Unions. Love them or hate them…

I’ve just come off the phone with the US distributor of my movie FAKERS. We’ve just placed the DVD with Hollywood Video and a number of other rental chains. We’re also expecting our first payment from Starz who have a 12 month license and are currently showing the movie in their regular programing and video on demand. He asked me if we used SAG (Screen Actors Guild) contracts. As a UK production we didn’t. We used British Actors Equity. The UK equivalent.

Apparently if we had SAG actors, a WGA (Writers Guild of America) writer and I was DGA (Directors Guild of Ameria) then the distributor would be paying nearly 10% of the gross income they recieve to those unions before I, as the production company, get any money. Well, this just seems bloody crazy to me!!!!

We’re lucky in that our theatrical release actually made us money so all of the distributors expensis for getting the movie out there have been covered. Any money in now, as far as the US rights are concerned, is split between the distributors profit (or overhead) and my investors. But imagine if we hadn’t been so fortunate to cover our theatrical expenses. The actors on my movie were the best paid out of everyone on the crew. By at least 100%. I myself still have credit card debt from the movie. And yet, they see 5% of the income before I even clear the expense to get the movie out there in the first place. Come on!!!!

I’ve always had a problem with unions. Don’t like them. Never had. The bottom line for me is that we shouldn’t need them. Employeers should be responsible and look after there staff, the market should set the rate for employement (above a minimum wage) and the government should over see the working conditions and the support for it’s people.

In the UK the only real film union we still have is the actors union. The rest just publish rate guides and try to help it’s members as best they can, but in reality don’t really have too much clout. Who needs unions? What the hell are they good for anyway?

Ah… But wait a moment… I was once an Equity member. Yes indeed. And, it made it very very simple for me. There was a straight forward contract that was negiociated on my behalf where I knew I wasn’t going to be taken advantage of. And… are you ready for this… I’ve just become a member of the Writers Guild of America!!!!!! You heard it boys and girls. And now I am so for the union!!!!

Why? Health insurance… First off, I have a family to support including two young children and for the past two years my health insurance payments each month have been crippling me!!! Now… I’ve got amazing coverage for the whole family for $50 a month! In the UK we don’t need this. We have the National Health Care system. Which, although we like to moan about it, it is AMAZING!!! No cost to see a doctor or to go to a hospital, $10 for any prescription, no cost for an ambulance… I’ve just paid $14,000 (because my insurance was so basic and they had tons of loop holes) for the birth of my son here in America. In the UK… Free AND they would have sent a nurse to the house to check up on us when we got home.

For me that is the biggest reason that we need unions here in America. The government doesn’t look after the people. So the people have to organize to fight for their own rights. It would be great to think it could change, but that is a HUGE wheel to turn!!!

The other reason we need unions over here is that AMERICA FILM and TELEVISION is big business. Millions and millions of dollars are made. It’s tough for one man to fight against a studio. In the UK there really isn’t that much money going around. Even in TV, so it all finds a good playing field. Of course the talent argue they would like more and the producers argue they want to spend less but that is the name of the game. But, at the end of the day, with the help of UK employment law, it all finds a good playing field.

Now with the WGA I am begining to turn pro Union. They have an AMAZING support network set up and seem to do so much for their members. They have a very good pay scale for low budget movies which make using WGA writers not out of the question (It seems to me that the DGA is a little tougher on indies although I’ve got to find out a little more information on that). But, this new news on distributors income gets me all torn again!!!!

I want to pay my investors back. I want them to be happy. I want more investors to look at the film industry and say I’ll put money in. Not see the people who made the movie take a salary then money at every step of the way before the investor gets to recoup…

But what to do??? I know why the unions do it… Because of the studios. They can’t trust them to report accurately. The only way the unions know money is going to be shared out is by Starz telling them they’ve paid Warner Brothers money. It’s just that this then screws the indies from making money back!!! 10% is still 10%…

Ah well… enough of a rant. It’s good to be back blogging. Sorry for the long break. I’ve been writing on this Disney movie (hence the WGA membership) and we’ve been trying to build up traffic and bloggers for this website and the FoodBloggers.co.uk that we launched in December. All busy, busy, busy. But I’ll make sure I’ll blog a little more regular from now on.

Cheers for now, Richard