The Life and Death of Hollywood, by Daniel Bessner

The Nugget

The rise and struggle of the Hollywood screenwriting profession, as detailed in Daniel Bessner's piece, showcases the impact of corporate and technological changes on the creative industry, highlighting a journey from a golden age of opportunity to a crisis of sustainability fueled by deregulation, streaming, and corporate greed.

Key Quotes

"It's like a whole world of intellectuals and artists got a multibillion-dollar grant from the tech world, but we mistook that, and were frankly actively gaslit into thinking that that was because they cared about art."
"Hollywood had become a winner-takes-all economy."
"The industry is in a deep and existential crisis. It is probably the deepest and most existential crisis it's ever been in."
"Passion can only get you so far."
"The streamers, which would soon employ about half of TV-series writers, were thoroughly speculative ventures, and they were set to expand and contract with the whims of the market."

The advent of streaming platforms like Netflix altered Hollywood's business model, initially offering an influx of creative freedom and financial investment in new projects. However, this model, based more on subscriber numbers than profitability, contributed to industry-wide instability and unsustainable practices.
Streaming encouraged a "content gold rush," greatly increasing the number of shows produced but also leading to the employment of writers in precarious, short-term positions, diminishing job security and undermining the development pipeline for future showrunners and writers.

The consolidation of entertainment corporations, alongside the infiltration of financial firms aiming to maximize efficiency, significantly eroded writers' wages, job security, and creative autonomy. This has left many writers navigating a precarious gig economy, with the profession becoming increasingly untenable as a stable career.
Fight for fair contracts and protections: The 2023 Writers Guild of America strike is a pivotal moment in fighting back against the dwindling conditions, achieving some wins such as a new residuals model and minimum employment lengths for TV writers, though challenges remain in addressing the foundational shifts in Hollywood’s business model.

Hollywood's growing preference for projects based on existing intellectual property over original content has further devalued the role of screenwriters. Writers often find themselves as replaceable components in franchise-driven production machines, diminishing their bargaining power and creative input.
This shift has not only affected the quality and diversity of content but also contributed to a more risk-averse industry, discouraging innovation and limiting opportunities for new voices to emerge.

The underlying issues of deregulation, corporate consolidation, and the speculative bubble of streaming services call for radical intervention. Potential solutions include enforcing antitrust laws, reevaluating the business models of major studios, and possibly reimagining copyright laws to empower creators.
Without significant reforms, both the quality of artistic output and the viability of writing as a profession in Hollywood face an uncertain future.

🎬 The golden age of "Peak TV" was also the beginning of a crisis for screenwriters, illustrating the double-edged sword of streaming’s creative freedom.
💰 "Winner-takes-all" in Hollywood increasingly means creativity pays the price, with executive salaries soaring as writers struggle.
✍️ The 2023 WGA strike: A beacon of solidarity amid industry upheaval, highlighting the struggle for fair compensation and creative respect.
🔍 IP obsession limits Hollywood's horizons, reducing writers to cogs in a profit-driven machine rather than creators of innovative stories.

This summary contains AI-generated information and may have important inaccuracies or omissions.