Great Divide: SAG vs. Studio Breakdown Points Made Public
➕ the party vibe is turned way up at Netflix with a DJ and a cooling mister full of 'AMPTP tears'
Finally, we have a bit of clarity around where talks broke down between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP. Last night, the performers union released its list of proposals, alongside counteroffers from Hollywood’s studios (though the AMPTP disputes the way its counters are characterized). So now we know just how far apart both sides were: very far apart.
On the major issue of AI, SAG-AFTRA says the studios “failed to address many viral concerns, leaving principal performers and background actors vulnerable to having most of their work replaced by digital replicas.” Last week at the press conference announcing the strike, SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said the AMPTP “proposed that our background performers should be able to be scanned and paid for one day’s pay and their companies should own that scan, their image, their likeness, and to be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation.”
On the topic of streaming residuals, the union says the studios “offered progress… but significant gaps remain.” The document notes that on a number of other proposals, ranging from performance capture to new media revenue sharing, the AMPTP simply rejected the union’s proposal outright.
In response, the AMPTP said in a statement that the studios’ offers were “deliberately distort[ed]” and that “the deal that SAG-AFTRA walked away from on July 12 is worth more than $1 billion in wage increases, pension & health contributions and residual increases and includes first-of-their-kind protections over its three-year term, including expressly with respect to AI.”
At the Netflix picket today, between the beats of a volunteer DJ, striking writers and actors had much to say about the proposals and counteroffers.
Longtime actor Chivonne Michelle, marching outside Netflix in a maxi-dress and crown for the Bridgerton-themed picket, began her career doing background work — a foundational part of her professional journey.
“I’m lucky. I’ve been making a full-time living as an actor for the last six years doing all the things: TV, film, voiceover, commercials,” she says. “And if someone were to replace my work as a background actor that I did when I first started out, I wouldn’t be here 18 years later. I need that multiple days of work to make my health insurance.”
As WGA and SAG-AFTRA member Taylor Orci (Vida) cooled off fellow picketers with a water mister labeled “AMPTP tears,” they say “the one that stood out the most for me — apart from AI and not increasing pay and scanning background actors and paying them $150 [for their likeness in perpetuity] — was in terms of late pay,” noting that “it just doesn’t seem like a sound economic business practice.”
Like others who have worked in the industry for years, Orci is striving to make a sustainable wage in L.A.
“I’m constantly working multiple jobs, and I’ve lived in the same busted apartment for 12 years. The carpet’s coming up off the floor,” they add. “I dream of actually having a house in the city where I was born and raised — it’s a pipe dream. It’s insane.”
Read SAG-AFTRA’s full rundown of proposals and counters here, and watch my full chat with Orci below:
Elsewhere on The Ankler…
When the double strike first became a reality, The Ankler’s Richard Rushfield called for Hollywood's CEOs to resign en masse. Upon further reflection, he decided the situation is far worse than he first realized, as outlined in today’s column.
Knowing a quick, brief strike seems off the table, what is the current best-case scenario now? That a few months from now both sides crawl back, broken, to the table and work out some half-measured compromise? And just imagine getting rolling again with so much vitriol — the kind that doesn’t exactly turn on and off like a faucet. How is that a happy outcome? A model of a well-run industry?
Again, I'm not weighing in here on where a compromise should fall, or swallowing every word on the writers' or actors' side about what broke down. But I'm saying: it's the job of the head of a company and the heads of an industry to keep the industry running — profitably in the short term, sustainably in the long term. That requires having functional relations with your labor force.
Whatever happened at the table, too many on the studio side continue to give the impression that a strike was a perfectly happy outcome for them. At the very least, we don't see [Bob] Iger, [Ted] Sarandos et al racing to express much sadness for all their workers whose lives are soon totally deprived of income. And I'm not just talking about the actors and writers (God forbid compassion be expressed there), but the tens of thousands of crew members who already are giving up their homes (I've heard of plenty), and making terrible choices about health care and their childrens' education. And do we think for one second that our CEOs won’t be furloughing executives from their teams if this keeps dragging on?
Richard also offers up some solutions to the current situation, such as calling upon some of Hollywood’s old lions to facilitate a resolution:
If today's poobahs won't step forward, how about the kingpins of yesterday, the ones who are still involved in the community anyway? I nominate the man who brought everyone together last time in 2007-08, even while his face was used on picket signs amid taunts: Peter Chernin. Why not have Chernin lead a group of emeritus chieftains go talk some sense into today’s chieftains, even break the Hollywood poobah omertà and publicly call for them to get their acts together.
Read the full story at The Ankler, for paid subscribers only.
Today in Strike News
One mission too impossible even for Tom Cruise: getting SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP to agree on an amenable deal, as the star reportedly Zoomed into a June negotiating session to lobby the studios on AI and stunt performers, and the actors guild on film publicity. (The Hollywood Reporter)
With two of the three major Hollywood unions on strike, the Directors Guild deal has come under more scrutiny — with some believing the DGA got enough improvements, and others believing they mishandled the situation. “They agreed too early,” Peter Newman, a producer and NYU professor, says. “If they had guessed correctly, they could have seen that, almost invariably, there was going to be a complete shutdown of the industry, regardless.” (New York Times)
As a result of the double strike, Venice Film Festival chief Alberto Barbera has been telling his festival programmers that this year’s edition “will be a Pan-European festival.” “Let’s try to figure out what American producers and directors intend to do,” Bardera has said, according to those involved. “In the meantime, we are taking action to create an alternative program.” (The Hollywood Reporter)
At the World Harvest Food Bank in Arlington Heights, card-carrying SAG-AFTRA and WGA members can take home as much food as they’d like. “There’s a mythical person in people’s heads that they imagine when they go to a food bank. They just imagine the most dire of dire. And while that exists, those are not the only people who deal with food insecurity,” SAG-AFTRA member Kristina Wong, who has become the bank’s “food bank influencer,” says. “Who is to say that actors are not also single parents, are also people being evicted, are also people living out of their cars?” (Los Angeles Times)
On Friday, the U.K. actors union Equity will be holding rallies in London and Manchester in solidarity with SAG-AFTRA. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Should consumers cancel their streaming subscriptions? Some in support of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are saying yes, but neither guild has advocated for such a maneuver just yet. (Yahoo Entertainment)
Picket Sign of the Day
Actor Mariah Robinson’s sign of the Zodiac, spotted outside Netflix.
Additional reporting by Matthew Frank.
RR is always comprehensive and thoughtful in his analysis. No way does AMPTP or any other third party own an AI likeness of anyone. Who knows where it could end up. Think hackers. There is no point in anyone belonging to an union if the union cannot protect them in a fair manner. These 2 unions create the product and own it. They have the right to refuse to give it to anyone for any amount of money in perpetuity. The other unions make the creative vision happen. In film school I have heard it said that directors produce the shot list. That said, there should be no settlement on bad terms with AMPTP no matter how long it takes. Frankly these unions should be looking at financing in order to start their own studio/distribution. Why not? The top talent belongs to them. All existing AMPTP parties can do is look for new talent in all areas and build from scratch. Let’s see how long the newbies want to work for nothing. To get a perspective on all this read French economist Thomas Piketty’s second book titled “Capitalism and Ideology” as well as his first one titled “Capitalism.” (Essentially Labor is devalued compared to Capital which is by and large idle capital today creating a huge imbalance.). HANG TOUGH UNIONS.