Actors & Studios Present Contract Demands

Negotiations began again last week between actor's representatives and producers in an effort to agree on a new contract to avoid a massive strike later this year.

The actor's unions, the Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) and the American Federation ofTelevision & Radio Artists (AFTRA), together represent about 130,000 actors, and came to the negotiations with 45 separate contract proposals. This was met with only 19 proposals to amend the current contract by the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP), the studios. The current actor's contract will expire on 30th June. Unless both parties find a way to cross this rift before it expires, strike action will result.

A considerable number of proposals from both sides deal with the issue of residual payments. Residuals are payments made to actors for subsequent showings of their work; in reruns, foreign sales, or home video. As a result, they can be responsible for a considerable percentage of an actor's income, or conversely, for a producer's outgoing expenses. Residuals are thus a key feature of both sides proposals at these negotiations.

The actors propose that the Fox network should pay residual fees at the same rate as the other major television networks. The Rupert Murdoch owned network currently makes residual payments at 67% of the rate of other networks.

Increased basic residual payments, contributions to pension and health plans, and larger residuals from video and pay-per-view programmes for actors are also proposed. The actors unions claim this will help 'middle class' actors.

Under new proposals from the SAG, studios would be prohibited from making deals with actor's personal manager. Negotiations must be carried out with the actor himself, or a SAG accredited manager.

The practice of 'Paint Downs' is also addressed. 'Painting down' occurs when a white screen double is made up in order to pass as the black actor they are standing in for. Under these new proposals, producers would have to hire stunt doubles and stand-ins from the same ethnic background as the main actor.

The actor's unions have moved to tackle the problem of loss of business to foreign countries. They claim that over US $10 million is lost every year through 'runaway production' whereby a television show or film is shot outside the US. This means a producer is not bound by United States actors guild regulations, and thus is able to cut costs.

One such show that takes advantage of this is Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda. The show is produced in Vancouver, Canada, through a Canadian subsidiary company. This allows the show to employ actors under the less strict Canadian guild contract, which doesn't require actors to be paid as much as they would in America.

The actors unions now propose that guild regulations will follow US actors to any territory they are required to film in. This will mean that studios will not be able to get around the regulations by setting up foreign, none-union accredited subsidiaries to hire actors in a different location.

The studios proposed a much smaller list for negotiation. Many of their items appear to be in a direct confrontation with proposals put forward by the actors unions.

The producers propose a cut the amount of pay to TV actors with three lines or less in a show. Actors with this type of small part would be paid at half the daily rate usual for actors.

Another item would see a cut in residuals payed to actors from programmes shown in syndication with a limited audience. They argue that cutting residuals on shows that are less likely to make a profit would lead to more shows being scheduled in smaller markets as they would cost less for a producer to air. This would actually lead to more residual payments for actors.

The studios also propose to reduce their current obligation to provide first class air travel to actors moving to distant filming locations. Business class accommodation would be used instead, and a group of actors travelling together could be required to travel by coach to the set.

Earlier this month, an agreement was reached between the Writer's Guild of America and the studios after writers backed down on many of their demands. Without the writers going on strike, many industry insiders began to believe an agreement between actors and producers would also be in the cards. Whether this is indeed to be the case will be seen on Tuesday, when negotiations are expected to resume.

More information on the negociations can be found here at Inside.com.

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