ACTING OUT of STATE by Craig Berlin Founding Board Member (Retired) Texas Motion Picture Alliance  http://www.txmpa.org Acting is something close to my heart. Talent does not guarantee success and even though I did a lot of acting in high school and college, I opted to go behind the camera as a career because it felt [...]

With the SAG in a stalemate with the majors over its feature-primetime contract, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists have opted for a six-month extension of their commercials contract until March 31. SAG and AFTRA, which plan to negotiate jointly on the ad deal, made the disclosure Wednesday [...]

Here’s an excellent article on state film incentives from Indy.com In Texas we are HOPING to get the legislature to increase our incentive from the current dead in the water 5% to a comparatively modest 15%. We are hoping that the existing infrastructure will make 15% more competitive. So far, 15% hasn’t primed the pump [...]

You Friday Night Lights fans might find this TV Guide article of interest. I’m wondering how this will work out as well. And will the DirecTV run count as first run and the NBC network run a rerun, or vice versa? Whatever the case, it’s just another example of the changing landscape for film and [...]

SAG members received the following missive from National Exec. Director and Chief Negotiatior, Doug Allen. The impression one would get from reading Daily Variety or listening to other press sources is that there is no ongoing communication and SAG is just stalling with no plan of action in place. Some of the conventional wisdom has [...]

It looks like warring factions inside SAG have found some common ground vs the AMPTP. Finally, all the SAG board agrees that allowing SAG sanctioned, non-Union production and no residuals for certain so called new media production is a bad idea for actors. Daily Variety reporter and AMPTP fanboy, Dave McNary lays it all out [...]

No movement. That’s all there is to report on the ongoing standoff between SAG and the AMPTP. Trade publications put attendance at Saturday’s SAG membership meeting in Hollywood at 450 – 750, depending on which industry rag you want to believe. The producer-friendly Daily Variety article actually has the attendance at the upper end of [...]

The following story on Amazon.com‘s new Video on Demand service appears in newspapers across the country today, 7/18/08. This is just one more example of where film and video distribution is headed. And it is one more example of why the AMPTP is trying to force feed a bad deal on Screen Actors Guild members. As [...]

Today, SAG distributed a white paper July 15, 2008 that is “is an analysis of trends that have emerged or intensified in the media landscape since the Directors Guild of America negotiated its deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on January 17th, 2008. In sum, what was once termed “new media” [...]

The following letter members received from SAG today reinforces some of the points I was making in my earlier post: BIG PRODUCER$ MONETIZE YOUTUBE CLIP$ July 17, 2008 It’s Not New Media – It’s NOW Media Dear Screen Actors Guild Member, I want to tell you why your national negotiating committee has not accepted the [...]