The SAG-AFTRA Members Are Voting

Does this mean they solved the AI issue?

By Roger Paradiso

MEMBERS OF SAG-AFTRA STRIKE outside of the Warner Bros. building in Chelsea. The unions came to a tentitive agreement with the AMPTP after 118 days of striking, and have started ratification, that should end in early to mid December. Photo by Bob Cooley

The Directors Guild, Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild strikes captured many hearts this year. The Directors cracked the door open by being the first to settle both money (residuals) and Artificial Intelligence issues. In a way, they had it easy. There is only one Director. And the DGA negotiators made it clear that only a human Director can direct. AI will never direct a film as we know it. At least for the next three years.
Then came the Writers who were the most hostile. The AI threat was real. They won a heartfelt agreement. Writers, now known as humans, are the only ones allowed to write a script as we know it. The new agreement will last for three years.
The Actors are now voting to ratify the team effort of their negotiators. Many of them have second jobs because their acting earnings are below poverty wages. They, not the “stars” like Streep or Clooney, have the power in numbers now. In other words, the SAG Actors hold our future in their hands. They will decide if this agreement goes far enough with AI. How ironic that 90 percent who make less than $27,000 will read the fine print to protect ten percent of stars. This is the key vote and the vote which can save the industry. It’s almost like a jury trial. Do these impoverished actors believe the six or so dominant Streaming studios will never destroy the very Hollywood star human actor system? Will these very wealthy Streamers keep their word and never allow a movie or film to be inhabited by AI voices and faces? The new agreement will last for three years.

“It was a team effort, and all negotiations — to be successful — require deep communication, both within your own side and also with the other side 
of the table.” -SAG-AFTRA national 
executive director and chief negotiator 
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.

You may ask if I am cynical and why? Well just look around you. When the digital world entered the 21st Century, the Village was being gutted of artists. It has become too expensive to live here. Now that has been going on for decades. Rents, the enemy of the seniors and the artists, started rising fast. Some of our favorite cafés, restaurants and theaters started to close. Art theaters and galleries were hanging on. But then computers and digital products started to take over. And we found ourselves in the Digital World.
There are people who are fighting this climactic change. They are your neighbors and the few artists left. There are still some clubs and restaurants left. But there is change. Is this part of evolution? Yes, it is to an extent, as Darwin described natural selection as the survival of the fittest.

“It’s certainly not perfect for anybody. Any good negotiation, both parties come out of it feeling like they didn’t get everything they wanted. But I think we did get everything we needed and then some. And I think that is going to be the legacy of this negotiation.” -LA Times.

Artists and regular people will always adapt and fight off the monsters who dominate our lives. The six or so Streamers are some of them. But the actors are taking on the Hollywood dominators who want to stream us to death. Who wins in the long run? We will find out, won’t we?
We have seen movie theaters topple and Fortune 500 companies go under. I walked by my favorite theater, the Cinema Village, last summer and I looked at the marquee. Did it show the latest art movies? Sadly, not. As I was reading the marquee, I saw Barbie on two screens and Oppenheimer on one screen at this gem of an art house.
This was a blow to the independents of film and of just about any independents. Yet, like cockroaches, we will survive. How? I have no idea but I’ll let you know when I find out. By the way, Oppenheimer playing at an art cinema is one irony. How about another? We are at an Oppenheimer moment with AI at this time. It surely will do bad things for bad people, but let’s hope there is more good in AI than there was in the Atomic Age.
Hey, I’m an optimist. Can you find me a one bedroom for less than $3,000 a month in the West Village with a full bath, a living room and a small kitchen? If you do, write me at the Village View.