Haven’t Hollywood Movie Studios Always Been Like Monolithic Powers?
Yeah. They have. That’s why the Screen Actors Guild came about, and why it was so necessary. Actors have always needed protection from exploitation.
Which they were able to get, by all of the protections that SAG was able to put into place. These protections were put into the “contract”.
What’s happening now, is that the current contract has caused such dispute because some of these protections were removed from the latest contract; additionally, for new media, some of these protections aren’t included.
Hollywood isn’t owned by Hollywood anymore.
Some people think that when Hollywood was running Hollywood; then the community of Hollywood, and it’s actors, writers, and artists, had much more of a say. And that the powers that ran Hollywood had more of an interest in it, and everyone involved here. More than just dollars and cents, and profits.
Example: Sony was once Columbia Pictures. Sony is a conglomerate out of Japan. So Sony is not only not owned by Hollywood, it’s not even owned by Americans.
What was once 20th Century Fox Studios, is now called News Corp. Why “News”? Because it is owned by Rupert Murdoch, an Australian, who is a newspaper magnate.
Newspapers, both really trashy, and high level; globally. Now, additionally, among other stuff like the Wall Street Journal… he owns Fox News, Fox Television, the Fox film studio, MySpace, Hulu, and on and on…
Apparently, he doesn’t even like movies. Really. (I have a podcast that I will be posting so you can hear more about Murdoch…)
The point is not whether Mr Murdoch likes or doesn’t like movies.
The point is this, if you don’t respect movies, then you probably don’t have much respect for actors.
I’ve got a list, that’s ready to post, that shows just how large these conglomerates are.
I’ll be posting that soon. There’s another change that is important to understand…
The film studios aren’t just film studios anymore. 
Neither are the TV networks. They all used to be very separate entities. They were,until recently, based primarily on different coasts. Movies were West Coast; Television was East Coast.
Now, there’s ‘NBC Universal’.
And they all have internet stake.
And almost all, except one, are on Hulu.
You probably know that Hulu doesn’t pay any of the actors that you watch on it.
So, the complaint is that if these companies can run content without paying the performers in it, then they will. By simply funneling it into the parts of their business that gets away without paying the actors. Due to the ‘contract’ provisions concerning New Media.
Click on the ‘play’ arrow to watch the video:
More on this and the actor contracts, in my next posts…
In the meantime, please go and sign up on the email list at the very top of the right sidebar. That way, whenever I add something to Hollywood Actor Prep Blog, you’ll be notified.
I also plan on doing some branching out this blog–Those that sign up will be invited to participate.
Best,
Dana
