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So lately I have been getting a lot of information in the mail about reasons to support the SAG strike, and reasons NOT to support the strike. I suppose I was somewhat torn... in that I am in the Screen Actors Guild. As such, I do support and understand how hard it is for working actors. Their long term career in many ways is subsidized through residuals. So one side of the argument is that SAG should be patient and wait to see how technology REALLY effects the business model. But having worked for Disney in their Global Operations for the studio, I know the push is to go digital. The path and direction is already there...
As an independent producer, I wondered to myself... Should I be against the strike? I mean should I side with the studios?
Then I saw the video posted below by Rob Schneider for SAG.
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I really was hit by the numbers he is citing... I guess I never thought about how sites like Hulu would essentially put a stop to the majority of all residuals for actors.That being said, I have decided that the position the studios are taking is just purely motivated out of greed and a long term strategy to take money out of the pockets of actors. While people like George Clooney may argue that with the economy being what it is, it would be wrong to put working actors out of a job... I would argue that the long term ramifications to those same actors would be far worse. (Maybe I am wrong...) But I suppose George isn't as worried about getting his Facts of Life and ER residuals checks as he would be in not collecting a $10 million check for 1 film he may miss if there is a strike. So I guess a strike would hurt him more than the average actor. We could always sign up with AppleOne to make ends meet during the down time, not sure if George is proficient in PowerPoint and Excel, so it may not be a good move for him. :)But I plan to support the vote to strike. The fact is too, that independent films can still work even during the strike by negotiating their own contracts with SAG. So work will not completely stop. But it will force the studios to be fair.It's amazing what is being posted on HULU... For example see the video below! This is the future of distribution... no more TV stations... no more Video stores... Online distribution.