A “historic” provisional deal has been secured between the DGA and studios
A provisional deal has been reached between the Directors Guild (DGA) and the studios, arriving 33 days into the Writer’s Guild (WGA) strikes.
The deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) has been declared in a statement by the DGA. They explained (via Deadline) that it “achieves major breakthroughs in addressing the international growth of the entertainment industry and makes significant gains across key economic and creative rights while reaffirming the critical role of DGA directors and their teams.”
It will be submitted for approval to the Guild’s National Board on June 6th. From there, we should learn more information about the outcome.
John Avnet, chair of DGA’s Negotiations Committee, released a statement about the “historic” decision. “It provides significant improvements for every Director, Assistant Director, Unit Production Manager, Associate Director and Stage Manager in our Guild.”
“In these negotiations, we made advances on wages, streaming residuals, safety, creative rights and diversity, as well as securing essential protections for our members on new key issues like artificial intelligence – ensuring DGA members will not be replaced by technological advances.”
“This deal would not have been possible without the unity of the DGA membership, and we are grateful for the strong support of union members across the industry.”
DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter added, “This deal recognizes the future of our industry is global and respects the unique and essential role of directors and their teams as we move into that future. As each new technology brings about major change, this deal ensures that each of the DGA’s 19,000 members can share in the success we all create together. The unprecedented gains in this deal are a credit to the excellent work, tenacity and preparation of our Negotiations Committee.”
Russell Hollander, the DGA’s National Executive Director, explained: “Significantly, and for the first time ever, global SVOD residuals will be paid based on the number of international subscribers. The result is an 76% increase in foreign residuals for the biggest services. As our industry becomes increasingly global, these gains are imperative to ensuring our members are valued and compensated for their incredible work.”
Some of the terms laid out by the agreement include:
- AI will not replace human jobs.
- Better terms and conditions for variety and reality shows.
- No live ammunition on set.
- Greater safety measures in place on set.
- A one-hour reduction of an assistant director’s working hours.
- Better wage and benefit gains, including a 5% increase during a contract’s first year.
- Greater increase in streaming residuals.
- Fairer working conditions, rights and residuals for projects created for free streaming platforms like Tubi and Freevee.
- Payment for the “soft prep” carried out by feature directors which is usually done for free.
- Episodic directors to gain greater creative rights in post-production. They have also been granted an extra day of filming for one-hour programs, which hasn’t been achieved in over 40 years.
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