Los Angeles Acting blog by David August: August 2009

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

SAG Ratified the Basic Cable Live Action Contract

Screen Actors Guild announced today that members have approved a two-year successor contract to its Basic Cable Live Action agreement by a vote of 93.71% percent to 6.29% percent. The agreement is effective retroactive to June 10, 2009 and will expire concurrently with the Guild's Theatrical Motion Picture and Television agreements on June 30, 2011

(from sag.org).

Labels: contracts, unions

this posted by David August at 9:11 PM - 1 comments -

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Goals and External Conditions

There are two main strategies we can adopt to improve the quality of life. The first is to try making external conditions match our goals. The second is to change how we experience external conditions to make them fit our goals better.

-Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Labels: inspiration

this posted by David August at 12:41 AM - 0 comments -

Friday, August 14, 2009

Acting With an Accent

Years ago, one of my teachers had us learn an accent (or dialect) with 'David Alan Stern: Acting With An Accent' tapes. I think I used the Standard British one and found it one of the better tapes I've encountered.

If you have any experience with the others, or any other good tape/s or discs or mp3s, please leave a comment and tell me, and everyone else, about it.

Labels: process, services

this posted by David August at 1:48 AM - 0 comments -

Monday, August 10, 2009

SAG Announced Candidates for 2009 National Elections

Screen Actors Guild today released the official list of candidates for its upcoming national officer and national board elections. National president and national secretary-treasurer positions are up for election, both of which carry two-year terms. Approximately 1/3 of the total 69 national board seats are open for election this year

(from sag.org).

Labels: unions

this posted by David August at 6:51 PM - 0 comments -

Friday, August 07, 2009

Career Anxiety, Success and Tragedy

Alain de Botton's TED talk on career anxiety, success and tragedy re-frames the common ways people tend to see success and failure, and lauds tragic art, in other words, what actors do.

Labels: inspiration

this posted by David August at 10:13 AM - 0 comments -

SAG Ballot Mailed for Basic Cable Live Action Agreement

The SAG Basic Cable Live Action Agreement ballot has been mailed.

In this proposed contract, a production made for new media, based on an existing basic cable television motion picture, pays no residuals for the first 13 weeks of free to consumer streaming and the first 26 weeks on consumer pay platforms. In the first year after the end of the 13 or 26 weeks of streaming, for each 6 months it pays only $20 or $25 in residuals (for programs up to 10 minutes and programs more than 10 minutes respectively). After the first window plus the a year, it pays 6% of distributor’s gross receipts thereafter, I imagine split evenly among the actors.

It is worth noting that, like the recently ratified TV/Theatrical Agreements, this new contract does not raise pay 3% as claimed; it only keeps up with inflation since 2007 (Dept. of Labor data).

Disclosure: I am both a SAG Actor and a SAG signatory producer.

Labels: contracts, unions

this posted by David August at 9:51 AM - 0 comments -

AFTRA Board Recommends Raising Initiation Fee

The National Board announced today [August 5] that it has overwhelmingly voted to recommend that delegates to the AFTRA Convention approve a $300 increase in the initiation fee that applicants to membership in AFTRA pay upon joining. The recommendation states that all additional revenues raised as a result of the fee increase would be exclusively earmarked for organizing to increase employment opportunities for union performers and broadcasters so they can benefit from the improved wages and working conditions of AFTRA contracts. The proposed increase-which was recommended to the Board by both the AFTRA Strategy Cabinet and the Finance Committee-would raise the standard initiation fee to $1,600 from $1,300. If approved by Convention delegates, it would go into effect on November 1, 2009. The last time AFTRA increased its initiation fee was in 2003. Annual membership dues remain unchanged

(from aftra.com).

Labels: money, unions

this posted by David August at 6:27 AM - 0 comments -

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

2 Accent and Dialect Sites

Speech Accent Archive at George Mason University (GMU) has shorter clips to listen to and has a written copy of the script on the site so you can read it as you listen but there is also a version of the script written in a phonetic transcription so you can read the sounds as you listen.

International Dialects of English Archive at University of Kansas (UK) has much larger clips to listen to and a written copy to read but no phonetic transcription so you can't read the sounds as you listen

(from BriansTheatreNews).

Labels: process, services, technology

this posted by David August at 6:47 PM - 0 comments -