Until recently, New Media production has been the Wild Wild West; a lawless new frontier allowing for the possibility of innovation and abuse. The acting unions (SAG and AFTRA) had, for the most part, made few attempts to govern New Media and allowed their performers to strike their own deals with producers. The money involved in New Media was so small and participation in contracts for every YouTube video would be a waste of resources.

As New Media has evolved, SAG and AFTRA’s position has changed. To some extent, this is largely due to television and film producers using online content to promote their programs and create new revenue streams. To the unions, this type of revenue should also be under their jurisdiction. They’re right. Thus, it’s no surprise that both union’s New Media deals focus on the reuse of programs in New Media and “Derivative New Media,” New Media based on an existing television or film.

But the unions’ New Media contracts also include provisions for original online content including every project from a studio backed web series like Gemini Division to a low budget YouTube video. The reason for this? Clearly not financial. A $3,000 YouTube video is not going to be able to pay union rates. The real reason is to bring creators of New Media, the future writers, directors and producers of film and television, into the process of using and paying for union actors. The biggest fear for these unions is not receiving a bad contract from the AMPTP. It is that, in an industry with low barriers of entry and a free distribution network, unions will no longer be necessary.

Fifth Column recently signed a New Media deal with AFTRA and I think the deal is a fair one. If you are an independent producer, I suggest you look at the New Media contracts offered by SAG and AFTRA.

Tags: Actors, AFTRA, AMPTP, New Media, SAG, Sean Jaques

This entry was posted on Monday, July 6th, 2009 at 1:00 pm and is filed under New Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.