On the face of it, the SAG-AFTRA strike is a statement made by actors who work actively in the US against treatment from US streamers and studios. However, in an increasingly globalised industry, the impact of the strike is weighing heavily on the film industry worldwide, with UK independent film producers, sales agents, cast and crew on standby as they try to take stock of a situation unprecedented in their careers.
For big US studio productions filming in the UK such as Wicked and Deadpool 3, the answer is clearcut – shutdown. However, for UK independent productions that have employed SAG actors, it can be unclear how best to proceed. These actors don’t necessarily need to be US citizens – many UK actors are also SAG members.
“For the [UK] indie film scene, it’s been slightly chaotic,” says Lucy Price of the aftermath of the Thursday July 17 call for SAG-AFTRA strike action. Price is founder of Loop Talent, an agency that represents UK heads of department and crew.
“When the strike was announced we had an indie feature shelved indefinitely, then we heard a few days later that it was back on. By this time some of our HODs [heads of department] had already confirmed alternative projects. There is a lot of unrest at the moment.”
There’s also a concern that SAG actors and those that want to become SAG members down the line will not take on new projects, for fear of the optics of working during a strike, even if said projects do not involve struck companies.
“We’ve not had it yet, but it might be something we are all going to encounter, that people are out of solidarity not wanting to work on projects that they could work on. They don’t want to be seen to not be being supportive of what’s going on with SAG. It’s a very personal thing,” says Sarah Lebutsch, managing director of international sales at UK production company and sales agency Independent Entertainment.
Pre-sales on indie projects are becoming even more of a headache for sales agents. “We’re trying to get our heads around what we need to do to get actors to engage and their agents to read scripts for future projects while the strike is going on,” says Lebutsch.
“For example we recently sent out a package to a UK actor, where the agent asked us to send a supporting document or letter to confirm none of the financiers that will come onto the project in the future will be AMPTP members. We had to include a side letter, that it will be financed outside of those parameters.
“On another project, we are working with US producers on a US film. The producers were advised they would have to get a SAG waiver before even submitting the script and package to the actor. How do you get a waiver when you’re so early on in a project?”
Rules and rights
UK producers’ organisation Pact has issued guidance to its members. A UK independent production will need to have applied for a Global Rule One (GR1) waiver when employing a SAG actor, which will allow them to carry on working on the UK production in event of a strike, as the actor will be engaged under terms of the UK performers’ union Equity. No additional waiver will need to be applied for and filming does not need to be disrupted.
”It’s not so much about membership, it’s about whether you’re under an Equity or a SAG agreement,” explains Gráinne Mckenna, partner at London-based media and technology law firm Wiggin.
If, when employing a SAG actor, a GR1 waiver was not applied for, and the actor is not a joint SAG-Equity member employed under a Pact-Equity contract, then SAG will not recognise the jurisdiction of Equity, and the actor will be expected to strike, unless an additional general waiver has been granted from SAG-AFTRA.
A potentially thorny situation could arise, as while SAG may not recognise the jurisdiction of Equity in the above situation, Equity has advised that the strike is not legal in the UK. If an actor doesn’t fulfil its contractual obligations, including promotional work, a UK producer could, in theory, sue the actor.
“This is one of the situations producers would want to avoid,” says Pact’s head of industrial relations, Max Rumney. “Just because a strike has been called in the US, doesn’t make it legal here. In theory, a producer could well have a claim against an actor. It is a bit of a nightmare scenario, because a producer doesn’t want to destroy their relationship.”
If an actor is engaged under a typical Pact-Equity agreement, a strike will be listed as an event of force majeure. There will be an entitlement for the production company to suspend an agreement for a period of time. After a certain period of time, then there will be a right for the production company to terminate the actor’s agreement. In the US, however, acting agreements will often include a provision that states an own-guild strike does not count as an event of force majeure.
From an insurance perspective, a strike can be covered by extension to the extra expense section (extra expense is a form of commercial insurance that pays for a policyholder’s additional costs while recovering from a major disruption), but industry strikes and known situations would not generally be covered.
A typical wording from a film contract is as follows: “We will pay for loss incurred by you resulting from the interruption, postponement or cancellation of a production due to strike by any party, union, guild or labour group of which you are not a party directly involved in settlement negotiations and that occurs at facilities contracted for use in connection with a production during the period of insurance.
“We will not be liable for any loss which results from strikes by your employees and within the film industry of which you were, or should have been made aware of, at the time the arrangements were made.”
With rumblings of Equity strikes also on the horizon, will production companies be looking for additional coverage on future projects to protect against strike action? “After Covid and the general increased losses (quantity and quantum) being suffered by insurers, I don’t believe the main production carriers will be looking to add more cover, although I’m sure producers will be asking for it,” says Paul Hillier, director of media, film and TV at Tysers insurance.
Help or hindrance?
Some have seen positives for the UK indie sector, with a plethora of crew and talent freed up from work on the streaming and studio projects that have dominated the UK production sector in recent years. However these upsides could be short-sighted.
“There will be a backlog of projects that are now not going into production,” says Independent’s Lebutsch. “If we get something into production soon, that might be advantageous because there will be actors that can work on our type of films. But once the strike has settled, that backlog needs to be cleared, it’s going to be very challenging for independent producers again. Actors are going to be very busy clearing that backlog.”
Neon Films’ producer Nicky Bentham is confident her next feature, Nadia Fall’s debut Brides, will go ahead unscathed, as it is a fully indie UK production with no SAG cast, financed through and shooting in Europe in October/November. “For genuinely independent and British or European projects, it is an opportunity to forge ahead and get things done. For everything else, the uncertainty is really difficult.”
However, beyond the next couple of months, there is discomfort for UK indies. “I’m worried about other projects I have for next year. There could be a backlog of projects similar to what we saw after the Covid lockdown – it created really difficult environments for independents to get [projects] off the ground,” adds Bentham.
She also notes that even prior to the strike being announced, it has been a fairly reserved year for production within the UK indie space. “It’s been relatively quiet,” she says. “For various reasons around funding and the shape of the market, it’s not been such a busy year. A lot of people are taking time to prep and avoiding this time [for heading into production] if they can.”
Loop Talent’s Price is concerned about the impact the sudden surge in highly experienced and now-available crew from big studio shoots could have for others with less experience. “It’s a much more competitive industry, and our line producers and production managers are having their pick of high-profile HODs [heads of department] and crew that would typically be working on the bigger US projects,” says Price.
Self-employed crew members are typically not covered by a production’s insurance for loss of earnings in the event of a strike, and are not entitled to the same lay-off provisions that employees would be. The Film and TV Charity has noticed greater volumes of people applying for its stop-gap grants in recent weeks, that help those working in the film, TV and cinema sectors to meet urgent financial needs. A spokesperson from the charity told Screen: ”With the uncertainty many are facing this summer adding to anxiety already being caused by the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, we have definitely noticed an increase in the number of people applying for these grants in recent weeks.”
The UK charity says it is reacting by increasing promotion of the financial support it has available, as well as the wellbeing services it offers, with budgeting advice, counselling and a 24-7 support line. It is also calling on those in the industry who are financially able to contribute to the charity to help struggling colleagues to do so, with difficult times ahead for many in the UK independent screen sectors.
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