Slashdot Mirror
SAG Rejects Game Contract
Reuters is reporting that the Screen Actor's Guild has rejected the contract with the Games Industry, despite earlier signs negotiations would be successful. From the article: "The Screen Actors Guild's bitter infighting claimed another victim Tuesday as members of the national executive committee voted to reject the recently negotiated video game contract against the wishes of members and the negotiating committee. It is believed to be the first time in the union's 72-year history that board members have used the routine approval process to overrule the unanimous recommendations of a negotiating committee."
I prefer how the South Park/Team American guys call them. The Film Actors Guild, also known as FAG.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000EEC0 A-7032-1E6E-A98A809EC5880105
Their future doesn't look too bright.
Today's weirdness is tomorrow's reason why. -- Hunter S. Thompson
I would rather video game makers drag people in off the street and hand out the voice acting spots to desperate college kids who will work for pennies then get some 'high quality' voice acting at the expense of a couple of programmers. Of all the things I would like to see video games focus more on, voice acting is exactly last. I would pick a fiction writer to write a good story, another programmer to debug, another programmer to optimize performace, a dozen more beta testers, or a number of other things over voice actors. The thought of giving risiduals to voice actors makes me sick. I can't think of a bigger waste of money. If SAG can't get its shit together and offer a reasonable contract, I hope the gaming industry merrily points them to the picket lines where they can rot until hell freezes over and have no one care.
Good voice acting is nice, but it is hardly on my top 10 as a consumer of games. I can stomach half assed voice acting if the game is bug free and well written. I can't stomach a game with bugs and poor writing though, even if the voice acting kicks ass.
Oh, hold on, I think I have an idea on how they can do it...
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Just because they're in the union doesn't mean they deserve the title of a voice actor. Many games with professional voice acting sound as if they'd let the coders record the voices.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Is the rejection based on them not getting the "residuals" or was there something more?
0 03293 "
I recall reading an entry on Wil's site
" http://www.wilwheaton.net/mt/archives/003293.php#
that had the perspective from the non big name hollywood voice actors, was very good as well there is a recent addition responding to the personal attacks Wil recieved shortly after his orginal post.
I think we forget about the majority of actors that do voice actor.. I am not talking hollywood A-list types but the guy who does it along with working at Starbucks or where ever.
But i'd like to know more about what they are really demanding before I make my judgement.
"I am a kernel in the linux army"
By RTFA you can see that there are two separate groups in SAG that are going at it therefore the deal fell through. The Restore Respect is the group that has the president of SAG (Melissa Gilbert) as its head. MembershipFirst! is the group that doesn't want the president of SAG in power. So they split over everything as MembershipFirst! wants to toss Melissa Gilbert out of power. By ruining the deal MembershipFirst! can point at Restore Respect as not getting things done for the rank and file.