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Strike: Round 2 - SAG headed for the picket lines
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Looks like the AMPTP have pulled out of negotiations with SAG. It actually reads like a replay of what they did to the Writers. SAG has taken DVD off the table in order to avoid a strike and the producers have just dropped them.
It was easier for them to snub the writers. There are literally hundreds of thousands of unmade scripts sitting at the studios. They could pull damn near anything off the shelf and have material. However, actors drive the marketing of all films, from cartoons to independent to big studio tentpoles. They need actors to convince their money guys to put a film into production, to sell foreign rights, to raise interest in films with the general movie going populace.
So I don't think they have as much freedom to fuck the actors like they did the writers. We'll see how things play out, but for now it looks like we're in for another strike. Here's the heads up we got from a reader calling himself "Brother of Bateman," including the letter from SAG sent to all its members:
Hi Harry,
You probably already know about this, but in case you don't, here's the email that was sent out to all the sag members today. This strike is pretty much a guarantee at this point. The question is, for how long. If you use this, call me Brother of Bateman.
Screen Actors Guild released the following statement today.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AMPTP Suspends Negotiations with Screen Actors Guild
Guild Offers to Continue and Negotiate "Around the Clock" to Complete Deal
Los Angeles, May 6, 2008 -The AMPTP suspended negotiations with Screen Actors Guild today over the objections of SAG's negotiating committee. The committee had urged that the AMPTP continue discussion and had offered to negotiate around the clock if necessary in order to secure an agreement.
The AMPTP declined to continue negotiations with SAG claiming that it was necessary to turn their attention to negotiating with American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).
Screen Actors Guild National President Alan Rosenberg said, "It is unfortunate and deeply troubling that the AMPTP would suspend our negotiations at this critical juncture. We have modified our proposals over the last three weeks in effort to bargain a fair contract for our members. We are committed to preserving rights that have been in place for decades and not giving the studios the right to use excerpts of our work in new media without our consent and negotiation. Our negotiating team is prepared to work around the clock for as long as it takes to get a fair deal. We want to keep the town working."
Over the last four weeks Screen Actors Guild negotiated in good faith and modified many of its proposals to the AMPTP. To date, the AMPTP has offered only a few modifications to its new media proposal which was submitted to SAG in three documents containing 36 provisions that differed from the deals agreed to with the WGA and DGA.
SAG's National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Doug Allen stated, "We were hopeful that we could continue negotiations with the AMPTP and reach a tentative agreement. We modified our proposals in effort to narrow the gap between us and now we need the AMPTP do the same. SAG's objective is to keep the town working and get a fair contract, so we are gravely disappointed that we will now have to delay to a process that we started over three weeks ago. We are willing to work for as long as it takes to negotiate a good agreement for our members."
The AMPTP put forward a proposal that differed substantially from the deals signed with the DGA and WGA. Management's clip demand would gut existing provisions regarding actors' consent to use of their clips and would allow studios and networks to use or sell clips - going forward and from their libraries - in any way they choose and without consent.
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I actually don't give a shit either way. What would I do without Daddy Day Care 4? Dear Lord, Fuck No! Please! Who will I take political advice from if George Clooney, and Tim Robbins aren't around? I need Actors! I NEED THEM!
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Will my buddy Jar-Jar come back? He had spoken to me how he wanted to do a late night talk show ala Carson Daly. If there's anyone bomb-bad to do this, it's Binks I tell ya!
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What's my motivation? I said to her, "I don't care."
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Another excruciating generation of bad reality shows clogging the tube.
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Fuck this shit, I'm gonna go see what this "outside" place is all about!
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dont strike, just make better movies
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I'm going to take up reading Screw TV and Movies
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to strike are more likely to be out of work anyway. So, many of the working actors are trying to box them out through a petition based on hours worked. Either way, imagine being a PItt or a Hanks. Twenty milionl out the window because Johnny Waiter/Dog Walker has a hard on for the studio. Awesome! This is all so silly.
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Hasn't anyone seen ads for The Love Guru?!!
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Will they get their free tickets to Bennigan's?
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The customers are striking. Eyeballs on the screen is way down over the last few decades. They make it up in the BO with 12 dollar movie tickets.
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Suggest you take your cues from Nikki Finke's blog deadlinehollywooddaily.
As of right now, most likely scenario is AFTRA makes a lousy deal with the moguls, the moguls try to leverage that against SAG, SAG tells 'em to stick it sideways, and the AMPTP gets serious about actually negotiating some time in early July.
A SAG strike will not happen before July 1 at the earliest, and then only if the AMPTP refuses to negotiate in good faith.
Meanwhile, the best way right now to support the actors and lessen the likelihood of a strike is to blog your support for the actors. -
I'll be leading-man scab - just show me to the bus please!
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as I understand it, the writers' contracts with the studio expired like six months ago. Their only options were 1) negotiate/strike for a better contract than they were being offered, or 2) accept the shitty contract the studios wanted them to take. If thye'd gone with the latter, they'd currently be under contract and not in a position to do anything of the sort, so there was no way they could wait.
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None of you actually thought that actors had any intention of letting writers get a better/equal deal? What did you think all that show of (politically motivated)support was for last winter? Here comes a fall TV season full of "Are you Smarter than an Indred Hick?" and "Flamming Designer Survial Challenge" Oh Joy.
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I like that. I'll be at home watching my DVD collection of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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Who's running the AMPTP these days? The Sith?
I really think they've both lost their ability to negotiate and are seriously trying to break the unions.
Another strike equals more lost work for a whole lot of people who have very little to do with this ridiculous stabbing back and forth. Already, some productions are being help up due to fear of a strike. -
For the love of god, actors...how stupid are you? And studios, have you learned nothing? With any luck, this strike will go on long enough to absolutely bone everybody in Hollywood.
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And no actors needed.
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does that mean that studios want to be able to, say, have a character at a movie actually go into a theater, and then put a bit of a real movie in there, and then not have to pay the actor(s) in that 'movie-within-the-movie' segment?
Seems to me that if you were paid to be in a movie, then the studio kind of owns it. If you sell a car, you cant charge a fee anytime the new owner wants to drive it somewhere. -
are smiling diabolically. 10 years in the future all actors will be replaced with digital ones. Go, strike while you can, one decade later you'll sell your grandmothers for roles.
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Just when I heard execs saying how they pay actors too much already. Tom Cruise got alot of shit from Red-Hole for the ammount he gets paid and how its not cost worthy. Made sense at the time. But I guess now they are going to get even more? That does it, Im moving to LA and working at Starbucks till I can land a gig.
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I fucking HATED seeing that shit on tv or magazines. It would read "So and so is supporting the WAG strike and bringing writers breakfast" How kind of them. I would barf and tell my girlfriend it was a fucking farce so when they go on strike this summer they will have a garage full of sympathy cards. They dont put that on TMZ. This is as gross as a baseball strike.
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First that crap about the Temrinator Sequel, now he's fanning the flames on the SAG negotiations. Apprently talks will resume in late May when AMPTP wraps up their AFTRA negotiations. Nobody is going to pciket lines. Get your facts straight.
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Sign me up. Tired of getting ignored by the big guys.
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How will he be able to fill his gold goblet with the fanciest of wines!? Charlie Sheen will have to go from 4 to 2 hookers a night!? I have less sympathy for these guys than the writers. It's the outrageous demands of the top tier that have made movies so expensive - Travolta, I'm looking at you. And now I'm turning away in horror. The 20 million dollar paydays plus the 5 million perk packages - it's greedy, childish bullshit.
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The Studios made a profit during the writers strike. All of the big media companies made $$$ during the strike. Guess who didn't?
Guess what will happen if the actors strike? There is already a de facto strike since no studio will greenlight anything that can't wrap before the first of July. SAG can negotiate WITHOUT striking. The public has already started to abandon scripted programming on television due to the writers strike. A second strike will put a stake in it. -
They're fucking the thousands of people in this industry and its satellite industries as well.
It sucks since an overwhelming chunk of the actors' guilds are out of work. Meaning they already have nothing to lose by striking. Which is fucked for everyone else. -
Consider this: the motion picture industry has existed for over a hundred years. Literally.More movies and TV shows exist than can be watched in a single lifetime. Even if Hollywood went out of business right now, it is theoretically possible for a person born today to sit in front of the tube and do nothing but watch old movies and TV 24/7, never seeing the same thing twice, live for a hundred years, and die, and still not have seen everything.There is simply no need to make any more entertainment. Hollywood is done. Mission accomplished.I'm not suggesting that no more movies should ever be made. There will always be creative people who come up with an idea for a movie or TV show, and want to make it. It would be nice to get back to a time when that was the Hollywood model (If there ever was such a time). It makes more sense than turning filmmaking into a career, where people are forced to create even when they have no inspiration, just because they gotta eat. It's kind of like a trap: you get into the business for the art of it, but when you've accomplished what you wanted to, you're out of ideas, but you can't retire or you'll starve. So the industry gets bigger and the product gets crappier, with no end in sight.At least that's the way it looks from the outside....I forget what my point was.
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Are the ones least affected by the strike on both sides. SAG leadership isn't going to feel the pinch and neither are the execs. Yet everyone down the line will be affected. Kind of backwards if you ask me.
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Deserves an award for that post. The actors and writers never realize that when they go on strike they are only helping producers and directors go through with their inevitable plans to abolish writers for reality TV and get rid of actors to make better and more lifelike digital actors. Also, someone mentioned the fact that the upper tier actors want to ban the lower tier actors from voting. Im torn on that one. I mean..it would suck to be working and getting million dollar deals and some dude who doesnt work and isnt making any money can put a stop on your money making. On the other hand if they are fighting on residuals which are for people to gain money when they arent working and are valuable for out of work actors to survive then I can understand them too. I dont know..touch call on that one.
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i knew this was coming...last week...are they nuts??? they cant afford another strike, especially one that will shut down everything
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they cant afford 12th hour negotiations...no one will start production if there is a strike looming
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I can easily see directors and producers wanting replace actors with digital characters, I just don't think it's possible. Not yet anyway, you still need actors for VO or MoCap. That's just the way it is.I can easily imagine them being replaced in another 20-25 years.
Writers on the other hand, well, writers are needed even for the crappiest of reality shows, you guys know that shit is scripted, at least loosely. -
Wh-what about the internet, there's lots a monay there, give us some of that monay! Seriously this is pathetic. The studios should just bring in a wave of unknowns and repopulate the star market. Would it really be that hard to create new stars when the old ones refuse to do the only job we ask of them: to pretend for a living! To get paid millions of dollars to play make-believe. Yeah, if I see any a-listers on picket lines I'm throwing a pissbag at them.
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...All the people on here saying they don't give a shit. Hm, you're on a movie-centric website, taking the time to comment on an article about Hollywood. Of course you don't care, friends.
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... just hit the nail on the head. You morons can complain all you want, but you might want to do it on another website. Maybe one that isn't all about the entertainment industry.
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Web series will NOT be denied!!!
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is somebody is still going to have to voice them, so digital actors aren't going to put any actors out of business. It may definately change the business as we know it but I still don't think anything compares to seeing a real person emote on screen. That's why I watch live action stuff and not crappy anime.
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After all the angry finger pointing that resulted from the Writers strike -- where the work stoppage ultimately resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars being lost, not to mention the emotional drama of so many ancillary side production people either being temporarily laid off or losing their jobs completely -- I can't believe these twits want to strike. If production here in Hollywood gets shut down yet AGAIN and all those ancillary workers are ultimately sent home AGAIN, then SAG is fucking NUTS to think that the anger levels here in town won't get ratcheted up to an all-new level.During the WGA strike remember the numbers that were being tossed around regarding "how much" staff writers were actually making and how that made people's eyes pop? And how it made many say "What the fuck are you guys even complaining about? Get back to work so WE can get back to work!" Well, for crying out loud, now multiply that to even higher pay scales. What the fuck -- do you think TV news and other outlets are going to show the average Hollywood waiter on the picket line or send a camera crew to capture Brad Pitt or someone of that stature carrying a picket sign? And once they do, for fuck's sake who ISN'T going to be saying "What the fuck!? Brad Pitt is bitching about the money he's making?!" So to some degree it seems like the Producers realize that it's almost worth it to call SAG's bluff on this one, knowing full well that the average American is going to see all these "stars" picketing on TV and say "You gotta be shitting me that THEY are complaining! Oh, boo-hoo! I had to get up out of bed and read some lines and get paid a few million dollars!"If you thought the PR war on the WGA strike and their payroll was something to see just WAIT till the Producers bring their guns to bear on the actors.Overall, I can only say this: in my heart of hearts, as futuristic as it sounds, DarthPakBao above WAS right, though it is still a ways off. The Producers are biding their time till photo-realistic digital actors can just replace existing ones -- hell, who do you really want to see starring in a movie? Shia pretending to be an action star or Errol Flynn resurrected in his CAPTAIN BLOOD or ROBIN HOOD prime? These guys really don't realize how much the clock is starting to tick on them given emerging technologies...
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Just a little thing for SAG to consider as well: the REAL reason that reality shows became so popular is the SAME reason that many actors go into acting in the first place -- it's all about EGO. The only difference is now the average person can be the star, and best of all they don't have to go to Drama school or work their way up from dinner theater or whatever. It's the classic Andy Warhol 15 Minutes of Fame Syndrome: instead of the spotlight being shined on you (the actors), now it can be shined on ME (Mr. Joe Public) instead. And who doesn't want to feel famous or find themselves the center of attention? Come on, it's Psych 101.The truth is as the Internet continues to explode and high speed broadband becomes ever more powerful and common place, more and more people are now interested in making THEIR OWN entertainment whether its tickering with home movies or making actual short films or experimenting in animation or whatever else strikes their fancy, especially given that cameras and computers and off the shelf software are making it far easer for people to do some seriously good-looking work. I just think that more and more people are enjoying that, a fact Union-centric Hollywood had better start recognizing. As a parallel example, it's similar to the way that viewership and ratings have plummeted for TV newscasts because more and more people are finding the news they want online, at which point they then like to spend their evenings NOT watching TV, but creating their own blogs and journals and websites and whatever. In fact, a recent poll found that 6 out of 10 people now prefer to come home from work and go online to relax versus watching any TV at all.Now, do I think this will happen overnight? Of course not. But come on when it comes to actors and pay scales, is ANYONE really worth $5...10...or even 20 million a single performance UPFRONT versus simply getting a percentage on the back-end IF the movie makes money? And do I think the "community event" movie will disappear -- say a STAR WARS or LOTR experience? Of course not. But personally, I just think in the next decade or so, more and more people will want to self-generate their entertainment and file share it with others and have fun doing THAT -- I mean having a true sense of creative expression. Which should really send shivers up the spines of ALL the Hollywood unions because what are they going to do? Try to unionize everyone working at home or who tries to post their creative work online?The truth is, in the digital age and as more and more things get produced away from Tinsel Town, Hollywood Unions are REALLY going to have to re-learn and re-adapt themselves in ways they haven't even begun to forsee yet...
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If this actually goes to strike, not only is it gonna suck for the ancillary workers and enterprises, but its gonna suck real hard for those of us who are attempting to get that first script-for-hire made, which was a deferred contract (Of course), and wasn't even going to be the outrageous paycheck that a proper guild scriptwriter allegedly receives. I'm on friggin food stamps, due to the delay caused by that first strike, and this will just make it worse, thank god I have a mom to get shelter with this summer, because next month's rent can't possibly happen.
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I feel for ya, bro. Hang in there.
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