Strike Rules: No Publicity, Festival Appearances Or Voice-Acting
The guidelines govern the work that the union’s 160,000 affected members are allowed to perform, and not to perform, during labor action targeting film and television companies.
Performers’ union SAG-AFTRA has released strike rules governing work its members can and cannot perform amid the work stoppage.
The strike will begin at midnight. Actors will be on the picket line starting Friday morning. Shoots on major films are all expected to be immediately shut down.
Now that the promotion and press of film and TV projects isn’t allowed by union members, top talent also can’t walk the Venice and Toronto red carpets or take part in Emmy For Your Consideration campaigns.
Universal moved up the red carpet for the London premiere of Oppenheimer by an hour on Thursday evening, local time in a bid to allow the star-studded cast get their photocall and spot interviews in ahead of the official SAG-AFTRA walkout announcement.
Emily Blunt and Cillian Murphy exited the premiere after the strike was called.
The already-underway Galway Film Fest in Ireland, the Oppenheimer red carpet in New York on July 17 and fan events at Comic-Con, which starts next week.
SAG-AFTRA announced that a work stoppage will begin Thursday afternoon following negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers faltering Wed night.
The group representing studios and streamers said it “presented a deal that offered historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, and a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses.” SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher called the offer “insulting and disrespectful of our massive contributions to this industry.” In a Thursday speech announcing the strike, she said the two sides remain “far apart” on “so many things.” She added, “How they plead poverty when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs. It’s disgusting. Shame on them. They stand on the wrong side of history at this very moment.”
The two parties have been negotiating for five weeks as around 11,500 of the industry’s writers have remained out on strike. SAG-AFTRA is looking to significantly increase compensation for members, to rework streaming residuals to further benefit their members, to regulate the use of generative A.I. in entertainment and to put some additional restrictions on virtual auditions, which have skyrocketed in prevalence since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. On June 30, SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP extended their negotiations until July 12, with the union telling its members the prolongation was important “in order to exhaust every opportunity to achieve the righteous contract we all demand and deserve.”
Six days earlier, Drescher and national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland told members in a video message that the discussions had been “extremely productive” and that the negotiators were confident they could achieve a “seminal deal.”
Under the rules, all covered services and performing work must be withheld, including but not limited to:
Principal on camera work, such as:
– Acting
– Singing
– Dancing
– Performing stunts
– Piloting on-camera aircraft
– Puppeteering
– Performance capture or motion capture work
Principal off camera work, such as:
– ADR/Looping
– TV Trailers (promos) and Theatrical Trailers
– Voice Acting
– Singing
– Narration
– Stunt coordinating and related services
– Stand-in work
– Photo and/or body doubles
-Fittings, wardrobe tests, and makeup tests
– Rehearsals and camera tests
– Scanning
– Interviews and auditions (including via self-tape)
Promotion of/publicity services for work under the TV/Theatrical Contracts, such as:
– Tours
– Personal appearances
– Interviews
– Conventions
– Fan expos
– Festivals
– For your consideration events
– Panels
– Premieres/screenings
– Award shows
– Junkets
– Podcast appearances
– Social media
– Studio showcases
Negotiating and/or entering into and/or consenting to:
– An agreement to perform covered services in the future
– Any new agreement related to merchandising connected to a covered project
– The creation and use of digital replicas, including through the reuse of prior work
Performing on a trailer for a struck production or other ancillary content connected to a struck production
