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Shattering the status quo of the commercial and film production industry one cocktail at a time. Tailored for Exec Producers, Line Producers, Agency Producers, Bidders, and Production Teams, our podcast serves as the ultimate destination for continuous learning throughout your career. Bid farewell to industry isolation and gatekeeping; we're forging a collective path through the challenges of production, united in our pursuit of producing excellence.
Join us for in-depth discussions on the nuts and bolts of producing and production, offering invaluable insights for media production professionals. Producers' Happy Hour is more than a podcast; it's a vibrant community where we tackle the complexities of the industry together.
So, whether you're navigating the intricacies of your toughest projects, overcoming production hurdles, or dealing with demanding clients, Producers' Happy Hour is your go-to resource. Because, in the world of production, Making Sh!# is Hard!
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On today's episode, we have an amazing giveaway contest for one of our lucky listeners. You are not going to want to miss this, so stay tuned. As this year is winding down and it's not been a very big year for any of us, shit. I mean, I've filmed it a couple of different places in the country and every single person I've spoken to has said it's been their worst year on record. That said, we have a bit of good news that hit us, Lawrence. Yeah. Thank goodness the SAG and Rider Strike has come to an end. Of course, at the time of this recording, the contract has not been ratified by the members yet, but it is in process. And that's what we're talking about today. We're gonna dive into the tentative agreement that SAG has struck with the AMPTP, go into some of the details and try and decipher what it all means and how it's going to affect the industry. Please let it bring work back to LA, because nobody I know has filmed in LA this year more than once. I haven't shot in LA. I think I shot once in January, and that's it. I've been all over the country, but not in LA. So if you want to learn all about the SAG contract and what the actors have successfully negotiated, stick around, grab a drink, hit the intro. Welcome to the Producer's Happy Hour. with your hosts, Sister Christian and Lawrence Lewis. We're two producers with over 20 years of experience each, chatting over drinks about what it means and what it takes to be a good producer. Join us for insightful interviews and informative show topics that will help you get through your toughest jobs, biggest production challenges, and most difficult clients. So grab a drink. You're gonna need it. And let's get to it. Because making shit is hard. Sister Christian, you're back. You've been gone. I'm so happy to see your face on my computer screen. How was your trip? It was a great job because I worked with great people, but I ran into a situation where not enough time, money, or resources to make it happen, and I'm exhausted. What? Really? I'm exhausted. And I know that our last show we talked about, like some... you know, instances where something had happened to us on set and how would you handle it and such. I just, I feel like we might need to do a show on how to handle some really difficult situations like, like really how do you prepare a team to be over budget? Or how do you, because I can tell you that most jobs these days are just, you know, they're just so tight. But I'm back very excited about, you know, being home. Good. Yeah. How are you? What's going on over here? Same. I wrapped up a project and it's been crickets for a little bit, but then as soon as the sag announced that the strike was over, I don't know how it's related, but it's all related. I got started getting calls for bidding. So I've been doing a lot of bidding. Oh, thank goodness. Yeah. So hopefully one of these jobs will come through and I'll be on it. But I'm just happy to be bidding. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's the first part of doing a job, right? It's the first part. It means things are happening. And my partner is a treatment designer, and so he just got an email about designing a treatment. So that makes it sound like things are stirring and there's activity happening and boards are moving. And that's all a good thing. Yeah, it's been dead. Well, what are you drinking today? Oh my God. Okay. So today I'm having, it's called the Mary Pickford cocktail. Oh, how fun. I picked it because we're going to go through this head contract. And Mary Pickford, not only was she a talented performer, but she was a creative producer and a very savvy business person who helped shape the film industry as we know it today. She was behind the scenes, she worked as a producer, but she was also more importantly a board member of United Artists. And she was also the founder of the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers in 1941. cornerstone of this industry in which we now work today. So this cocktail celebrates her. It's half part Bacardi rum, half part pineapple juice. I went a little lighter on the pineapple juice. One teaspoon of grenadine and six drops of maraschino liqueur. Oh, this sounds delicious. I would drink the shit out of that. Yeah. All right, Miss Mary. Come on, Mary. Let's go. I'm having your classic Hollywood cocktail, in my opinion, is a martini. I happened to be recording this show on a very early morning, so I figured it was perfect timing for this. It's a breakfast martini. Is it vodka or gin? Vodka, honey. Vodka martini. I mean, I know what the tradition is, but just a vodka, you know. All right, well, cheers. Cheers. Lawrence, before we get started though, since we're talking about union contracts today, the mega big SAG contract that we all want to know about, we have to mention our new learning course, which also is about union contracts. It is. And you know, these union contracts sometimes, especially if you're new in the industry, they can be very daunting, very tangled, a lot of terms that you don't understand. But it's not really all that scary. We are here to give you the tools you need to untangle the mystery of these contracts. Those agreements can be like a maze, like a for your mental, emotional, physical capacity, all of it. But guess what? We've got the solution. Our latest course, Demystifying Union Contracts, a production team's guide. And this course is a game changer. It will take you from feeling overwhelmed and fearful about the unions to becoming a full on expert. It empowers you to confidently navigate the complex world of union contracts. And spoiler alert, it's not all that complex once you understand it. It's an online video course packed with over an hour of content. Not only have we broken down every intricate detail, every union contract term, and every crucial concept, but we put them all together with real life scenarios to help you see how these terms affect your production schedule, your budget, and your relationship with your crew. So if you've ever felt like unions are an obstacle, we're here to clear the path for you. You can sign up at prod Stay tuned too, because we have even more incredible courses in the works. It's time to enhance your production style and validate your current knowledge. Okay, now, one more thing before we get to the content of today's show, as mentioned at the top of the show, we have partnered with Glenn Schuster at ZenSpace Studio. ZenSpace is a 12,000 square foot open daylight studio loft in northern New Jersey, just 12 miles from the Lincoln Tunnel. Glenn is generously offering to one of our listeners a free 10 hour filming day. You heard that right, 10 hour filming day. This is for either video or a still steam. And if you don't know ZenSpace, you gotta check them out at zenspacestudio.com. It's a massive column free shooting area, no columns in your way, high ceilings, daylight streaming through like 18 windows, and there's a separate area for client lounge, hair, makeup, wardrobe, et cetera. That is right. Glenn is including everything for free. Again, this is for free. Glenn is including everything they have in the space. Modern kitchen set up, props, furniture, wardrobe racks with hangers, iron ironing board, steamer, Italian espresso machine, high speed wifi, Bluetooth sound system, ping pong foosball tables, rolling amperes, wireless printer, folding tables, chairs. Holy shit, it's everything. And there's plenty of free parking on site permit is needed to film here. Nice. Yeah. Tons of free in that. Here are some stipulations though, OK, everyone? There are a few rules. Max crew size is 20 people. For projects with more than 20 people, an additional fee will apply to be determined based on the size and scope of the shoot. And of course, if you need more than one day, you can pay for the other days if you need a three day shoot. Pay for three, one's free. Enjoy the savings. The rental must take place within the next six months. And of course, it's based on studio availability. So don't just think, hey, I can do this. Whenever I want. Exactly. So we have to give him some time. And this doesn't include equipment rentals. He's got C stands and apple boxes, sandbags, tripods, et cetera. And he's got wall flats. Those are not included in this free deal. Crews are welcome to bring their own gear though, so that's important. Or they also have a relationship with local vendor that can offer good rates and have gear delivered, you know, no must, no fuss. And here's how you're going to win. So listen up, we're gonna post on Instagram the day this episode comes out, which in theory is Tuesday, November 21st, unless we have too many martinis. And it's gonna be a post about ZenSpace. So look for it on Instagram. And there's gonna be instructions in the captions on how to enter, but I'm gonna tell you what they are. First. Follow us on Instagram. It's at producers happy hour. Second, follow Zen Studios on Instagram. They're at Zen underscore space underscore studio. Third, like the post. Four, tag your favorite production partner, your line producer, your production manager, your EP, tag somebody, and then reshare the post in your IG stories. We're gonna check to make sure you do all of these things. So be sure you do everything on that list. And everyone who does this before Friday, December 1st will be entered into a drawing to win the free studio day. We will do the drawing live on Instagram with Glenn from Zen Space. And of course, we will post about a time and date that our IG live will be, so you can join us, please. Come join us, it'll be fun. Yeah, yeah, we'll have drinks, of course, as well. So, and Glenn's gonna join us. So get to it, that post will be out. If you're listening to this right now, the post is out. So go look for it on Instagram and follow the instructions and good luck to win a free filming day at Zen Space Studio. Yes, good luck. And now on with the show. So there's a ton of stuff to talk about in this contract. We're going to try and simplify it as much as possible and zip through it. The first thing I think we should talk about is rates. There's a lot of places to learn about this, too. So, you know, if you're not on our episode guide, be sure to sign up to the episode guide. And we are going to send you in that guide a bunch of links so you can learn about the contract on your own. But first rates. This is kind of a pretty big increase that they've been able to negotiate. I thought so. Yeah. Minimums shall increase by 7% starting November 9th, which has already passed, effective November 9th. And then another 4% effective July 1st, 2024. And then another 3.5% effective July 1st, 2025, which is the typical, it's a little more than typical because it's usually a 3% increase. These increases shall be compounded. Except in some specific situations, there are no increases to penalties or other allowances, just the base rate, just the scale rate. No, I'm kidding. It's still pretty good, but also penalties can rack up. So I understand those not increasing. I would rather take the wage increase than I would a penalty increase. So if I had to choose between the two, yeah. Yeah. So that's right. It's pretty simple, pretty solid. I think. I think they're trying to catch up to inflation is what they're really trying to do. Aren't we all? Oh my God. All right. Now, here is the hottest topic everyone's clamoring about, right? Artificial intelligence. Okay. Yes. Even SAG admits that this is not perfect. So let's get that out there. But was anything going to be perfect with technology that we don't know yet the implications of? We can only guess. Yeah. But they claim nobody has negotiated a very detailed, specific. provisions regarding AI before. So prior to this negotiation, it had never been done. So let's just start there. They were starting at the very beginning. This agreement focuses on two things, informed consents, which is key, and fair compensation, which is something that all unions strive to have, right? But I think the informed consent is very important here. And, you know, some of this AI stuff was the very last, were the very last points that they were negotiating, like down to day 118, they were still putting the final T's and I's in this part of the contract. And it's also, they're going up against major, major companies, not just movie studios that they're used to negotiating with, right? They're going up against Amazon and Netflix and these billion dollar companies. So they're pretty excited that they got where they got to. Yeah. And as we always said, this was a power struggle from the beginning. Oh my God, yeah. Right? It wasn't about the money. The large corporations can afford it. It was really about power and what they're going to be allowed to do 50 years from now. Exactly. This was setting a precedent. So I'm very proud of SAG for at least being able to hold their own. Yes, exactly. Okay. So employment-based digital replicas is where we're going to start. So again, this all goes into terms and terms and conditions that you need to know. Right? So when I. Right. When a producer hires you, you being an actor, a SAG-AFTRA actor member, when a producer hires you to work on a project and as a part of that project, they create a digital replica of you. That means you go get scanned, right? Either your face or your whole body. So if that happens, they are required to give you 48 hours notice and clear and conspicuous consent for the creation of the use. So they need to tell you why so they can't just say hey We just want to scan you just in case they have to actually have to really why what is the intention of that? replica Only fans The time spent in making that replica like you got to go to a studio its whole day You're gonna get paid for that time as it should be I hope Right, right, then when they use the replica in a project in that project. They have to pay you compensation plus P&W and residuals, based on the time it would have taken you to do that work if you had done it in person. Now, I don't know how they base it. Yeah, like, wait a minute. Because you know, it's like, how long does it take to film eight pages? You know, if you're on a tiny film, you're going to nail eight pages in a day or you're underwater on a major motion picture eight days. Oh my God, that probably could be a whole week. Right, like, who are they going to believe here? Is it going to be like the DGA, the first AD? Like how they would have scheduled it, but... You know, I guess they could maybe tie it to, if there are live actors with a digital replica, if it took the live actors three days to film the scene, it's three days. Oh, now that's a smart, that, yes, that makes sense. Because, you know, as we've talked about before, Bruce Willis, the Bruce Willis effect where, you know... But I also know Nick Cage, I was thinking about this morning, Nick Cage puts out like 10 movies a year it feels like. I wonder if in his contract it says, yes, I'll do your movie, but you have eight days with me. Oh, interesting. Yeah, I started to think about it like how can you churn out so many movies while it comes down to like, yes, you know, yes, I'll do your movie, but you have four hours a day for three days in a row. Right, right, right. Another point in this is that the actor is allowed to negotiate from minimum scale. all the way to whatever they can negotiate to. So just like as if they were on set normally. Now the next point in this is that you have the additional right, you being a SAG actor, have an additional right to consent separately, not at the time of employment, for any other use of this digital replica, right? So that means if they all of a sudden have an idea, they have to come back to you to get a second. Oh, got it. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you're not signing away. some other thing at the point of engagement. Right. Well, that's going to be interesting to track. Right. There's an exception, and that's multi-picture projects, where there already is something identified specifically as a part of that engagement. So if you're being hired for three movies and you sign rights for a digital replica, you're signing them to the rights for three movies of that digital replica. Right. So that's interesting. Yeah. Yeah, because I would say the one thing I would say on this is language is going to count so much. I just went through about a month and a half of corporate usage terms being lawyered to death, like lawyer to death. Lawyer lawyer pants on fire. Because the usage terms had already gone out for casting call. So They didn't quite fit. I mean, after the fact, even though everyone had agreed to them beforehand, there was some discussion on can we do this, can we not do this. And I was like, please show me the language that your lawyers come up with and I will show it to the agents because that's all we could do at that point. So it was literally six weeks of going back and forth on language and words. So that's what I could see starting to happen with this stuff for sure. Yeah. You need to read your contracts. You need to read your contracts and the language has to be tight on. what you are consenting to of your digital replica. Super specific. Yeah. Yeah, I don't even know what that language looks like yet, but I'm sure we'll start seeing it soon. I agree. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] Hey Christian, what's the most important thing about film production? The setup. Pre-production. The most important part. Yeah. But you know what? A lot of people think that, but you're kind of missing a step. Oh, right. The kickoff calls. Because that's how you set up your prep. Right. That's where you got to get all the right questions answered at the right time and set deadlines for those answers so you can put your prep on the right path to success. Exactly. Right. And this can be accomplished with four kickoff calls. You need at least four in my opinion. And I think for us, producer is the most important one, is the one with your producing partner, either the ad agency producer or your main client contact, because that's where, like you said, set the tone, set expectations, give them deadlines for when you need these answers, because timelines are already way too short for prep. I know, we can always use more prep time, right? And budgets are shrinking, so don't waste any time. So what we've done is we've put together our top seven questions that you should ask your agency producer or client now on that very first kickoff call. Not only does it help answer questions that you may have, it also allows you to set the tone and establish yourself as the leader of the project, which is also a very important step as well. So we'll put a link in the show notes where you can get on our website and take a listen to our free audio bonus, another delightful conversation between me and Sister Christian about best ways of setting yourself up for success. Yeah, it's a page turner. Check it out. Okay, now there's this category of independently created digital replicas. This has already been happening in voiceover. People are making clones of themselves already. And if they aren't doing it now, if it's not affordable now, I mean, gosh, give it three years and you know, you and I could be able to afford. Give it two months. True. So, independently created digital replica. That's when a company licenses a digital replica of you that either you or a company that you teamed up with to create a digital replica of yourself, make available for use in projects. Oh, like stock photos. My God. No. I missed my calling to be a stock photo model, I think. Giving high fives in conference rooms. Oh, yeah, but being a lab coat. A female scientist. Yes. So, yeah, so, you know, it's gonna be here soon enough. You're gonna be able to team up with somebody, digitally replicate yourself, and license it out to projects. So, if a studio wants to only license your replica and not hire you, there is an additional requirement of informed consent. Yeah. So you have to be notified, right? Yes, it sounds like this is trying to protect you from that one photographer who took your stock photos. Exactly. And paid you 100 bucks for the day and then you signed your life away and that's being used now for 20 years on the front of a science book, right? Or a website template. You're on every website template. You're in Canva. You're in everyone's business flyer. So I'm assuming what they're trying to prevent from is a replica company saying, I'll scan you, having you sign something where they own it and then they sell it to whomever. This is what they're trying to prevent. Yes, and they are also trying to prevent that you make your own that you partner with and you're licensing it That if somebody licenses every use that happens every licensee that comes for your replica You have the right to say no to that's the thing. It's not a blanket exactly again Okay, all goes back to informed consent like this is the focus of this agreement. Yeah, exactly. Yes. Yeah So now, another provision, even though you may have licensed the digital replica to a studio or to a production company, or you partnered with somebody who's doing it on your behalf, you have your own individual right to know reasonably specific intended usage of that replica. So like if it is OnlyFans, you have the right to say no. Right. Right? You can say yes or no to that. And you can also, again, you can negotiate your own compensation for whatever it is. on top of whatever just your standard licensing fee is for your replica, including PNW. So, you know, if like, if you're, if you're, it's like independent film, sure, here's my thing, $1,000 a day or whatever it is. But then if it's like, yeah. But if it's like, we want to use it for OnlyFans or we want to put it in a Marvel movie, you can go above and beyond the licensing fee. You have the right to negotiate higher than some set rate. I love that. Okay, digital alterations is another category that they're covered in this agreement. And that's when you take AI tools, use them to make adjustments to the performance you gave. Right? So it's basically, they're trying to give the right to the studios to use AI just like they use any other thing in post-production in terms of editing, CGI, special effects, VFX. And they're just going to allow AI to be one more tool in that toolbox. So there are a few things that they can do as a part of their post-production process. And if it's beyond them, they need, again, informed consent from you. So here's what they can do. They can do anything as long as it remains substantially as scripted, performed or recorded. So they can't just... create new scenes out of the blue that weren't in the script or you didn't perform. Got it. Secondly, they're allowed to do post-production alterations, like dubbing issues for localization, lip and face movements to help with translation, taking care of a glitch in audio, if they have to patch your voice or something. But they can't change it from what's scripted, unless you agree, give consent if they want to change a line. And then they can also fix something for rating purposes. So I think instead of having to loop, holy darn, instead of, you know, fucking hell or whatever it was you said. Exactly, holy darn. They can probably do that. And then the other thing that they can do, there's limited information on this one, but when use of a double is permitted, Assuming that's a stunt double and there's a fight scene and they put your face on top of somebody else. Got it. Yeah. Or a body double. Maybe they need to fix some blemishes on a body or something like that. If it's on a double, they can do that. Next is generative AI. So this is a huge, oh my God, what are we going to do with generative AI? So this is technology, as you know, that takes a bunch of inputs and uses them to create a synthetic output. And SAG is defining this in terms of the actor as synthetic fakes. Okay. Interesting. So you're going to start hearing that term a lot. And what they've done is, for generative AI, one major step that they did, again, as they're saying, they've achieved a broad, protective definition of generative AI. And that's important. You can't talk about something and regulate it until you define it. So they've agreed on a definition, which is great. What the agreement does is it requires companies to notify SAG-AFTRA and give them an opportunity to negotiate compensation whenever a synthetic fake is going to be used. Okay. So if they've made up an actor out of thin air that's going to be in a SAG movie. Got it. They still have to negotiate with SAG on what kind of compensation is going to go into, at least, you know, I don't know where the money goes. Yeah. But they had to be notified and an option to negotiate. Maybe it goes back to having to pay P&W on the role, a shadow role or something. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, like we do now. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Okay. And then this next point, this was the very last negotiation point they did before they got to this agreement and end the strike. An informed consent right is given to any performer who has a recognizable facial feature incorporated into a synthetic fake performer. Okay. fascinating because this is very forward thinking I have to admit like wow I never even thought of this if an actor's name is used as a prompt in a generative AI system to create a character that has maybe a recognizable smile or someone's eyes or other facial features and if there's multiple people that were used to create this character each individual performer however they might be implicated, has a right to consent, approval, and negotiation. Okay. Okay, so, okay. So somebody like, say, Tommy Lee Jones has one of those faces, right? That's like, you know, haggard and all that. So if you go in and you say, give me the skin of Ray Laiota. Yeah, uh-huh, uh-huh. The haggardness of, you know, the Tommy Lee Jones. The nose of James Caan and the Tommy Lee Jones. You know. the handsomeness of George Clooney. So you have to tell Sag that you, that's how you came up with this person. And then those three actors have to consent on it. No, this is where my brain went whenever you read that to me, so. Yeah, that's what this is saying. I don't know how that is trackable, but that seems like an honor system to say, hey, Sag, we did this. Yeah. Like Chris Pine's lips and Chris Evans's eyes and give me Chris Helmsworth's cheeks, that kind of shit, okay. I'd like to see that actually. I wouldn't turn that away. What's interesting is in the material I looked at to get all this information, they didn't talk about voice. And I think the most obvious one, Fran Drescher's voice. You know, what about voice in an on-camera synthetic fake? I think that probably should be covered as well, but they didn't specifically say this in this outline, so I don't know. Now this is the other amazing thing that they did. They negotiated that they are going to meet semi-annually twice a year to discuss generative AI, and I'm assuming with technology companies and studios. And so they're gonna discuss it twice a year, see where it's at, what's going on, and it also allows them to include efforts to learn what they intend to do in the future with GAI. and help make sure that it isn't used to perpetuate any biases that have entered into the G.A.I. systems, right? Because G.A.I. only learns from what we put into it. And as we've known, sometimes it spits out some pretty biased, racist things. Yes. Because guess what? We put them in there. Humans are pretty biased and racist. Humans are. Yeah. It's human nature. So it sounds like G.A.I. only knows the past. and they want to avoid repeating the past. So I think they're working with them to make sure that those biases don't permeate the system. As groundbreaking as this is, my trust issues, I start to get a little bit, I have a hairy feeling on like, sure, we can meet with, and if you're meeting every six months, let's face it, you're actually meeting all the time. Because you're setting up the meeting, then you go to the meeting, then you have to after meetings and then you're pre-meeting. So you're just meeting all the time about this. You got to recap the meeting. You got to analyze the meeting. Yeah. But yeah, the meetings are great. But as we've learned with social media companies, they don't tell you everything. Streaming companies, we don't even know how much, you know, like they're, we don't know the algorithm of how we see things or how many people are actually watching. each show because they don't publish that shit. So great that we're meeting about it, but I guess I just get a little trust issue there on whether or not I'm being told what is accurate. Exactly, yeah. We have to, I don't know if there is any sort of committee that kind of oversees it, but. Let's get them on the show. If you're listening, we wanna talk to you. Okay, I wanna finish talking about background actors, and then I wanna hear from you, Christian, about... residuals. Yes. Or what they call bonuses. Okay, so we're running long, so I'm going to blow through this. Background actors, all the same stuff. Basically all the same 48-hour notice, informed that they're going to be digitally replicated, all those things apply. And most importantly, if they want to create a principal performance out of a digital replica, that actor must be paid as a principal. including PNW and residuals. Based on the amount of time it would have taken them to do the work. So you can't turn a background, digital, fake, of an extra, give them a line to make them a principal and avoid paying a principal person. So that's great. The other thing that's important is that the background count, you know, you have to have X amount of SAG before you can start hiring non-union background. That can't be satisfied by digital replicas. Oh good. you still have to hire, however, whatever the count is, humans to fulfill your sag after count of background actors before you can start hiring non-union and digital replicas. Like 55 or something, yeah, exactly. Yeah, whatever it is. And then the last thing, is this important? Let's see, yes. And then the last thing, if a background performer has a replica created and it's used, that replica cannot be used to evade the engagement of that background actor. So like if they, if you know, You have this background actor and say maybe they had to do a quick reshoot. You still have to reengage that actor to use their digital replica. Ah, oh yeah. So it goes back to informed consent. And payment. You cannot just like, now that you have my likeness, you can't just use it without me knowing. Yes. And then with digital alterations, again, you can't adjust facial movements of a background actor to make it look like they're speaking one of those looped lines, right? That you hear so if you if they make it look like a background actor said something They get upgraded to a principal. Oh great. Yeah again, you're like really good things They're really good things and they were there It's a great start to a technology that we have no idea how it's gonna affect the industry The real somebody is really thinking about this Yes Finally, streaming services are going to start paying residuals, which we're very excited about because that has been a big sticking point along with AI on these contracts. Streaming services are notorious to keep all of that information close so that they don't have to tell people how successful they are, right? Which is fucking bullshit. So I know when I go onto any of the 15 streaming services that we currently have. You're like, most popular show. Like, how do I know that? No, what you're telling me is the most popular show. What is that based on? And they've been notorious about this for, since the beginning, there's no information. So what this is gonna do is allow us, as the viewer, to see more what shows really are successful or is Amazon just telling me that it's successful, right? The success metric requires that a production be watched by at least 20%. of the streaming services domestic subscribers during the first 90 days of the year. Okay? So say Netflix has 77 million domestic subscribers, 15 million of us have to go in and watch that particular thing in the first 90 days. Who knows? Are we watching the first five minutes of it? Are we watching the whole thing through? I don't know that because of course, again, this is a big secret thing. unlike what used to happen with the Nielsen boxes, right? Yeah, right, yeah. So, yeah, I mean, I think that's pretty substantial because once that metric of success has been achieved, it provides a 75% increase to both domestic and foreign residuals for the actor. Right, which are criminally low. Yes. As they are. But now they've actually negotiated a way to see a little bit more inside how the sausage is being made over there at those streaming services. That is pretty good. And I'm no expert on residuals in commercial film or anything because that's always handled so separately with paymasters and charts and graphs and whatnot. So I don't even know what the existing residuals are, but we do know that they're incredibly low. So any increase. for a successful show is good news. 100% because there weren't any. And now there will be. Right. Yeah. So there's something else very exciting, Lawrence, that I mean blew my fucking mind. But okay, so this goes back to reading your fucking contract, right? Apparently, when these types of things were negotiated upfront with the actor, part of their compensation, these residuals that they were going to get, this low amount of residuals, were wrapped into their initial salary offering. What? So, yeah, so say, hey, I'm gonna make, I don't know, 50,000 an episode for 10 episodes of this show that I'm about to star in, fantastic. Apparently, part of that 50,000 wrapped into it was residuals. Oh. So, but it was never clearly or even, it was never clearly defined, nor did it need to be. So, you know, you were to say, oh, 50 grand, great. And then I'll get some on the backend, no. Uh-uh, no. That. Oh, geez. So, so apparently. People were like, actors were like, wait a minute, you know, like a year later after the show is a huge success, they're realizing that they weren't getting anything else because they were being told all of a sudden, no, that was part of your initial, we already gave that to you. Oh my God, that's crazy. I mean, I get how successful it is, but guess what, we already paid you. Yeah, oh geez. So what, I know. So what. Part of this contract has is a separate writer. You are now gonna be given a separate writer for advanced pay. So they actually have to spell out for you which should have happened, I know, because I do it in the contracts that I make on very low level non-union commercials. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But here's your session fee for each day you show up. You're going to be making. $1,000 for 12 hours, whatever it fucking is, right? Then you're going to get this much contributed to your new pension and welfare and blah, blah. And then after that, you know, this will be what you make for overtime. And then here's a separate writer for all the advancements that you're going to receive on your residuals. Right, for X amount of time, right. Yes, and then also they're gonna break it up and not just pay you in one lump sum. You're gonna get separate checks for that. so that you can actually visually see it. And I know I hear some of you out there like, just math, no, it's not that. It's that these are two very separate things that you're getting paid. One is based on your labor, and the other is based on terms, usage, and how successful the show is, all of that. That should be separate, because it's technically not labor. Right. No. Right. So in my opinion, this is fantastic because you're going to get paid on your labor, then you're going to get paid the rest of the stuff, which should be separate. Yeah. So better reporting. Well, that's good. Transparency. See, this is, again, this is a big thing about this contract. Informed consent, transparency, and yeah, that's really important. Okay. All right. I mean, there's an educational value to this too. Like if you, the more informed you are, the more educated you are about what you're signing away with your rights. Amazing. Well, there's so much more you could learn about this contract. We will point you in all the directions. We can't sum it up in this episode. We've already gone so long, but at least hopefully we gave you a good understanding of what everyone's talking about. Yeah, and it's groundbreaking. It's setting standards for the next 50 years of how we do shit. It is setting standards for this will just trickle down into all the other unions, all the other content, everything. It'll just, it'll be good, especially for AI because it's the wild west out there. And I know there's still a lot of, a lot of people who aren't convinced. This is a, this is a good deal. Um, they may be, they may have, they may be right. You know, I'm not a SAG-AFTRA member and I don't know all those struggles and what they were hoping to get. But. Um. hey, this is what's on the table. So I'm excited to see if it gets ratified or not. I am too, and hopefully it gets us back to work. So I want them to be taken care of. The most important thing is getting people back. Well, no, the most important thing is that they're taken care of moving forward, and hopefully we can get this industry back on track. Yeah. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed, Christian. This was lovely, very informative, very educational. I'm exhausted, I need another drink. How do people get a hold of you if they want you? Sist and Lawrence, how do they get you if they want you? LawrenceTLewis.com. See you guys next time. Producers Happy Hour is brought to you with the help of the handsome Christopher Daniels. Who is a design and branding specialist. And Brendan Russell at Podlad.com. who is our fabulous editor. If you enjoy this podcast and want to dive deeper, subscribe to our listeners newsletter. Simply go to prod to sign up. Thanks for listening and remember, enjoy happy hour while you can. Cause making shit is hard.