0:04

To read an ACL coming to you for lovely city

0:07

of Atlanta, Georgia going out to

0:09

Clinton, Indiana . Here with Doug . Hey, Doug

0:11

. How's it going ?

0:12

Great, Reggie . How are you ?

0:14

Man, always good . Always good . Better

0:17

than the people that we're gonna be discussing today

0:19

. I would say, you know, because I'm not we're not on

0:21

strike or anything here . You know, we're gonna talk

0:23

a little bit about that they're the

0:25

writer strike it, and the

0:27

actors screen act the actors that have joined the

0:29

writer . So, you know, you had the writer strike And

0:32

they seem to be when

0:35

you look at the two the two situations,

0:37

Doug, they seem to be some there seems

0:39

to be some similarities here . With

0:41

the biggest sticking points being, like, AI

0:43

and streaming . Of course -- Yep

0:46

. -- we've been doing we've done AI episodes

0:48

on this show before, and I knew that this

0:50

is gonna be disrupting force to a certain degree

0:53

. And I think that this is some of the

0:55

beginnings of it, Doug . Like, we're

0:57

First name, for sure . Right

0:59

?

1:00

Absolutely .

1:01

Did that mention the other pass in a do

1:04

you remember any anything in a pass,

1:06

Doug, as far as, like, other strikes ? Do you

1:08

are you have you recalled any other strikes

1:11

in the past that you could recall ?

1:13

Yeah . There's always been a rider of strikes, and

1:15

actors in

1:18

terms of that, ninety

1:20

five percent of those, I'm going to say, was probably

1:22

overpay in better working

1:24

conditions . Things are a little bit

1:26

different today . In

1:29

one regards, pay

1:32

is probably always gonna be an issue, even if

1:34

I'm the breadhead of the world, I'm probably gonna

1:36

wanna make a little bit more . Right ? And that's

1:38

just what

1:38

you're gonna want to make last minute . Right .

1:41

Absolutely . So that's always

1:43

gonna be a sticking point . I I think that

1:45

will be around forever for

1:47

us . But as you you know, we're talking

1:49

about is AI . Can

1:52

some of these studios, especially

1:55

smaller ones, do it quicker

1:57

and cheaper with artificial

2:00

intelligence, and so they

2:02

have to pay somebody to write . That's

2:06

it's a good question, man . And I I I feel

2:08

like would I think that it was gonna

2:10

end up becoming -- Mhmm . -- is

2:13

akin to the self checkouts at your

2:15

local grocery store at your

2:17

Walmart . Right ?

2:19

Yes .

2:19

Instead of employing five

2:22

writers, maybe you employ two or three with the

2:24

help of of AI . You know it now

2:26

. You got you'll just get the one self checkout

2:28

person who's running, like, eight registers

2:31

or versus No

2:33

. You're exactly now

2:35

.

2:35

You're exactly right . I literally was in

2:37

our local Walmart yesterday . And

2:40

you're right . There was one individual there for

2:42

six, I think, six checkout

2:44

machines . And then there

2:47

was, I think, two that was

2:49

opened that if

2:51

you had larger items or a

2:53

cart full that was, you

2:56

know, checking out, And so

2:59

if there was six self checkout and two

3:01

others, so eight eight aisles,

3:03

and everybody was running

3:05

through . All of them were were occupied,

3:07

but you only had three full

3:10

time employees .

3:12

I mean, Doug, I mean, can can you is

3:14

it hard to argue against . Right ? But we're both pope

3:17

and

3:17

the capitalist guys, man, and it's --

3:19

Absolutely . -- against that .

3:21

Absolutely . So it it is . Now,

3:23

I have a friend who

3:26

refuses to do the checkouts

3:28

. He's pro capital, capitalist,

3:31

but he refuses to to

3:33

check out, and his argument is, I've costed

3:35

somebody a job . In terms of

3:37

that . So he may stay a little

3:40

longer in the store in

3:42

line just to make sure that

3:44

he's given

3:46

somebody a job, basically .

3:49

It's it's an interesting perspective, man, because

3:52

it's it's you would

3:54

need people to take more stands like that, I think,

3:56

in order to combat that on a

3:58

labor from a labor standpoint . Right . Like,

4:00

somebody is willing to wait a little bit longer,

4:02

which is the bane of my existence is to go to a human

4:05

being at Walmart . And then I'm gonna tell you right now . That's

4:07

the that's that's not

4:09

of the life I ever wanna live . I've had to go

4:11

to human being before . I don't know if people remember

4:14

here, Doug . Back in the day,

4:16

Go into Walmart was like an adventure,

4:18

man . Like, yeah, go into Walmart down

4:20

here . Was like, you gotta be prepared

4:23

for one duck block out an hour of

4:25

your time, an hour and a half, an hour an

4:27

hour to two hours of your time needs to be blocked

4:29

out . Yep . Go and try to wade

4:31

through there . You got lines that are going

4:34

back into aisles of the store, so you might

4:36

be in the women's section waiting in the

4:38

line because it's -- Correct . -- walking back that

4:40

far . Right ?

4:41

Yes . Yes .

4:43

Is there a line, Doug, you think, between

4:45

convenience and saving

4:49

those jobs . You feel like there's a happy median

4:51

there between the two ? Because ultimately I go

4:53

for the convenience . If I can save the job, I would

4:55

. But ultimately, you gotta go for the convenience . You even

4:57

get us a a median ?

4:59

No . There's not because we're ourselves

5:01

our our own worse enemies . We

5:04

say we want to

5:06

save jobs, but we always side

5:08

with convenience every

5:10

time or at least nine times out of ten

5:12

. And I'm guilty as the next person . I mean,

5:15

I I I don't want anybody to lose their job

5:17

. Right ? Well, I'm not advocating that

5:19

. But guess what ? When I went in there for bread,

5:21

milk, and a candy bar or bottle pop

5:23

or whatever I'm in there to buy . I

5:25

look at the line . And

5:29

then I look at the self checkout and I go,

5:31

I got four items I could be in a car and home

5:33

in a matter of minutes . So I'm just

5:36

just guilty as the next person . In

5:38

that process . And and I'll tell you where

5:40

I think everything really started to

5:42

go in that direction, and I think you can make

5:44

an argument that it was part of

5:46

this, but COVID really sped

5:48

things up .

5:49

Yeah .

5:50

Because I I remember when

5:52

COVID was in the heat of

5:54

the battle if we can say it that way

5:56

. Mhmm . My wife and I would

5:59

do the Walmart app

6:01

pick our groceries and

6:04

then have a set time where we would

6:07

drive Uber to the Super Walmart . Pull

6:11

into our parking spot, call

6:13

into the store, say that, you know,

6:15

we're here on parking lot six or

6:17

parking aisle number

6:19

six or whenever it is . And then

6:22

somebody would come out, oh, we'd have our

6:24

windows all up,

6:26

cars running, and then you pop

6:28

the trunk and somebody would put them in there for

6:30

you and wave as they were walking back

6:33

in the storm . And

6:35

I to me, that's where it all really

6:37

It may not have started there,

6:39

but it sure got a good

6:42

head of steam on it .

6:45

I feel like you are absolutely accurate

6:48

there, and and that was in way more that was

6:50

in a lot of in a lot of ways . And what happened

6:52

was progress progression got pulled forward

6:54

. So when you were looking at what

6:57

may have taken it minus

6:59

COVID, maybe five years to adopt . Right,

7:01

Doug ? Right . Minus COVID .

7:03

Right .

7:03

Now it's adopted overnight . Because

7:06

people and this happened with delivery services

7:08

. Before COVID, my delivery

7:10

services were very minimal before COVID

7:13

.

7:13

I wouldn't

7:13

After COVID, they're still a made part of my life

7:16

. Like, I learned that I can get my

7:18

stuff brought to me and not having to leave

7:20

my house . Then I'd rather do that

7:22

. If I'm gonna be running to work or something, I'd rather

7:24

have it here to have my door before I even

7:26

go to work, you know ? And in the morning Yeah . Absolutely

7:28

. Do you feel like

7:30

there's there's something can can that

7:33

toothpaste you put back in the tube, so to speak

7:35

? Can we go back a little bit ? Or you feel like that's

7:37

kind of just it's over now we're kind

7:39

of progressing as a society .

7:40

Howard Bauchner: No, I think the genie is out of the

7:42

bottle and it's going to be almost impossible

7:45

to put it in there . Your major

7:47

corporations would have to I

7:49

mean, whether it's DoorDash or

7:52

there at Walmart or

7:54

Amazon, they would have to stop that

7:56

service, and I just don't believe that that's

7:58

ever gonna happen . You know, we are

8:00

way too far down the road . And

8:03

with all the the bad of

8:05

COVID, if I can say it that way,

8:07

this is either a blessing or

8:09

a curse, depending on how you want to look at

8:11

it . A blessing that now I don't have to

8:13

go in the store or I don't have to go

8:16

into a restaurant, I can have somebody pick

8:18

it up, order it, pick it up, and deliver

8:20

it to me . The bad thing

8:22

is, we're probably causing people jobs

8:24

. And making the

8:26

profits of the company a little

8:28

higher and a little quicker .

8:31

You know what's interesting here, is there something

8:33

else that happened during his time period that me

8:36

and my colleague Nick used

8:38

to talk about quite a bit during COVID

8:40

that I that I told him like, man,

8:43

it it didn't necessarily stick all the way, Doug,

8:45

but I feel like it had sticking power, and that's

8:47

when they were releasing films directly to streaming

8:50

.

8:50

Right .

8:50

And I told them, I said, you know ? It's

8:53

easy for let let's just take two

8:55

different situations . You got a couple, no

8:57

kids, you know, the

8:59

wind to their back . They can go do whatever they

9:01

want anytime they want . Right ?

9:03

Absolutely .

9:04

Now let's go to the family, Doug

9:06

. Right ? The family, you gotta you gotta corral

9:08

these kids . You gotta get them out

9:10

there . Get them into the theater, pay

9:13

a million dollars for your snacks and concessions

9:15

. We get them to sit still

9:17

for that couple hours . Right ?

9:19

Well,

9:20

it's a bigger reach for them, isn't

9:22

it ?

9:23

Oh, it absolutely is . I know for us,

9:25

you know, a family of four . First of all,

9:27

the biggest challenge is making sure all four

9:29

of us wants to see the same movie . That's

9:32

one part

9:32

about it . I can't even do that with one person

9:35

.

9:35

And then there's we have two boys . And

9:37

then we have to make sure they wanna be

9:39

seen with us, you know, in public

9:42

because it's not cool to be seen with moms .

9:44

S a s a h . It's gonna become a problem . It's

9:46

gonna become a problem . For them, Doug .

9:48

Absolutely . It's

9:51

a little easier to get the youngest one because

9:53

he can't drive . So to

9:55

at least kind of, you know, we could we could twist

9:57

the arm a little bit there with him, but the order

9:59

went, you know, he's gone, you know . He's

10:01

driving . He'll he'll he'll do whatever he wants

10:03

to do . But yeah, I I I

10:05

think, again, with COVID,

10:07

it was a mixed

10:10

bag . The companies or the

10:12

movie studios had to get

10:14

new movies out . They had them in the

10:16

in the hopper . They had to get them

10:18

out because they had to make money

10:20

. Okay ? It was

10:23

almost impossible to film

10:25

. I mean, you had so many restrictions on

10:27

you . Things got delayed . They had

10:29

to have that revenue coming in . Flipside

10:32

of that is it's great with streaming

10:34

. So now all four of us in our

10:37

house can be be watching separate it

10:39

wasn't like the old days that you only had

10:41

one . The bad part of that is,

10:44

now I don't know a lot of people

10:46

that go to the movies . I'm not saying that

10:48

people don't still go

10:50

to the movies, but it's it's

10:52

easier for them to watch

10:55

it on streaming or wait for it to come

10:57

out than it is to actually go to the

11:00

movie

11:02

theaters to do that . Howard

11:05

Bauchner: I think this is gonna become

11:07

one of the things that's because that's one of the things

11:09

that that was a sticking point before prior to this

11:11

strike . I wanna say that that's the main

11:14

sticking point, but the main sticking point does appear

11:16

to be streaming . Now -- Yeah . --

11:18

one of the things I can say that I would just witness

11:20

and then you can go on to social media and see this

11:23

and see a lot of this, and then I'm gonna use

11:25

orange and new black as a as

11:27

an example here . From Netflix . Great Netflix

11:30

show, Netflix original . Versus

11:33

airing on like a show like fringe, something

11:35

like that, a sign filler that who knows, some of these shows

11:37

that's equivalent to the popularity

11:39

that because Orange and New Black is a very popular show

11:42

. They got a very popular network show . Now,

11:44

the way that these shows get paid

11:47

and and had an actor friend kind of break this

11:49

down to me, and he did a pretty good job breaking this down

11:51

. And Orange's new black, like, a couple

11:53

of the actresses that were on that show have shown

11:55

their paychecks, and I'm telling you, Doug, you you it's

11:57

it's less than an hour . It's like twenty twenty

12:00

seven dollars . That's one

12:02

one showed a check for twenty seven dollars

12:05

. Knowledge, like, oh my

12:07

god, get paid since in

12:10

comparison to what the residuals

12:13

would be on a network . Show . Okay

12:15

. So that's one thing . Trying

12:17

to figure out where where

12:19

that point lies, but my actor

12:21

friend told me that he was like,

12:24

well, Reg, we would do and number gonna

12:26

throw out a number . He used a thousand dollars number

12:28

. He used that same number .

12:29

Sure .

12:29

He said, let's say that a show airs in

12:31

North America or in American market, and I get paid ten

12:34

thousand dollars for that show . Okay . Cool

12:36

. He said on the network, if that

12:38

show aired in Australia, I get paid another

12:40

ten grand . Right . But every

12:42

in every new market that it kind of emerges

12:45

is, I get paid again . You know, is it emerges

12:47

in a new market ? He said, with Streamy,

12:49

that's just out the window altogether . Tuesday,

12:52

so that was from ten thousand to zero

12:54

. Right . Out

12:58

. So he was like, that's a major major

13:00

sticking point . You know, with them trying to kind of

13:03

figure out how do you how

13:06

do you get these bigger corporations

13:08

in the streaming ? Because there are people that are

13:10

in these corporations, of course, that you know what they're gonna say

13:12

. They're they're broke . They're, you know, you know how to exactly

13:14

what you say . Absolutely . We're

13:17

we're we're poppers here . We're we're not

13:19

making anything . And Meanwhile,

13:24

your company's worth almost, like,

13:26

you know, seven, eight hundred billion dollars . Right ? You

13:28

know, you have a --

13:28

Right .

13:28

-- some astronomical number

13:30

.

13:31

Right .

13:31

In which we'll go through the the because

13:34

that that's a good there's a good impact to that

13:36

because a lot of these companies and let's just use

13:38

Apple as an example . Right ? Apple three

13:40

trillion dollar market cap the biometrics

13:42

they wanted to . Right ? Absolutely . The

13:45

problem is is

13:47

Apple TV or whatever

13:50

their media portions of that company

13:52

is aren't necessarily contributing to the bottom line

13:54

as their products . These are companies that do a lot of

13:56

different things . It's not necessarily like a Netflix

13:58

. Right ? It's just content is their

14:00

business -- Right . --

14:03

versus these larger corporations like a Disney

14:05

because Disney kinda fell into this . With

14:07

Bob Iger having some people going at him . They're not

14:10

really excited about him

14:12

. So, yeah, some people going at Bob Iger here and

14:14

they're saying, hey, look at what you get paid, man . You're

14:16

getting paid millions of dollars and we're

14:19

getting scraps here . The

14:21

issue is is that these companies

14:23

at least with Disney and

14:25

with Apple and some of these other major companies,

14:28

they do other things, Doug . Right ? So it's

14:30

kind of like

14:31

They're diversified a little bit .

14:32

They're they're so diversified . Right ? If I'm making

14:35

money from parks, I'm making money from other

14:37

things selling merch and stuff of that nature,

14:39

how

14:42

much money and attention can

14:44

they really devote to these these other

14:46

efforts in their company ?

14:49

You know, that that's gonna be the

14:52

million dollar question . And I also think

14:54

a lot of these other companies are gonna have to

14:56

learn to diversify a little

14:59

bit . And I but I

15:01

also think they're gonna have to concede a little

15:03

bit on on the money as well

15:05

. Because as

15:07

popular as streaming is,

15:10

and that's what the

15:12

public expects

15:15

at this point . I just don't think

15:17

a lot of these companies are

15:19

prepared for it just yet . They're still

15:21

under the old mindset of

15:23

we make a movie . We ship it out

15:26

to the movie theaters . That's where

15:28

everything's gonna go . And

15:30

then at some point in the future, we're gonna

15:32

turn around and put it on DVD

15:35

or the old BHS, etcetera

15:37

. And then maybe put it in streaming

15:40

. So I think companies are

15:42

gonna have to come around to

15:44

see that the old way is

15:46

not gonna work moving forward ?

15:50

How long do you think that will take, Doug ?

15:52

That's the million dollar question . You

15:54

know what ? And I think this is the first step

15:57

in this process . Because

16:00

I think the actors and the writers are

16:03

are I'm gonna say,

16:05

up to here with it . You know, they've

16:08

had enough . And I think some of them

16:10

are willing to hold out as long

16:12

as they they possibly can . Now

16:14

at the end of the day, we're

16:16

gonna have to wait to see who wins . Does the companies

16:19

have the money to hold out ? Or can these

16:21

actors and actresses and riders

16:23

can they afford to hold out

16:25

? I think that's gonna be interesting . I just

16:27

don't think the movie studios are

16:30

as powerful as they once were . Nor

16:33

do they have the capital . So this

16:35

may be something that gets

16:37

resolved relatively

16:40

shortly or or quickly

16:42

compared to

16:44

it was in the in the past just

16:46

because I don't think the funds are there

16:48

with the movie studios as they once

16:50

were .

16:52

You you bring up an interesting point when when this with

16:54

the studio versus the big

16:57

because you have so many oddities major

16:59

companies that are getting industry main business,

17:01

like your Apple, like your Googles . Right

17:03

? And these companies are massive

17:06

. These are massive businesses

17:08

. They can purchase

17:10

five Kennedy studios .

17:13

Okay .

17:13

And not and write it off . It'd be, like, a Ted to

17:15

write off . Them . I

17:19

I don't envy the actors

17:22

here in this in this fight because if

17:24

you're going up against let's

17:26

say you're old strike and you're going up against a

17:28

paramount or maybe even

17:30

a Time Warner or Time Warner was pretty big . Let's say you're

17:32

going up against one of these companies . Right

17:34

. Okay . That's one thing . Right ? But

17:36

then going up against, like, a

17:38

a company with a market cap that's, like, near

17:41

a trillion dollars . Good luck with that

17:43

. Like because they can just sit

17:45

on that forever for for an

17:47

eternity . It waits you out

17:49

. Yeah . But so And they will . Members

17:51

Right ? Are they really incentivized

17:54

not too dumb ? Right ? Or are they

17:56

really incentivized not to do it ? Just out

17:58

of the kindness of their heart are in the hopes that

18:00

stuff just gets released . Maybe

18:03

that's maybe they maybe what public demand ? Would

18:05

they add a bit of social media put in a little more

18:07

pressure, Doug ?

18:09

It's possible, but at

18:11

the end of the day, how many people on

18:13

social media really feel sorry for the studios

18:15

?

18:17

Man . Right ? And the the fact to

18:19

piggybacking off that

18:21

point is people, and

18:23

this happens what athletes do .

18:25

Right .

18:26

You know, you you can have an athlete who says,

18:28

hey, we're we're we're not playing . We're locked down and

18:30

we're looking at you like, guys, guys make twenty,

18:32

thirty million dollars a year, just go

18:34

out there and play the game . But here's the problem

18:36

. That owner's making two or three billion dollars

18:38

this year . Right .

18:41

And and what's funny is you got the billionaires

18:43

versus the millionaires . And

18:46

we're and and both sides are

18:48

feel like they're getting cheated and we're

18:50

sitting there and we're going, we're not in

18:52

either one of these leagues . We just want

18:55

you to go ahead and play the game, you know . And

18:57

so I

18:59

think that's a little bit how people

19:01

feel with actors and the writers . I

19:04

understand they're not making nearly

19:07

what they need to be making . I get

19:09

it . I agree with them . But let's

19:12

let's face it . The average Joe

19:15

on the street ? Do they really get it ? Do

19:17

they really understand that, yeah, there's

19:19

a few actors and actresses that

19:21

are making million dollars But

19:23

some of these smaller actors and actresses,

19:25

they're getting paid,

19:27

you know, they may even be lucky to make forty,

19:30

sixty thousand dollars a year .

19:32

Yes . Exactly .

19:34

Yeah . And, yes, I would love

19:36

to in at times be able to change

19:38

places with them and and and think

19:40

that you could go down in movie cinema

19:42

history as somebody that,

19:44

you know, when it's all said done that it'd be

19:46

considered breaking news on you

19:48

know, on certain things . But

19:50

at the end of the day, it's hard for people

19:53

to feel sorry for some

19:55

of these individuals because perception

19:57

is reality . And then

19:59

in their mind, the everybody's

20:01

a millionaire or a billionaire where

20:04

the case might be . And in reality,

20:06

that's far from the truth .

20:09

You know, it's it's interesting because one of the

20:11

the the actresses that was on Orange and New Black is

20:13

she spoke about how about

20:17

how the the juxtaposition of

20:19

her being famous, having

20:22

to stop pictures on the street and stuff like that,

20:24

and people think that she's rich . And she's like, am I rich ? I mean,

20:26

you have health insurance ? And she's like, I don't even have

20:28

health insurance . Right . She just thought these pictures

20:31

all the time . And people feel like I'm rich and

20:33

and -- Right .

20:35

-- they're not . You know, I'm now

20:37

friend Dresher from the nanny . I'm not sure if you ever watched that

20:40

show back in the day the nanny .

20:41

Oh, yeah .

20:42

Friends Dresher, she is the I

20:45

don't know if she's, like, president of of

20:47

I don't know if I don't think

20:49

I don't know if it's SAG, but I don't know if she's president,

20:51

but she's one of the representatives . She's,

20:53

like, one of the faces of the

20:55

the factors on the other side of this discussion

20:57

. Right . One of the things that she brought up, which is an excellent

21:00

point and and interesting just to kinda

21:02

calcify what we're talking about here . And

21:04

she said that most of our members don't have

21:06

health insurance . And she said,

21:09

to have health insurance in this business, you only

21:11

need to make twenty seven thousand dollars . So

21:13

let's let's go over that

21:16

. That means

21:16

that those

21:17

aren't making twenty seven thousand dollars

21:20

because most of them don't have health insurance

21:22

. Most of them aren't making twenty seven thousand

21:24

dollars in that business .

21:26

Is that crazy or what ?

21:29

Absolutely crazy because you're looking at

21:31

the top and we're looking at time cruises that they were alright

21:33

or look at the black woods here . Jed an

21:35

off the Santropay or someplace . You're looking

21:37

like, hey, I'm not gonna feel sorry for you . You're not gonna

21:40

be picketing from Trentropay, picking from your

21:42

yacht . Or, you know, we're we're that's

21:44

the way that we're all thinking of it . Right ? But at the

21:46

same time, there's

21:48

such a residual effect here, Doug, because it's

21:50

not just them . Right ? It's the light guys

21:53

. It's the audio guys . It's the guys with

21:55

the cameraman . Right ? It's the guys your

21:57

your your blue collar worker, which my friends,

21:59

I consider them blue collar

22:01

guys in this business . Like, they they do have

22:04

big payday at times . Right ? Sure

22:06

. Sure . But they don't come frequent enough

22:08

. To be like rich . You know,

22:10

they they can live comfortably . They can have

22:12

a comfortable life . But they're not these

22:15

guys that are breaking in millions of dollars, when

22:18

an act when a work stoppage like this happens,

22:20

it's kinda in a studio's favorite . Right ? Because

22:23

the studio because, hey, listen . These guys gotta

22:25

get back to work . And if

22:27

you're a time cruise, you can stand to not

22:30

make another movie again for the rest of your life

22:32

. You're you're gonna be good . But

22:34

if you're at the bottom of that scale, you

22:36

have an actual job that you now cannot

22:39

show up to . Do you think that puts more pressure

22:41

on this studio's the

22:43

set order, more pressure on the the guild and the

22:45

kind of unions to settle .

22:47

Unfortunately, I think it's only unions to settle

22:49

because the studios

22:51

. Yeah . I I I

22:54

would hope that they feel bad

22:56

for some of these individuals . But at the end

22:58

of the day, it's business . You know,

23:00

it's nothing personal . It's strictly business

23:02

in

23:04

the process . And number two, is

23:07

most of these studios probably have

23:10

several movies already in the can . And

23:12

so they're still gonna be releasing them

23:15

there may be obligations . I don't

23:17

know . I'm not an attorney . I have no idea

23:19

that if they come

23:21

out with the premier let's say, a

23:23

movie supposed to come out next week are

23:26

certain stars and celebrity even

23:28

though they're on strike required to come

23:30

out and support the new film . I

23:32

don't know somebody a lot smarter than me would

23:34

have to be able to tell me that . But let's

23:36

just say they did . Let's just take the argument's

23:38

sake and and they did . What's the studio

23:41

scare ? They cut these individuals by

23:43

whatever, and

23:45

they're forcing them in

23:48

that process . So

23:50

unfortunately, I think it's

23:52

more with the unions and the trade than

23:55

with the studios to settle this

23:57

. I'm not saying it's right . Don't

23:59

misinterpret what I'm saying . It's just

24:01

at the end of the day . It's

24:04

probably gonna be the worker bees is

24:06

gonna have to once again

24:08

work this out .

24:10

Unfortunately, right, getting the -- Yeah . -- the short

24:12

end short end of the stick, so to speak . Absolutely

24:14

. You know, another thing was AI

24:16

was a sticking point, Doug . So and

24:19

one of the things that that friend dresser brought up that

24:21

was very interesting was being able

24:23

to scan . So let's say, Doug, we and you get cast

24:25

in the background of a movie . Mhmm

24:28

. The way that they have it now or or or

24:30

what's being pitched is they we do

24:32

the movie once . We get our hundred

24:34

dollars two hundred bucks to do our stand in

24:36

. They scan our face and

24:38

use us be able to use our likeness and perpetuity

24:41

without paying us one seat again

24:43

after that .

24:44

Right . Right .

24:47

What was funny from the studio ? What's funny

24:49

was the the I I read yesterday a

24:52

a studio response or at least their what are their

24:54

responses to it, which was absolutely ridiculous

24:56

. One of the studio responses one

24:58

of the company responses I should say was something to

25:01

the degree of, well, they

25:03

we we asked them first so to speak

25:05

like, you you gotta sign it first

25:07

. Right . You know ?

25:08

Right .

25:08

And I'm like, but if you if

25:10

you ask a person and

25:13

say, you're not really asking if you're not gonna get

25:15

the job . Right, Doug ? So if if -- Right . -- your

25:17

job is on the line, are you really

25:20

asking them ?

25:22

No . You're basically telling them . Right ? It's

25:25

this or that . I

25:27

mean, I guess I could see a little bit where the studio's

25:30

coming from is saying that everybody's got

25:32

a joists we didn't put it into your

25:34

head . You don't have to do this . But

25:36

at the end of the day, let's

25:39

let's be realistic . Right

25:41

. We don't have to . But

25:43

there's a lot of things I do that I don't have

25:45

to do . I do because, yeah, I'm taking

25:47

care of my family . Or it's on my

25:49

bucket list or it's something that I'm

25:51

really passionate about . And, unfortunately,

25:54

sometimes, we will hurt

25:57

ourselves in the process just

26:00

in order to be able to achieve

26:02

something that we want

26:05

that we wanna achieve .

26:09

I feel like that's one of the reasons why these

26:11

unions are so important in sports

26:13

and entertainment in particular . Right ? Because

26:15

yeah . These are jobs that are very

26:17

high sought after . And studios

26:20

can just say, hey, I'm just gonna I'm definitely gonna

26:22

find somebody who's gonna sign this contract . Eventually

26:25

. I'll definitely find somebody

26:27

who wants to play this game, this position eventually

26:29

. I'll definitely find somebody who wants to coach eventually . Right

26:32

? You know, you you you know, you're

26:34

gonna find somebody who wants to do these jobs because they're highly

26:36

sought after jobs . And

26:39

they still do pay better than than average

26:41

on some of these jobs . Apps . Right ? So then the unions

26:43

really need it so that teams don't

26:45

come down or the leagues don't come down and just

26:47

dictate whatever they want at that point because

26:50

to leverage naturities in

26:52

their favor . Does that make sense ?

26:54

Absolutely does . And that's why,

26:56

you know, years ago, we we needed

26:58

the unions to come in because

27:00

they provided safe working

27:03

conditions, wages, child

27:05

labor law, etcetera . So

27:08

these are necessary organizations

27:10

because without them,

27:13

we'd be in a lot different situation

27:15

than we are today . And

27:17

so they are needed, but I think

27:19

at the end of the day, It's,

27:23

you know, money money talks,

27:25

those studio heads

27:28

or those that have the money, usually

27:31

went out or

27:33

get a lot of what they were asking for

27:35

because at the end of the day, they got the money and

27:37

the worker bees, I keep saying

27:39

that . They're the ones that

27:42

yeah . They're like, well, I can do this

27:44

for a while, but, you know, At

27:46

some point, I've I've got a kid and go back to

27:48

work or find another job .

27:52

Man, and you you know what sucks about finding another

27:54

job . In these businesses, Doug, these

27:56

are lifelong businesses for these people . In sports,

27:58

everybody, these people start playing in their when their

28:00

kids, four or five . Right ? You you know,

28:02

you spent your whole life . Preparing for this moment

28:05

. With these actresses, dancers, singers,

28:07

writers, and stuff of that nature,

28:09

a lot of these people do it for a whole

28:11

lifetime to get to where they are

28:13

. So it's kind of like, are you just

28:15

gonna drop that, book him a plumber ? Or

28:17

what do what do what do you do ?

28:21

Well, I think you're exactly right . And some

28:23

of them don't know what to do because this

28:25

is all the way to home throughout their whole career

28:28

. You know ? So,

28:30

again, I feel sorry

28:33

for him, and I believe that at the end of

28:35

the day, that, you know,

28:37

there's gonna be some

28:39

tough decisions . It's gonna have to be made,

28:41

and I don't envy those

28:44

writers, actors, actresses, etcetera

28:47

because they're

28:49

they're fighting a good fight . They've got a reason

28:51

to be fighting . I

28:53

I I just hope they can make some headway

28:59

I I'm hoping that this doesn't drag

29:01

and drag and drag . Remember, there was a strike in

29:03

two thousand seven, and it used to be a show And

29:05

and there's a few shows that that came on around that

29:08

time . One show was called heroes that came on around two

29:10

thousand seven . And and and I don't know if you ever

29:12

watch loss and and stuff around that time

29:14

. And some

29:16

of those shows, it especially Heroes

29:18

in which is kind of, like, it

29:21

represents that strike of two thousand seven because it never

29:23

recovered after two thousand it never recovered after

29:25

the strike . It was the show was on

29:27

top going into the strike and pretty much out

29:30

of here coming out of the strike . I'm

29:33

hoping that we don't have a lot of damage like

29:35

that to to something struggles and certain

29:37

things because the life changes, you know, people change

29:39

. Life changes . That

29:42

strike show that you just can't put any writer

29:44

on shows and have it you can't just better change

29:46

them and have it be the same success

29:48

. You know ? So

29:51

I'm hoping that some of this stuff

29:53

does get solved expeditiously so

29:56

that there's less damage

29:58

done to some of these IPs and

30:00

stuff like that . You know, so many people have already

30:02

we're right in the middle of recording, somebody shows Doug,

30:05

and

30:05

that's why

30:05

we're having to walk offsets .

30:08

Yeah . Absolutely . Well,

30:10

I'll say if if there is any silver

30:12

lining here . And

30:14

I'm trying to to find a silver lining

30:17

. If I don't know if you recall, but during

30:19

the COVID, obviously,

30:21

a lot of companies could not make

30:24

films . And what

30:26

what happened was there was the

30:28

rise of a lot of these

30:30

side studios . That's

30:33

what I'm gonna call them . Mom

30:35

and pop industry, and

30:37

they made a lot of horror movies . And

30:40

the reason they did that is because it doesn't

30:42

take a lot of acting, it doesn't take a lot of

30:44

script writing, it doesn't take a lot of money,

30:46

to make something like Halloween

30:49

. No . I'm

30:52

not comparing some of these movie to

30:54

the classics . Like, how are we, you know, the

30:56

Texas jeans all match the skirt

30:58

.

30:59

Clear waves, though . That's why that

31:00

that makes it very comparable Right ? Yes . That is

31:03

exactly why I was getting ready to say next

31:05

is and then you saw some

31:07

of these I mean, they were, like, never one of the

31:09

box office, and it was I mean, they could

31:11

set them up here . You know,

31:13

the I

31:16

ran the burgers . I don't know . They could

31:18

they could set them up . But they were making,

31:20

like, you know, forty, fifty thousand dollars

31:22

. They were never one of the box office . And

31:24

a lot of these went straight to

31:27

drive in theaters because people could

31:29

be spread out during COVID . And

31:31

that has

31:33

a feel with this, if

31:35

this last very long, where

31:37

there may be, again,

31:40

some expiring

31:43

actors, actresses, directors,

31:45

writers

31:48

that may get a little bit of

31:50

a break Now I'm not gonna say they're gonna

31:52

be the next Steven Spielberg or anything like

31:54

that, but they'll have their fifteen

31:56

minutes of fame . And and

31:58

I'm trying to look for a silver lining in

32:00

all of this .

32:02

Yeah . I I don't I I mean,

32:04

I'm pretty sure that they're they're hoping they're some silver

32:07

lining as well . There you go . Right . It's because

32:09

they don't wanna be out of work for for

32:11

forever here . And and Right . With

32:14

some of the sticking point being so so

32:16

large, like the AI and perpetuity situation,

32:19

they're trying to find a way to kinda work that out

32:21

. They're trying to find a way to work out things

32:24

like breaks and and stuff like that

32:26

are being told actors

32:29

like, I would give you one, like, a self recording . If you're

32:31

a self recording, I think that's kinda my friend is,

32:33

he he self records for for

32:36

films . Like, they call them . It's like saying,

32:38

hey, Doug, we want you to do this football film

32:41

. Is filming . We want you

32:43

to send us a taper of you self taping,

32:45

and we'll send you the lines . And

32:47

they might send you thirty

32:50

pages to memorize by, like, tomorrow for

32:53

you to self shoot it and then send

32:55

it back to the studio on their timeline . So

32:57

some of that stuff is longer timelines,

32:59

less patient issue, maybe being compensated

33:01

to a certain degree for those efforts because they

33:04

can land you nothing .

33:05

Right .

33:06

Stuff like that . You know, the the the little

33:08

details that have to be kinda

33:11

worked out . And I'm and I'm pretty sure that that

33:13

Frank Drexler and Company are gonna be under immense

33:15

pressure . From their from

33:17

their union, the

33:19

union workers under them who were

33:21

like, hey, I gotta go back to work . Her wife, Kate

33:23

Family, you know, whatever . I gotta go back to lunch

33:26

.

33:26

Yeah .

33:26

Right .

33:26

He's gonna he's gonna pay more mortgage . Yeah

33:29

. My rent . Whatever the case might be

33:31

.

33:32

So here's the hope in that this does get

33:34

settled soon . In hoping

33:36

that we don't have to do another subject on this, but

33:39

we will be back to do it . Doug, if we if we happy,

33:41

appreciate you taking some time here .

33:43

Reg it's always a pleasure to be

33:45

honest with you . Thank you .

33:47

You got it, my friend . It's Regen HTL, check us

33:49

out, state your iHeartRadio, Google podcast, Apple podcast,

33:51

Spotify, wherever you find your podcast, cast . See

33:53

you next time .