SAG in LA, Wikipedia
You’ve probably heard the showbiz term “SAG” with regards to actors, awards, and projects. You probably not only wonder what SAG is but probably also wonder “What Does SAG Stand For?”
I know “SAG” was one of many terms/acronyms I often heard and wondered about when my daughter and I first came to Los Angeles.
So, “What Is SAG?”
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Tags: Acting Terminology, Actor, Debbie Sikkema, Los Angeles, SAG, Screen Actors Guild, Show Business, Showbiz Term of the Day, technorati
SAG, Showbiz Term of the Day | Debbie Sikkema | 
December 11, 2009 5:25 pm | 
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We were all holding our breath as we waited to hear whether the SAG Strike has been averted.
The commercial contract was passed not too long ago. Though some were not entirely thrilled with the outcome, including Alan Rosenberg, the SAG President, most SAG members were happy about it or at least relieved by it. That made it look much less likely that a SAG Strike would occur.
So, you may be wondering what the outcome is from the vote on whether to accept the new theatrical contract. Did SAG members vote to accept the theatrical contract and finally put the threat of a SAG Strike to rest?
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Is the Threat of a SAG Strike Over? L.A. Image via Wikipedia
I’ve been concerned about the possibility of a SAG Strike for a long time now, along with many of the 120,000 Screen Actors Guild members (and parents) and many of the people who live in the Los Angeles area.
A SAG Strike would be disastrous for the Los Angeles area and the entertainment industry. It would further affect the US economy, already in a terrible state.
I was happy when SAG members voted in favor of the new SAG Commercial Contract a few weeks ago. And ballots to vote on the new SAG Theatrical Contract are due back from SAG members by June 9th.
Provided SAG members vote to accept that contract (and I hope they will), maybe life will start to get a little bit back to normal.
But many people are struggling financially because of the recession, and I think it is particularly bad here in Los Angeles. SAG is even having to cut employees due to the lack of funds due to the decline in tv and film production.
Small companies are folding or just hanging on by a thread, many people have lost their jobs, and many contractors don’t have enough work to make their mortgage payments. And many of these companies in L.A. depend in part or entirely on the entertainment industry for their business, and the threat of a SAG Strike has just been making matters worse.
So, is the threat of a SAG Strike really over?
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Screen Actors Guild on Sunset, 1956, Image by James Herman via Flickr
We paid for my daughter to join Screen Actors Guild before we absolutely had to do it.
She was still in ‘must join‘ status at that time (see ‘How Do You Qualify to Join Screen Actors Guild?‘ for more info on that topic).
Her talent manager urged us to go ahead and join Screen Actors Guild for a very good reason.
The SAG initiation fees were about to go up, and we could avoid that increase if we went ahead.
So I went to the Screen Actors Guild Office on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles and paid the initiation fees.
I got some grief from a few people who said we should have waited until we absolutely had to join. I hoped I would not regret my decision.
It turned out I was really glad we went ahead, because she would have had to join a very short time later. And by then, the SAG initiation fees had gone up, so it would have cost us even more!
The current initiation fee for joining SAG is no small sum of money.
So, “How much does it cost to join Screen Actors Guild?”
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Shortly after we arrived in L.A., some parents told me how important it was to join Screen Actors Guild. They used a lot of terms like ‘Taft-Hartley‘ and ‘must-join‘ that made absolutely no sense to me.
We were told that it would be hard for my daughter to get auditions if she did not join Screen Actors Guild (SAG).
We were also told that it was getting harder to get into SAG. Someone even told me that if we were new in Hollywood, we might as well go home because no one new was going to get into SAG. Well, maybe it was not in those exact words, but that was the gist of it.
Well, the fact is, you can’t believe everything you hear “on the street” here in Los Angeles.
There is a little bit of truth in what I heard, but for the most part it was a lot of hogwash. Perhaps it was a lack of understanding or perhaps it was just parents of other young actors wanting some of us newbies to go back home where we belonged. And I ‘get’ it.
There are about 120,000 Screen Actors Guild members worldwide. The competition is pretty fierce for SAG jobs.
I soon learned more about the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and realized it was not quite as grim as it seemed. So, how do you qualify to join Screen Actors Guild?
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I remember how much I hated all the acronyms when we were first getting started in show business. I didn’t want to ask what they meant for fear of looking stupid and being embarrassed. For one thing, I wondered “What Does SAG Stand For?”
Of course, now with the internet, you can get online and find out exactly what something is. Isn’t the internet wonderful?
At that time, I was just starting to use the internet and used it mostly for email. I used aol on my very inexpensive laptop that was almost unusable because it had so little memory. I don’t know how I survived.
Since the SAG strike issue has been on my mind a lot lately (see So What Is the Status of the SAG Strike?, Is the SAG Strike Still Really Up in the Air?, and What Will a SAG Strike Mean to the Entertainment Industry?), it seems like a good time to answer the question, “What does SAG Stand For?”
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What is the Status on the SAG Strike?
The SAG strike has been looming on the horizon for many months now. There has mostly been a stream of bad news and failed negotiations concerning coming to an agreement.
There has also been a lot of disagreement within the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) on whether to call for a SAG vote on whether to allow a strike or not (See Is The SAG Strike Still Really Up in the Air? and What Will a SAG Strike Mean to the Entertainment Industry? for additional details.)
Things have not looked good for the entertainment industry on this front. But spring is in the air, and I, for one, am feeling happy that things are really beginning to look up.
So, “What is the status on the SAG Strike?”
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Well, after writing my previous post about the SAG strike, I really did not expect there to be so much debate still going on at this time. I thought we’d have moved on by now…
There are very strong proponents for each side in this debate. And there have been a lot of comments from actors on both sides — those in favor of the strike and those against it. And a lot of feathers have been getting ruffled. And I always hate to see that happen.
Unfortunately, it looks like SAG is not any closer to making a decision — it is a struggle first of whether to even hold the vote for the authorization of a possible strike or not. Of course, there will be many more decisions to come after that.
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