Abigail Dunagan, Campus Carrier arts and living editor

In 2023, the TV and film industry faced a massive interruption in film production caused by strikes led by two major unions, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild- American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). Although these strikes have ended and writing and filming have recently resumed, the occurrence of both strikes has triggered changes across the film industry. 

The Writers Strike took place from May 2, 2023, to September 27, 2023, when members of the Writers Guild of America went on strike over a labor dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The Actors Strike started a few months later on July 14, lasting until November 9, 2023. The strike ended after a deal was made with AMPTP that would guarantee better working conditions for writers and actors. 

Steven Hames, a technology specialist and the advisor of Viking Fusion said that the Writers and Actors Strikes primarily sought for writers to have improved compensation for their work, better pay and to receive residuals from streaming sites. Residuals are the payments made to actors and writers from DVD’s, television runs and streaming sights. Streaming websites have drastically altered the film industry, prompting a need for change across the industry. With the rise of sites such as Netflix and Hulu, actors and writers were not being adequately compensated for their work from these sites. 

“When the current agreement between the studios and the actor’s unions were written, streaming was not as big as it is now,” Hames said. “Now streaming is the big thing. Getting the money from that is important for everybody, even the smaller actors.” 

Curt Hersey, a professor of communication and filmmaking, said many of the shows that have been filmed on Berry’s campus in the past have had to pause as a result of the strikes. Now that the strikes are over, it will take some time before filming on campus is able to fully resume. 

“In terms of how Berry was affected, those productions have stopped,” Hersey said. “You have both the Writers Strike and the Actors Strike, so the problem is that the Actors Strike is going to affect everything that is in production.”

Hames said the strikes have not had any effect on the work that students do at Viking Fusion, however some students have dealt with issues regarding internships. Alumnus Mathewson Parks (23C) graduated Berry with a degree in communications with a concentration in filmmaking. During the summer of 2023, Parks worked at an internship with the Television Academy Foundation in a studio at Beverly Hills, California. 

“It was very strange being in Los Angeles while the strikes were going on,” Parks said. “That entire city’s industry is entertainment. I would have Uber drivers pick me up, and they were writers who were out of work because of the strikes.” 

Parks said that while his studio was not directly affected by the strikes, the Television Academy focused heavily on educating the workers about the strikes, unions and guilds. Parks is currently working in Rome, Ga. at Brand RED Studio. According to Parks, Brand RED has not been affected by the strikes because it is not a union studio. 

“We are kind of in a strange spot right now,” Parks said. “The strikes are over at this point, so work is generally business as usual. January is considered a slow season for the industry, and it is really when pre-production is happening for the next set of shows.” 

While the industry is slowly returning to normal, the strikes have resulted in many people needing to seek different types of work over the past few months. Those in the film industry are often able to utilize their skills in other industries. 

“The same production skills that let you start working on a film set are also the production skills that are used in content creation departments for Home Depot, or Walmart,” Hersey said. “You could go the corporate route and do video and content creation, at least until the industry starts recovering.” 

Although the strikes have caused many productions to come to a standstill, Hersey said that these strikes will be beneficial in the long-term. The strikes are allowing the industry to adjust to new technologies, such as AI and streaming services. 

“When you have radical changes in technology, law and employee polices have to catch up with that,” Hersey said. “I think that this was necessary to deal with some of those new technologies, as well as some of the inequalities in the system.”