“Pay The Writers You AI-Holes”: Plane Flies Banner Over LA Studios In Solidarity With WGA
15.05.2023 - 23:35
/ deadline.com
The writers strike took to the skies of Los Angeles on Monday, as a plane flew around all of the major production studios with a banner that read, “Pay the writers, you AI-holes.”
What started out as a joke among friends quickly became a reality — and a show of union solidarity — when writer and director Jacob Reed shared the idea on social media.
“Mostly, there’s just so many great signs. I was like, ‘Someone should put one of these in the air. Is that possible? Could you get a skywriter?’ And it started as a joke on my ‘friends only’ Instagram. I had enough friends immediately just be like, ‘Yes, I would chip in. Yes. Tell me what you need,'” he told Deadline while on the picket line at Paramount on Monday.
Reed quickly took the idea to his larger social media community, where the idea started to pick up traction. After a friend, who had been involved in a similar stunt during a previous strike authorization vote, offered to send Reed the flight path they used, he began to take the idea more seriously. He attached his Venmo to his social media, and the rest is history.
In total, Reed received just over $2,500 in donations from WGA members as well as members of IATSE Locals 44, 600, 700, 705, 728, 871, 892, SAG/AFTRA, The Animation Guild, DGA, United Domestic Workers, California Teachers Association, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. About $2,200 was spent to commission the plane and the rest was donated to the Entertainment Community Fund.
During the three-hour flight, the plane did several loops at each of the major studios across Los Angeles — Amazon Studios, Paramount, Sony, Fox, CBS, Universal, Warner Bros. and Netflix — which have been picketed for the past 14 days.
Reed is not