They were never one of the boxoffice.
And a lot of these wentstraight to drive in theaters
because people could be spreadout during COVID.
And that has a feel with this,if this last very long, where
there may be, again, someexpiring actors, actresses,
(31:44):
directors, writers that may geta little bit of a break Now I'm
not gonna say they're gonna bethe next Steven Spielberg or
anything like that, but they'llhave their fifteen minutes of
fame.
And and I'm trying to look fora silver lining in all of this.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah.
I I don't I I mean, I'm prettysure that they're they're hoping
they're some silver lining aswell.
There you go.
Right.
It's because they don't wannabe out of work for for forever
here.
And and Right.
With some of the sticking pointbeing so so large, like the AI
and perpetuity situation,they're trying to find a way to
kinda work that out.
They're trying to find a way towork out things like breaks and
(32:25):
and stuff like that are beingtold actors like, I would give
you one, like, a self recording.
If you're a self recording, Ithink that's kinda my friend is,
he he self records for forfilms.
Like, they call them.
It's like saying, hey, Doug, wewant you to do this football
film.
Is filming.
We want you to send us a taperof you self taping, and we'll
(32:46):
send you the lines.
And they might send you thirtypages to memorize by, like,
tomorrow for you to self shootit and then send it back to the
studio on their timeline.
So some of that stuff is longertimelines, less patient issue,
maybe being compensated to acertain degree for those efforts
because they can land younothing.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Right.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Stuff like that.
You know, the the the littledetails that have to be kinda
worked out.
And I'm and I'm pretty surethat that Frank Drexler and
Company are gonna be underimmense pressure.
From their from their union,the union workers under them who
were like, hey, I gotta go backto work.
Her wife, Kate Family, youknow, whatever.
I gotta go back to lunch.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
He's gonna he's gonna pay more mortgage.
Yeah.
My rent.
Whatever the case might be.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
So here's the hope in that this does get settled soon
.
In hoping that we don't have todo another subject on this, but
we will be back to do it.
Doug, if we if we happy,appreciate you taking some time
here.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Reg it's always a pleasure to be honest with you.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
You got it, my friend .
It's Regen HTL, check us out,state your iHeartRadio, Google
podcast, Apple podcast, Spotify,wherever you find your podcast,
cast.
See you next time.
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