by Jacob Rueda
Hollywood is back to normal, at least seemingly.
After months of picketing, members of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), along with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) reached an agreement on November 9, 2023.
However, despite the agreement, it is not all smooth sailing going forward. There is lingering unease over some of the provisions in the agreement, particularly with regards to streaming residuals and new technology, namely artificial intelligence.
Actor and director Joshua Bitton figured from the beginning that there would be compromises made along the way for everyone.
“It's a negotiation,” he said, “So we didn't get everything we wanted. They didn't get everything they wanted.”
On November 6, SAG-AFTRA released a statement saying that the studios offered what they called their “last, best, and final offer.” While the union said they would consider it at the time, not every member of the union was convinced of its merit, let alone its finality.
“A friend of mine who's a working television actress laughed at [that] and said, ‘what does that mean, if we say no, there's no more TV ever again?” Bitton said.
In the end, no such thing happened. But with production starting up again, how the provisions will play out will be on union members’ minds until the next round of negotiations, which won’t be for another three years in 2026.
Watch the interview with Joshua Bitton below.
Comentários