tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4614979466935672532.post1305748108173073166..comments2024-01-24T05:22:11.903-08:00Comments on All About Indie Filmmaking: SAG - I Love Your Members But You're Killing Mejanekkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12579894129097872861noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4614979466935672532.post-80050567648119558132011-12-12T05:32:24.431-08:002011-12-12T05:32:24.431-08:00This is a fantastic post. I've run into the e...This is a fantastic post. I've run into the exact same thing. Part of the issue, though, is the foreign distributors, themselves, who likely had you sign an agreement requiring you to pay THEIR residuals, on top of what you would owe for the money accrues to your company. It's absurd, and a loophole by which many foreign distros hang onto the money that they owe you. If they pay you nothing, and you owe for both your, and their residuals, because SAG gets their cut at every step down the ladder, then SAG will go after the distributor. They will pay the residuals that THEY owe, and then say that you, the producer, owe them, the distributor, for residuals on my money that you have never touched, or seen. Then, the distributors take their cut, out of your end. It's the way that distributors force filmmakers to cover that cost, to SAG. Not much SAG can do about that, and until their is a sea-change in the producing community, low budget filmmakers will continue to get raked by unscrupulous foreign distributors. But that change is our responsibility.TMCDnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4614979466935672532.post-91264866781247533942011-06-23T20:24:39.967-07:002011-06-23T20:24:39.967-07:00Some wise attorney is going to sue the pants of SA...Some wise attorney is going to sue the pants of SAG eventually.<br /><br />The SAGIndie thing is fraudulent and deceptive. They 'sell' their ultra-low budget without telling the producers that you're also signing the Basic Agreement.<br /><br />I made an ultra-low film NEVER realizing we still owed residual payments! I mean of all the evil, devious things that are surrounding our society, SAG has to stick the shyster knife again into us.<br /><br />SAG knows if all the indie producers found out this clever little trick, NO ONE would sign with SAG - ultra-low or not.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4614979466935672532.post-51923706125140354752011-05-22T19:15:42.095-07:002011-05-22T19:15:42.095-07:00I am so sorry to hear this and that SAG is being s...I am so sorry to hear this and that SAG is being so utterly unreasonable.<br /><br />I am a working SAG actor (in the category of members who've earned over $100,000/yearly) and although I am grateful for having made a living as an actor my frustration far outweighs my gratitude in SAG's unrealistic relationship with independent film producers, bankrupting them or driving them to use non-SAG actors. <br /><br />At the crux of a massive recession and the digital revolution when wonderful independent films are being made for well under half a million that look like studio blockbusters (2010 Monsters) SAG contracts seem completely out of touch with the realities of independent film making today to the point where even SAG actors, hundreds of established actors, are furtively working in, and even making themselves, fly-by-night micro budget films under SAG's radar, films that get accepted into festivals, win awards and secure modest to world wide theatrical distribution, all of which is unrealistic and often impossible under current SAG contracts. Try telling SAG you want to make a movie using SAG actors for under $40,000, and that SAG actors want to be in it and work for points, and they laugh at you. <br /><br />Love SAG but lets work this stuff out already.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4614979466935672532.post-6459646488118674102011-04-26T13:29:20.790-07:002011-04-26T13:29:20.790-07:00I am working on an Ultra-low Budget SAG film and f...I am working on an Ultra-low Budget SAG film and finding little hidden fees or rules that I never knew about. It can be frustrating especially when it wasn't discussed at the beginning of the project.Natashanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4614979466935672532.post-1131060252008934582011-04-08T10:03:31.583-07:002011-04-08T10:03:31.583-07:00Great post, Jane.
For the most part, today's ...Great post, Jane.<br /><br />For the most part, today's unions are no-account thugs who demand everything and give nothing back.<br /><br />Because of their standard blackmailing and extortion practices, nobody will stand up to them.<br /><br />Look at what the unions have done to the construction business in New York and Chicago. They are a legalized mafia.<br /><br />My biggest beef with unions is their constant choosing to ignore reality. The reality for you is that most foreign sales agents these days don't advance revenue to indies. That's the truth.<br /><br />Unfortunately, the unions won't accept that truth because they operate in a one-sided world. They take. You give.<br /><br />Stupidly, they choose to ignore the reality that the hard work of producers like yourself is what makes employment possible for their members. They don't care. They don't care because their modus operandi is Mafia-like: "F___ you, pay me!"<br /><br />At least the mafia don't pretend they're anything but.<br /><br />There is a huge disparity between what the studios can do and what indies can do. Unions don't care about that. <br /><br />But it is the dominance of big business in America that is killing "indies" in all areas, and that's what big business wants. These contracts, which only big studios can honor, should not be used for smaller films. <br /><br />More and more, Americans are losing their "freedoms" to work and live as they choose because big business has become the new Big Brother.<br /><br />In theory, unions can represent the interests of workers with less power than the employer. Nobody is going to oppose the provision of a fair day's wage and conditions for a fair day's work. But the unions have moved way beyond this original mission and now engage in warfare with the gift horse.<br /><br />Producers take all the risks.<br /><br />The unions take none.<br /><br />Is that "fair"?<br /><br />In this situation, perhaps SAG should go directly to the foreign sales agents themselves and demand the dollars they're seeking. Then they'd know that sometimes it sucks to be us.Phantom of Pulphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03684169251989469824noreply@blogger.com