SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

Post by ZoWie »

We need a contract that will increase contributions to our benefit plans and protect members from erosion of income due to inflation and reduced residuals, unregulated use of generative AI, and demanding self-taped auditions.
https://www.sagaftra.org/sag-aftra-stri ... ation-vote
[...]the strike authorization vote permits the National Board to declare a strike if the studios and streaming companies fail to protect and uphold the basic working conditions of our members — the professional performers who make this one of the most successful industries in the world. Your negotiating committee and National Board will do everything they can to reach an agreement without a strike, and the leverage of a successful strike authorization vote will strengthen us to push for the best deal possible.
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

Post by ap215 »

Since we live in the corporate person dominant era now the corporations obviously wants more & give crumbs to the writers negotiations take time it should be 50-50 they have to resolve this quickly.
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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Since the industry is confronted by the double whammy of the mess over residuals from on-demand streaming, and the strong possibility of AI taking over much of the creative end of the business, the situation for me feels eerily reminiscent of when I was actually trying to make it in that field. It coincided with the last time that the usual beefs such as long hours and shady accounting practices got bad enough that everybody walked (at different times though) except for some IATSE locals which were more of a below-the-line interest and weren't hurting as badly. There's been nothing like the current double strike since 1960. That's 63 years.

Objectively, the process by which shows successfully make it into production really does resemble the way AI operates. The process looks like thinking, but it's really just finding and assembling old stuff in credibly lucid ways. AI and this town are probably a marriage made in heaven, everyone sees a real danger of it taking over a lot of what humans get paid to do, and so the angst can be cut with a very dull knife indeed.
Last edited by ZoWie on Fri Jul 14, 2023 5:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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Directors union reaches tentative deal with Hollywood studios as writers strike

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) which represents film and television directors announced late on Saturday that it had reached a tentative agreement with Hollywood’s major studios, averting a possible work stoppage.

The development comes as Hollywood writers are currently on strike and actors represented by the Sag-Aftra union are currently holding a strike authorization vote.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/202 ... ative-deal
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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News reports that the strike authorization passed with 97% voting yes.

The writers have been out for a month. If SAG-AFTRA walks too, the town stops cold. The last time things had to get this bad, it delayed the fall TV season for months. This time, it's more complicated, but the same kind of content shortage will result. There will simply be no new product to feed into the machine.
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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Well well well. Now the writers have been out for two months, and shit is hitting fans all over LA. There is a script shortage, to say the least, and the maw of streaming is far hungrier than the already ravenous maw of network TV back in those halcyon days when it and features were the whole show.

I think this is the month when SAG-AFTRA will poop or get off the pot on whether they are going to walk. The spectacle of seeing a CGI'd face on a major star has driven home the fact that the times they are a-changin. (Not that it was never done before with makeup, animation and optical effects, but it used to look silly and not be worth it. Things have changed.)

If they do, it will be the worst crisis since the one that brought production to a grinding, sickening halt when I was still trying to make a living in it. I can say from experience that it's very bad indeed, but of course in the years since then it's become evident that right now you don't do a hell of a lot better when you're working. That's why there are strikes this go-round in the first place.
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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ZoWie wrote: Mon Jul 03, 2023 12:17 pm Well well well. Now the writers have been out for two months, and shit is hitting fans all over LA. There is a script shortage, to say the least, and the maw of streaming is far hungrier than the already ravenous maw of network TV back in those halcyon days when it and features were the whole show.

I think this is the month when SAG-AFTRA will poop or get off the pot on whether they are going to walk. The spectacle of seeing a CGI'd face on a major star has driven home the fact that the times they are a-changin. (Not that it was never done before with makeup, animation and optical effects, but it used to look silly and not be worth it. Things have changed.)

If they do, it will be the worst crisis since the one that brought production to a grinding, sickening halt when I was still trying to make a living in it. I can say from experience that it's very bad indeed, but of course in the years since then it's become evident that right now you don't do a hell of a lot better when you're working. That's why there are strikes this go-round in the first place.
What would be a summary of the reasons writers, directors, actors etc, crew, will be making less money other than the obvious CGI replacing real people? Reasons or excuses, I guess.

How can they use CGI a major star without paying them, or is the point they will only be offered this new type of job that would pay far less?
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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It's complicated. For a start, on-demand has completely disrupted the usual residual system that has been in place for at least 60 years. In general, the work load increases while the compensation goes ever lower. The writing and production ends of the business are not the money machine that they were 20 years ago.

I would feel sorrier for the writers if they hadn't been waiting anxiously for another means of distribution, only to find out that commerce is not that simple, and now the work is constant 24/7/52 while the compensation drops below anything that would keep up with inflation. Does the phrase, "Running ever harder to get ever farther behind" ring a bell?

For below the line people like editors and post-production, it's gotten even worse. The work is endless, and the ability to make ends meet goes ever lower. Don't get into the movie business if you want to be rich and famous. Get into it if you want to be a semi-freelance slave for the suits in the towers of New York.

We all bow down to the great god CGI. Frankly, I preferred optical printing, but that was slow and expensive, being art after all. So now we have machines for it. Good for meeting production schedules, not so hot for the real craftspeople, true artists all, who now have nothing to do.

AI of course really hasn't happened yet, but common sense says it's only a matter of time. Generative AI is perfect for this business. Most of what gets to the screens, big and small, recycles old shit anyway. This shot is like Lucas, that shot is like Spielberg, any 12-year-old can write the dialog, etc.. Why not have a machine write it? People are worried they'll be automated out of a job and want mandatory human input on scripts.

The Indiana Jones / Raiders of the Lost Ark franchise is commonly cited as an example. Apparently the contracts for this many movies have been in effect for decades, but for whatever reason it's taken longer to get them all made. In the intervening time interval we have gone from the kind of industry that made Raiders of the Lost Ark to one owned by huge transnational conglomerates which only considers how to get the most work out of people for the least money up front.

For more detailed reasons, you'd need to talk to one of the overworked, underpaid workers who totally lack job security. Mostly they talk about falling asleep at the wheel. I would have gotten into the Writer's Guild eventually, it was only a matter of time, but I saw the future and bailed out of that weekly-changing industry.
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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Someone got the jitters.

SAG-AFTRA actors union extends contract deadline with studios until July 12; avoiding strike for now

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The SAG-AFTRA actors union has agreed with Hollywood studios to extend their contract to July 12 as the two sides continue to negotiate.

If a deal had not been reached by the original deadline, which was 11:59 p.m. PDT Friday, the union representing 160,000 TV and film actors could have joined the WGA on strike for the holiday weekend.

https://abc7.com/sag-aftra-contract-neg ... /13446685/
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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> someone got the jitters

Right again.

They seemed determined to walk this time, and the AMPTP (bargaining unit) seemed determined to let them. I wonder what finally scared them off?
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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ap215 wrote: Wed Jul 05, 2023 11:50 am Someone got the jitters.

SAG-AFTRA actors union extends contract deadline with studios until July 12; avoiding strike for now

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The SAG-AFTRA actors union has agreed with Hollywood studios to extend their contract to July 12 as the two sides continue to negotiate.

If a deal had not been reached by the original deadline, which was 11:59 p.m. PDT Friday, the union representing 160,000 TV and film actors could have joined the WGA on strike for the holiday weekend.

https://abc7.com/sag-aftra-contract-neg ... /13446685/
TV programs should be shooting new episodes for the coming season but they're not because of the strike. As September comes closer the studios will become more willing to meet the union's demands.
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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Not just episodic TV. The Tony Awards had no script due to the strike. First they were going to cancel the whole show, but they decided to ad-lib it. It was probably the first unscripted awards show ever.
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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ZoWie wrote: Sat Jul 08, 2023 1:52 pm Not just episodic TV. The Tony Awards had no script due to the strike. First they were going to cancel the whole show, but they decided to ad-lib it. It was probably the first unscripted awards show ever.
Did you watch? I did not, was it good?

I will admit there is some episodic network comedy shows I like, and will miss it. Most of what we see on streaming services like Netflix or Prime will be affected the same, I assume.


BTW was anybody funnier? Below is my tribute to Alan Arkin on twitter


There was simply no one like Alan Arkin, whether it's the spit take in "Big Trouble" https://youtu.be/5Ora3kIZlaE or every take in "The In-Laws" there was nobody better or funnier.
When he tries to talk at the end I end up on the floor everytime.
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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All awards shows are imitations of each other, but the Tonys are a little more interesting than, say, the Golden Globes. It was refreshing seeing the participants doing ad lib improv instead of essentially reading off a demographically-correct money-people-approved script.

It's fine to recognize good work in a business that otherwise awards demographic appeal and newsworthy scandals more than quality. Awards shows however have been so processed by the idiot box that they are basically the new incarnation of variety shows. Yawn.

SAG-AFTRA btw was getting closer to a new agreement until the AMPTP or whoever asked for federal mediation. Now they're pissed and it seems inevitable that the members will at some point vote to walk. If they do, that will stop the business cold. You won't notice for a couple of months, then there's going to be a big problem not just for the LA production Thing but for all the whole supply chain for addictive drugs being downloaded or otherwise absorbed by the brain-dead public. The withdrawal is not going to be pretty. It wasn't last time, and it's going to be worse this time, when there's suddenly nothing for billions of brain dead demographically correct consumers to, well, consume on their dumb little phones and laptops.
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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Hollywood studios, actors agree to mediation as strike deadline looms

LOS ANGELES, July 11 (Reuters) - Negotiators for the SAG-AFTRA actors union agreed late Tuesday to call in a federal mediator to try to forge a last-minute agreement with Hollywood studios and avoid a second simultaneous strike in the entertainment business.

The 160,000 members of SAG-AFTRA, Hollywood's largest union, have authorized a strike if a new labor deal cannot be reached before midnight on Wednesday. The Writers Guild of America has been on strike since early May.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/hollyw ... 023-07-12/
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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Yup.

Tick, tick, tick.

We'll know pretty soon.

Interesting that the union finally agreed to mediation. The actors are a bit less overworked than the writers, but they have the same problems with changes in the delivery systems causing less pay for more labor. It's going to be a very interesting 24 or so hours.
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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I am staying tuned to it!
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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No Deal: SAG-AFTRA Actors, WGA Writers Set to Strike Simultaneously for the 1st Time in 60 Years

As the clock struck midnight on Thursday, the contract between SAG-AFTRA (the labor union that represents over 160,000 actors, artists, and more) and the AMPTP ( Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers), unfortunately expired. And consequently, so did talks of negotiation for a fair and equitable deal as neither side was able to reach a new agreement.

Now, for the first time in 60 years, SAG-AFTRA will go on strike at the same time as the WGA (Writer’s Guild of America). The SAG-AFTRA National Board’s official vote to move forward with the strike is set to take place shortly before noon on Thursday with picketing expected to begin on Friday, according to Deadline.

https://www.theroot.com/no-deal-sag-aft ... 1850635848
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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Variety web site concurs. Vote taking place right about now.

We're looking at a bigger shutdown than the one that made me finally abandon that silly industry. Much bigger. Worst since the 1960s... the era when Ray Gun became a corporate superstar by betraying what was then just SAG.

It's generational.

Iger's response is to mouth off at the press and now the clip is running 24/7 on the news channels, and the actors are even more pissed. He simply is completely detached from day to day life in the industry he helps run. He gets paid billions by the suits in New York to keep grinding out the same old tired crap as cheaply as possible, while he and the rest of his cabal pay those who work 18-hour shifts on 6-day weeks as little as possible.

Bet he never fell asleep at the wheel.

Sorry, not gonna die for BARBIE: The Movie.

Time to shut it all down.
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/sag-a ... 235658176/
In a message to its members early Thursday, the union highlighted both streaming and AI as core issues in the negotiations.

"As you know, over the past decade, your compensation has been severely eroded by the rise of the streaming ecosystem,” the union wrote. “Furthermore, artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to creative professions, and all actors and performers deserve contract language that protects them from having their identity and talent exploited without consent and pay. Despite our team’s dedication to advocating on your behalf, the AMPTP has refused to acknowledge that enormous shifts in the industry and economy have had a detrimental impact on those who perform labor for the studios.”

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the SAG-AFTRA national executive director, also underscored those points, saying that the studios “have implemented massive unilateral changes in our industry’s business model, while at the same time insisting on keeping our contracts frozen in amber.”
Concur 1000%. This mess has been brewing for 40 years, now it's gone over the edge. Time to go to the wall. It's existential down here in the trenches.
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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Here we go.

I wonder how many people will notice because half the country don’t even own televisions anymore I think.
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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Libertas wrote: Thu Jul 13, 2023 12:33 pm Here we go.

I wonder how many people will notice because half the country don’t even own televisions anymore I think.
No, your wrong about half the country don't own televisions. From Statista:
According to estimates, there are 123.8 million TV homes in the United States for the 2022-2023 TV season. Whilst the number of TV households continues to grow, pay TV is becoming less popular – the pay TV penetration rate in the U.S. was pegged at 66 percent in 2022, marking a drop of over 10 percentage points in just five years
https://www.statista.com/statistics/243 ... in-the-us/
Many younger viewers have gone from cutting cable to going to streaming video either through phones/electric devices to TVs. The rest of the population still watches terrestrial broadcasts.
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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Right, they didn't cut the cord, they got another cord that was more convenient.

Streaming is actually pretty new in a medium that was invented in the 19th century and then reinvented in the mid-20th, but the public wants convenience and the public gets what it wants. They don't want to wait until Thursday at 8 PM every week to see their show. They want to lay in bed with a laptop any time they please.

If this turns the movie industry into mush, that's just too bad. I'll miss movies, but except for 3 or 4 hugely expensive blockbusters every year, most of it is becoming an excuse to grab a few extra bucks before dumping it into the huge intake of the streaming machine.

Ever notice how expensive streaming is getting? What happened to price competition? You can spend a couple thousand dollars a year, easy, for your entertainment, and that doesn't include the cost of the equipment to see it on. They guarantee no ads, then quietly they sneak the ads back in, and/or jack the price of the non-ad service into the stratosphere. The only guarantee when dealing with a huge multinational complex of interlocking directorates and overpaid suits with three mansions and four yachts is that they'll demand whatever the traffic will bear, for the least amount of manufacturing cost.

"There's a sucker born every minute." (PT Barnum, a person who understood bread and circuses very well indeed)

-----

AI + streaming is a marriage born in hell. If they can make the same amount of crap for the masses with machines for a lot less money, that's how they'll do it. They'll hit the start button, crank out the mind altering drugs to the billions of hooked addicts, and pay as little as possible for it. The few remaining workers in its production will work the hours of sweatshop labor in the 1800s, and get paid about as much. Most of your shows are already essentially made by banks. Look for "Credit Lyonnais" in closing crawls, and be very afraid. Give the capital system an inch, it takes miles, continents, the universe. Guaranteed. It's engineered into the system.

It's why there was an organized labor movement in the first place.
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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Good summary of the situation here:

https://variety.com/2023/tv/features/jo ... 235666468/

Bleak prospects, yes....................
Last edited by ZoWie on Thu Jul 13, 2023 3:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: SAG-AFTRA taking strike vote

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The generational strike is on. Out, brothers, out!

https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/sag-a ... 235669492/

Variety led with it, but that's no surprise.

BBC is leading with it. Yes, that BBC, the one in England.

CNBC is more interested in a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.

Wonder if the Harvey's sports book right down Highway 50 is making odds on how long before streaming runs out of new product and starts sending out axe throwing contests and reruns of Deadliest Catch.

--------

Honk when you drive by a studio lot. It's hot in LA and picketing sucks, and they like the recognition.
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