Mark Melara joins us at the Art Bazaar on this episode to discuss cinema, writing, AI & the Double Strike in Hollywood.
Mark Melara is a writer from Los Angeles, CA who's written for shows like Superior Donuts starring comedian Jermaine Fowler and the remarkable Judd Hirsch. Not keeping his writing to just television, Mark also co-wrote the video game Freedom Finger, which is available on all gaming consoles and he's currently developing a Y2K era video game into a TV series for a major studio.
00:00 - Intro
01:21 - NYC Film Industry & Celebrity Ghost Stories
04:25- Mutiny against the production
09:08 - When NYC was built for artists
10:38 - Road trip from NYC to LA
17:20 - What interested Mark in becoming a writer?
20:08 - Getting first jobs in Hollywood
21:36 - WWE Monday Night Raw
22:30 - Moving to LA to become a screenwriter
23:00 - Working with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
26:15 - Trying to produce original screenplays
27:18 - Surf Pope
29:53 - Matt Berry
31:48 - The Writers Strike & SAG-AFTRA Double Strike
34:23 - History of labor strikes in Hollywood
38:27 - Corporate Greed
41:00 - Is the Double Strike coming close to an end?
43:08 - Wealth Inequality
43:55 - Artificial Intelligence is changing our world
44:53 - How do people spend their free time?
46:00 - The spirit of the people on the picket lines
47:42 - The Wall Street speech
48:35 - More support for artists after the Double Strike
51:05 - The pandemic was a pilot for Universal Basic Income
51:50 - Andrew Yang
53:15 - Artificial Intelligence being used for language learning
56:00 - Would AI have invented art without humans having invented it first?
57:45 - AI is an even bigger issue for SAG-AFTRA
58:15 - Actor Stephen Fry has voice unknowingly replicated by AI
01:00:14 - What happens if negotiations breakdown again during strike?
01:02:35 - What is a mini room?
01:04:46 - Any advice for aspiring writers?
01:07:33 - MAJOR UPDATE ABOUT WRITER'S STRIKE
