Lights Out in Tinseltown: Examining the SAG/AFTRA Conflict

0:01 I just wanna mention at the top of the show that if you're listening to this podcast, which you are, please hit the follow button on whichever platform you're using, whether it's Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any of the other choices out there. And if you can find a minute, leave me a review. It really helps for me to get more listeners. All right, now I'm with the show. Welcome back to another episode of Green Room on Air. I'm your host, Ray Renati, and today we're diving deep into the high stakes drama unfolding in Tinseltown. That's right, folks. The actors strike us in a full swing, bringing Hollywood to a grinding halt.

0:43 Get ready as we break down the conflict between the esteemed Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio artists known as SAG aftra. I know that was a mouthful. And the Powerful Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers Lights, camera strike. All right, let's get started. Well, SAG AFTRA is on strike. The Screen Actors Guild slash American Federation of Television and radio artists are striking against the producers, the big studios, the Alliance of Motion, picture and television producers, my friends.

1:34 These corporate entities, these production companies are greedy. Most actors and Hollywood writers don't make a lot of money. They're middle class. They have small rows and small roles in the TV shows. You see, the movies you see, they have to audition all the time. Most of it's down in Los Angeles area, some of it New York. And then some of it's sprinkled throughout the rest of the country. There's more in Atlanta now than there used to be. Almost nothing in the San Francisco Bay area anymore, but that's another issue.

2:15 These CEOs and these companies make hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and they're trying to, to scam the writers and the actors out of what they deserve. They don't want to pay a fair amount for streaming shows that repeat on Netflix, Disney, et cetera. They don't wanna do that. They say they do, but they don't. It's a, it's a travesty and it's just another example of corporate greed in this country. And they're gonna do everything they can to win and they probably will.

2:58 I hope not. I really do. I really do hope not. It's just not fair. You know, about 25 years ago there was a SAG strike after was not part of SAG at that time, and that strike resulted one of the results of that strike. And a lot of people don't care because it's just the San Francisco Bay area and who cares. But back then, There was a decent amount of Screen Actors Guild work in San Francisco, and one of the the windfalls, if you will, of that strike was the producers in LA just decided, Hey, we're not gonna do anything in the Bay Area anymore.

3:40 It's too expensive, it's too difficult. We'll just use all LA actors and we'll shoot everything down here. CGI was becoming more prevalent so they could. Just fake it and make it look like San Francisco if they had to. And in addition to that, they used Vancouver Vancouver or Canada to shoot instead of San Francisco because the weather's similar and it looks similar and it's way cheaper to shoot in Canada. And those are the types of things that the, the, the big companies do to screw over the actors who are mostly just workers. Yes, you have your celebrities, but. The vast majority of the, God, what is it? How many people are a member of screen actors? Girl, I think it's like 160,000 people.

4:26 They're, they're just people trying to, you know, a lot of them have to have other jobs and then when they do work, if they don't get residuals and they're not protected against artificial intelligence stuff in the future, your pay is just gonna go downhill and they need to be protected And The big companies have claimed that they made great offers to, to sag aftra, but I'm not privy to the details as most people aren't, but I don't believe they did. I mean, many of you may have seen Fran Drescher on tv, on I think C N N, and she was really upset. I trust her over whoever runs Disney right now, I don't even wanna know.

5:11 I am a member of sag, although last year I went financial core and I wish I hadn't done that. It means I'm a scab basically. And that's just because there was just no work in San Francisco. So I figured I'd go non-union, but I only did one job, one non-union job. It was a Google commercial. And here's a perfect example. Here's Google, right? I go to la. It's a non-union commercial. They can keep it non-union because it wasn't on any of the network television stations. But the quality was top-notch. It ran on all kinds of trade shows and on the internet and everything, and I didn't get anything extra for it when it ran. I only got what they paid me when I showed up that day, which was okay, but certain, not, certainly not enough to make a living on.

5:59 So I'm trying to get back in good standing with the union now, although it might not be easy because they don't like it when people do what I did, and I understand that. But I'm gonna try. Yeah. Now is this a big deal in the world in terms of world peace and climate change and all that? No, it ain't, I mean, the stuff going on with the politics in the United States and Ukraine and climate change and all the problems we're having with terrible heat throughout the country and. Incredible. Donald Trump, the perfect, perfect man who's made perfect phone calls and all that shit is way more important than this.

6:44 But, you know, this is an entertainment podcast, so I need to talk about entertainment stuff. But you know, it is kind of a big deal because it's gonna set a president for all kinds of unions in the future. It's going to affect not just people in SAG aftra. But all the other industries that are dependent upon actors and writers to be working and they can't do it because if they, if they back down, we lose, everyone loses, it hurts. It has a ripple effect through the entire economy. So support your local actor and writer if you can.

7:26 You know, even if they're not in the union, they're affected by what, what decisions the union makes. And it's important. So I hope that gives you a little bit of a perspective on what's happening in the world. Of Hollywood. Well, that's it for today, folks. I hope you enjoyed the, the, the short show. I have a good lineup of interviews coming and you'll be enjoying those very soon. Send me an email at rayrenati@gmail.com or greenroomonair@ gmail.com. Don't forget to follow this podcast on whatever platform you're listening and give it a, a rating.

8:12 Really appreciate it. It will help me a lot to get more listeners, and until next time, I will see you on the boards. Bye-bye everybody.