Thread by @GeoffLaTulippe

One question in particular about the #WGAStrike that a bunch of family and friends who are totally disconnected from the entertainment industry have asked about recently that I thought I should address here in a quick thread.

It actually has more layers to it than you'd think.

My parents specifically ask about a few of my closest friends out here often, some of whom are execs at studios. And they've both wondered, with some amount of worry:

"Are you still going to be friends with (enter exec here) and be able to work together once the strike is over?"

My answer, of course, is, "Yes, absolutely. They are employed by the studios. But they're NOT the studios."

Which is a complicated thing to suss out without some explanation. And, thus, very reasonable for them to ask, even if it's silly to me.

But I want to dig a bit deeper:

Most execs at most studios are as close to working through a gig economy as writers are. Some are already in the grinder. Some are already discarded mill grist.

So many of them labor under the fear of their next greenlight, their next decision, their last note being THE last.

Part of the reason for this?

Being an exec at a studio, so often, is not even What Have You Done For Me Lately as much as it is Wait How Do You Still Work Here.

Some execs are bulletproof for various reasons. Some are amazingly talented.

Most are just hanging on. Talent or no.

What that's contributed to?

A culture of Safety First. And I'm not talking ethics and practices. I'm talking about How Do I Justify This If It Goes To Shit.

Sequels. Remakes. Reboots. Spinoffs. IP gobbling. What has worked before MUST work again. Right?

I'm not even sure most believe that. Honestly.

What's needed is so often less a hit and more a prepackaged excuse in case of a bomb.

Execs have to answer to studio heads who have to answer to CEOs who have to answer to stockholders.

They need Kevlar.

"Hey, look, don't blame me! (INSERT KNOWN IP HERE) worked last time, and we busted our ass to make this one even better!"

Do you know how dead inside a lot of these people - so many who got into this business just because they wanted to make awesome movies - feel living THERE?

It's so much easier to help develop a known entity that clunks than bang the table for something amazing that you truly believe in that clunks.

As writers, we've watched this happen to *countless* execs over our careers. And we feel it.

Because we've watched it happen to us.

Not every exec is onboard with the Strike. Not every exec is a good friend, or a helpful acquaintance, or even someone you want to settle for as a professional colleague.

And very few of them can speak out in the way they'd prefer these days.

We're ALL hanging on to careers.

And to be clear, this isn't a fawning, twee Pity The Poor Studio Plebes plea.

It's merely a recognition that most of them LIKE working with writers. Most are ON our side. Most WANT to see us thrive. Because that means they thrive too!

Mostly it's about:

If this industry tips over to being *purely* corporate and economic and about "content", and can't find room for art and love and creativity and collaboration and honest-to-God financial stability for the creatives, only the CEOs will be left.

Execs knows that as well as we do.