Directors Guild of America membership has voted by an overwhelming margin to ratify the new collective bargaining agreements between the DGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
“I am happy to report that the DGA membership overwhelmingly voted to ratify the new contract,” said Paris Barclay, DGA president. “Our major gains in SVOD residuals, together with our improvements in wages and pensions, were the result of our forward-thinking preparation. With the groundwork already laid in previous negotiations, this new contract embodies what we knew was possible when we established our first New Media agreement nearly a decade ago. All our thanks go to our Negotiating Committee, led by co-chairs Michael Apted and Thomas Schlamme, and National Executive Director Jay Roth, as well as our Guild’s professional staff, for all their determination and hard work.”
Formal negotiations with the AMPTP began on Monday, December 5, and concluded three weeks later on Friday, December 23. Talks were led by Apted, Schlamme and Guild chief negotiator Roth. On December 29, the DGA’s National Board of Directors unanimously recommended sending the contract to members for ratification. Ratification voting opened on January 4, and the results were finalized tonight (1/25) after the deadline.
Gains include significant increases in SVOD residuals; increases in employer contributions to the pension plan; annual wage increases (2.5% in the first year, 3% in the second and third); increases in nearly all residuals bases; and a provision addressing the lack of TV directing opportunities for aspiring career directors. The new agreement also includes provisions addressing safety, improvements in creative rights–including expanded rights of members when their work is shown theatrically as well as provisions addressing late scripts–and specific advances that pertain to members of the director’s team.
The new contract’s three-year term will take effect on July 1, 2017 and will run through June 30, 2020.
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