A couple of San Antonio natives are among the many writers striking in Hollywood.
Raymond Arturo Perez, staff writer for the second season of Netflix's "Selena: The Series," and Marissa Díaz, writer and producer of the Netflix documentary "Orgasm Inc.: The Story of One Taste,” have joined members of the Writers Guild of America in their strike against studios for salary increases, residuals from streaming content and safeguards against losing work to artificial intelligence.
“The job security aspect of it is the number one reason,” said Perez, a WGA member who graduated from Communications Arts High School in San Antonio in 2010. “It’s our opportunity to really catch up with the fact that streaming has avoided a lot of the things that make writing a viable career.”
Perez noted streaming services such as Amazon and Netflix call for fewer television episodes with fewer writers compared to cable and network programming, resulting in less work and less pay.
Those writers who do get hired must churn out scripts on a tighter schedule, he said, with studios expecting four to six writers to do the work of 10 to 12. Meanwhile, writers are concerned that content created by artificial intelligence will further diminish the value of their work.
Fellow Communications Arts grad Díaz said the current streaming climate also hurts new writers as well as veterans. Fewer episodes and seasons not only mean less pay for greener writers, she said, but also less on-set experience that can lead to more writing jobs and production work.
“For me it’s all about making writing more sustainable for future, incoming writers," said Díaz, who also has worked on the the HBO series "Girls" and the HBO Max series "Generation."
Earlier this month, the WGA called for its members to stop working until the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers comes to an agreement with them on various work and compensation issues.
The last major writers' strike ran for 100 days between late 2007 and early 2008. Perez expects the current strike could go longer.
“We as a guild are prepared to be on strike as long as need be," he said.
And Díaz stressed that she and Perez picketing in Hollywood is for San Antonio as well.
"It’s so exciting to get the support from our hometown, which is so important to us," she said. "It's important for people to know since the (film and television) industry is growing in San Antonio."