By Sarah Parvini
LOS ANGELES (AP) --Hollywood’s video game performers announced they would go on strike Thursday, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections.
The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement.
SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI. A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a “performer” is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.
“The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement,” SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are being treated as “data.”
Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.
“We strike as a matter of last resort. We have given this process absolutely as much time as we responsibly can,” Rodriguez told reporters. “We have exhausted the other possibilities, and that is why we’re doing it now.”
Cooling said the companies’ offer “extends meaningful AI protections.”
“We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations,” she said.
Andi Norris, an actor and member of the union’s negotiating committee, said that those who do stunt work or creature performances would still be at risk under the game companies’ offer.
“The performers who bring their body of work to these games create a whole variety of characters, and all of that work must be covered. Their proposal would carve out anything that doesn’t look and sound identical to me as I sit here, when, in truth, on any given week I am a zombie, I am a soldier, I am a zombie soldier,” Norris said. “We cannot and will not accept that a stunt or movement performer giving a full performance on stage next to a voice actor isn’t a performer.”
The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion dollars in profit annually, according to game market forecaster Newzoo. The people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, SAG-AFTRA said.
Members voted overwhelmingly last year to give leadership the authority to strike. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year’s film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months.
The last interactive contract, which expired in November 2022, did not provide protections around AI but secured a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists after an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. That work stoppage marked the first major labor action from SAG-AFTRA following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012.
The video game agreement covers more than 2,500 “off-camera (voiceover) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers,” according to the union.
Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered independent and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry titans have rejected. Games signed to an interim interactive media agreement, tiered-budget independent interactive agreement or interim interactive localization agreement are not part of the strike, the union said.
Director Malin Ingrid Johansson Brings “Deck 5B” To The Toronto International Film Festival
In her young career, director Malin Ingrid Johansson continues to gain recognition on the festival circuit while looking to extend her reach into the American advertising market. On the latter score, she’s joining the roster of Little Minx, the production company under the aegis of Rhea Scott who’s known for nurturing the careers of filmmakers and helping to successfully establish them in the U.S. across commercials, music videos and other varied projects.
As for Johansson’s film festival pedigree, she first saw her short film Madden, a coming-of-age story inspired by her teenage years on a farm, debut internationally at the Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival) 2023. Madden was also awarded best Swedish Short at last year’s Gothenburg International Film Festival. Furthermore, Johansson is currently in development on a feature-length film based on Madden.
Now another Johansson short film is making a major splash. Her Deck 5B premiered this week at the Toronto International Film Festival during its Short Cuts program. Among the production houses behind Deck 5B--and earlier Madden--was Pine, a Stockholm-based shop which reps Johansson for commercials internationally.
In the interest of avoiding a spoiler alert, SHOOT in this piece provides a deliberately sparse description of the storyline for Deck 5B. Suffice it to say that the short stars Alma Pöysti as Mia, a mother torn between the needs of her young son and her own desires for romance and fulfillment. Johansson said that she was deeply moved by Pöysti’s portrayal of the recently divorced Mia and considers getting the chance to work with the actress as a major career highlight. Earlier this year,... Read More