Hello, and welcome. My name is John August, and this is episode 614 of Script Notes, a podcast about screenwriting, and things that are interesting to screenwriters.

This week, the DOJ ratified a new contract with the studios, marking the conclusion of the 148-day strike.

But that's not the end of the story, nor does it fully give a sense of how this all began.

So today on the show, I want to welcome the co-chair and chief order of the WJ Negotiating Committee, Chris Kaiser, to help us understand the storytelling behind the strike.

Chris Kaiser, welcome back to Script Notes.

It's good to see you again, John. It's been a couple of days since I was locked in a room with you for five months.

We were locked in rooms for a very, very long time, and I know we are all kind of sick of talking about negotiations, but I promise this one is going to be different because it's going to be crafty.

It's going to be much more like, you know, Greta Gerwig was sitting in your seat a few years back, and we were talking through little women, and we were going through the store like pages of like, you know, of the script, like, why did you make this choice? Why this word, not that word?

And we're going to the same with you here, because we're going to look at three of your speeches as a framework for talking about the overall kind of narrative and storytelling that was so crucial for this whole campaign for freaking this out.

So speech in two sequels.

Speech in two sequels, yes. You became not notorious, but beloved, I'll say, for long speeches, and people loved your long speeches. So we'll talk through those speeches, but also.

It's long the operative word and all that is that?

No, inspiring, meaningful, scene-setting speeches.

Right.

And I think there's a lot to learn here just in terms of how we tell stories, because in these speeches, you see that we had to establish a premise.

Identify themes and characters, structure a timeline, and it weirdly is a lot like kind of what we do in our day jobs.

It was one of the members of the leadership committee, so it was like being in like the best writer's room that just went on for forever.

Yes, it's true.

It's true.

In the end, although we don't start by saying it's a story, in the end we have to tell a story to the members, and they have to believe the story and want to be part of it.

Yes, and so we have to tell a story that feels true to them, and we have to be honest and truthful with them at every moment.

Yet we're still always trying to make sure that we're framing in a ways that they can relate to that they can identify with.

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