Reg in AtL
Reg in AtL
Exploring the Actor and Writer's strike
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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.
AI and Convenience's Impact on Jobs
Speaker 1To read an ACL coming to you for lovely city of Atlanta, Georgia going out to Clinton, Indiana . Here with Doug . Hey, Doug . How's it going ?
Speaker 2Great, Reggie . How are you ?
Speaker 1Man, always good . Always good . Better than the people that we're gonna be discussing today . I would say, you know, because I'm not we're not on strike or anything here . You know, we're gonna talk a little bit about that they're the writer strike it, and the actors screen act the actors that have joined the writer . So, you know, you had the writer strike And they seem to be when you look at the two the two situations, Doug, they seem to be some there seems to be some similarities here . With the biggest sticking points being, like, AI and streaming . Of course -- Yep . -- we've been doing we've done AI episodes on this show before, and I knew that this is gonna be disrupting force to a certain degree . And I think that this is some of the beginnings of it, Doug . Like, we're First name, for sure . Right ?
Speaker 2Absolutely .
Speaker 1Did that mention the other pass in a do you remember any anything in a pass, Doug, as far as, like, other strikes ? Do you are you have you recalled any other strikes in the past that you could recall ?
Speaker 2Yeah . There's always been a rider of strikes, and actors in terms of that, ninety five percent of those, I'm going to say, was probably overpay in better working conditions . Things are a little bit different today . In one regards, pay is probably always gonna be an issue, even if I'm the breadhead of the world, I'm probably gonna wanna make a little bit more . Right ? And that's just what
Speaker 1you're gonna want to make last minute . Right .
Speaker 2Absolutely . So that's always gonna be a sticking point . I I think that will be around forever for us . But as you you know, we're talking about is AI . Can some of these studios, especially smaller ones, do it quicker and cheaper with artificial intelligence, and so they have to pay somebody to write . That's
Speaker 1it's a good question, man . And I I I feel like would I think that it was gonna end up becoming -- Mhmm . -- is akin to the self checkouts at your local grocery store at your Walmart . Right ?
Speaker 2Yes .
Speaker 1Instead of employing five writers, maybe you employ two or three with the help of of AI . You know it now . You got you'll just get the one self checkout person who's running, like, eight registers or versus No . You're exactly now .
Speaker 2You're exactly right . I literally was in our local Walmart yesterday . And you're right . There was one individual there for 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 full that was, you know, checking out, And so if there was six self checkout and two others, so eight eight aisles, and everybody was running through . All of them were were occupied, but you only had three full time employees .
Speaker 1I mean, Doug, I mean, can can you is it hard to argue against . Right ? But we're both pope
Speaker 2and
Speaker 1the capitalist guys, man, and it's -- Absolutely . -- against that .
Speaker 2Absolutely . So it it is . Now, I have a friend who refuses to do the checkouts . He's pro capital, capitalist, but he refuses to to check out, and his argument is, I've costed somebody a job . In terms of that . So he may stay a little longer in the store in line just to make sure that he's given somebody a job, basically .
Speaker 1It's it's an interesting perspective, man, because it's it's you would need people to take more stands like that, I think, in order to combat that on a labor from a labor standpoint . Right . Like, somebody is willing to wait a little bit longer, which is the bane of my existence is to go to a human being at Walmart . And then I'm gonna tell you right now . That's the that's that's not of the life I ever wanna live . I've had to go to human being before . I don't know if people remember here, Doug . Back in the day, Go into Walmart was like an adventure, man . Like, yeah, go into Walmart down here . Was like, you gotta be prepared for one duck block out an hour of your time, an hour and a half, an hour an hour to two hours of your time needs to be blocked out . Yep . Go and try to wade through there . You got lines that are going back into aisles of the store, so you might be in the women's section waiting in the line because it's -- Correct . -- walking back that far . Right ?
Speaker 2Yes . Yes .
Speaker 1Is there a line, Doug, you think, between convenience and saving those jobs . You feel like there's a happy median there between the two ? Because ultimately I go for the convenience . If I can save the job, I would . But ultimately, you gotta go for the convenience . You even get us a a median ?
Speaker 2No . There's not because we're ourselves our our own worse enemies . We say we want to save jobs, but we always side with convenience every time or at least nine times out of ten . And I'm guilty as the next person . I mean, I I I don't want anybody to lose their job . Right ? Well, I'm not advocating that . But guess what ? When I went in there for bread, milk, and a candy bar or bottle pop or whatever I'm in there to buy . I look at the line . And then I look at the self checkout and I go, I got four items I could be in a car and home in a matter of minutes . So I'm just just guilty as the next person . In that process . And and I'll tell you where I think everything really started to go in that direction, and I think you can make an argument that it was part of this, but COVID really sped things up .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 2Because I I remember when COVID was in the heat of the battle if we can say it that way . Mhmm . My wife and I would do the Walmart app pick our groceries and then have a set time where we would drive Uber to the Super Walmart . Pull into our parking spot, call into the store, say that, you know, we're here on parking lot six or parking aisle number six or whenever it is . And then somebody would come out, oh, we'd have our windows all up, cars running, and then you pop the trunk and somebody would put them in there for you and wave as they were walking back in the storm . And I to me, that's where it all really It may not have started there, but it sure got a good head of steam on it .
Speaker 1I feel like you are absolutely accurate there, and and that was in way more that was in a lot of in a lot of ways . And what happened was progress progression got pulled forward . So when you were looking at what may have taken it minus COVID, maybe five years to adopt . Right, Doug ? Right . Minus COVID .
Speaker 2Right .
Speaker 1Now it's adopted overnight . Because people and this happened with delivery services . Before COVID, my delivery services were very minimal before COVID .
Speaker 2I wouldn't
Speaker 1After COVID, they're still a made part of my life . Like, I learned that I can get my stuff brought to me and not having to leave my house . Then I'd rather do that . If I'm gonna be running to work or something, I'd rather have it here to have my door before I even go to work, you know ? And in the morning Yeah . Absolutely . Do you feel like there's there's something can can that toothpaste you put back in the tube, so to speak ? Can we go back a little bit ? Or you feel like that's kind of just it's over now we're kind of progressing as a society .
Speaker 2Howard Bauchner: No, I think the genie is out of the bottle and it's going to be almost impossible to put it in there . Your major corporations would have to I mean, whether it's DoorDash or there at Walmart or Amazon, they would have to stop that service, and I just don't believe that that's ever gonna happen . You know, we are way too far down the road . And with all the the bad of COVID, if I can say it that way, this is either a blessing or a curse, depending on how you want to look at it . A blessing that now I don't have to go in the store or I don't have to go into a restaurant, I can have somebody pick it up, order it, pick it up, and deliver it to me . The bad thing is, we're probably causing people jobs . And making the profits of the company a little higher and a little quicker .
Speaker 1You know what's interesting here, is there something else that happened during his time period that me and my colleague Nick used to talk about quite a bit during COVID that I that I told him like, man, it it didn't necessarily stick all the way, Doug, but I feel like it had sticking power, and that's when they were releasing films directly to streaming .
Speaker 2Right .
Speaker 1And I told them, I said, you know ? It's easy for let let's just take two different situations . You got a couple, no kids, you know, the wind to their back . They can go do whatever they want anytime they want . Right ?
Speaker 2Absolutely .
Speaker 1Now let's go to the family, Doug . Right ? The family, you gotta you gotta corral these kids . You gotta get them out there . Get them into the theater, pay a million dollars for your snacks and concessions . We get them to sit still for that couple hours . Right ?
Speaker 2Well,
Speaker 1it's a bigger reach for them, isn't it ?
Speaker 2Oh, it absolutely is . I know for us, you know, a family of four . First of all, the biggest challenge is making sure all four of us wants to see the same movie . That's one part
Speaker 1about it . I can't even do that with one person .
Speaker 2And then there's we have two boys . And then we have to make sure they wanna be seen with us, you know, in public because it's not cool to be seen with moms .
Speaker 1S a s a h . It's gonna become a problem . It's gonna become a problem . For them, Doug .
Speaker 2Absolutely . It's a little easier to get the youngest one because he can't drive . So to at least kind of, you know, we could we could twist the arm a little bit there with him, but the order went, you know, he's gone, you know . He's driving . He'll he'll he'll do whatever he wants to do . But yeah, I I I think, again, with COVID, it was a mixed bag . The companies or the movie studios had to get new movies out . They had them in the in the hopper . They had to get them out because they had to make money . Okay ? It was almost impossible to film . I mean, you had so many restrictions on you . Things got delayed . They had to have that revenue coming in . Flipside of that is it's great with streaming . So now all four of us in our house can be be watching separate it wasn't like the old days that you only had one . The bad part of that is, now I don't know a lot of people that go to the movies . I'm not saying that people don't still go to the movies, but it's it's easier for them to watch it on streaming or wait for it to come out than it is to actually go to the movie theaters to do that . Howard
Speaker 1Bauchner: I think this is gonna become one of the things that's because that's one of the things that that was a sticking point before prior to this strike . I wanna say that that's the main sticking point, but the main sticking point does appear to be streaming . Now -- Yeah . -- one of the things I can say that I would just witness and then you can go on to social media and see this and see a lot of this, and then I'm gonna use orange and new black as a as an example here . From Netflix . Great Netflix show, Netflix original .
Streaming's Impact on Industry and Finances
Speaker 1Versus airing on like a show like fringe, something like that, a sign filler that who knows, some of these shows that's equivalent to the popularity that because Orange and New Black is a very popular show . They got a very popular network show . Now, the way that these shows get paid and and had an actor friend kind of break this down to me, and he did a pretty good job breaking this down . And Orange's new black, like, a couple of the actresses that were on that show have shown their paychecks, and I'm telling you, Doug, you you it's it's less than an hour . It's like twenty twenty seven dollars . That's one one showed a check for twenty seven dollars . Knowledge, like, oh my god, get paid since in comparison to what the residuals would be on a network . Show . Okay . So that's one thing . Trying to figure out where where that point lies, but my actor friend told me that he was like, well, Reg, we would do and number gonna throw out a number . He used a thousand dollars number . He used that same number .
Speaker 2Sure .
Speaker 1He 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 that show aired in Australia, I get paid another ten grand . Right . But every in every new market that it kind of emerges is, I get paid again . You know, is it emerges in a new market ? He said, with Streamy, that's just out the window altogether . Tuesday, so that was from ten thousand to zero . Right . Out . So he was like, that's a major major sticking point . You know, with them trying to kind of figure out how do you how do you get these bigger corporations in the streaming ? Because there are people that are in these corporations, of course, that you know what they're gonna say . They're they're broke . They're, you know, you know how to exactly what you say . Absolutely . We're we're we're poppers here . We're we're not making anything . And Meanwhile, your company's worth almost, like, you know, seven, eight hundred billion dollars . Right ? You know, you have a --
Speaker 2Right .
Speaker 1-- some astronomical number .
Speaker 2Right .
Speaker 1In which we'll go through the the because that that's a good there's a good impact to that because a lot of these companies and let's just use Apple as an example . Right ? Apple three trillion dollar market cap the biometrics they wanted to . Right ? Absolutely . The problem is is Apple TV or whatever their media portions of that company is aren't necessarily contributing to the bottom line as their products . These are companies that do a lot of different things . It's not necessarily like a Netflix . Right ? It's just content is their business -- Right . -- versus these larger corporations like a Disney because Disney kinda fell into this . With Bob Iger having some people going at him . They're not really excited about him . So, yeah, some people going at Bob Iger here and they're saying, hey, look at what you get paid, man . You're getting paid millions of dollars and we're getting scraps here . The issue is is that these companies at least with Disney and with Apple and some of these other major companies, they do other things, Doug . Right ? So it's kind of like
Speaker 2They're diversified a little bit .
Speaker 1They're they're so diversified . Right ? If I'm making money from parks, I'm making money from other things selling merch and stuff of that nature, how much money and attention can they really devote to these these other efforts in their company ?
Speaker 2You know, that that's gonna be the million dollar question . And I also think a lot of these other companies are gonna have to learn to diversify a little bit . And I but I also think they're gonna have to concede a little bit on on the money as well . Because as popular as streaming is, and that's what the public expects at this point . I just don't think a lot of these companies are prepared for it just yet . They're still under the old mindset of we make a movie . We ship it out to the movie theaters . That's where everything's gonna go . And then at some point in the future, we're gonna turn around and put it on DVD or the old BHS, etcetera . And then maybe put it in streaming . So I think companies are gonna have to come around to see that the old way is not gonna work moving forward ?
Speaker 1How long do you think that will take, Doug ?
Speaker 2That's the million dollar question . You know what ? And I think this is the first step in this process . Because I think the actors and the writers are are I'm gonna say, up to here with it . You know, they've had enough . And I think some of them are willing to hold out as long as they they possibly can . Now at the end of the day, we're gonna have to wait to see who wins . Does the companies have the money to hold out ? Or can these actors and actresses and riders can they afford to hold out ? I think that's gonna be interesting . I just don't think the movie studios are as powerful as they once were . Nor do they have the capital . So this may be something that gets resolved relatively shortly or or quickly compared to it was in the in the past just because I don't think the funds are there with the movie studios as they once were .
Speaker 1You you bring up an interesting point when when this with the studio versus the big because you have so many oddities major companies that are getting industry main business, like your Apple, like your Googles . Right ? And these companies are massive . These are massive businesses . They can purchase five Kennedy studios .
Speaker 2Okay .
Speaker 1And not and write it off . It'd be, like, a Ted to write off . Them .
Issues Surrounding Actors and Studios
Speaker 1I I don't envy the actors here in this in this fight because if you're going up against let's say you're old strike and you're going up against a paramount or maybe even a Time Warner or Time Warner was pretty big . Let's say you're going up against one of these companies . Right . Okay . That's one thing . Right ? But then going up against, like, a a company with a market cap that's, like, near a trillion dollars . Good luck with that . Like because they can just sit on that forever for for an eternity . It waits you out . Yeah . But so And they will . Members Right ? Are they really incentivized not too dumb ? Right ? Or are they really incentivized not to do it ? Just out of the kindness of their heart are in the hopes that stuff just gets released . Maybe that's maybe they maybe what public demand ? Would they add a bit of social media put in a little more pressure, Doug ?
Speaker 2It's possible, but at the end of the day, how many people on social media really feel sorry for the studios ?
Speaker 1Man . Right ? And the the fact to piggybacking off that point is people, and this happens what athletes do .
Speaker 2Right .
Speaker 1You know, you you can have an athlete who says, hey, we're we're we're not playing . We're locked down and we're looking at you like, guys, guys make twenty, thirty million dollars a year, just go out there and play the game . But here's the problem . That owner's making two or three billion dollars this year . Right .
Speaker 2And and what's funny is you got the billionaires versus the millionaires . And we're and and both sides are feel like they're getting cheated and we're sitting there and we're going, we're not in either one of these leagues . We just want you to go ahead and play the game, you know . And so I think that's a little bit how people feel with actors and the writers . I understand they're not making nearly 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 making million dollars But some of these smaller actors and actresses, they're getting paid, you know, they may even be lucky to make forty, sixty thousand dollars a year .
Speaker 1Yes . Exactly .
Speaker 2Yeah . And, yes, I would love to in at times be able to change places with them and and and think that you could go down in movie cinema history as somebody that, you know, when it's all said done that it'd be considered breaking news on you know, on certain things . But at the end of the day, it's hard for people to feel sorry for some of these individuals because perception is reality . And then in their mind, the everybody's a millionaire or a billionaire where the case might be . And in reality, that's far from the truth .
Speaker 1You know, it's it's interesting because one of the the the actresses that was on Orange and New Black is she spoke about how about how the the juxtaposition of her being famous, having to stop pictures on the street and stuff like that, and people think that she's rich . And she's like, am I rich ? I mean, you have health insurance ? And she's like, I don't even have health insurance . Right . She just thought these pictures all the time . And people feel like I'm rich and
Speaker 2and -- Right .
Speaker 1-- they're not . You know, I'm now friend Dresher from the nanny . I'm not sure if you ever watched that show back in the day the nanny .
Speaker 2Oh, yeah .
Speaker 1Friends Dresher, she is the I don't know if she's, like, president of of I don't know if I don't think I don't know if it's SAG, but I don't know if she's president, but she's one of the representatives . She's, like, one of the faces of the the factors on the other side of this discussion . Right . One of the things that she brought up, which is an excellent point and and interesting just to kinda calcify what we're talking about here . And she said that most of our members don't have health insurance . And she said, to have health insurance in this business, you only need to make twenty seven thousand dollars . So let's let's go over that . That means
Speaker 2that those
Speaker 1aren't making twenty seven thousand dollars because most of them don't have health insurance . Most of them aren't making twenty seven thousand dollars in that business .
Speaker 2Is that crazy or what ?
Speaker 1Absolutely crazy because you're looking at the top and we're looking at time cruises that they were alright or look at the black woods here . Jed an off the Santropay or someplace . You're looking like, hey, I'm not gonna feel sorry for you . You're not gonna be picketing from Trentropay, picking from your yacht . Or, you know, we're we're that's the way that we're all thinking of it . Right ? But at the same time, there's such a residual effect here, Doug, because it's not just them . Right ? It's the light guys . It's the audio guys . It's the guys with the cameraman . Right ? It's the guys your your your blue collar worker, which my friends, I consider them blue collar guys in this business . Like, they they do have big payday at times . Right ? Sure . Sure . But they don't come frequent enough . To be like rich . You know, they they can live comfortably . They can have a comfortable life . But they're not these guys that are breaking in millions of dollars, when an act when a work stoppage like this happens, it's kinda in a studio's favorite . Right ? Because the studio because, hey, listen . These guys gotta get back to work . And if you're a time cruise, you can stand to not make another movie again for the rest of your life . You're you're gonna be good . But if you're at the bottom of that scale, you have an actual job that you now cannot show up to . Do you think that puts more pressure on this studio's the set order, more pressure on the the guild and the kind of unions to settle .
Speaker 2Unfortunately, I think it's only unions to settle because the studios . Yeah . I I I would hope that they feel bad for some of these individuals . But at the end of the day, it's business . You know, it's nothing personal . It's strictly business in the process . And number two, is most of these studios probably have several movies already in the can . And so they're still gonna be releasing them there may be obligations . I don't know . I'm not an attorney . I have no idea that if they come out with the premier let's say, a movie supposed to come out next week are certain stars and celebrity even though they're on strike required to come out and support the new film . I don't know somebody a lot smarter than me would have to be able to tell me that . But let's just say they did . Let's just take the argument's sake and and they did . What's the studio scare ? They cut these individuals by whatever, and they're forcing them in that process . So unfortunately, I think it's more with the unions and the trade than with the studios to settle this . I'm not saying it's right . Don't misinterpret what I'm saying . It's just at the end of the day . It's probably gonna be the worker bees is gonna have to once again work this out .
Speaker 1Unfortunately, right, getting the -- Yeah . -- the short end short end of the stick, so to speak . Absolutely . You know, another thing was AI was a sticking point, Doug . So and one of the things that that friend dresser brought up that was very interesting was being able to scan . So let's say, Doug, we and you get cast in the background of a movie . Mhmm . The way that they have it now or or or what's being pitched is they we do the movie once . We get our hundred dollars two hundred bucks to do our stand in . They scan our face and use us be able to use our likeness and perpetuity without paying us one seat again after that .
Speaker 2Right . Right .
Speaker 1What was funny from the studio ? What's funny was the the I I read yesterday a a studio response or at least their what are their responses to it, which was absolutely ridiculous . One of the studio responses one of the company responses I should say was something to the degree of, well, they we we asked them first so to speak like, you you gotta sign it first . Right . You know ?
Speaker 2Right .
Speaker 1And I'm like, but if you if you ask a person and say, you're not really asking if you're not gonna get the job . Right, Doug ? So if if -- Right . -- your job is on the line, are you really asking them ?
Speaker 2No . You're basically telling them . Right ? It's this or that . I mean, I guess I could see a little bit where the studio's coming from is saying that everybody'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 . But there's a lot of things I do that I don't have to do . I do because, yeah, I'm taking care of my family . Or it's on my bucket list or it's something that I'm really passionate about
Importance of Unions in Sports/Entertainment
Speaker 2. And, unfortunately, sometimes, we will hurt ourselves in the process just in order to be able to achieve something that we want that we wanna achieve .
Speaker 1I feel like that's one of the reasons why these unions are so important in sports and entertainment in particular . Right ? Because yeah . These are jobs that are very high sought after . And studios can just say, hey, I'm just gonna I'm definitely gonna find somebody who's gonna sign this contract . Eventually . I'll definitely find somebody who wants to play this game, this position eventually . I'll definitely find somebody who wants to coach eventually . Right ? You know, you you you know, you're gonna find somebody who wants to do these jobs because they're highly sought after jobs . And they still do pay better than than average on some of these jobs . Apps . Right ? So then the unions really need it so that teams don't come down or the leagues don't come down and just dictate whatever they want at that point because to leverage naturities in their favor . Does that make sense ?
Speaker 2Absolutely does . And that's why, you know, years ago, we we needed the unions to come in because they provided safe working conditions, wages, child labor law, etcetera . So these are necessary organizations because without them, we'd be in a lot different situation than we are today . And so they are needed, but I think at the end of the day, It's, you know, money money talks, those studio heads or those that have the money, usually went out or get a lot of what they were asking for because at the end of the day, they got the money and the worker bees, I keep saying that . They're the ones that yeah . They're like, well, I can do this for a while, but, you know, At some point, I've I've got a kid and go back to work or find another job .
Speaker 1Man, and you you know what sucks about finding another job . In these businesses, Doug, these are lifelong businesses for these people . In sports, everybody, these people start playing in their when their kids, four or five . Right ? You you know, you spent your whole life . Preparing for this moment . With these actresses, dancers, singers, writers, and stuff of that nature, a lot of these people do it for a whole lifetime to get to where they are . So it's kind of like, are you just gonna drop that, book him a plumber ? Or what do what do what do you do ?
Speaker 2Well, I think you're exactly right . And some of them don't know what to do because this is all the way to home throughout their whole career . You know ? So, again, I feel sorry for him, 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, and I don't envy those writers, actors, actresses, etcetera because they're they're fighting a good fight . They've got a reason to be fighting . I I I just hope they can make some headway
Speaker 1I I'm hoping that this doesn't drag and drag and drag . Remember, there was a strike in two thousand seven, and it used to be a show And and there's a few shows that that came on around that time . One show was called heroes that came on around two thousand seven . And and and I don't know if you ever watch loss and and stuff around that time . And some of those shows, it especially Heroes in which is kind of, like, it represents that strike of two thousand seven because it never recovered after two thousand it never recovered after the strike . It was the show was on top going into the strike and pretty much out of here coming out of the strike . I'm hoping that we don't have a lot of damage like that to to something struggles and certain things because the life changes, you know, people change . Life changes . That strike show that you just can't put any writer on shows and have it you can't just better change them and have it be the same success . You know ? So I'm hoping that some of this stuff does get solved expeditiously so that there's less damage done to some of these IPs and stuff like that . You know, so many people have already we're right in the middle of recording, somebody shows Doug, and
Speaker 2that's why
Speaker 1we're having to walk offsets .
Speaker 2Yeah . Absolutely . Well, I'll say if if there is any silver lining here . And I'm trying to to find a silver lining . If I don't know if you recall, but during the COVID, obviously, a lot of companies could not make films . And what what happened was there was the rise of a lot of these side studios . That's what I'm gonna call them . Mom and pop industry, and they made a lot of horror movies . And the reason they did that is because it doesn't take a lot of acting, it doesn't take a lot of script writing, it doesn't take a lot of money, to make something like Halloween . No . I'm not comparing some of these movie to the classics . Like, how are we, you know, the Texas jeans all match the skirt .
Speaker 1Clear waves, though . That's why that
Speaker 2that makes it very comparable Right ? Yes . That is exactly why I was getting ready to say next is and then you saw some of these I mean, they were, like, never one of the box office, and it was I mean, they could set them up here . You know, the I ran the burgers . I don't know . They could they could set them up . But they were making, like, you know, forty, fifty thousand dollars . They were never one of the box office . And a lot of these went straight to drive in theaters because people could be spread out during COVID . And that has a feel with this, if this last very long, where there may be, again, some expiring actors, actresses, directors, writers that may get a little bit of a break Now I'm not gonna say they're gonna be the next Steven Spielberg or anything like that, but they'll have their fifteen minutes of fame . And and I'm trying to look for a silver lining in all of this .
Speaker 1Yeah . I I don't I I mean, I'm pretty sure that they're they're hoping they're some silver lining as well . There you go . Right . It's because they don't wanna be out of work for for forever here . And and Right . With some of the sticking point being 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 to work out things like breaks and and stuff like that are being told actors like, I would give you one, like, a self recording . If you're a self recording, I think that's kinda my friend is, he he self records for for films . Like, they call them . It's like saying, hey, Doug, we want you to do this football film . Is filming . We want you to send us a taper of you self taping, and we'll send you the lines . And they might send you thirty pages to memorize by, like, tomorrow for you to self shoot it and then send it back to the studio on their timeline . So some of that stuff is longer timelines, less patient issue, maybe being compensated to a certain degree for those efforts because they can land you nothing .
Speaker 2Right .
Speaker 1Stuff like that . You know, the the the little details that have to be kinda worked out . And I'm and I'm pretty sure that that Frank Drexler and Company are gonna be under immense pressure . From their from their union, the union workers under them who were like, hey, I gotta go back to work . Her wife, Kate Family, you know, whatever . I gotta go back to lunch .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1Right .
Speaker 2He's gonna he's gonna pay more mortgage . Yeah . My rent . Whatever the case might be .
Speaker 1So here's the hope in that this does get settled soon . In hoping that we don't have to do 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 2Reg it's always a pleasure to be honest with you . Thank you .
Speaker 1You 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 .