Voice Over News Sound Bites - Mics, Bob Souer, Stephen Fry, SAG & AMPTP, and more...

Couple quick stories I think you'll dig...

David Houston has written a great FIVE PAGE story on getting into voice over. It's posted up at Helium. Go read it!

I've been very excited by RODE releasing the NTG-3, a $700 shotgun mic to compete against the MKH416, and Ty Ford has a CRAZY in depth comparison between the two. Does RODE have what it takes to unseat the Senny? Found via VOMicTest.

VoiceOverXtra interviews Bob "The Man" Souer (nickname mine). If you've read anything about VO blog-wise, you've probably read Bob. He's got a great out look on this business, and is quite possibly one of the most gracious writters I've ever met. Check it out for some nice insight!

I've just recently found the gloriousness which is "A Bit of Fry and Laurie", so I was mega-stoked to here that Stephen Fry has just signed on to do Fable 2. Woot!

Lastly, Hollywood Reporter has released the transcripts of the SAG/AMPTP negotiations. Interesting stuff...

Well there goes Phase One, AFTRA votes to go it alone...

Well there you have it.
Hollywood Reporter is reporting (it's what they do) that AFTRA will be negotiating contracts on its own from now on.
i agree with comments that this move doesn't seem to be for the benefit of the actors involved with both guilds, but political.
SAG has been making A LOT of noise of late, but recently been backing off, even pulling plans to institute bloc voting and pressuring AFTRA for a more accurately representative split at the bargaining table.
With upcoming contract renegotiations, it leads me to think AFTRA is making a play for AFTRA contracts to be the preferred contracts. Why wouldn't actors want a unified front at the negotiating table? Much like previous contracts (video games for example) I think we'll see a guild ready to expend as much energy negotiating with producers as it will be expending in undercutting rival guilds.

Could we be witnessing the beginning of buy out contracts? This would worry me as both guilds are notorious for setting ridiculous minimums for scale. Combine that with losing residuals, and I just have to wonder how much further we can de-value performance...

Story @ Hollywood Reporter

SAG Watchdog: Aftra Killing Residuals?

someaudioguy some audio guy AFTRA, SAG, Negotiations, Contracts, Phase One, Rogue

Warners "T-Works" Web Site, New Home for Classic/Contemporary Animation

This kinda funny. I was just talking with a client about how much I loved the old Tex Avery Looney Tunes, and how it was getting harder and harder to actually find them on TV. I already feel old enough making pop culture references about the 80's, Tex was way before MY time...

Hollywood Reporter has a story up about an exciting new site coming from Warner Bros:

Warner Bros. Entertainment will launch T-Works next spring, an interactive home for its iconic characters from Warner Bros. Animation, "Looney Tunes," Hanna-Barbara and DC Comics along with newer animation.
T-Works will present old "Looney Tunes" cartoons, featuring characters like Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig, alongside Hanna-Barbara offerings like "Scooby-Doo" and "The Flintstones," as well as more contemporary animation like "Batman Beyond."

The story also goes on to talk about web exclusive content, and a site where users can create their own "mash ups".
This is fantastic! The more studios do this, the more they will stave of theft from file sharing, and the more ad revenue they'll generate. People get better (legitimate) content, the studios make more money, everyones happy!

Read the story @ Hollywood Reporter

AFTRA, SAG act like foes

AFTRA, SAG ACT like foes?

I think they're getting pretty close to just being foes.
A quick follow up to my Union mega-post a couple days ago, more news about the simmering hostility between these organizations is surfacing over at Hollywood Reporter.

"On Saturday, the SAG national board voted to keep its so-called Phase
One relationship with AFTRA in place, giving its smaller sister union
50-50 representation on negotiating committees like one to be formed
for film and TV contract talks. The current SAG-AFTRA pact with the
Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers is set to expire
June 30, and negotiations on a new agreement are expected sometime
after Jan. 1.
But the vote to affirm Phase One came with a
controversial addendum suggesting SAG will seek to change how voting is
conducted on the negotiating committee, sources said. Under bloc
voting, SAG members on the committee first would vote among themselves,
and positions favored by a majority of that group would be lodged as a
unanimous vote by all SAG committee members.

In their letter, Reardon and AFTRA national executive
director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth opposed bloc voting on grounds that it
would "create a structure of two separate negotiating committees that
Phase One was created to avoid."
The AFTRA leaders said they were responding to news
accounts of SAG board actions and would make no assumptions pending a
SAG response.
"The bloc voting described by the trade press is of
course completely antithetical to the history and purpose of Phase One
and as a practical matter could result in unwieldy deadlocks during
negotiations," the AFTRA officials wrote.
Hedgpeth said it would be premature to speculate on how AFTRA might respond if SAG proceeds with its bloc voting plan."

Not really all that surprising that AFTRA wouldn't be too happy about this. It's really tricky. The radical in me thinks the time for two unions is over (and would come with the added benefit of reducing the amount of dues 40,000 actors would have to pay being members of both), but the realist in me would be content to have stricter separation over what union handles what job. The fact that a game, for example, could be either SAG OR AFTRA is unacceptable.
It's looking to me like the unions are going to lose yet another round to production due to in-fighting and chest-thumping...


Read the rest here!

Powered by ScribeFire.

SAG and AFTRA News for August 1st: Good, Bad, and Ugly

A bunch of stories to link out here.

SAG REAFFIRMS 'PHASE ONE' WITH AFTRA (Hollywood Reporter)

Why they would do this I dont know. Basically 'Phase One' means that at negotiations SAG and AFTRA have an equal number of seats at the table. I think this is ... well ... dumb. SAG has a lot more members. If SAG has twice as many members, they should have twice as many seats (though I think the actual difference is 10 to 7 in SAG's favor).
I did find this interesting though:

"Now here's the catch, The final, amended wording of the resolution stated a desire to tinker with how Phase One is implemented during negotiations. Specifically, SAG may try to implement so-called bloc voting on the negotiating committee, sources said. Representation still would be apportioned 50-50, but SAG votes would automatically be counted as a unanimous bloc in favor of whatever position is carried by a majority of SAG reps on the committee. "So if, say, eight SAG committee members want to vote for a position and two are against, through bloc-voting all 10 votes would count as being for the position," a labor community insider explained."

Variety also has a quick write up of the same situation HERE.

AFTRA FORGES ALLIANCE WITH IATSE (Hollywood Reporter)

Interesting development here. With SAG circling the wagons, hoping into bed with the WGA and DGA, and working really hard against Fi-Cores, it looks like AFTRA is trying to reach out to other unions also:

"It grows out of our desire to strike strategic alliances with a large number of entertainment unions," AFTRA spokesman John Hinrichs said of the IATSE announcement. "We have worked with IATSE in the past on a number of ventures, (and) what this says is that we're gong to sit down to figure out ways of working together to benefit our members on a continuing basis."Hinrichs added, "There are no plans at this point to merge."

AFTRA and IATSE?


And lastly:

SCREEN ACTORS GUILD MAY PUSH FOR STRIKE (ASSOCIATED CONTENT)

'Nuff said yeah?

"Other unions, like the Screen Actors Guild have become increasingly concerned at the prospects of a work stoppage sometime within the next year driven by unhappy members that feel they've been treated unfairly by the studios. While SAG's contract doesn't officially expire until July of 2008, and while the Writers Guild expires later this fall, they appear to have many common goals and fears: a general labor strike.
Between the big three, the WGA is considered to be the most militant of the guilds, that is to say they are the most willing to strike if several issues that have been simmering on the back burner since as far back as the 1980s are not addressed this time around, while the Directors Guild of America has been the most pacifist, having never struck in their entire existence.
All three unions are particularly frustrated over the studio's refusal change the residual formula for DVDs, and at least for the WGA, their refusal to even negotiate a new formula for the emerging download and streaming market.
The Screen Actors Guild jointly negotiates its television contract with American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), the former of the two having significantly more members and operates more closely to that of a blue collar union. Factions have developed within SAG that are angry over AFTRA's practice of signing contracts with productions for lower wages than are required by the SAG contracts, which they feel severely undercut their bargaining power."


Whew...

Reardon wins full AFTRA term

"Roberta Reardon, a New York-based TV, commercials and voice actor, has
been elected to a full two-year term as president of AFTRA.

Reardon, who was elected by unanimous acclamation
Saturday at the 70,000-member union's biennial convention in
Philadelphia, had been selected by AFTRA's national board in April to
complete the remainder of the term of John Connolly, now executive
director of Actors' Equity.

"I am humbled to be elected as AFTRA national
president," Reardon said. "I am also excited to be able to move
together into future with all of you to improve the lives of AFTRA
members."

Article also goes on to state that NY actor Holter Graham was elected to a 2 year term as a National VP. That's cool. I've worked with Holter and he's a good guy.

Read the rest here @ Hollywood Reporter