SAG Union Now & Then - TV Changed Everything.
Before email-letters. when SAG Awards were mostly nominees in Motion Picture films.
#SAG-AFTRA #ATAS #AMPAS #MPA
The 1st Annual SAG awards in 1995: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Screen_Actors_Guild_Awards
(WestHollywoodToday.blogspot, December 31 2023) Updated MARCH 29 2024
By Karen Ostlund
The 80s and 90s talent-agencies used to tell their actors; “Try to say something for free - two separate scenes, in a Motion Picture film - so you can start to pay SAG Union, and we can raise the salaries, and take a commission”.
Non-Union extra-work in Motion Picture films were considered "too little money” to take a commission from.
TV production and TV Stations had their own rates and salaries, regardless of Union cards.
Each booked actor had to go to their agent and sign a two-three page contract, before every job.
Today, many filmproductons offer to pay SAG-rate the first 5 days, after that, the work goes over to contract, without SAG-rate.
In 1983 casting director offered actors for the first time, to use their SAG card for better pay in "Daytime Soap", “Commercials" and “Independent film".
US productions only, inside and outside the country. Actors did many other work as well, in foreign productions, without need of a Union card.
Both Union and Non-Union actors were welcome to the same casting, but they needed an agent to send them out to castings and do the billing for them.
Talent-agencies usually chose a personal manager or publicist, when the actor/performer get famous.
In LA, many talents hire a publicist, to get help finding an agent, and to be presented to the press, at red carpet events.
In the past, Motion Picture casting directors used to give TV actors a hard time, because they used Commercial agents with minimum height requirements linked to model agencies, to build a resume.
Most Motion Picture actors build their resume with work from theater companies.
TV actors were considered ‘beautiful people” with 2-3 expressions, compared to Motion Picture film actors.
In the 90s New York, the qualifications to be a member of AFTRA Union, was to prove on-air work in the radio. After become a well-known voice in a radio station, these RADIO-AFTRA members did appearances in TV-shows and presented LIVE shows for musicians in the Recording Academy (Grammys.com)
SAG Union members were then paying off the initial membership-fee with vouchers and 1 % interest.
The membership-fee guaranteed once-a-year meetings with MPA’s five studios, to talk about salaries and overtime.Talent agencies used to have casting-magazines laying around, with a report inside, what was said during the meetings with MPA and Unions.
If a Union gives better pay, the actor needed to apply for a Tax ID, but the same actor can have Tax IDs in other countries too.
In Europe, talents-agencies withdraw tax on every pay-check given to the actor, but if the actor applies for Tax ID and file tax return, some tax-money get returned to the actor.
They put, "actors-models-singers-dancers" under the Law of "sports athletes” - which talent can be measured.
Motion Picture Association (MPA) was an American trade association since 1922, representing the five major film studios In US: Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures, and Columbia Pictures (SONY Studios). They had yearly meetings with most Unions.
Summer 2012, SAG-AFTRA became the 2nd RSVP-list to ATAS (TV Academy) in North Hollywood for “For-Your-Consideration" panels, because SAG Awards January 27 2013 will feature Television nominees. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_Screen_Actors_Guild_Awards
In 2012, there was space for everybody.
In 2016, Motion Picture Studios and their TV-Plus division had reach equal size, with help from Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
For example, Paramount Studios expanded their ParamountPlus division and Walt Disney Studios did the same with their DisneyPlus.
Same year (2016), SAG-AFTRA staff tried to locate paid SAG memberships without contact information as emails or phone numbers, before AFTRA merged with them in March 30 2012.
They forgot these SAG members had a 2nd card, an Academy card in MPA or AMPAS, because it was only used for work in Motion Pictures films until 1983.
The Union card was then seen as a "better-salary-card” and the Academy card was a "film-industry-event-card".
In 2017, some AMPAS members moved their memberships to ATAS (TV Academy) to enter a lottery to attend the panels of TVPlus division of Motion Picture Studios.
Suddenly, there was, and still is today, a large group of Television professionals, which group can be divided in 4 groups: ATAS (TV Academy), SAG-AFTRA, AMPAS-Plus and MPA-Plus.
The 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike could have been avoided, if the once-a-year meetings with MPA's five studios had continued, but COVID-19 pandemic came up and interfered, starting January 2020. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_SAG-AFTRA_strike
More info:
ATAS (Academy of Television Arts and Sciences).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_of_Television_Arts_%26_Sciences
AMPAS (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_of_Motion_Picture_Arts_and_Sciences
AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Federation_of_Television_and_Radio_Artists
SAG (Screen Actors Guild)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_Actors_Guild
MPA (Motion Picture Association)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Association
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