“All right cadets, listen up! This is your training to deal with the upcoming battle, and it’s a crafty enemy, by Jesus! They hide in plain sight up in that tee-vee box and that silver screen hoodoo – you know they’re calling those motion pictures “talkies” now? It’s just not American. You, with your hand up and looks like he wants to piss himself, you got some kinda namby-pamby question?!”
“Yeah, umm, we thought this was History Of Film 101, should we leave? Oh, and why do you talk so funny?”
“Why do I talk so fu… Okay, listen up maggots! You’re in the right place, and we’re setting you up for the struggle ahead. You see, those “actors” that you all coddle so much – commies one and all if you ask me – are prepared to walk out on us. And so soon after we made peace with their brothers-in-arms in the Writers Corp and the Directors Infantry. A lot of good people were lost in those battles, and you’re going to learn from their mistakes, dammit! Now pay attention, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover!”
Okay, back to the real world – not that this will be anywhere near as fun. I’m assuming that most people have at least heard rumblings of another possible strike on the horizon (contracts are up at the end of June). The thing that’s most confusing about this one is that there are two actors’ unions involved, with some people having overlapping memberships in both.
So who are these unions, and who do I have to smack to get some new TV and movies? All good questions, but first the background. SAG stands for the Screen Actors Guild, representing actors in both film and television worldwide – this also seems to be the one that people focus on, so many don’t know AFTRA exists. AFTRA is the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and it represents a much broader range “including actors in radio and television, as well as radio and television announcers and newspersons, singers and recording artists (both royalty artists and background singers), promo and voice-over announcers and other performers in commercials, stunt persons and specialty acts.” (Thank you Wikipedia.) You should probably know about the DGA (Directors Guild of America) and WGA (Writers Guild of America) as well. Yes, they both already got their contracts taken care of, but this new headache greatly resembles the debacle we just went through.
Why can’t they all just get along? So now the two actors unions might be getting into a cage match. AFTRA, in an effort to reach a deal before contracts were up, learned from the deals the DGA and WGA had already made – they brought a shorter list of demands to the table. I mean, all they had to do was build on the precedent of those other contracts, right? And they got what they were looking for, and were ready to sign what most referred to as a “damn good deal”. Great! Unfortunately, SAG got angry. And you know what happens when you make Sag angry? SAG smash! That’s right, SAG’s looooong list of demands wasn’t going to be met completely, so why should AFTRA be happy. They said that AFTRA’s new contract would undermine their ongoing talks, so not only did they ask SAG members within AFTRA to vote down the deal, they actually threatened legal action against their brother union. And then they gave them a wet willie. Reeeeal mature, guys!
So what are the sticking points of ratifying new deals? Well, much like the WGA deal, a lot hinges on their chunk of DVD sales as well as that great unproven frontier of the internet. The former is obvious – everyone wants to get more money. But that interweb thing sure is a sticky widget. You know those “webisodes” that a lot of shows post on their websites (from silly shows like Monk and Psych to more serious (and better-produced) fare like Battlestar Galactica)? A lot goes into those mini-episodes, including script writing, direction, and (go figure) actors. A lot of studios, though, were trying to pass those off as “promo material”, even though it was a hell of a lot more than a commercial. And “promo material” for the studios meant, at one point, no payday. The other gray area was episodes that stream online for “free” – even though most of them have advertisements embedded in them, which SOMEONE is obviously paying for.
But with the DGA and WGA deals in place, shouldn’t they just be able to just photocopy one of those and stamp their names on it? You’d think so. If nothing else, remember this: AFTRA tried. SAG smashed. Hopefully beauty can quell that beast before long – otherwise we may get no new TV in the fall. We’ve only got about a week of working actors left if there’s a walkout. And oddly, we seemed to care a whole lot more when the writers were getting underpaid, but Hollywood still took a huge beating and lost a lot of viewers. With the general perception that most actors are overpaid crybabies already, will there be an industry left for them to come back to?
Ay Chihuahua!
1 comment:
Let's be a little fair and look at the common element here. The AMPTP is fighting over the same points again and again, using the same arguments again and again, and still trying to act like the innocent victim who's getting beaten up while it protects the downtrodden workers of Hollywood.
Keep in mind most network producers (not writers) fired all their auxillary staff within hours of the WGA going on strike. Keep in mind after the DGA and WGA set new deals in place, IATSE asked to start negotiations with the AMPTP for their new contract eighteen months early, this after berating the WGA for standing up for themselves.
There is one commonality here, and it is the studios as they are represented by the AMPTP. If four out of five negotiations with group A go wrong, does it make more sense that the problem is with all four groups, or with group A?
There is indeed a group of overpaid crybabies trying to hang onto their perks here. But it isn't SAG.
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