How The DGA’s Tentative Agreement Impacts The WGA And SAG-AFTRA:

Since the Director’s Guild of America announced a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, there have been mixed responses from the industry. Some think it’s a bit hasty while others think it’s a framework to a path of resolutions for all guilds.

DGA announced this tentative agreement on June 3. Within days of this resolution, the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists voted a resounding majority to proceed with a strike of their own. There are several tells of how DGA’s tentative agreement may impact the Writer Guild’s of America and SAG-AFTRA on related issues that treat their respective members differently.

In order to understand how the issues are the same but different for each respective union, one needs to take a step back and simply assess the constituency of each respective guild.

DGA

Directors are boots on the ground, in-person collaborators of content. They empathize with and may often be the producer putting it all together. They are an elite group of the content makers and historically, DGA has been steadfast in its work rules around how directors render services while the film is made.

WGA

Writers, on the other hand, are one step removed from the production process and live often in a pre-development solo room or writer’s room where the work is insular. They write alone or with other writers so they can feel removed or alienated from the process. They are also often at the mercy of the studio or network that attempts to issue control and oversight while keeping the writer removed from the making of the very project the writer penned.

SAG-AFTRA

Actors are a totally separate constituency. It’s really more of a hodge podge of classes and roles – you have stunt coordinators, extras, background performers and at the tippy top, the big A-list actors we all know and love.

Each respected union has different concerns for its members, but a lot of the topline issues remain the same. If you look at DGA’s summary of ‘wins’ and how they were resolved, you will need to juxtapose that against how SAG-AFTRA and WGA views these issues. Then you can see there still is a bit more work to be done. The specific DGA ‘wins’ to take note are global streaming residuals, AI resolution and non-dramatic improvements.

Global Streaming Residuals

DGA is claiming that there is a 76% increase in platforms on foreign residuals. What the DGA press release does not indicate is what the 76% increase or formula is derived from. Without visibility on the formula itself, it is hard to identify if this speaks to a fundamental concern regarding residuals that WGA has been vocal about: does it pay in terms of views or subscriber data?

If not, a 76% increase off of a formula where the streaming service identifies as residual-based on the fee it allocates, does not solve the issue of being paid in ‘success’ of a project. But rather it leaves the control of price allocation with the streamer without any real visibility of performance of a particular project. The net result may be that streamers are willing to ‘pay more’ in order to ‘tell less.’ If the 76% increase buyout is an economic improvement, then this formula may serve as the foundation for how both WGA and SAG-AFTRA will settle.

It is also important to note that when looking to residual calculations and payments, SAG-AFTRA historically leads the process on a given project and is entitled to a higher percentage. Generally, SAG-AFTRA is around three percent while DGA and WGA are at one percent. In that respect, if SAG-AFTRA is also willing to accept the increased percentage and formula, then WGA may agree to acquiesce on the push for more internal information associates with residual payments.

AI Resolution

DGA received acknowledgement that AI “generative AI cannot replace the duties performed by members.” That is a concept that may be easier to agree to conceptually for a director who still needs to physically be on set making decisions as to how the content is created.

For SAG-AFTRA, the threat of AI has a much greater impact, particularly for the vast majority of its members. Most of the guild’s members are working at scale as day players, background actors, etc. The implication that with AI their ‘performance’ in one day can be potentially plugged into an AI technology and serve as several minutes (or versions) of a piece of content significantly reduces and may ultimately eliminate the need for members to be engaged. AI would replace the vast majority of the ‘live performance,’ which is a larger threat that SAG-AFTRA will need to determine how to regulate with AMPTP, requiring a more granular enforceable solution. This AMPTP contract will likely be set while AI legislation in the U.S. and worldwide is refined and evaluated.

Writers also feel especially threatened that their work is being marginalized and reduced as AI is cranking out scripts, dialogue and words on the page. While the WGA strike is in its sixth week, one would assume that the studios may have already been experimenting and perhaps delving deeper into how much AI can be relied on to create and/or improve existing scripts and content. While the copyright ownership of AI has been negated thus far in our judicial system, how AI integrates with the creation of scripts is also threatening to reduce or eliminate many writers who are part of the development process in both film and television.

Non-Dramatic Improvements

The DGA was also able to come up with work rules on non-dramatic. As pointed out earlier, DGA’s focus is often about the physical parameters around their ‘work environment.’ They also reduced their hours and advanced safety. While some of these issues relate to SAG-AFTRA, the issue of non-dramatic has impacted directors the most.

However, it’s crucial to note that WGA has been encroaching more in the non-dramatic space with its writers rendering services on unscripted project. Therefore, DGA’s win for improved residuals here may lend the framework for WGA’s unscripted component.

Overall, Hollywood had a collective sigh of relief with the DGA announcement –someone budging suggested that we are closer to the end of this fight. As a practicing entertainment attorney who represents many productions, my clients just want to make their movies or television shows before 2023 comes and goes, and we are standing by for more resolutions.

View this article at Forbes.