The contract negotiated between the actors union SAG-Aftra and the alliance of Hollywood studios AMPTP was approved this Wednesday with 78.33% of the votes, an overwhelming margin despite discontent with the clauses related to Artificial Intelligence.
SAG-Aftra management announced the results just hours after the end of the vote, which lasted three weeks after a 118-day strike that paralyzed Hollywood.
“Today we close one of the most important chapters in the recent history of the entertainment industry,” said union president Fran Drescher, who led the fight for a contract with better working conditions for actors, in a joint statement with the The main negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.
“This contract is a great victory for hardworking actors and marks the beginning of a new era for the industry,” they considered, highlighting salary increases, better compensation with streaming and protections related to Artificial Intelligence.
But the way in which the agreement addresses this use of AI in the industry, that is, digital replicas of the actors, led 21.67% of the thousands of union members who participated to vote “no.”
That was what Portuguese actress Kika Magalhães, who has lived in Los Angeles since 2016, did, explaining to Lusa that the provisions of the contract do not defend the interests of the actors, especially those who do not have negotiating power.
“An actor goes to a casting [audição] and the producers ask if he accepts that they make a digital replica. If the actor says no, they can’t give him the role,” he explained before finishing the vote.
Unlike what happens in the contract reached between the actors union (WGA) and the studio alliance, it is not specified here that the artists have to be human. This opens the possibility for representation, whether visual or voice-only, to be performed by synthetic actors, i.e. digital replicas, made possible by recent advances in AI.
In the case of screenwriters, it is specified that writers must be human.
The contract ratified today will be in effect for the next three years, which for Portuguese lighting artist Afonso Salcedo, who worked on the last Disney film “Wish,” is a good period of time to understand how the technology will evolve.
The union’s statement indicated that 38.15% of the approximately 150,000 members voted.
With the end of the strike and the green light for new productions, a full return to work is not expected until the new year, which means that in 2024 there should be fewer films and series than in previous years.
Source: TSF
