discussion SAG strike | SAG-AFTRA Reaches Tentative Agreement With Studios

[Broken]

2 hours ago, mystery said:

[okgo]

 

[mystery]

15 minutes ago, okgo said:

 

Yeah this isn't ending anytime soon...

[Taylena]

And when this just accelerates the process of studios replacing real actors with AI generated ones... 

[X~MoviePoP]

Is anyone against the strike?

 

Id love to know your thoughts on why

[mystery]

 

[mystery]

DEADLINE: SAG-AFTRA Will Allow Some Truly Independent Producers To Film During Strike If They Sign “Interim Agreements”
 

SAG-AFTRA soon will be signing “interim agreements” with truly independent producers that will allow many of them to start or continue production during the strike — as long as they are not affiliated with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and agree to be bound retroactively to whatever contract terms eventually are achieved with the AMPTP when the strike is settled.  
 

All work and services under the TV/Theatrical Agreements and related contracts is struck work. These include the guild’s Ultra Low Budget Project Agreement, the Moderate Low Budget Project Agreement, the Low Budget Theatrical Agreement, and the Special New Media Agreements.
 

But truly independent, non-AMPTP productions that want to shoot under those agreements may be eligible for an interim agreement that will allow them to keep filming.
 

The guild also notes that no interim agreement is necessary for productions filming under several of the guild’s lowest budget agreements because they are not being struck. They include the Short Project Agreement, the Micro Budget Agreement, the Student Film Agreement, and the Independent New Media Agreement.
 

On Day 1 of the actors’ strike, meanwhile, there are still a lot of SAG-AFTRA members working, and the guild encourages them to keep doing so. That’s because they’re working, or seeking work, under one or more of the guild’s many contracts that aren’t subject to the walkout.
 

Soap opera actors, for instance, can still work because they’re covered by what’s called the Network Television Code, which is separate and apart from than the one that’s being struck – the TV/Theatrical/Streaming contract. Working on variety shows, talk shows and game shows is also allowed for the same reason.

Edited July 14, 2023 by mystery

[Vermillion]

@mystery L.A. Times story....There's more here about the exceptions to the strike besides daytime soap stars, Brits, and very small indies

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-07-14/sag-aftra-strike-actors-what-to-know

 

 

The national board of SAG-AFTRA on Thursday authorized the union’s members to go on strike after efforts to negotiate a new contract with the major studios collapsed. The decision led thousands of SAG-AFTRA members to join WGA members on picket lines beginning Friday. The historic action marks the first time since 1960 that both unions have staged walkouts simultaneously. The last actors’ strike against the studios was in 1980. The walkout will halt productions worldwide and cause more economic pain and disruption for the film and TV industry already shaken by the writers’ strike that began May 2.

 

Actors said they were making progress in contract talks, then they weren’t. What happened?

How did we get here?

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers entered into negotiations with the actors union on June 7, just three weeks before their contract was due to expire.

Things got off to a contentious start when union leaders asked for and received — by a huge margin — a strike authorization from members even before bargaining began.

On the eve of the contract deadline, the two sides agreed to extend talks for two more weeks until July 12. At first, it appeared that the union was nearing a deal after union leaders said negotiations were “extremely productive” and that they were optimistic about reaching a deal.

But behind the scenes the sides remained far apart on many key issues.

 

Arguing that many actors had been shortchanged by the streaming revolution, the union proposed that a third-party company measure the success of shows and that residual payments be tied to how they perform. AMPTP companies balked at that idea, arguing that many streaming platforms are not yet profitable.

The parties also clashed over proposals to curb the use of self-taped auditions, boost contributions to the union’s health and pension plan and increase basic pay to offset inflation. The union at one point was seeking a 15% increase in wages (eventually lowered to 11%) in the first year of the three-year contract, far above what Directors Guild of America members secured in their recent contract negotiations.

 

Despite a federal mediator being brought in on the last day of negotiations, no deal was reached. Simply put, there were too many points of disagreement and not enough time to tackle each issue, insiders told The Times.

What to know about the SAG-AFTRA actors’ strike

July 14, 2023

Was AI a big stumbling block?

 

While much of the attention focused on streaming residuals, artificial intelligence emerged as a major issue in negotiations. The spread of the technology stirred deep anxieties among performers about how their image and likeness could be used — and abused. So the union wanted to establish clear regulations around AI, as did the WGA. Already actors argue that it is typical to sign away rights to their voice and likeness as popular characters for use by studios — without compensation — in amusement parks or video games. They feared something similar would happen with the manipulation of their voice and likeness by AI programs. AMPTP offered what it called a groundbreaking proposal that it said “protects performers’ digital likenesses.” But SAG-AFTRA negotiators contended that companies could scan the initial performance of a background actor and then reuse the image without their consent indefinitely. AMPTP members said that claim was inaccurate.

 

So who is on strike?

 

The work stoppage applies to any of SAG-AFTRA’s 160,000 members who work under the union’s film and TV contract with companies that belong to the AMPTP, a group that represents all the major producers in Hollywood, including Netflix, Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix and Amazon Studios.

The strike also affects actors who work on overseas productions, not just those in the U.S. Additionally, SAG-AFTRA members must stop performing all acting duties, including promoting or marketing movies and TV shows.

 

But because of the peculiarities of union contracts, not all actors are going on strike. The work stoppage does not apply to performers who work under other contracts, such as those who do commercials or work on soap operas and talk shows.

 

Also unaffected: broadcasters and actors on some very low-budget independent productions and student films, the union told members on its website. Those who work on independent productions not tied to AMPTP members also may be exempt if the companies follow the union’s terms. Dubbing work likely also would be exempt, SAG-AFTRA has said.

 

What impact will the strike have?

 

This is unknown territory, as it has been 63 years since Hollywood last weathered simultaneous strikes by actors and writers, and that was at a time when the industry was much smaller than it is today. An actors’ strike, coming on the heels of the writers’ strike, is a double whammy for an industry that was already struggling to emerge from the pandemic and upheaval caused by the streaming era. In Los Angeles, on-location scripted production had already ground to a halt in recent weeks, according to FilmLA. A walkout by actors will shut down all scripted film and TV production, not just current projects but TV series that were scheduled to resume filming in the fall and big movies that now will be postponed into the distant future. Projects affected include movies such as “Gladiator 2” and “Deadpool 3” and Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story” anthology series.

 

New seasons of some shows like “Abbott Elementary” and “Stranger Things,” which had been due to start production this summer, were previously put on hold due to the writers’ strike. And projects filming outside of the U.S. won’t be immune. Under SAG-AFTRA’s “Global One Rule,” actors are required in most cases to work under the union’s agreements wherever they are in the world.

Will the local economy take a big hit?

 

Yes. Even before the actors’ strike, economists and industry watchers predicted the fallout would be a lot more than that of the last major walkout in 2007-08.

That strike lasted 100 days and cost L.A. an estimated $2.1 billion. This time, the toll could be even greater.

 

Todd Holmes, an associate professor of entertainment media management at Cal State Northridge, estimates that if the WGA strike exceeds three months, as many predict, it could cost the L.A. region at least $3 billion.

 

Already, businesses linked to the film and TV industry are feeling the pain, with local prop houses and other suppliers laying off workers in response to a slowdown in demand. Thousands of crew members who work behind the scenes on film and TV sets will be out of work, along with writers and actors.

[Vermillion]

So it looks like a big example of an exception to this would be The View.

 

Kind of ironic given Iger's comments and it being an ABC property. Awkward too. But it'll probably be a brief mention and they'll move on.

[rac7d]

4 hours ago, mystery said:

Yeah this isn't ending anytime soon...

They have until September before it begins to affect future scheduling. And the. Until November before it starts to affect careers 

[One Rude Boy]

Union strong  we have no choice but to stan

 

iger is bones

[Vermillion]

1 minute ago, rac7d said:

They have until September before it begins to affect future scheduling. And the. Until November before it starts to affect careers 

This will last until November at a minimum, I'm calling it now. I mean, the topics this existential and for decades down the line?

 

A.I.? I mean, the studios I think aren't going to be willing to budge at all in so much of that category. More the rest, I could picture.

[rac7d]

1 minute ago, Espresso said:

This will last until November at a minimum, I'm calling it now. I mean, the topics this existential and for decades down the line?

 

A.I.? I mean, the studios I think aren't going to be willing to budge at all in so much of that category. More the rest, I could picture.

By November this will cost the big wigs money and  Alist talent will have their films jeopardized 

 

as a chap lord I personally hope this goes ok for the rest of the year just as an experiment 

[HANZ94]

14 hours ago, fridayteenage said:

Nnnn her Impact 

[mystery]

VARIETY: SAG-AFTRA Strike: Negotiations Cratered Over AI, Streaming Revenue Sharing, Pay Hikes and More
 

According to sources on both sides, the biggest sticking point is the union’s demand for 2% of the revenue generated by streaming shows. The two sides also remain far apart on basic increases in minimum rates, with the studios offering 5%, 4% and 3.5% across the three years of the contract, while the union is demanding 11%, 4% and 4%. In some cases, the two sides don’t even agree on what the disagreements are. They engaged in a rare public back-and-forth Thursday over the use of artificial intelligence to replicate background actors.
 

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union’s executive director, alleged that the studios want to pay an extra for one day of work to be scanned, and then reuse that likeness forever. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers hotly disputed that, saying that its proposal explicitly limits the reuse to the project for which the extra was hired.
 

SAG-AFTRA wants 2% of the revenue that each show generates for a streaming platform to be paid to performers. The union would use Content Valuation, a measurement tool introduced last fall by Parrot Analytics, to determine how much each show is worth to the platform. Parrot Analytics uses Google searches, social media mentions, and other data sources to measure demand for each show. The metric is not trying to determine viewership, but rather the impact of each show on a company’s revenue. To estimate that, it uses quarterly earnings data and apportions revenue — including subscriptions and ads — to each show on the platform.

SAG-AFTRA — led by union president Fran Drescher — argues that it is essential to pay performers for the success of a show. The union says it is not wedded to Parrot Analytics, but that the studios have not countered with any other way to measure performance. The studios say they explained early and often that the whole concept is unworkable given the challenges of accurately measuring success.

The AMPTP also offered additional increases for certain categories of performers: 11% for background actors and 58% for guest stars on streaming shows. (On the latter item, SAG-AFTRA accepted the increase.) SAG-AFTRA is also seeking a 230% increase in foreign streaming residuals, according to a studio source. The AMPTP is offering the same increase provided to the DGA: 76%.
 

SAG-AFTRA is not seeking to ban AI, but wants to make sure that any use of a performer’s likeness to generate a new performance is done with compensation and consent. The AMPTP says it has agreed to that, but Crabtree-Ireland said the devil is in the details. “It is a very craftily put together proposal that a layperson looking at it might not see all the holes in it,” he said. “There are huge gaps you can drive a Mack truck through.” The union wants to require that a performer has to consent to any use of their performance to train an AI system. The AMPTP would accept that for AI training used to alter or recreate that performer’s likeness. But according to Crabtree-Ireland, the AMPTP would give studios carte blanche to train AI systems to create “synthetic” performers, or for other purposes. SAG-AFTRA also wants studios to get union consent on individual uses of AI, which the studios have refused to grant. There is also the dispute over background actors.
 

SAG-AFTRA wants to limit the use of self-taped auditions, which have become the industry standard in the wake of the pandemic. The union wants to limit such auditions to no more than five pages of material. The AMPTP has offered an eight-page limit. The two sides are also working on terms about turnaround times and a provision that would clarify no special lighting or equipment is needed.
 

Producers pay contributions to the pension and health plans based on performers’ earnings up to a certain threshold. For a half-hour episode, the ceiling is $15,000; for an hour it’s $24,500. SAG-AFTRA wants to increase those ceilings to $45,000 and $75,000, respectively, to account for 40 years of inflation. The AMPTP has agreed to increase the ceilings to $20,000 and $30,000.
 

In the streaming era, actors have been forced to wait for longer and longer periods to hear whether their show has been renewed. This is one of the primary ways in which the shift to streaming has affected actors’ pay. SAG-AFTRA struck a deal with Netflix last year that limits option periods to 18 months from the start of production on a season. The union would like to get the same deal with the rest of the companies represented by the AMPTP. The studio group says it has agreed to do so for actors earning less than $65,000 an episode on half-hour shows and less than $70,000 an episode on one-hour shows.

Edited July 15, 2023 by mystery

[Park Jinyoung]

They better Pay UP 

[WildAmerican]

this is so grim

 

 

[FreeXone]

On 7/14/2023 at 11:19 AM, Taylena said:

And when this just accelerates the process of studios replacing real actors with AI generated ones... 

Black Mirror strikes again

[FreeXone]

On 7/14/2023 at 3:26 AM, Coldpurry said:

So this affects the music industry too

No one will be able to film music videos now

 

Music Videos have mostly always been non union. Same with like game shows and stuff. 

[Broken]

"actors and writers are not being realistic with their demands"

 

[Vermillion]

CNBC interview with the Deadline Hollywood writer of that ghastly piece with the executive quotes that went viral.

 

He seems to think (here and elsewhere) this will last until October upon which point the actor's union may fold somewhat, but not the writers.

 

 

[Lovett]

 

[mystery]

5 minutes ago, MrLovett said:

 

This is so scummy from them.

[fridayteenage]

6 hours ago, Broken said:

"actors and writers are not being realistic with their demands"

 

oh look, i see logan roy + kendall roy up there. plus the guy who's making the most money off of their show.

 

[Vermillion]