From the Page to the Screen: The screenwriter’s strike and the cultural significance of movies and shows

I’ve written before about the power of art and reading. I want to go down a similar route with Movies and TV this week. The main reason for doing so is because of the current screenwriter's strike. People may not understand how big of a deal this is but it impacts almost everything we watch. There are a lot of reasons for this strike but a few stand out. First, the landscape has drastically changed since their last contract. Cable has largely been replaced by streaming services, and with that, how writers are paid has also changed. Studios have condensed writers' rooms to make them more “efficient” for creating the type of limited-run series we’re all used to now. The problem with that is that these writers don’t get the same experience or pay they would if it was a decade ago and they were working on a 22-episode season. No one can survive on 3-8 weeks of pay. Writers also used to get paid residuals for when their shows aired on networks but I don’t think that has really transferred over to streaming. While movies are a little different they’re not immune to these changes either. Studios are making fewer investments in original screenplays and are highly focused on IP. Luckily there are studios like A24 that give smaller screenwriters and filmmakers a chance, but they don’t have the budget to make up for the lack of opportunity at large. Writers are also striking because of something that hasn’t hit them yet but will, something that will hit all of us. AI. They’re anticipating that the moment AI becomes serviceable enough to write scripts and generate passable ideas, studios will start replacing people with algorithms. AI will write the initial scripts or come up with ideas, and then people will be paid fractions of their previous paycheck to merely clean those scripts up. It’s a nightmare scenario for creatives, and the screenwriters can see the writing on the wall. 

So with this context of the strike in mind, let’s talk about why movies and TV shows are so important to us. Based on some of my pieces, it may appear that I’d be someone who looks down on movies and TV shows. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. If you ask any of my friends you’d hear about how much I care about these mediums. I’m always giving recommendations and trying to stay caught up with the latest releases. I watch everything from small arthouse films to blockbusters. I believe that movies and shows serve as social glue in the modern era. They’re a cultural touchpoint that brings people together. It’s rare that you meet someone who doesn’t have at least some interest in them. Just last week I ended up in a conversation about the filmmaker Richard Linklater with the cashiers at Trader Joe’s. It’s one of the few things left that the majority of people can relate to with one another. Even people who are extremely busy or productive seem to find time to watch things. 

Probably the largest reason why movies and shows are so important to us is that at their core, they’re stories. The roots of human culture lie in the stories we tell. Filmmaking is just one of the latest forms of how we tell them. Movies and shows allow us to express our stories in more detail than really any other medium. When they’re done well they have the power to truly bring us into a different world or different part of the world. The story becomes something more immersive through music, effects, non-verbal cues, acting, set pieces, and everything else that goes into the production. We get the full picture of the storytellers’ vision. This visceral nature of films and shows elicits an emotional response that’s hard to get elsewhere. We hear about people crying from movies a lot more than we do about them crying from books. That’s not to discount the writers either because they’re often what can make or break a project. There’s no emotion or engagement if they don’t write something that all of the other people involved can turn into something powerful. 

All of the people involved are also what make films and shows different than other art forms and mediums. The most visible are the actors. (Just a side note here that when I say actors in this piece I mean everyone who acts, it doesn’t make sense to gender this profession.) Acting is a much harder job than people realize. Their job is to make someone else's work come to life and be the face of the production. They have to inhabit characters who may be very different from themselves. It’s their job to make the story seem real, and when they do it can turn a good movie into a great one. Actors may be front and center, but there’s a whole team of people behind the camera who also have a ton of responsibility in trying to make something great. Writers are indispensable as it’s their story that’s being brought to life. Again without their ideas, there’s nothing to build. Directors also shoulder a lot of weight as it’s their job to make it all work together to form a finished product. They take all of these disparate parts and bring them together to create something special. I’d have to write a book to describe all of the other roles involved, but they deserve all of the respect in the world. There are caterers, lighting people, audio engineers, production assistants, cinematographers, set designers, costume designers, and countless others who make movies and TV shows possible. It truly takes a village in order to get something good made. If one role disappears everything else goes along with it. That’s what makes it such a powerful medium, it’s a shared vision created by all of these people working together. 

Films and shows also have this inherently social piece to them. While it’s possible to view them in a vacuum, the experience is always enhanced with others. You’re able to sit with people you care about or strangers for two hours and have this truly shared experience with them. Whether it’s laughter, tears, fear, or any other part of the human experience, you’re in it together. Afterward, the conversation generates itself, you can talk about everything you just saw together. What you loved, what you hated, who had the best performance, or whether it needs a sequel. Even the disagreements bring you closer together. It’s a real bonding experience. We all have memories of watching things with our friends and family. This experience isn’t limited to being in the same room though. Even if you didn’t watch something with someone, that doesn’t limit the connection. Think about the conversations that happen when you find out someone shares your taste in movies or when a friend comes back after watching a movie or show you recommended. This is what I meant when I said they serve as social glue, these mediums really serve as some of the best ways to connect with other people. 

After spending some time writing this piece I realized that at I was sort of channeling that intense AMC promo with Nicole Kidman. I’m sure you know the one where she goes on about the magic of movies. It’s so unsettling that it was satirized on SNL. Despite the surrealness of that promo, I think it does have a point. Movies and shows have a real place in most of our lives. It’s one of the few pieces of shared culture that any of us have left in our fragmented digital ecosystem. This is why I’m so concerned about AI. I’m sure it will help filmmakers in a lot of ways but the reason that filmmaking does what it does is because of the human element. Writers can impart their experience with the human condition into what they write. People who live real lives work together to bring these stories to life. We lose that If we let an algorithm write something. I have real doubts that even the best actors will be able to make AI scripts sound natural. At this point, we’ve all seen dead actors get reincarnated through AI, what happens when actors who are alive get replaced? While I don’t think the technology is there yet, we’re on a trajectory where we’ll move away from stories to just “content”. That content won’t bring people together, we’ll all see just see whatever’s been generated to keep our eyes on the screen. That’s why I stand in solidarity with the writers who are striking today. They aren’t just striking for their jobs, but in a lot of ways they’re striking for art, and they’re striking for humanity. That’s something we should all get behind.