On April 27, the DGA National Board unanimously voted to recommend acceptance of a new three-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The contract, which was overwhelmingly ratified by the Guild membership shortly after the annual meeting on May 29, replaces the 1993 DGA Basic Agreement and Freelance Live and Tape Television Agreement set to expire on June 30.
The terms of the new contract were negotiated by two independent teams, one dealing with the economics and the other with creative rights. On the economic side, negotiating co-chairs Jack Shea and John Rich, with executive director Jay Roth, led the committee representing the Guild, while J. Nicholas Counter and Carol Lombardini led the corps of negotiators for the producers.
In order to effectively deal with the many complex issues brought to the bargaining table, the Economic Committee divided itself into sub-groups, each one having autonomy over a specific area. "We had to deal with many technically difficult issues. By breaking the group up into subcommittees, we not only got the work done more efficiently, but we also were able to keep people focused and busy," noted Shea.
A brainstorm of Roth, the subcommittee idea proved to be a highly successful negotiating tool useful in hammering out the many complex issues contained in the eight page economic agreement that was in the final deal.
"The negotiations went splendidly," concurred Rich. "Jay Roth and [western executive director] Warren Adler were spectacular; they are superb negotiators."
Highlights of the new three-year contract include pay increases in all categories; extra increases for many directors of tape dramas for broadcast other than network prime time; a substantial increase for first stage managers of multi-camera tape shows; clarification of rules concerning location employment; improved protection for residuals collection; strengthened penalties on delinquent compensation; and a dramatic increase in Fox residuals to bring that company closer to the major networks (see accompanying sidebar).
According to Rich, one major gain was the increase in salary for first stage managers of multi-camera video since "it is essentially the same job as the first assistant directors in film. The disparity in pay was enormous," he explained. "But we were able to close that gap significantly."
Shea feels that a significant advance also was made in the area of protecting residuals from being lost due to production companies either disappearing or going bankrupt. The Guild will now have the right to secure a mortgage-type agreement from any company which does not meet objective criteria showing it can pay residuals (see related story on security agreements, page 19). "It's a tremendous gain," Shea proudly proclaimed.
Substantial advances also were attained in the creative rights arena. Martha Coolidge and John Frankenheimer served as co-chairs of the Creative Rights Committee. One significant creative rights victory includes the right of directors to edit versions of their films for airlines, cable TV, home video and foreign releases. Directors have had the right to edit their films for free television since 1973.
Another provision ensures that production companies may not release a so-called "director's cut" of a film unless it has been so identified by the director.
The new contract also calls for the creation of two producer/DGA watchdog committees -- one for television and one for features. The CEOs and heads of television divisions will meet with directors several times a year to discuss creative problems as they arise and to address on-going concerns. Current agenda items include discussing the visibility of the director's credit, streamlining the pseudonym process, monitoring post production, tackling problems of theatrical film previews and misuse of cut footage. The purpose of these groups is to avoid a major confrontation every three years at contract expiration. As long as creative needs are being met, the Guild agreed to grant waivers in specific situations, such as increasing the number of billboards which can be issued without the director's credit, and allowing one-sheets without the director's credit under special circumstances. The waivers previously given to one-hour dramatic series concerning location-shooting directors will be continued.
The final contractual clause in the Creative Rights part of theAgreement includes a non-binding Code of Preferred Practices created to encourage a higher level of conduct between producers and directors. Five major ethical guidelines were adopted:
The subject of pre- and post production time pressures is an issue of personal concern to Coolidge, who feels there is a false perception in the industry concerning the efficacy of digital post production technologies, in particular, AVID editing. "What has happened is that the new technologies have made movies more complicated and what we can do is much more sophisticated, but it doesn't speed up the creative process at all," she said. "In fact, because the director has the capability of doing more things, it's made the editing process more complicated."
Noting that she has always taken the full legal time of ten weeks to cut a movie, Coolidge conceded that the new technologies have enabled directors to better realize their creative vision, but emphasized, "We can't do better work with less time."
Coolidge's committee began talks with the producer's group, led by Warner Bros. chairman Robert Daly, back in December in the hopes of averting a production slow-down caused by the studios halting approvals of new projects pending the resolution of DGA contract uncertainties. "These issues are very serious to us," Coolidge stated solemnly.
The effectiveness of both the economic and the creative talk teams was made evident by the fact that the producers did not gain some sought-after rollbacks, the most significant being the alteration of the residual structure for long-form television movies, and the elimination of UPMs on multi-camera film shows and ADs from the editing process.
The bargaining teams attributed the success of this year's talks to the fact that both sides were willing to listen and to work hard to understand each other's positions. Rich, who has sat at the negotiating table for over 40 years, said that this year, both sides were willing to meet each other on common ground. "The main desire on both sides is survival of the industry," he emphasized, "That's the big thing."
Shea added, "It's wonderful that we [negotiated the contract] without having to resort to strikes and threats."
Kristine Andersen is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and screenwriter.