There is no doubt that the year 2004 will go down in DGA history as a landmark one for the Guild. We accomplished a lot and I'd like to take a moment to highlight two key successes and applaud the DGA members and staff who have fought so hard on behalf of our directors and their teams.

Foremost this year, we negotiated and ratified our 2005 Basic Agreement, Freelance Live and Tape Television Agreement and Network Agreement nine months before the expiration of our 2002 contracts, resolving the crisis facing our Health Plan and protecting the health benefits of DGA members, retirees and their families. We made substantial advances in creative rights in features, movies for television and episodic television — including new protections in DVD releases for feature and long-form directors; financial penalties for egregiously late episodic television scripts, new guarantees of feature director participation in the ratings process; and agreements to investigate the impact of visual effects on the filmmaking process. Our actions provided leadership for our industry, forging the way for others to enter into constructive and reasoned negotiations with the producers — averting an industry slowdown and potential strike.

Another historic accomplishment for the Guild this year was the signing into law of The American Jobs Creation Act — the first ever federal tax-incentive legislation targeted at stopping runaway film and television production. The DGA conducted a legislative campaign which came to fruition in October — after many years of hard work and meetings with many of our nation's most influential legislators.

This year more than ever I feel enormously proud to be a member of our Guild. As we head into a new year, may we all strive to make this one as productive and meaningful as 2004.

Sincerely,
Michael Apted
President
Directors Guild of America