In Hollywood, negotiations between actors and studios are at a standstill

Things get stuck on the questions of AI and remuneration linked to streaming broadcasts…

If the writers’ strike has ended At the end of September, negotiations between the WGA and Hollywood film and streaming studios having resulted in new regulations, we are still far from an agreement between these same firms and SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union. He officially joined the movement in mid-July, and since then, the two parties have not been able to agree on several issues, which means that there is no end date for the strike. ‘expected moment.

THE LA Times explains that the last meeting between the spokespersons of the union and those of Disney, Universal, Netflix, etc., organized on Wednesday, ended in failure, because several requests were refused by the studios. In particular the request for actors to earn 2% of the revenue recorded by the streaming of their films or series. The companies justify this refusal by explaining that they are currently losing money in this area and that they must find a way to make the transition between the pay television business and that of streaming.

The idea of ​​paying actors more based on the number of subscribers to a platform was mentioned, but again rejected. The guild proposed to draw down one dollar per subscriber to contractually pay them back to the actors, but the studios calculated that this would cause them to lose a total of 800 million dollars per year.

The question of the use of artificial intelligence is also creating debate. We recently learned that extras from WandaVision had been completely scanned (body and face) so that their “digital double” can be reused by Disney for other Marvel productions. In order to make them appear in the background in crowd scenes, for example. A concept which caused a scandal, because the actors in question were not paid additionally to carry out this scan, and potentially, the firm will no longer need to call on them in the future, since it will have their image available. For a hundred dollars, paid once via their figuration fee for a day of work.

The actors’ union wants this practice to disappear, unless the extras in question sign an agreement stipulating precisely in what context their image will be used, how many times, and that they are paid specially for the scan. Here too, the request was refused, the studios fearing that by signing such a request, they would not be able to broadcast content for which this system has already been put in place.

As for example in Prom Pacta romcom released on Disney+ last March, which has resurfaced for a few hours because of this short sequence, which clearly shows fake spectators, created 100% digitally from a scan of extras:

The effect is unsuccessful, part of the public being clearly artificial, we fall here into the“uncanny valley”. But it is not so much the poor quality as the moral aspect that is shocking here, and which serves as a perfect example of the abuses that the union denounces.

Their screenwriting partners succeeded in banning another form of use of AI which was under development: they made the studios promise not to have classic novels adapted into scripts by software, before hiring real screenwriters to rework them. This principle was beginning to be developed, and had been denounced from the start of the strike. It is now banned, with producers committing to hiring real authors to write the stories for their films and series.

SAG-AFTRA has already warned that the strike could continue until 2024, if the studios do not respect their demands. It is particularly followed, with many stars participating in the demonstrations, telling their own galleys in Hollywood and/or doing donations for the collection of support for the most precarious.

Studios and streamers consider turning to AI during writers’ strike