May
1
Let’s get this out of the way: actors are overpaid. So are producers. One doesn’t come to Hollywood because he wants to make passion projects that scratch his artistic itch, box office be damned. He doesn’t struggle and starve and say no to big dumb scripts because he wants to make small, personal films. No, if you’re an actor, or a producer, or a screenwriter for that matter, you make the trek to L.A. because you’re the modern day equivalent of Daniel Plainview — you’ve come to strike it rich. This town is a giant milkshake, and you’re here to drink it.
Today, news that the Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are currently at an impasse during their contractual negotiations (the current contract between the unions expires on June 30th) comes as no surprise to me. Though the AMPTP just recently weathered a 100-day WGA strike that ground production to a halt and cost the studios billions, they somehow think they can pull the same shenanigans with SAG not three months later. But the one thing more essential to a film or television show than a script is its cast. Too many films begin production without a finished script these days, giving you an idea of how inconsequential a “good story, well told” is to the industry bigwigs. The WGA wasn’t able to create a work stoppage because they ceased their output. No, it’s the solidarity their union has with SAG that brought Hollywood to a halt last winter.
It’s actors that get movies made, not writers and not producers. That the AMPTP is willing to remain bullish about nickel-and-diming actors over DVD revenues goes to show how their greed may match that of your average star, but their box office pull does not reflect that of someone like, say, Johnny Depp. People don’t go to the movies because of who produced it. Producers are invisible influence, their contributions to a given production are as varied as their job titles are obscure. Movies and TV shows might not get made without them, but the same could be said for cameras. If they can’t hammer out a contract with SAG before the June 30th deadline, they’ll demonstrate once again that no one’s better at producing layoffs and lost billions than the Scrooge-like AMPTP.
-Brad Lohan
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