Episode 116: Screenwriting and the Writers Guild of America Strike (with Ramona Barckert)

Doctor Vs Comedian

Today, Ali and Asif interview award winning screenwriter Ramona Barkert (‘Degrassi’, ‘The Hardy Boys’, ‘Wynona Earp’) about how one gets into screenwriting, the creative process and how “writers rooms” function (0:54). They discuss the term “showrunner” and what the duties of that position entail. Ramona then goes over how one writes a season of television, individual episodes and even individual scenes. Although Ramona is not a member of the Writers Guild of America, she then gives an outsiders view on the recent writers strike in the USA (33:36). They talk about the differences between screenwriting in the US and Canada and what the main issues are in the WGA strike. They then discuss about how some shows are still in production and how projects that continued in production during the last writer’s strike ended up as less than successful (ie ‘Quantum of Solace’). Finally Ramona and the guys discuss the issue of AI in screenwriting.

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Music courtesy of Wataboi and 8er41 from Pixabay

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Show Notes:

• Ramona’ s Degrassi Fan page: https://degrassi.fandom.com/wiki/Ramona_Barckert
• Hollywood’s writers are on strike. Here’s why that matters: https://www.vox.com/culture/23696617/writers-strike-wga-2023-explained-residuals-streaming-ai
• All About the Writers Strike: What Does the WGA Want and Why Are They Fighting So Hard for it? https://www.gq.com/story/writers-strike-2023-wga-explained
• The 2023 Writers Strike Explained: How We Got Here — and What to Expect: https://www.indiewire.com/news/business/writers-strike-2023-explained-1234831299/
• ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 to Continue Filming Amid Writers Strike, All Scripts Were Finished: https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/house-of-the-dragon-season-2-writers-strike-wga-1235601037/
• ‘Stranger Things’ filming halted because of writers’ strike: https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/08/entertainment/stranger-things-filming-stopped/index.html
• Daniel Craig Says Writer’s Strike “F@#$%&” ‘Quantum Of Solace’ & He Rewrote Scenes With Marc Forster: https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/daniel-craig-says-writers-strike-fucked-quantum-of-solace-he-rewrote-scenes-with-marc-forster-114248/
• Justine Bateman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JustineBateman/status/1657476895972413440