Breaking News! Decades long struggle ends with Hollywood actors winning right to hourly pay!
In a surprising turn of events, the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) has successfully lobbied all major and independent movie studios to allow their member actors and actress to begin getting paid by the hour instead of by the movie.
“We lobbied long and hard for this behind the scenes for decades” stated SAG president Imad Ummy. “We are finally done watching from the sidelines as lawyers and other professsionals benefit from the lucrative time and billing system while we struggle under a fixed price model based on demand for individual actors and actresses.”
Unsurprisingly, the majority of SAG members universally applaud this direction.
The old model left it impossible for individual actors and actresses to determine if a movie was worth doing as they were unable to predict how long they would spend on set and if the compensation would be worth it. In many cases, it was impossible to determine if movies were profitable ventures for the individual SAG members as they could not assess properly without a system to track total hours worked.
Oscar award winning actress, Meryl Streep had this to say:
“It was really an impossible situation. We were asked to set a fixed price for our services without knowing how long we would be forced to work on certain projects. It was quite unbearable. Some directors require take after take after take to get the scene just right. It’s hardly fair to expect us to be required to do this work for free. Now we can get paid fairly for work done regardless of irrational demands from the studios.”
To help ensure their members are compensated fairly, SAG is providing members with ankle bracelets that will be worn at all times while on set. These patented devices will track their movements and record time properly down to the milli-second while they are on camera – regardless of whether specific shots are used in final production or discarded on the editing floor. This will ensure that full and fair compensation is received for hours worked.
These devices provided the final break through in the decades long battle for hourly billing rights.
Studios had demanded the ability to double-check and confirm that hours were being reported accurately. Some suggestions included assigning a monitor to follow around the actors while on set or a punch card with a clock in and out system.
The final solution was simple with the new technology: the SAG-assigned bracelets will track the actors’ and actresses’ movement using equipment installed throughout movie lots to prevent time in the bathroom or trailers or other off-camera time from being billed through to the movie studios. Each individual member will be assigned a unique bracelet to prevent fraudulent behavior of actors clocking in for friends.
Heralding the tracking devices as the greatest advancement in film making since the introduction of “talkies”, Mr. Ummy suggested it was only a matter of time before professionals in all service fields were using these devices to improve client relationships by tracking their every movement and ensuring proper time recording for both the professional and the client.
Related news: All major movie studios report average movie length to decrease by 45 minutes within the next three years in an effort to make more efficient movies.
More related news: A new website promising “the right actor for the right hourly rate” has sprung up to help studios find the best priced talent.
In even more related news: Movies to begin sucking as they become more efficient.
Robert Wood
Wayne Schulz
Peter Wolf
