Directors Guild of America (DGA) members ratified the national commercials contract recently agreed to by the negotiating teams of the Guild and the Association of Independent Commercial Producers. The four-year contract thus officially took effect on Nov. 1 and will run through Oct. 31, 2009.
As reported in SHOOT last month, both sides felt they made significant gains in the new pact, which was unanimously approved by the DGA’s national board prior to it being sent to Guild membership for the ratification vote.
DGA president Michael Apted noted that the agreement contains substantial increases in health plan contributions and in minimum rates for directors and assistant directors. (Feature and documentary filmmaker Apted directs spots via Santa Monica-based Independent Media..)
According to DGA Eastern executive director Russ Hollander, the deal “will benefit both sides of the bargaining table–it means more work for the companies and more jobs for our members.” He stated that the Guild’s negotiating committee “was intent on finding creative solutions that benefit our members, while simultaneously enabling production companies to compete in the global marketplace.”
AICP president/CEO Matt Miller cited several areas of flexibility in the contract. These include under certain circumstances a U.S. production house not being required to transport a first assistant director to a foreign country where lensing is taking place. Miller related that saving assistant director first class travel and per diem on a U.K. shoot, for example, helps to make an American shop more competitive in bidding for the work against a U.K. production company.
Additionally, the AICP/DGA agreement has a low-budget provision, and gives “good faith consideration” to AICP production house requests to provide production services on U.S. shoots for non-signatory foreign production companies. This would apply only to spots that are being shown solely in foreign markets outside the U.S. and Canada. (For a more detailed rundown of other competitive advantages contained in the new DGA commercials contract, see SHOOT‘s previous coverage of the negotiated agreement–10/7, p. 1.)
