A SCRIPTWRITER from Ellesmere has joined thousands of colleagues on strike in a dispute with film and TV studios in America.

Catherine Wignall, 31, works between Los Angeles and the UK, having written hugely-popular content for studios such as Hulu, including on Crawlers.

She is currently on strike with her Writers Guild of America (WGA) colleagues, meaning that while she cannot physically be on a picket line, she is not working on any US-based content.

Catherine says that ‘simply put, writers are being asked to do more work for less pay’ and that their working conditions are being changed.

She said: “The streamers and studios are saying they don’t have enough money to pay writers while making more money than they ever have.

“Essentially it’s a money grab and they’re squeezing as much out of us as they can without paying.

Whitchurch Herald: Catherine's WGA membership.

“In the past you used to develop a project – outline, first draft, second draft – and you’d be paid for every step of that.

“But now they won’t pay for development, but will pay for a first draft and then while they can’t ask to see a second draft without paying, they will withhold the money and keep asking for changes.

“In the past you could be on a show that lasted months because it was 24 episodes but now they’re doing six to eight episodes and you end up in a mini-writers’ room.

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“You have to write it as quickly as you can on a tight deadline for little money and no support from other writers.

“One of the biggest shows of 2022 was The Bear and they have writers that can’t afford to pay their rent because they’re required to live in a city with high cost of living.

“We’re only asking for two per cent of revenue of something that wouldn’t exist without our spark of an idea.”

Catherine added that the rise of AI is also causing concern, especially over studios asking ChatGP or similar for ideas and then have writers polish them up.

She added: “We don’t want that but they won’t guarantee they won’t but will only offer a yearly meeting to discuss technological advances.

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“Other guilds such as directors might strike over this and AI and some actors are being asked to sign contracts to allow studios to use their voices for other projects.

“One future issue is that studios aren’t letting writers on set – they write continuously through production – and that’s that causing problems further down the line.

“It’s about the future of who can participate in writing as unless you have already made it a decade ago or have someone supporting you, you can’t access the industry on the wages provided.

“This means the type of stories being written are limited because people from all communities are limited.”