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Self-described SAG “middle-class actor” John Cygan, who maintains he doesn’t belong to any of the infighting Guild factions, breaks down the AFTRA contract vis a vis SAG:
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Tremendously insightful. So glad to see someone simply giving the facts and doing a reality check…
That was amazing. I’m not an actor, I’m a director and I truly didn’t understand what exactly is going on, until I just saw this clip.
Even if it means I will lose work, I hope SAG doesn’t sign this. A-list actors should be ashamed of themselves. Stick up for your fellow actors who can’t afford to live in Malibu!
Wow!! John did a fantastic job of putting it all out there simply, and concisely. I’m forwarding this to all my actor friends asap! As a former member of SAG and a current member of WGA – I hope SAG will finally pull together and make the smart choice for ACTORS. I think the ousted leadership got totally screwed, and i hope John’s video can open some eyes!
What I don’t understand is why I am supposed to believe that basically broadcast television is going to be going away immediately and everything will be “webisodes” right away when the country can’t even get the current broadcast stations switched over on schedule to digital despite years of notice and planning. Apparently a significant percentage of Americans still use rabbit ears to get their television, and I am supposed to believe that they are months away from hooking their computers to their televisions?
Bravo.
Wow! Bravo! Thanks for posting, Nikki. This guy breaks it down perfectly in such a straightforward, no-nonsense way. I hope this exposes the AFTRA faction for what it appears to be…
great video!
thank you doug allen, alan rosenberg, anne-marie johnson, kent mccord … people don’t realize what skilled and experienced negotiators these unionists are, and what a wealth of knowledge and history they bring to the table. they’re tough, they’re informed, and they’ve been fighting against this horrible deal on behalf of the middle class actor.
and, yes, mike d, you are supposed to understand that tv is going away. hulu is replacing reruns. new shows will be debuting online. people may still watch on their tv’s, but they’ll be doing so through an internet converter box.
The only problem is that Cygan is totally wrong about the contract. Either he doesn’t understand it or can’t do arithmetic or is intentionally misleading people.
What part of the caps doesn’t he get? What part of the no professional performer limitation is a mystery to him?
He may pretend to be not part of a faction, but he’s just spinning more MeFirst crap.
Great video. One thing that should be remembered is that many of those “A” list actors who are for the contract are producers who will make a fortune from the contract. They are only looking out for their interests. Continue to educate yourself on this sham.
Hey Mike D 40% of TV stations in the USA are switching to digital on schedule. MediaPost had a story on it this morning. Moreover MediaPost also had a blog/op-ed on how certain TV station managers are looking to dump being network affiliates and air cable programming instead. They figure if you can’t beat the cable ratings why not become cable affiliates? I bet these managers would kill for some of the more popular web series on places like YouTube, Strike.TV & Funny Or Die…they sure beat the audiences for the cheap reality crap the broadcast networks think will save them but that audiences & advertisers hate with a purple passion. Hell I think they’d do better with Hulu’s rerun content at this point. Point the camera at a monitor running Hulu & the audience is more likely to watch it than the dumbassery that passes for reality programming today.
But back to the original topic of this post:
This video is genius.
What I want to know is where are all the agents & managers crying over how they’ll be getting 10% of $100/day or worse $250/3 days from their clients? That’s a whopping $10-$25 an actor. You’re going to need a lot of clients all booking a lot of jobs to support yourself on that (and let’s not mention how much more it will take to support a family).
And if actors take $100 a day and work 10 hour days that’s $10 an hour. You can’t support a family on that. There are parts of the country where managing a fast food joint pays more (CA minimum wage is $8/hour, which is on par with the $250/3 days jobs).
Frankly the last thing this country needs is execs shedding more jobs and cutting the pay of the remaining workers up to 90% so they can get fat and lazy while the rest of us have to support the actors with increased taxes (social programs aren’t free) and/or compete with them for jobs outside of the entertainment business. I don’t mind being charitable to my fellow human beings or paying the government my fair share but not when some of the yokels running the companies into the ground take home tens of millions of dollars in pay (and avoid paying taxes as well as decent salaries to the talent above & below the line).
No more free rides for fat cats. The rest of us all deserve better.
This clip should win documentary award at Academy Awards….
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Nice. This guy breaks it down in a way that anyone can understand…if you don’t get it after that, then you just don’t want to get it. I think(and I include myself in this) we’ve all been spouting a lot of bullshit on this board..out of anger, frustration, and, frankly lack of knowledge, because everyone is lying to get people on their side. This guy just did what any one of us could have, and should have done from jumpstreet. The true cost of what AFTRA signed is plain as the nose on our faces. I’ve been generally critical of SAG’s handling on this situation, and, though some of the criticism heaped on them has some merit, they(we) were placed in an impossible situation by AMPTP, and AFTRA’S lapdog moves..so,maybe we should consider the fact that it was doug allen and alan rosenberg who had(have) it right..in any case, I’ll do what this guy did. stop listening to the bullshit, and see for myself.
I’m not an actor or in anyway related to the industry. I did come across this blog post that seems so incredibly relevant to the discussion of “webisodes”
http://boesky.blogspot.com/2008/12/microsoft-is-cable-part-three-edition.html
Brilliant!
Thank you John, well done. thank you Nikki for posting this.
Although things have gotten very out of hand, as John implies, we haven’t signed anything yet. There’s still hope. We must sign a contract that makes sense.
Mike? Didn’t you see Alec’s superbowl ad for hulu? C’mon. Where have you been? Go hang around some teenagers. They’re not watching TV. They’re watching the internet.
Oh, and correction. None of the star actors mentioned in this video are making five figures a week. No way. All get six figures. Plus a piece of the big pie.
The only point I need to make is that the proliferation of ‘web shows’ is NOT proportionate to the amount of new money entering the space. Meaning, AFTRA has signed a deal which allows their actors to participate in those shows if they so desire. Most of the shows have budgets of $1,000 – $3,000 a minute and can’t afford to pay more. If the show travels to another medium then residuals kick in as standard per that medium, i.e. television. So, they’re not really non-union, they’re a hybrid that allows union actors to take advantage of low budget web shows if they so desire. The point is, if SAG doesn’t agree to the sub $15k per minute exclusion then only AFTRA actors will be eligible for these shows. It won’t inherently force the budgets upward because the money doesn’t exist for that to happen.
With that said, there is a real takeaway in breaking down the minute by minute budget on an hourly basis. At $900k an hour that’s more expensive than some cable scripted hours. It could be interesting to drop the $15k per minute clause down to $5 – 8k per minute or something along those lines.
But excluding SAG actors from cheap internet productions will not force more money into those productions. It will just disallow any SAG members from working on those shows. Think of it like student films. By not allowing certain exclusions for student films, you’re not going drive student film budgets up, you’re just going to prevent your actors from participating.
With regard to the final point, about how everything will be a webisode in the future. Yea, without question television will be delivered via the internet very soon. But everyone here should understand that no one knows what that’s going to look like or how to define it in deal / legal terms. Hulu may become a pay cabler and operate like HBO or Showtime. It may continue to be solely ad supported. It may commission originals and it may not.
Whether in this deal or the next, my suggestion is that the language should be restricted to budget size rather than technology or distribution platform. Or clips vs. whole eps rather than internet or TV. Based on the previous SAG and AFTRA deals it should be obvious the language shouldn’t be tied to ever-changing technologies.
Finally, great video, made a lot of sense. But the thanking of Rosenberg and Allen though is not helpful. They universally and irreparably harmed SAG. It will be very hard to move the union back into an influential position in television and serious ground has been lost in the battle for jurisdiction over the web.
This dude and his video could single-handedly save SAG. Thank you for posting, Nikki. FANTASTIC.
So where exactly are the 4 pages of webisodes per day on Actors Access? I only see a few on the first page of the LA site and two of them are SAG webisodes.
New shows will be debuting online? Huh? Where are you getting your info. Maybe the stuff that major networks would never make….
TV is here to stay for a long, long, long while people. This is ideology is bogus. Just like people who believe movies on disc media for movies is going away in a couple years for sole internet delievery. Bogus bogus bogus.
Thank you for speaking your mind, John. I agree with you and I hope when and if we get a chance to vote on this “new deal” by the AMPTP we will vote it down.
Sigh… Let us vote on it already!
Mike D, really. Come on. All my friends and myself have either Apple TV or instant netflix through xbox 360. None of us have cable or dish anymore. On demand TV and movies through wireless converters is the now, webisodes and exclusive internet TV is five minutes away!
The Actor’s Access website has always been mostly non-union work. Breakdown Services is the site where most of the real industry work is cast.
If this media conversion isn’t happening for a couple years, why the fuss right now? Why not deal with that when it’s a reality? I think the pay is perfect for the quality of talent the viewers get to enjoy. However, if in fact residuals are going to be done away with then that is just wrong. I just know that my buddy (who is a nobody) just did a 30 second national spot and IS getting residuals.
If non-union should never be ok, where is the pa’s union? Those people work harder then anybody else in this whole industry yet get the shit end of everybody’s stick.
I’m confused; you guys don’t pay your own taxes? I feel no sympathy for you having to pay out of your pocket for such expenses. Welcome to the real world, jack-asses. If you guys want to go on strike, do it. This industry seems to only revolve around you “actors”.
I like the video. I don’t agree with thanking Rosenberg and Doug Allen. They had a long time to make the case as succinctly as John did here and were not able to persuade many people. Doesn’t that make them poor negotiators and ineffective?