When the longest strike in Hollywood entertainment industry history ended last month, it was an overdue resolution to the nearly six-month battle waged by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) against the advertising business.
Per the new contract, the Joint Policy Committee (JPC)—which represented the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies in the negotiations—agreed to grant the actors’ unions jurisdiction over spots made for the Internet. (SHOOT, 10/27, p.1) The other key gain claimed by SAG/ AFTRA was an increase in cable payment fees over the three years of the contract; this gain represented a compromise of the unions’ initial demand for pay-per-play residuals for cable usage. Additionally, the pay-per-play residual system by which actors receive payments for ads that appear on network television remains unchanged.
While both the advertising and production communities expressed relief that an agreement was finally reached, serious concerns remain in the wake of the strike, with many wondering if it will ever be "business as usual." Runaway production was a troubling issue in pre-strike times, and the extended labor action served to drive work out of the country and introduce clients to new—and more cost-effective—production locales. Given the enjoyable foreign shooting experiences had by many, the long-term impact on domestic spot shooting, particularly on the West Coast, is subject to debate.
Michael Romersa, president/ owner of the Stoney Road family of production companies, believes that there are now fewer barriers to shooting abroad, and domestic production will pay a price. (The Stoney Road houses consist of the bicoastal shops Bedford Falls, M-80, Moss/Petermann/Holtzman, and Reactor Films, as well as Santa Monica-based Bandolero Films, a shop that specializes in the Hispanic market.) "One of the problems with going out of the U.S. film centers, like Hollywood, New York, Chicago and a few others, is that you end up getting secondary talent with regard to crew people," says Romersa. "But because the production community has been forced out of those film centers and out of the country so much, we’ve trained a lot of people just by shooting in their environment. I think it’ll be much easier for production companies to go out of the country. The clients have realized it’s almost as easy to fly from New York to Spain as it is from New York to Los Angeles. I think we’ve carved a chunk out of the business in the U.S., and especially Hollywood, that in my opinion will probably never come back."
"I think, unfortunately for crews and actors, that people are more used to traveling abroad," concurs Steve Wax, president of bicoastal/ international Chelsea Pictures, which is part of the publicly traded, Minneapolis-headquartered iNTELEFILM, which has significant holdings in the spot production business. "We’re bidding a couple of jobs to shoot in Australia," says Wax, "that don’t have to be shot there but, for now, going to Australia seems fairly attractive. Let’s say that 30 percent more production went abroad during the strike; I think maybe 20 percent will come back."
The directors at Stiefel+Company, Santa Monica, also racked up frequent flyer miles during the strike, says company president/ executive producer Frank Stiefel, who cites shoot locales that included France, Italy, China and Canada.
The good news, Stiefel observes, is that the strike was settled at a time where shooting in Canada is going to be less advantageous: Western Canada is going to be rainy and Eastern Canada is going to be cold. So, at least in the short term, he foresees a resurgence of shooting in Southern California. "In terms of typical production over the next six months," says Stiefel, "it’ll probably revert to similar patterns that pre-dated the strike. But overall, an awful lot of people became comfortable shooting in places other than Los Angeles. So those options are going to be more carefully considered than they had been. I think there is some long-term fallout from this, but we’re not going to feel it immediately. The real questions are going to come up in spring and summer of 2001."
Staying Home
Most stateside-based production companies would prefer to shoot in the U.S., notes Gary Rose, executive producer at bicoastal Moxie Pictures. Observing that Los Angeles is the site of the largest talent pool, he believes the market’s SAG actors will be in heavy demand, especially for comedy or dialogue projects.
But Rose agrees the strike has served to demonstrate to clients that there are other options. "The accessibility now to overseas production is pretty easy," he comments.
Another question is the welcome SAG talent will receive as they return to production sets. Emotions ran high during the strike, resulting in numerous instances of conduct that many judged to be inappropriate and, in some cases, contemptible.
Among the most dubious alleged behavior displayed by some SAG members occurred at the June premiere of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show at the Museum of Modern Art (a SAG co-sponsored event, ironically), in New York. There, reported several in attendance, throngs of strikers tried to prevent attendees from entering the museum and shouted profane epithets at guests; Rose recounts that one SAG member told him: "I hope you choke on your fucking hors d’oeuvre." In another reported incident, a SAG group showed up at a casting call for a children’s commercial and attempted to intimidate kids by screaming "scab" and other angry comments.
The ill feelings won’t subside quickly, predicts Alex Blum, partner/executive producer at bicoastal Headquarters, who’s also chairman of the national AICP. "I think there is residual animosity because of the tactics employed," says Blum. "I think this is generally a business that depends on a lot of cooperation between the parties and that has been really damaged by the experience that people have had."
Crew Side
That experience also includes that of crew people and vendors, for whom the decline in U.S. shoots caused significant hardship and, in some instances, proved devastating. Unlike production companies that had the option of traveling abroad to produce work, crew and suppliers were essentially landlocked and, as a result, suffered financially.
"I don’t think the relationship between crew people and actors was ever great," notes Romersa. "Rarely did I see them sitting around having lunch together on the set. A lot of crew and suppliers have really been hurt by this strike. Some of them have lost their homes. I think there will be some animosity; we’ll do everything we can to avoid that, but it’s going to be difficult."
Wax opines that it will take a long time for crew members’ antipathy toward actors to dissipate. "They probably used up some of their savings accounts and they’re bitter about the advertisers and the actors not settling it [until recently]," says Wax. "For the production companies and executives like myself, it’ll take a couple more weeks and we’ll completely forget about it. That’s the nature of the advertising business: You have no past and you have no future; you just have present tense."
Others won’t be so quick to forget. Many execs direct their harshest criticism not at SAG commercial actors, but instead toward the unions’ management. "A number of us feel that they did a horrific job in running their negotiations," says Stiefel.
Blum criticizes SAG leadership for not looking at the situation from the big-picture perspective and considering the ramifications of an extended strike. "They didn’t take any time to analyze how the commercial business really works, what’s important and where the work really goes," says Blum. "They were pretty irresponsible. I think they thought they had something to prove. They didn’t pay attention to details, and in a situation like this, the details are important."
What Now?
SAG misplayed its hand greatly, contends Tim Clawson, president of New York-based Shooting Gallery Productions (SGP), the commercial division of Shooting Gallery, and executive VP of Gun For Hire (GFH), the production services arm, with offices in New York, Miami, Toronto and Vancouver, B.C.
"I think we had two parties that didn’t want to make a deal," claims Clawson. "There was a lot of posturing on both sides…and time had to take its course until such time as both sides wanted to make a deal."
But the outcome begs the question why six months of labor unrest was necessary to achieve results seemingly obtainable without a strike. Aside from the adverse effect on the production community (the strike cost Los Angeles alone an estimated $1.5 million a day in lost production), the work stoppage greatly hurt union actors, who have reportedly lost some $200 million in wages during the strike. Production execs agreed it was a case of the means not justifying the end, by any measure.
"Strategically," says Blum, "I wonder what the point of it all was since the final agreement seems something the two sides could have agreed on within a week or two. I’m puzzled what we spent six months suffering over. For all the supposed principles involved, effectively—in terms of the basic structure of the contract—nothing changed, as far as I can tell."
Those who anticipate a dramatic upturn in board flow in the wake of the strike’s resolution may be disappointed to discover little change. But Stephen Dickstein, president/ partner of bicoastal/international Partizan, reports he’s observed a recent deluge of spot projects, and says he expects the increase to particularly benefit directors that are working in the arena of performance—which Partizan has a number of.
However, Dickstein never got a sense that the strike handcuffed agencies, other than perhaps hampering the production of celebrity ads. "I think agencies more or less conducted business as usual [during the strike]," says Dickstein, echoing the comments of a number of executives. "I think a lot of the wheel spinning and uncertainty was much more about the economy than the strike."
Clawson also questions the notion that a flood of pent-up work will suddenly reappear due to the strike’s settlement. "I think the level of advertising follows business in the real world, more than business in our entertainment world," says Clawson. "I think a lot will really depend more on the economic situation of the country and how business is going. Certainly, there will be seasonal peaks, such as the holidays, where there will be opportunities for advertisers to reach large audiences. The strike probably made people think twice, or a third time, about producing spots. Sometimes, people just need one more reason not to spend money, and they won’t. So I think the strike was a contributing factor. But I don’t think that there’s this big floodgate that’s going to necessarily open."
Rose points out that more bad news may be in store for the commercial production community if the threatened motion picture and television strike next year comes to pass, as many believe it will. "When SAG and the Writers Guild go on strike, it’s going to affect us," contends Rose. "If that strike has some legs and the networks are forced to re-run shows, trust me; advertisers aren’t going to want to produce new work for old shows that they figure they’re not going to get the viewership for."q
