In nationwide voting completed last week, members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) have overwhelmingly approved new three-year successor agreements to the 2006 SAG Television Commercials Contract and the ’06 AFTRA Television and Radio Commercials Contracts.
The memberships of AFTRA and SAG voted nearly 94 percent in favor of the new agreements. Approximately 132,000 members of the unions received ballots, with a 28 percent return rate.
The new agreements cover performers working in commercials made for and reused on television, radio, the Internet, and new media. Annual salary gains are estimated at a tick above five percent over the life of the contracts, a rate of increase that’s curtailed compared to Hollywood union contracts of just last year. The ad biz accords also establish a first-ever payment structure in commercials for the Internet and new media. The new payment structure goes into effect in the third year of the contract.
Additionally, the new contracts contain an agreement outlining terms for a pilot study to test the Gross Rating Points (GRP) model of restructuring compensation to principal performers, as proposed by Booz & Co. The two-year pilot study will be conducted by a jointly retained consultant engaged by the unions and the industry.
The new commercial pacts with the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies goes into effect retroactively to April 1, 2009, and will remain in force until March 31, 2012.
AFTRA and SAG members voted on the tentative agreement that had been reached with the advertising industry on March 31 and overwhelmingly recommended by the SAG-AFTRA Joint Board in a meeting on April 18. Ballots were mailed April 30 to all eligible members in good standing of either union.
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More