SAG-AFTRA reveals terms of ‘groundbreaking’ deal::Actors union SAG-AFTRA revealed specifics of its deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in a press conference Friday.
The tech angle are the AI provisions? Can someone provide some context for that? Doesn’t sound like much of a win for the little guy.
The short version is that an actor’s AI double, and an AI amalgam of several actors, will be treated as a proxy for the actor(s). The actor can agree or decline the use of their AI proxy based on the scene, and are compensated for use of their likeness as if they had gone in person. It’s a pretty big win for actors considering studios wanted unlimited usage for a one time payment.
Must be nice being famous. Get paid for the work of the CGI people (and stunt/body/etc. doubles?), as if you were also doing something. The stars at the top can probably negotiate even better terms on their own, So I guess that this is basically a win for the mid-level guys, who do have a somewhat valuable likeness but not the negotiating power to get a good price on their own.
ETA: What’s with the downvotes? Do you all disagree that the mid-level famous win from this or what?
Didn’t downvote you - but “mid-level” artists are generally paid well when the and stunt doubles are paid very well. The union terms are fair for content broadcast on cable TV and theatres.
They weren’t fair for content broadcast on streaming services - which was the main issue being negotiated here. And hopefully now that’s been fixed.
I imagine a somewhat valuable likeness will have someone “close enough” at a lower price in most cases. I would imagine that only the massively famous will benefit from this.
The tech angle are the AI provisions?
Not really.
Internet based content streaming has created new business models that didn’t fit the way artists are paid, which resulted in artists taking a massive pay cut while still being paid the full amount they were due under union rules.
It’s also bad for viewers - ever wonder why your favourite TV series didn’t get renewed for a new contract? A big part of it is if they did another season they’d have to pay the artists a lot more than they did for previous seasons. Because artist royalties scale up as the show gets more “successful” and creating another season is one of the yardsticks.
The AI stuff added complexity to the negotiations but it wasn’t really what all this was about.
It’s likely that background actors will get a boilerplate contract stating their likeness can be ai generated for other projects and current project for the use of background. Don’t sign it, you don’t get to do it.
Everyone else should be fairly good and protected from ai issues. At least until enough starving actors are willing to sign away their rights for a chance at a better casting in hopes of “making it big”
