SAG NV Ntl Bd Report: Retro January 2008

NATIONAL BOARD REPORT By Art Lynch

Greetings, and I hope this finds you all having had a warm, healthy and safe holiday season. Your council and I have been busy with meetings, teleconferences, reading and debate on a wide range of issues. I would like to touch on a few of the most pressing issues before Nevadans who are members of Screen Actors Guild, starting with a celebration your Silver State council was proud to be a part of.

Celebrate the Star

In honor of the work done in the 75 years since the formation of Screen Actors Guild as a union, the “city” of Hollywood has honored Screen Actors Guild with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Among the Nevada members at the unveiling were President Steve Dressler and Vice President Lollo Sievert.

For those who have a reason to travel to Los Angeles, the star is located at 7018 Hollywood Boulevard (between Highland and La Brea avenues).

(From Nevada, left to right: Executive Director Hrair Messerlian, Vice President Lollo Sievert and President Steve Dressler)

Writers Strike

Screen Actors Guild is in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America in their strike. While we all hope the strike will be settled before this newsletter comes out, the reality is that the writers are entrenched for a long walk out, principally over the issues of new technologies and making money off of the ever-widening spectrum of production and distribution.

The Guild is not officially asking you to stop auditioning or working. It is an individual decision many actors are making. You may audition for and work for signatory projects during the writers strike. If you choose to cross a picket line, it is an individual decision. Remember that, under Rule One, we do not work without the protections of a union contract, and that still remains in effect.

Technology

It’s not your mother’s movie industry anymore! On demand, distribution over computers and productions done completely on digital are a reality today. The technology and the percentage of potential work are growing rapidly.

Film and television studios are merged, if not in reality, then in contract. Universal is now a broadcast conglomerate and digital distribution giant, as are ABC-Disney and the other distribution giants that sit on the opposite side from your union. The leaders are accountants, lawyers and other business professionals more often than bootstrap entertainment industry professionals who started by editing film or working in front of the camera.

Who would have thought a year or two ago that major television hits would be seen by more people on iTunes than on broadcast television or that the networks would run first-run shows the same week on their cable affiliates and make them available on-demand with limited commercial interruption over home computers? All-digital movie theaters are a reality, with the most recent in Nevada being the Fiesta in Henderson. 1080-i and the higher image quality 1080p HD television is a reality and selling at increasingly lower prices and larger numbers.

For quite some time, DVDs and other home video formats and methods of distribution have been the way producers make their money. Ever-shorter and ever-smaller theatrical releases are now being used for distribution, grabbing box office headlines to stimulate sales for pay-per-view, on-demand and DVDs.

Quality programming is now being produced for cell phones, your computer desktop and direct to DVD home video at increasingly lower production costs. The world of actors producing their own projects for pennies on the dollar of movie or television studio costs is already a reality.

AFTRA

At the national board level and on the streets in Hollywood and New York, there has been an open discussion, and sometimes arguments, over the positions of SAG and our sister union, AFTRA, on existing contracts going into this brave new digital age. The rhetoric in the boardroom and on the Internet has been sometimes heated. My take on this is that it is siblings fighting, and in the end, siblings dust themselves off and work for the overall family. I have always been pro-merger. Since the referendum failed by only a handful of votes, I strongly believe that reconciliation and merger are in the interest of all talent going into this digital age.

The issues are many and complex. I invite you to do your own research. The core lies in an outdated model where SAG has jurisdiction over film, while AFTRA had jurisdiction over video and audio. That model collapsed decades ago. However, in this increasingly digital video age, the use of film is rapidly decreasing for the cost benefits and flexibility of electronic capture and editing.

We are members of Screen Actors Guild, which is our union, or for some of you your parent union. There is not a great deal of AFTRA work in Nevada or to my knowledge AFTRA organizing. The Writers’ strike aside, SAG is continuing in its commitment to our state and our membership. We have a hard-working executive who daily fights battles on your behalf. I know, because of my position as your board member and because I worked with Hrair on our close, but unsuccessful attempt to convince Nevada’s legislature to increase its incentives to use locals on production done in the state and to attract increased production to Nevada. You may not hear about them, but the efforts on your behalf by Hrair and others are there, and SAG is fighting for Nevada’s membership.

The union will be asking your opinion on a number of issues. Please take the time to read up on them, consider your thoughts carefully, and answer any survey or question honestly, from your heart.

SAG contracts

In June of 2008, the first of three major contracts goes up for renewal. While your board of directors will do all it can to avoid a work stoppage, it's no secret that the current writers strike is the pattern we can expect in our future. The issues will remain working conditions, compensation and welfare. These now include the digital age and the reality of the new business model of the industries we work in.

Meanwhile, Hrair and national SAG staff continue to meet with and work toward increased local production under union contracts, investigating every opportunity presented in our entertainment industry-friendly state.

While SAG cannot push for hiring any SAG member over any other, regardless of where they may call home, the advantage of local hires is one being presented on a regular basis to production done within our state.

You Can Make a Difference

Read up on the issues and express your voice. Take part in the SAG e-mail list, come to SAG meetings or, if you wish, contact us directly. You can reach me through your SAG Nevada executive director's email address at HMesserlian@sag.org. Allow a few days for a response.

I strongly suggest you work with any politician or power broker you may know to increase production incentives within your state. Our sister branches serving New Mexico, New Orleans and other areas are seeing rapid growth due to the support of their politicians and local and state infrastructure.

Caucus

Nevada is in the spotlight as an early presidential caucus state. This represents a unique ability for you to help form the direction of the next five to 10 years in Washington and locally.

Screen Actors Guild does not endorse or provide funds to individual candidates or political parties. Your union dues support legislation and other political means to increase work for union actors. However, you can make a difference in the amount of union work available here and in our country, by supporting the candidate of your choice in whichever party caucus you prefer. Know their feelings on unions, on entertainment industry production, on fighting runaway production and on battling right-to-work legislation on a national to local level.

This year is your chance, as a Nevadan, to impact national policy. Take it.

From Holidays to a New Year

In our ever changing, increasingly complex world, one thing remains worth maintaining and embracing, our holiday season. Hope you were with your loved ones or discovered new ones, embraced the faith of your choice and welcomed the warmth and love of the holidays.

I am looking forward to seeing all of you this New Year.