First, I'd like to cover something that was left unsaid. In the comments for my previous post about the impending strike, Virtual Stranger reminded me of who the real villain is in this story - and it was someone I left unnamed. The Great and Mighty Oz in this equation is the AMPTP – the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers – and much like the magic man, once the curtain is drawn we see a frightened old man, afraid of losing his power over the people (now imagine him in a swanky suit and multiply him a few times – oh, and picture them all wringing their hands forebodingly. There we go:).
The point is, we tend to lose sight of that – these are the people who can really make or break these contracts. Not wanting to lose any of their precious money, they certainly don’t want to make concessions. And I’d nearly forgotten what a bunch of greedy ass clowns they could sound like when a strike rears its head. You see, pretty much every time a demand was on the table during the last round of bargaining (WGA/DGA contracts) the AMPTP mud-flinging damage control began – amounting to something just short of outright calling the writers and directors a bunch of crybabies. While that shifted our focus, let’s not forget that they’re the ones who fired all the show staffs, kids.
But during that time, I think more people were still siding with those on strike – public perception is powerful, and we tend to associate the adjective “starving” to the word “writer” fairly quickly. That makes it a lot easier for the common man to empathize with them. But when you hear “actor”, what’s used to describe that? Yes, “starving” should actually be one of them in many cases – I mean, how much can they really be paying “Mugger #5” in an episode of Law & Order? But, more often, we think of actors as “rich” or “pampered”. Despite the portrayal of SAG members as power players (an example being their caricature in that lousy puppet movie Team America), how much do they really make? Well, two-thirds of them make less than $1000 a year, and fewer than 20 percent earn more than $7500 a year. What’s the old joke – “What do you call a member of SAG? A waiter.”
But so soon after the previous work stoppage, we are still feeling the effects. TV viewing is down, and we may be dealing with few to no new episodes come fall. The general public feels let down, and they don’t know where to place the blame. Like I said, the working man isn’t feeling much sympathy toward actors right now – people are more worried about missing their entertainment fix.
Our problem as a society is that we spend a lot of time raising actors and musicians up on a pedestal just to knock them down. They’re great when they’re producing hits, but as soon as they piss you off you want to sick the rabid paparazzi on them. And that’s my point – whoever the true villain in the story may be, that damn public perception is a killer. This is just Day 1 without a contract – hopefully SAG and AFTRA can build on the precedents the writers and directors have set with their deals. Now they just need to stop fighting with each other and win the battle that matters.
Oh yeah, and if they could get Pushing Daisies back on the air on time, that’d be swell too. Just saying…
Showing posts with label actors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label actors. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Operation Impending Annoyance: Strike Prep 101
“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!
“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!
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