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Gaz-L posted:I do wince at the whole '$30M budget movie for streaming' bit though, because that just screams that we see a lot of $25M-$29M budget films suddenly happen. That's not going to happen. Writer compensation, even with the gains from this new contract, is roughly 3% of the total budget of a feature film on average. Once you are in production, no line producer is going to be cutting shoot days or canning locations in order to avoid giving writers slightly better residuals.
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Sep 27, 2023 08:19
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 19:56 |
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Link to the full John August podcast detailing what is in the new WGA MBA. August was on the negotiating committee and has always been an excellent explainer of WGA related things. https://johnaugust.com/2023/sidecast-whats-in-the-deal It may be a bit inside baseball if you're not in the industry but I'm sure most interested people will be able to follow along fine. And here's a link to the summary document they are reading through: https://www.wgacontract2023.org/WGAContract/files/WGA-Negotiations-Tentative-Agreement.pdf tanglewood1420 fucked around with this message at 10:19 on Sep 28, 2023 |
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Sep 28, 2023 10:13
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The Writers strike was about compensation. AI was not a particularly big issue, despite both the trades and mainstream media talking about it so much because it's en vogue. For SAG though AI and control of likeness is a live issue right now. It's just far more complicated to navigate.
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Oct 5, 2023 21:14
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Yes, writing is generally 2-3% of a feature film production budget. WGA minimum for a screenplay draft is approx. $160k for a >$5m budget movie. Let's say you (or more likely a combination for multiple writers) deliver five official drafts, which is around the norm for a feature film that actually makes it to production (most don't). That comes to around $800k total if paid at minimums, which out of a $25m production budget is 3.2%. Obviously big name screenwriters can negotiate for higher than minimum compensation, but the overall majority of screenwriters work at minimums. Television is more complicated because do you include showrunner compensation as writing costs? If you just consider staffing costs then the weekly minimum for a writer producer is about $8k per week, plus approx. $35k per script (for a one hour show). So a room of six writers working for fourteen weeks on an eight episode Netflix show would total around $1m-$1.2m depending on the exact level (script editor, producer, executive producer etc) of each writer on the show. Obviously all the above is upfront costs and doesn't take into account residuals. Above the line actor total cost will generally be something like 30-40%, though that obviously varies a lot project to project. It's low to mid budget productions that actually pay the most proportionally to their cast, because casting Penelope Cruz and Bradley Cooper in your talky drama about a broken marriage is how you sell the film to distributors and make your money back. A low budget contemporary drama with A-listers may be paying 60%+ of it's production budget to the two leads, while a big budget special effects film with a known but not megastar cast may pay a lot less percentage wise. This is all for above the line talent, you also have background artist costs which can add up quickly if you have a lot of crowd scenes - for example 200 extras will cost at least $50k a day for pay, catering and transportation alone, more if you need make up and costume too. So on certain productions (though probably not very many) you will be paying more total for background artists than for writing. Step one - replace all extras/backgorun artists with fully digital versions - already happening Step two - license the likeness of A-list stars and use them in perpetuity - just around the corner Step three - fully digital movie stars, created and wholly owned by the studio, meaning not even having to pay an actor or their estate - ten years away maybe?
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Oct 14, 2023 23:59
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I worked on Nautilus (Captain Nemo adaptation) in 2022 and Disney canned that about three months ago. 10 month shoot, $200m budget, the sets are absolutely mind blowing it looks stunning. All just chucked in the bin. Sure I still got paid for everything, but to say it's disheartening is an understatement.
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Nov 19, 2023 00:49
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Jerusalem posted:Still loving sucks obviously but didn't it get picked up by another ... I don't know what we even call them anymore? Station? Channel? Service? There's talk of AMC picking it up in the US, but afaik it's not a done deal despite what you may read in the trades. Also no word on international distribution. External Organs posted:That sucks. Are you still able to put this on a resume? It won't go on my IMDB if it doesn't get a release but I'll still put it on my CV. If only to explain what the gently caress I was doing in 2022 lol. The community is small enough that everyone mostly knows who worked on which shows anyway. CVs are kinda redundant in the film industry.
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Nov 19, 2023 01:15
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theflyingexecutive posted:The first half of that thread is bananas. Actors basically never get to choose their own hair, makeup, wardrobe, or blocking. Yeah that thread from Justine Bateman (who I don't know and don't bear any ill will towards) is quite over the top. Changing an actor's performance in post happens all the time in every single film ever made. That is literally what editing is. For AI ruining the film and television the much bigger risk is not from inside the industry, but from outside the studios. It's however many independent production companies or tech companies that aren't bound by the AMPTP contracts at all who will make the first entirely AI starring films. Now maybe the studios will band together and try to shut out those interlopers from traditional distribution channels, but they can't stop anyone from putting it on Youtube or what have you, which is where the majority the audience for a totally AI movie probably is anyway.
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Nov 21, 2023 07:15
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 19:56 |
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It's a bit more than that. The 1.6% is capped at $1m gross earnings, so your Jennifer Lawrences and Brad Pitts are paying $16,000 per year, not $1,600. But yes, the overall majority of dues come from the lower earning members. Edit: that's 1.6% of SAG eligible fees, so if you work on an independent non-union show you don't pay dues on those earnings. But conversely those earnings don't go towards healthcare eligibility thresholds etc. SAG-AFTRA is very different from the other Hollywood labour unions. Unlike the other unions, the large majority of SAG members' primary job is not acting. This is one reason why they have traditionally been the least politically engaged of the Hollywood unions - WGA being by far the most active - and why a 38% turnout for the ratification is actually a pretty big number. tanglewood1420 fucked around with this message at 12:48 on Dec 6, 2023 |
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Dec 6, 2023 12:37
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