As 2008 draws to a close with no contract between SAG and the AMPTP, the animosity between factions within SAG has only become more vitriolic. What is the best course of action? Accept a truly lousy contract now and hope to undo the damage in three years? Or reject the contract and take a strike [...]

Here is an excerpt of a recent article from the Austin Business Journal that offers a bit of positive news for the local film industry The full article can be found HERE: Friday, December 5, 2008 New action in local film sector No. 1 ranking in movie magazine lures producers Brady Anderton and Ben Hurst [...]

SAG Announces Plan for Strike Authorization Vote: LOS ANGELES, DECEMBER 10, 2008 — Screen Actors Guild today announced that strike authorization ballots will be mailed to paid-up SAG members on Friday January 2, 2009, and will be tabulated on Friday, January 23. A yes vote by 75% of members voting is required to pass the [...]

Here’s the latest SAG production update that members receive via email. I’m just including Texas and Louisiana here. Note the number of “TH”, that is ‘Theatrical’ contracts in Louisiana vs the number of low budget contracted productions in Texas. This is a reminder of what is at stake unless the Texas legislature improves the tax [...]

“The facts of this matter are simple and straight forward. The WGA attempted for eight months, since March, to address via dialogue the AMPTP’s erroneous interpretation of our February agreement. These efforts included a number of conversations between the Guild’s executive director and at least one of the CEOs who made the deal with the [...]

A week or two back the WGA went public with its frustration over not receiving residuals from streaming and EST content. The WGA vented their frustration at the same time that the AMPTP was refusing to go back to the bargaining table with SAG. Here is the AMPTP response to WGA assertion that the AMPTP [...]

The bad blood between SAG and the AMPTP seems to be getting thicker as both sides take to hammering each other with press releases and letters to their memberships. First is SAGs official release following a full page ad the AMPTP published in the L.A. Times: Los Angeles, CA (December 01, 2008) – Today’s open [...]

Dear Screen Actors Guild Member, In an “open letter” full-page ad published today in the Los Angeles Times, eight entertainment industry CEO’s whose annual salaries and bonuses exceed the amount needed to achieve labor peace for our industry asked why SAG wants a better deal than the other Hollywood guilds. What they conveniently left out [...]